Review | The Kingdom of Women: China’s ‘lost tribe’ of matriarchs, the Mosuo
Choo Waihong has a fascinating story to tell, of a tribe in China’s mountainous southwest where women are in charge but, unfortunately, this debut author’s abilities aren’t quite up to the challenge
The Kingdom of Women
by Choo Waihong
I.B. Tauris
“Lost tribes”, cut off from the babbling, interconnected world, continue to ignite the imagination. Like species on isolated islands that take distinct paths of evolution, lost tribes suggest alternative modes of development. Their separation from the corrupting influences of civilisation in an imagined Edenic idyll also offers metaphors for a lost innocence.
The Mosuo tribe in western Yunnan province survives by subsistence farming, follows the practices of Tibetan Buddhism and has a largely communal economy. Until recently, few of its members could read or write (a handicap now being rectified with the opening of more schools nearby).
Choo first encounters the Mosuo during a holiday after taking early retirement from her job as a corporate lawyer in Singapore. Finding herself spending more and more time with the tribe, she has a house built for her and gradually integrates into Mosuo society.
