Far East: The Crooked Thing

“Love is the crooked thing,” wrote William Butler Yeats. “There is nobody wise enough to find out all that is in it.” In the Far East last week, love seemed crookeder than ever. Items:

— In Hong Kong, the ancient Chinese custom of concubinage agitated the island colony’s women. In the past, a concubine would move right into her keeper’s house after acceptance by his first wife, who was then able to keep tab on the doxy and watch out for her husband’s interests. A concubine’s children would address the No. i wife as “Mother,” their own mother as “Elder Sister.” Today an estimated one-third of Hong Kong’s men have a tsip, or second wife, recruited from dance halls, but keep her on a part-time basis only. One wealthy sugar broker had nine tsipies scattered all over Hong Kong. Last week Hong Kong’s Council on Human Rights, prodded by militant, Western-oriented feminists, demanded that concubinage of both the old and new varieties be abolished as “obsolete.”

>In Japan, a survey of 2,350 young women conducted by Tokyo Medical University revealed that 90% of the women polled believe that money is what makes marriage successful. “The kind of thinking that says that love is a substitute for rice is complete nonsense,” said one girl. Though most girls want a husband “taller than myself,” they are not going to be too choosy about looks if the man is a good provider. What is the best evidence of a man’s virility? One girl replied: “Assured earning power.”