ABSTRACT
The Siyi 四邑 region, which encompasses the four counties of Taishan, Xinhui, Kaiping, and Enping, is well known as the sending area of the Chinese diaspora in North America, with Taishan as its most typical embodiment. Most Chinese emigrants were young males, who maintained economic and emotional connection with their families by way of qiaopi, i.e. remittances accompanied by letters (known as yinxin in Siyi). Qiaopi are extremely rich in content, and among the issues they illuminate is the attitude of males to females and to marriage. Given their rare display of intimate knowledge about Chinese society in modern times, these letters reveal much about gender relations. The Siyi newspapers and local magazines frequently reported sex scandals in the region during the Republican era, including adultery and secret flight from marriage, but these were seldom mentioned in letters sent home by Chinese emigrants. Using information from such letters, this chapter examines a sex scandal in 1939 and its impact both in China and among Chinese overseas, and thus exploring life, family experience, and social status of Siyi women in this period.
