Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Fancy eastcoastlife as your servant? - WW


eastcoastlife : For hire

In the early days of colonisation in
Singapore, women dressed in black and white were a familiar sight on the streets. The locals called them Amah or ma jie (domestic servant). The Amah wore a white blouse and black trousers with her hair in a plait.

Coming from China, they were a proud lot. They took a vow of celibacy, they did not think they needed men for support. They were most highly regarded.

You could not find fault with them for anything because they did their work well. No one called them maids. Children in the family were respectful of their black-and-white amah. In their old age, some of the amahs would still hear from the children they raised. They were treated as family.

Amahs were loyal, trustworthy and totally reliable, a rare find for employers these days.


THANKS!!

Thanks to all my voters for your votes this one month. I have come to the end of my wayang (acting). It has been fun ....... and thanks to the tremendous support I received from friends, readers, bloggers and people around me. Thanks for offering me your premises and getting me contacts. I couldn't include most of them in July but will continue to publish them.

✿.•°°•.♥.•°°•.♥.•°°•.♥.•°°•.✿.•°°•.♥.•°°•.♥.•°°•.♥.•°°•.✿










69 comments:

  1. vote today liao
    Haha
    I guess the only difference might be:

    Your lipstick is too glossy
    (Not meant as an insult)

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  2. So fun playing dress up! :)

    Voted. All the best!

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  3. oh...i saw my name on the list!!

    anyway, i think you had fun dressing up as ma jie!

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  4. jia yu! jia yu!!!

    pssttt... over here in m'sian blogsphere hor, we r currently witnessing a scandal unfold... woooo...

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  5. Unable to register to vote as I don't know what a NRIC number is and the site gives no explanation.

    The Amah seem to have the same work ethic and are given the same respect that the British Nanny does.

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  6. ECL, you're on a cosplay spree! Imagine wearing that ah ma maid costume alongside the 'maids' at Akihabara!

    Yes TWO MORE DAYS. The finishing line is near - 加油 加油!

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  7. 这不就是你穿去首映礼吗?哈哈!

    加油!may the best man win!

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  8. yes, workers with traits like the Amah are hard to find nowadays ...

    love the way you seem to blend effortlessly with the background! :)

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  9. Never thought ah mah can be this sexy! Hahahaha. Like that I also wanna hire you loh.

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  10. I don't think I can afford your services. If ever you really become for hire, your services will be fit for king.

    Happy WW! Hope you win.

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  11. yeahhh you are in the top ten ..

    play masak2 is it???

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  12. An interesting and educational post. Happy WW! :)

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  13. A friend of mine had an Amah when her father was a diplomate in China. She came with them when they returned to Belgium and stayed with them until she died ! She had always been part of the family and my friend loved her dearly.

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  14. I voted for ya! All the best!

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  15. You can start immediately, my kitchen is a mess. :-)

    Holding thumbs for you and Jaymes, hopefully I will be on time to get my last votes in tomorrow.

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  16. I am sure you are as flawless as these servents, but we would rather have you as a friend :-) Good luck at the awards!! Too bad there isn't a category for best publicity stunt...you've done some good ones!

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  17. What a great pictures!

    Voted for you!

    Happy Wednesday!

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  18. Voting was easy and I am only sorry I was away and couldn't vote daily for you ::sob::
    Thanks so much for the warm welcoming, ahhhh, blogging is so much fun with entertaining blogfriends like you ((hugs, hugs and more hugs))

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  19. ecl,
    I voted for you daily! If you don't win hor, I'm going to ask a prize from you! kakaka!

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  20. Hi there, I tried to vote but there's one requirement that I don't have like IC no. Anyway, I wish you all the luck.

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  21. LOL! Pandai la u berlakon, I like the picture of u cooking he he!

    2 more days to go, vote vote vote! :)

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  22. I wanna to see my name there too! My vote for today ... ECL and Jaymes ...

    The pictures are so nice and you are so cute!

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  23. I'll Hire You - right away. Can you start on Monday? :lol:

    Thanks for you Link Love. You know I cross my fingers and toes for you!

    Whatever happens, your always number one for me ;-)

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  24. Oh good shot my friend...Happy WW! Vote also for you..

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  25. you are full of ideas. Hehe.. enjoy reading yr blog very much. And of course, has been voting for you and James.

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  26. Wow. Looks like you have been to many museums just to get these series of special photos done!

    Entertaining and educational.

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  27. Hi ECL! thanks for the linkies love!! :)

    oh, why were you in that costume and how? Great pictures!! :D

    ok, i've voted for u & jaymes!!Good luck!! :)

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  28. What a fun post! I always learn something when I visit you. Great series of photos too. I voted for you.

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  29. A vote for you today, so remember to be my amah when requested.*smile*..Good Luck.

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  30. You know what you should do? You should help to build a Museum of Singapore. You seem to have the passion and talent to do that.

    Yet another great post!

    We want more!

    Ha ha ha ...

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  31. What a wonderful not so wordless but definitely educational and entertaining WW this week, mine is at The Cafe if you'd like to pop in.

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  32. I loved this pictorial on the Amah - I had a brief appearance of an Amah character in one of my third year films at film school. You don't know how relieved I felt, 14 years later, to see that I costumed her correctly!

    I voted, too - hope you have good news soon!

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  33. I appreciate how you taught us something through the use of photos and captions.

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  34. Sorry my dear. Apparantly not able to vote today. Cannot click to activate the vote button.

    Maybe traffic very heavy for the last day. Will give my strong support for you and your son(how is he?), again later.

    Thanks for your hardwork in putting up good blogs. Keep going.

    L

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  35. look at how cute your are! I love this post. enjoy...

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  36. Woman, unable to vote today :( The vote button isn't functioning right at the site.
    Will try again later...

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  37. I wonder if this is the basis for a lot of waitresses wearing white shirt/black pants?

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  38. Ok the voting button is functioning again.

    Voted. KEEP GOING.

    BEST OF LUCK with the strong support of your fans in Mountbatten.

    L

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  39. ECL, I don't mind having someone help with weekly cleaning of my hse...what's your rate? :)

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  40. I hope you win,ECL! I'm rooting for you! Btw, I have something for you in my blog. I'm not sure if you do awards around blog-o-sphere but i want to give it to you! :D

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  41. My first time to hear about Singapore's history of women. Very interesting post. You have revived the memory of the past. Beautiful!

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  42. Hi dear!! Stopping for a quick hello and vote!! Then back to my own contest he he...good luck to u and me! :):):)

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  43. OK. This is getting addictive. Voted again. Actually only take 12 seconds - voting for both you and your son.

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  44. The cosplay suits you, Auntie. :-P

    /me runs and hides.

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  45. this wayang series is fun! i voted for you but sadly i was not able to vote you daily.

    i hope you'll win!

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  46. Voted for you whenever I visit sgblog microsite. Good luck to you!

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  47. My writers group is a chapter of Romance Writers of America. We have an elected executive board which manages the group's monthly meetings, in accordance with the association's guidelines. One of the things they arrange is this yearly retreat, which lasts two or three days, over a weekend.

    We all group together to rent the cottage, buy groceries, share the cooking and clean-up. We have our time pre-scheduled, because we're there for writing workshops. This year I gave a workshop on The Gray Character (one who exhibits equal amounts of light and dark behaviors.) Basically, we have three workshops one day, go out for dinner in the evening, two workshops the following day, with a brainstorming session to end the weekend. We split into small groups of three, give each person 40 minutes for their story idea, and we hurl ideas around. It's SO helpful!

    But everyone is mentally exhausted by the time we get home. It's very stimulating but tiring. It's like a brain marathon.

    Hope you can arrange something similar for yourself. I absolutely love my writers' retreats. Oh, by the way, we try to make sure that the workshops include writing exercises. They really get the synapses firing.

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  48. I am sure it ewas a lot of fun dressing up. I wish I could do that too but I am too shy.

    ....waiting for the good news.Hope u win!!!!!!

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  49. Those are all cute pics...sorry Im so late. Happy WW anyway and thanks for stopping by.

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  50. ECL, ur contest still going on ke? Dropping off my EC here and hope ul have a great weekend! :):):)

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  51. You are so entertaining & I hope you could win. I've voted for you again today for both Jaymes & yourself.

    Cheers :)

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  52. Great photos! And I hope you win, ECL!! I voted too. :-)

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  53. You're very welcome!

    Thank you for sharing that interesting piece of history. I enjoyed that entertaining photos of your role playing.

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  54. I was a low ranking US soldier on Okinawa in the 1960's, the amazing thing in my memories it that we had little money but were able to have a housekeeper, a sew girl that made Miss Bee clothes from silk I brought back from Bangkok, and a nice old man that cared for our yard. We thought we were poor.....

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