The Bondmaid is set in the 1950s in Singapore which captures the tradition and culture of a Chinese household and narrates the story of Han, a child from an impoverished background to an adult bondmaid whose love for the master meet its frightening climax. The novel is written by Catherine Lim, a best-selling Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singaporean society and themes of the traditional Chinese culture. She has written several novels, a book of poems, and hundreds of articles as a writer.
Han is sold as a young bondmaid to the House of Wu at a tender age. With the grief of leaving her mother and her siblings and the unfamiliar strangers around her, she is comforted by the young Master Wu. They soon become playmates and the best of friends. Despite being look down upon by the other bondmaids, especially the head bondmaid, Choyin, and the futile attempts made by the lustful male relatives and guests of the house to claim their share of pleasure, Han falls in love with Master Wu. Nevertheless, Master Wu grows up to be an adult and travels overseas for further studies and marries Li-Li from the House of Chang. Undaunted, Han meets up with Master Wu once a month where they share their love for each other. Not long after, they are discovered and the matriarch has no other choice but to send Han away. She went to the House of Flowers, where her Older Brother worked. The Master Wu would come for her, and both Li-Li and Han get pregnant. Master Wu tells Li-Li and the matriarch that he wants to marry Han. Li-Li, enraged and Choyin, swear to have their revenge. Later on, the son of Han is taken away from her by Choyin and given to Li-Li who bore a daughter. Devastated, she goes to the Forgetful Goddess and drowns herself. Before her death, she encountered the goddess and Sky God, whom Han felt had betrayed her. The Master Wu manages to see Han just before she dies.
In the epilogue, a few years after her death, stories spread of the good fortune of people who drank water from the pond in which the Goddess resided in. A shrine was erected in remembrance for the Goddess with Eyes and Ears for her compassion. Not long after, the Reverend who was one of the lustful guests disappeared mysteriously; the two children of the house die of a mysterious fever; Li-Li almost goes insane with grief; the patriarch dies peacefully; the matriarch grows silent; Spitface, an imbecile working in the House of Wu dies of natural causes in his woodshed; and Older Brother disappears to a foreign country. The Houses of Chang and Wu attributed all these misfortunes to the curse of the bondmaid and consulted fortune tellers and mediums and geomancers. With no luck, they left Singapore and decided to settle in China. Only Master Wu stayed behind to look after the shrine. He believed that he will be reunited with Han in the splendour of fire and not in rain and storm. Decades later in 1992, the hut in which the Master Wu lived in caught fire and was dead by the time he was pulled out. The shrine was eventually demolished to make way for a petrochemical complex which now stands at the place where the Goddess with Eyes and Ears now stands.
We have to first understand the culture of Singapore in the 1950s to fully appreciate this book; the author has indeed a certain understanding of the Chinese culture and Singapore’s history to be able to make the setting realistic. In the past, patriarchs and matriarchs had hundreds of bondmaids at their service and they can be either treated as slaves or used to fulfil the lust of male members of the household. In the book, we see many instances of this extreme use of power on other bondmaids, like Chu, Lan, Goldern Fern and Po Po. Many of the bondmaids who lived in these houses died pitifully and lonely, while some other were lucky enough to find a husband and borne children. It was a common tradition that only those of the higher class should marry someone else of a similar background and not a lowly bondmaid as it would be deemed as inappropriate. Places like the House of Flowers, were set up in Singapore to entertain rich guests who wanted to have their pleasures fulfilled. The Chinese believed in their own gods and goddesses who gave them These elements allowed the readers to relate to the book, and even the younger generation who might not have lived through that period of time in Singapore can get a better understanding of the society back then.
The main storyline, which is the love between Han and the Master Wu is unshaken despite the many attempts by the other characters to separate the both of them. Although Han drowned at the end, Master Wu remains loyal to her and the final scene with the death of the Master Wu in fire is a touching one as the both of them can be seen as reunited in the magnificence of fire. Other sub-plots include the changing relationships between Han and the other bondmaids as well as the matriarch as she gets to understand the others’ backgrounds. Han even pities Spitface who is the imbecile in the House of Wu and becomes a friend to him. Another main plot is the relationship between Han and Sky God, whom she felt had failed to answer her prayers, and the Forgetful Goddess, who brought the two lovers together. The plots are interweaved together marvellously to form a beautiful story.
However, I feel that there are some things which could be improved upon. For example, there were many instances in the book where I was a little confused as to what was going on. The scenes shift from reality to dream and back to reality again, and the dreams were only distinguishable by the mix-up of characters and events. Nevertheless, characterisation and the development of events are well done and the use of symbols like the song Han sings throughout the novel reminds us of the relationships between Han and her family and the Master Wu.
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