Spinsters: why does Hong Kong government insist on derogatory term for single women?
- The number of unmarried women in Hong Kong rising dramatically
- It’s time to update the official language for singledom
I never pictured myself dying alone in my flat, my body chewed by cats – until I moved to Hong Kong.
Filling out my visa application, everything seemed in order, until I reached the “marital status” section. On the hunt for “single”, I ran my pen over the check-box options: married – no; divorced – no; widow – no; spinster … hang on, what?
I wasn’t hallucinating. There it was, in official ink. In the eyes of the law, I am a spinster. Talk about a slap in the face.
As a single, independent woman who moved to Hong Kong from Australia in search of adventure, I am far from being a crazy cat lady or crusty old woman destined to die alone. And “spinster” is not the only derogatory term thrown around for single women in Asia. At the ripe old age of 27, I’ve just made the cut to be called a “leftover woman” in China; while in Japan, because of my age, I am categorised as an undesirable “Christmas cake”.
The term “spinster” was phased out of official use in England and Wales in 2005 but is still used in legal documents in Hong Kong – perhaps a hangover from the city’s colonial past.