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Inside the house of a group of women who vowed not to marry in old Saigon

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Tu Quan Cu, the last vestige of a group of women who vowed never to marry in old Saigon.

Last traces

In the house tinged with time, Mrs. Pham A Nap (SN 1946, District 11, Ho Chi Minh City) sat contemplatively. Not many people know, this house used to be the home of a group of single women who vowed never to get married in the middle of old Saigon.

These women are often referred to as “Sun nuns”, “mother sisters” or “aunts”. They are a group of women who are determined to live alone, never get married from China to the land of Saigon-Cholon to live and work from 1900-1942.

In their old age, nuns in many ways built houses of their own. Record holder Duong Rach Sanh, who has done a lot of research and research on female nuns, said that in the past, the Saigon-Cho Lon area had many houses of “mother’s sister” and “aunt’s grandmother”.

These houses have very specific names such as: Pho Thang Duong, Nhat Dac Duong, Hop Thanh Duong, Tai Tran Duong, Thu Tran Duong… And, Tu Quan Cu is one of them.

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The house is old with the walls, the wooden floor is covered with black kitchen smoke.

Over time, the nun self fades away. The houses of “aunt and uncle” also gradually disappeared. Up to now, traces of this group of women only remain at Tu Quan Cu located at 150 Tran Quy Street, Ward 6, District 11, Ho Chi Minh City.

Tu Quan Cu is a small house, nestled among the surrounding spacious apartments. The house has a combination of French and Chinese architectural styles. The walls of the house are built of solid brick and plaster.

Up to now, the white plaster color has yellowed, in many places peeling off. Inside, the walls and ceiling were lined with black kitchen smoke. The already narrow space of the house became dark and damp.

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Apart from the wooden table used to display the old incense and counter panels, there were almost no valuable items inside.

Mr. Duong Rach Sanh said: “The first group of “aunts” to establish Tu Quan Cu, which lived near the “Water Well” area, is now the intersection of Tan Da and Tan Hang streets (District 5, Ho Chi Minh City). ). Later, they bought an 18m-long house opposite Sung Chinh school, now Au Co school.

“Some time later, another group of “aunts” came to live, so they used the money to buy a house at 150, Tran Quy street. They connected the two apartments into one, forming a house with two facades like today. This group named the house Tu Quan Cu. At the time of the greatest number of people, Tu Quan Cu had up to 16 “aunts” living,” added Mr. Sanh.

Currently, a part of the Gathering Group has been cleared. After the first release, many of the nuns’ belongings were gone. Apart from the wooden table used to display the incense in the main room and an old wooden counter inside, Tu Quan Cu has almost nothing of value left.

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The space and objects here are tinged with time.

Residence of unmarried women

However, this place is still the living place of Mrs. Na and other women in the same situation. They are all unmarried women familycame from China when he was 15-16 years old.

Ms. Na said: “In the past, this house was very crowded. At the most crowded, there are up to 30 people living together. The women and girls are all unmarried and are all Chinese. Now, many elderly aunts and sisters have passed away, leaving only 2-3 people in the house. I’m the oldest and know a little Vietnamese.”

Nap left her hometown for Saigon at the age of 15. Here, she applied to work as a hired worker for Chinese families. Na’s main job is doing housework such as washing, cooking, taking care of children, etc. for rich families.

When she was 30 years old, because she was unmarried and had no relatives in Vietnam, she asked to live in the Tu Quan Cu.

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Ms. A Na has lived in Tu Quan Ju since she was 30 years old. Previously, this house belonged to unmarried aunts who contributed money to buy it, she said.

When she first lived in Tu Quan Cu, she still went to the owner’s house to work every day, and returned at night to cook and eat with the sisters here. When she was old, she could not continue to serve her master, so Ms. Na moved to live in Tu Quan Cu.

To make a living, she chose a profession of knitting. “When I was in the countryside, my grandparents taught me a lot of crafts,” she said. When I can no longer work as a hired worker for the owner, I choose a craft that is suitable for the situation to make a living.”

“Seeing that knitting is viable, I buy bamboo to knit household items to sell for a living. Now that I’m old, I can’t work anymore and I can’t live with my job, so I’m just waiting for the day to come back to my grandparents,” she added.

According to record holder Duong Rach Sanh, the old women living in Tu Quan Cu are not nuns even though they are not married. They are simply women who are single, helpless and ask to live in the Gathering House when they are old.

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However, she and the unmarried women living in Tu Quan Cu were not nuns.

This was confirmed by Ms. A Na. When asked, Ms. Na did not know or have any impression of the nun. She only knew that before coming to Tu Quan Cu, there were many unmarried women living here.

Since then, as an unwritten rule, Tu Quan Cu has become a place to live and stay for unmarried women. Those who have left their husbands and widows are also not allowed to live in.

Ms. A Na shared: “People here do not get married because they are afraid of marriage and family life. Some people are afraid of marrying a bad husband, some are afraid of being looked down on by their husband’s family, some people don’t want to get in the way of their children… so they just stay like that and don’t get married.”

“In the past, I also had many followers. Some people even chased to get married, but at that time, my life was very poor. I was afraid that getting married would make it worse, so I decided to refuse and live alone until now. I don’t remember and know nothing about the nuns in this house,” she added.

Articles, photos: Ha Nguyen

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