Ah Bing and Her 'Sisters'

In 1932, Ah Bing was a 16-year-old girl from Lunan, a small village in southern Guangdong (Canton) Province, China.

In that year, she journeyed to the city of Shih-lung, to perform a deeply solemn ceremony in the Buddhist temple there. First, she tied up her long black hair in a single bun. Then, in the presence of other girls and older women, she knelt before a statue of Yuan Kin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, and vowed never to marry.

"If I marry," Ah Bing said, "give me nothing, give me trouble, make me unhappy, and don't give me any sons."