Life of Wife no 2 - left behind - N Z experience

[helen]

A story by N Z writer Kitty Ah Chang - a story of a wife left behind while everyone else takes off to NZ.

Look after the lichee trees

‘Here daughter, taste this one.’ The father offered the plumpest, just-picked lichee.
‘Mmm. It’s so big Baba. Do you think there’ll be a big stone inside?’
‘Of course not! These trees are famous for bearing fruit with small stones. Eat it and see.’
Mei-lin peeled back the shell, holding it above her face. Juice spurted, and she opened her mouth wide to catch it. Her father watched proudly, as she relished the succulent fruit. His own father had planted the lichee trees and every summer, he harvested the fruit and sold it at the market. His fruit was renowned in the district.
The girl shadowed her father and watched everything he did. She liked working in the cool shade of the trees and enjoyed the outdoors.
‘Stay! Help me sweep the floors and wash the clothes,’ Mei-lin’s mother had called as she ran from the house.
‘I’m going with Ba to pick the lichees,’ she called back.
‘Let her be,’ said her father. ‘Tomorrow she can stay home.’
‘How will she ever grow up to be a good wife? She runs outside all the time. How brown she has become this summer. Nobody will want to marry her,’ muttered the mother.

www.whitireia.ac.nz/4thfloor/07/ahchang.html

[douglaslam]

Helen,
Look After Lichee Trees is a very sad story reflecting on a village woman's lot. It is hardly a work of fiction. An old timer (though he was much older than me, but I had been in Aust. the longer ), told me how old women in his village used to admonish young girls to marry a pauper, a beggar, anyone but someone who pmomised riches from gum san. It is the life of virtual widowhood from the moment the husband says good bye for gum san. It is a life time of bonded servitude.

I also remember as a wee lad, the adults made me put on a bib in order to enjoy lichees from our own trees at harvest time. The fruit dangled from branches over the muddy waterway embankment. A sampan was needed to pluck them. Those days are gone for ever.

Douglas

[helen]

Hi Douglas - I think we may all have another "Grandmother" in our lives. My Grandfather had 2 wives - one was legal in the eyes of NZ law; the other wasn't. Even when my own Grandmother was committed to an asylum, the second wife was never acknowledged by law - would she have been called a mistress? She had 2 children to him. I wonder what the government thought about that - were the children actually accepted by the government as legitmate children of my Grandfather? I'm not sure how the law was in those early years. yet, I think it was a done thing for the Chinese to have 2 or 3 wives, so it was acceptable to the Chinese. half brothers and sisters seemed to be the norm and acceptable.