One night trying to sleep like a foreign domestic worker in Hong Kong left me irritable and groggy
Reporter Rachel Blundy beds down in a cramped space just like many domestic helpers
At a house in Kam Tin, I laid out a mat on the floor with a couple of blankets and a pillow in a space no bigger than 170cm by 80cm – about the size of the average bathtub.
I could already feel how tight the walls felt around me, and the humiliation of sleeping next to shelves of food and household tools. The room was dry but hot, so I felt no option but to keep the door open, despite the lack of privacy from the adjoining living room.
This week, for the purposes of a social experiment, I decided to bed down in the storage cupboard for one night to help me understand the cramped sleeping conditions endured by many foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. I wanted to know how it might feel to sleep in such a confined space.
From the outset, I knew this would only give me a glimpse of the difficult life facing many foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, but I considered it would still be a useful way of highlighting the accommodation problems they face.
I hadn’t endured a day of chores as a foreign domestic worker would, but after a day of work I was tired yet unable to sleep. I felt tense and uncomfortable. I longed for my single bed at home, a moderately large room in a shared rented flat in Prince Edward, Kowloon,