Women Come to Grips with Being Sold into Slavery as Children | Caixin
Liang Yingfei—Caixin Media
Since the 1960s, parents have used “matchmakers” to sell thousands of unwanted infant girls from Changle, Fujian to Putian, a wealthier part of the province 60 miles away. Some parents raised these girls as their own children, but others treated them like maids, or “tongyangxi,” pre-adolescent daughters raised for the purpose of marrying their “brothers.” A centuries-old tradition rooted in misogyny, tongyangxi gained in popularity during the one-child policy, in effect from the late 1970s to 2016. Liang Yingfei documents several women’s journeys as they seek to reunite with their biological parents and make peace with their own pasts.
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Since the 1960s, parents have used “matchmakers” to sell thousands of unwanted infant girls from Changle, Fujian to Putian, a wealthier part of the province 60 miles away. Some parents raised these girls as their own children, but others treated them like maids, or “tongyangxi,” pre-adolescent daughters raised for the purpose of marrying their “brothers.” A centuries-old tradition rooted in misogyny, tongyangxi gained in popularity during the one-child policy, in effect from the late 1970s to 2016. Liang Yingfei documents several women’s journeys as they seek to reunite with their biological parents and make peace with their own pasts.