Page 86 - Chinese Woman Living and Working

THE MAID IN CHINA 73
cooking and cleaning. Her payment consisted of 450 yuan a month plus a meal during the
day She had just agreed to a new deal proposed by Ms Zhu, who is now pregnant and
wanting Chen to work from seven in the morning to seven in the evening for seven days a
week, for a salary of 1000 yuan. Chen agreed to the deal, for although it meant long
hours; it was a stable job and she would not need to rush from one family to another.
In some cases, it is customary for the employers to give maids practical ‘things’
(dongxi), as part of the payment, or as a reward for their good work. A number of
employers I interviewed in Shanghai cited giving the maid food and used clothes as
evidence of their good will, generosity or even their willingness to treat maids as equals.
One interesting aspect of this ‘gift-giving’ is that very often, an act intended to show
generosity on the part of the giver is not necessarily interpreted in the same vein by the
recipient. When I mentioned to Chen Caiyun that her employers sometimes gave her used
clothes, her answer is: ‘Why should I want their clothes? If I want clothes, I have money
to buy my own.’ Chen’s understanding of generosity is worth considering here: she would
like to be treated as an equal by her employers, not as a servant; and being equal may
entail declining—rather than being grateful for—charities which are motivated more by
the employers’ desire to feel good about themselves or to assert superiority rather than by
her real needs. In this case, Chen’s refusal to relate to her employers on terms imposed on
her—after all, it is her employer who decides what clothes to give her and when—can be
seen as an expression of a consciousness of citizenship, however incipient it may be. It is
also an example of the way in which some maids have adopted a more ‘modern’ view,
preferring money rather than other material forms of exchange.
Chen preferred Beijing employers as she believed them to be more ‘generous’
(shuangqi) whereas Shanghai employers tend to be ‘stingy’ (xiaoqi). She formed this
impression from her experience of having worked for five Shanghai families prior to Ms
Zhu’s family ‘In most houses I have worked in, the family usually has a habit of eating a
piece of fruit at the end of the meal. As part of the deal with my employers, I eat a meal with
these families on the day I work there, but they seldom offered me a piece of fruit after
the meal’ Here, Chen is complaining about not being offered a material handout from her
employers, and in so doing, may seem inconsistent with her refusal to accept the gift of
used clothes. This, I argue, may not be the case. To be sure, the cost of a piece of fruit
would be miniscule, and indeed, she could bring her own if she really wanted to eat a
piece of fruit after the meal; nevertheless Chen’s sense of being deprived seems genuine
and well-justified. She rightly feels that what is denied her is not just a piece of fruit, but
more importantly, a right to expect that, in spite of her status as a maid, she will be
treated in the same way as everyone in the family In other words, it is not a matter of
material gain or loss, but a matter of principle of decency and respect.
Apart from live-in and day-time baomu, it is increasingly common for maids to work as
part-timers (zhong dian gong), and on flexible time, with many households requiring a maid
for one or two hours every day or once a week, mainly cleaning, cooking and washing up.
Mr Mi’s maid is Chen Shuiying, a 38-year-old woman from Jinde County, in central Anhui.
Chen left home six years ago, with her husband and more recently her daughter. Her son
is still living at home with her parents. The family live in a rented flat of 14 square metres
on the outskirts of Shanghai, for a rental fee of 150 yuan a month.