Dr. Louisa Lim

Strong Asymmetric Dependency (SAD) and muitsai in twentieth-century Chinese communities

This project will study strong asymmetric dependency (SAD) as it pertains to the institution of muitsai in twentieth-century Chinese communities, including in the diaspora. The term muitsai literally means ‘little sister’, although is translated variously as slave girl, young female bondservant for sexual and household services, and adopted daughter. This range of definitions which indicates the etymological and epistemological challenges surrounding the instiution of muitsai, which refers to young, often pre-pubescent, females bought into a family for highly exploitative, unwaged, domestic servitude. This practice continued for more than a century after the abolition of slavery in the British empire. Women’s voices are largely absent from archives or records about muitsai, and my project will examine how women spoke and wrote in English and Chinese about muitsai trafficking.  My project aims to collate and create alternative narratives of female unfreedom from descendants of muitsai, as well as drawing upon extant literature. This will recentre the historical record by creating an archive that preferences female voices, while recontextualising the institution of muitsai within the context of SAD and slavery. 

since 2025
Associate Professor, University of Melbourne

2014–2016
Howard R Marsh Visiting Professor in Journalism, University of Michigan, USA

2013–2014
Knight-Wallace Fellow, University of Michigan, USA

2016–2022
PhD in Journalism, Monash University, Australia

1991–1995
BA (Hons) Modern Chinese Studies, Leeds University, UK

Books

• 2022. Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong. Riverhead Books.
• 2014. The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. Oxford University Press.

NTROs

• The Little Red Podcast
• The King of Kowloon Podcast
• The Masterclass