Remember Girl Zero: Asia-Pacific Patriliny and Female Slavery

abstract:In 1872, Maria Luz, a Peruvian ship transporting indentured Chinese “coolies” from Macau to Peru, stopped in the international treaty port of Yokohama, Japan. Amid intense international scrutiny, governor Ōe Taku investigated and then liberated all male coolies on board. However, Ōe left the ship’s captain, Ricardo Hereiro, in possession of an unnamed girl he had purchased in Macau. Since 1872, the Maria Luz incident has been incessantly narrated as a triumph of global abolitionism and evidence of Japan’s progress toward civilization and enlightenment. Historical amnesia has reigned regarding the un-liberated girl. Rethinking the incident from this girl’s perspective reveals less rupture than continuity in the flourishing Asia-Pacific traffic in women and girls—framed as patrilineal kinship and licensed by abolitionists’ gendered double standards. The resulting moral and legal blind spots continue to obscure female enslavement in present-day scholarship.摘要:1872 年のマリア・ルス号事件で、神奈川県長の大江卓が船上の清国人の男の 苦力を解放したが、無名の少女は解放しなかった。少女は忘れ去れ、世界中の奴隷 解放運動と日本の文明開化との勝利として事件が語られてきた。ただ父系性下盛ん な女の奴隷化・人身売買が継続された。