BOOK REVIEW:TH WOMEN OF THE EAST [D

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Subject: BOOK REVIEW:TH WOMEN OF THE EAST [DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI WRITTEN ABOUT]

   
 The women of the East 

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BOOK REVIEW/Conor O'Clery

Wives, Mistresses and Matriarchs,
by Louise Williams
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 
£18.99 in UK 

This richly informative book on Asian women is written by one of Australia's
finest correspondents in the region. Currently based in Jakarta, the author
draws on her experiences during many years travelling round south-east Asia.
She profiles more than 30 wives, mistresses and matriarchs, mostly letting
her subjects do the talking, sometimes with laughter and tears.

We see the world from their perspective, whether it is Cory Aquino in the
Philippines, a Viet Cong guerrilla in Vietnam, a Filipina maid in Hong Kong,
a "rich bitch" wife in Burma, or a teenage prostitute in Bangkok. Williams
presents a fascinating, complex picture of Asian women, who are often
stereotyped in the West as shy, submissive oriental beauties. Their lives
are almost invariably shaped by the patriarchal nature of Eastern societies,
with the women "like the rear legs of an elephant, always following in the
footsteps of the front feet", as a Thai woman put it.

Most Asian communities share the belief of Confucius, the Chinese court
official who 1,400 years ago, in defining ways to achieve harmony in
society, ruled that man is the representative of Heaven, and that "woman
yields obedience to the instructions of man and helps to carry out his
principles". In the turmoil of change in the 20th century, many Asian women
have negotiated a path to the top in business or in politics by association
with a powerful father or husband whose principles they helped to carry out.

The Thai woman quoted above ran a successful transport business which she
inherited from her father. Cory Aquino assumed the presidency of the
Philippines after the assassination of her husband, Benigno Nonoy Aquino. In
Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi leads the democracy movement, spur red on by the
responsibility she feels to her father, Burma's independence hero, Aung San.
(And in Malaysia, since the book was written, Anwar Ibrahim's wife, Wan
Azizah, has emerged as the focus for the reform movement in place of her
jailed husband.)

Williams tells revealingly how a male voter in Muslim Pakistan explained his
support for a woman, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of the revered Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto: "I would vote for Bhutto's dog, so I would vote for his daughter,"
he said.

But for millions of impoverished and submissive women in Asia there are few
escape routes. One open to Filipina women is to work as domestic helpers in
Hong Kong (the less attractive ones are preferred by employers who don't
trust their husbands). These women have to live apart from their own
children so that they can achieve a better life when they return home,
hoping, sometimes vainly, that their spouses in the Philippines are not
squandering their earnings on other women.

Williams mulls over the pressures which induce a Filipina woman to chose
near servitude in a foreign city. "Perhaps she believes that the success she
hankers for in the Philippines might be as great as the disappointments she
has endured." Not all Asian societies force women to compromise with men. In
Singapore, where Confucian discrimination against the education of girls has
been swept away, so many young, independent women are choosing not to marry
that a worried government has instituted "love boat" cruises to encourage
romance and childbirth.

And in some Asian societies Confucius never got a look in. On the Indonesian
island of Sumatra the cultural values of the matrilineal Minang people still
govern daily life. The author tells of old ladies sitting around clucking
sympathetically over the fact that a visitor had four boys and one girl.
"What a pity she had only one child," they say. 


Conor O'Clery is Asia Correspondent of The Irish Times. 

BOOK SERVICE To order this book and have it sent directly to your home or
office, call THE IRISH TIMES BOOK SERVICE at 1850 30 60 60 
 



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