Image size: 37.0 x 55.5 cm
In her mid-eighties, Khau Jie is a retired majie who lives alone in a one-room rental flat in Chinatown, which is home to those like her who had sought work as domestic servants in Singapore between the 1930s and 1970s. Khau Jie was part of that wave of female migrants who came from the Guangdong province of southern China and since arriving in Singapore in 1959, she has worked for a few families, undertaking domestic chores such as laundry, cooking and cleaning. Most majies underwent the sor hei (combing up) ceremony in which they took a vow of celibacy and to remain unmarried, representing the majie’s choice of singlehood, a form of sworn sisterhood as an alternative to the institution of marriage. Khau Jie is pictured here sitting on her bed, hands clasped, as she recalls her life as a majie. She remembers her sorhei ceremony, which she likened to a grand banquet with twenty tables, much like a wedding. This photograph is part of a series by Singaporean photographer Charmaine Poh, which documents the experiences of the majies living out their twilight years in Singapore.
