Image size: 37.0 x 55.5 cm
Wah Jie is a 91-year-old majie who lives alone in a one-room rental flat in Chinatown, which is home to those like her who had arrived in Singapore from the Guangdong province of southern China between the 1930s and 1970s to seek work as domestic servants. Wah Jie still keeps her hair in a bun, which is how majies have traditionally worn their hair as part of a ceremony known as sor hei, which means the “combing up” of the hair into a bun or plait. Most majies took a vow of celibacy and to remain unmarried through this ceremony, which represented their choice of singlehood, a form of sworn sisterhood as an alternative to the institution of marriage. Wah Jie is one of the few majies remaining in Singapore today, and this photograph is part of a series by Singaporean photographer Charmaine Poh that documents the experiences of the majies living out their twilight years in Singapore.
