A recent news article in the local daily caught my attention
and brought back nostalgic memories of the time when my children were very
young.
This article talked about the maids who had come from
Guangdong in China to work in Malayan households in the 1930s. These women were
known as Mah-jehs because they had taken a vow to remain spinsters. They were
distinguished by their long pigtail and they wore white tunics and black pants.
They were professional maids and had a very high standard of
discipline. Some of them would only work
as nannies while others would do general housework including cooking. The
latter would run the household very efficiently, from doing the grocery shopping
to cooking and cleaning.
Their wages were higher than that paid to other maids
because of their high standard of work. Many of them sent money back to their families or relatives in China. They were a close knit group and they
usually rented the first floor of a shop house where they lived while in
between jobs or went back to on their off days. According to the news article, many
of these maids had saved up money and collectively purchased shop houses. As
they had no children because of their vow of celibacy, these properties cannot
be sold as they have passed on. This is the legal issue that has cropped up.
I was very fortunate to have a mah-jeh to look after my
eldest daughter when she was a year old. She was introduced to me by my friend
who had two mah-jehs in her employ. I was working and she took care of my
little girl as well as ran the household like clockwork. She taught my child good manners. She was a
real God send. Unfortunately, she did not stay long with us.
We moved across the South China Sea and there we were also
fortunate to have the services of another mah-jeh to look after my second
daughter when she was a few months old. However, this Mah-jeh whom we called
Mui Jeh, was already in her late sixties. She taught me how to boil soup, what ingredients should be added to make it more tasty and nutritious.
She had adopted a daughter so she had a family with whom she
lived when not working. After a year, she decided to call it a day and retired
to live with her daughter and grandchildren.
Those who did not adopt little girls and didn’t have
any local family would return to their original homes in China when they felt
it was time to retire. They were a special breed of maids who took pride in
their work and those who had the good fortune to have one in their employ were
often envied as mah-jehs were hard to come by.
