BUST Details Published: 17 May 2021
“Vegetarian halls” havens where Asian women live communally flourished both in Singapore post-World War II and in China before communism. Residents arrived there for various reasons, but most had one thing in common: they preferred to take care of one another rather than rely on men
[Top to bottom]: a Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) statue in a vegetarian hall in Indonesia; vegetarian hall nuns in Malaysia; a vegetarian hall in Singapore
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“Marriage is no good, men cannot be trusted.”
“My husband is dead, and I cannot burden friends and relatives with the trouble
and expense of keeping an old woman and providing her with a funeral.”