hkfringe club

Jennifer Jaguar Gaff , Curis-au-Mont-d'Or, F-69250 France

Living in Hong Kong from 1970 - 1990, I collected printed items of interest, and I have taken the following from my records. This item particularly affected me because it first surprised me as showing a very East-Meets-West aspect of Hong Kong living ... then I liked it for its pragmatism and for what I presumed would be its effect on men/women equality - but, romantically, I had always found it exotic to meet someone who was introduced as "Raymond, my third son, daughter of my second concubine;"

Until October 7th 1971, Hong Kong law had recognised Chinese marriages contracted under Ching dynastly laws, known in Hong Kong as Customary Law, and the 1912 Nationalist code known as Modern Marriage, which accepted men taking several wives, or concubines.

All this changed when the Hong Kong Marriage Reform Ordinance came into operation - future concubines would no longer be considered legal wives, but the legal status and rights of his concubines and his children accepted before this date was ensured and protected. Concubines were known, and addressed as - Second Wife, Third Wife, etc.

In fact, our amah, Ah Mui, was her husband's honored first wife, which didn't stop him taking a second wife, when she "had the effrontery" to present him with a daughter as his first-born child. Unfortunately for him, fortunately for Ah Mui - his second wife also presented him with a daughter. Ah Mui then produced his daughter number three - at which point he put his wives out to work, with their children, as house amahs, and in fact, I invited his three daughters to be my bridesmaids. Mr Fung, the husband in question, prospered, and later was regularly seen at the races with a sucession of very lovely 'nieces' ... none of whom he married, nor took into concubinage, as times had changed.

Under Customary Law, a wife could be kdivorced or "ousted" for failing to have a son, for lascivious conduct, failure to serve her parents-in-law, talkativeness, mischief making and quarrelsome conduct, for stealing, jealousy, incurable disease. A husband could not divorce his wife during the mourning period for hier in-laws; if a poor husband subsequently became rich; if the wife had nowhere to go after divorce - but this was normally remedied by giving her a home in her ex-parents-in-law's house, where she became their servant .... The wife, needless to say, was not allowed to divorce her husband.

The 1912 Modern Marriage code allowed divorce by either party for bigamy, adultery, cruelty, desertion .. but somehow accepted concubinage - protected by laws covering household members.

By 1971, Hong Kong had thousands of Chinese refugees with no marriage documents, as traditional marriages were seldom documented - leaving women without official rights to maintenance nor to their children. In practice, Chinese families seldom deprived concubines of their rights ... but changing times necessitated changing laws ....

(You can find further references in the China Mail of October 25, 26, 27 1971, for example) My source on the new Wedding Laws is from an old copy of THE CHINA MAIL, dated Monday October 25, 1971- no page number but under subject "Women's World"