The self-dressing woman phenomenon appeared in late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and has only existed around the Pearl River Delta region.

In the old days, singles girls in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta used to wear their hair in a long braid behind their back. When they were to get married, their parents or the senior members of the family would coil up their braid into a bun.

The self-dressing women, however, would usually coil up their braids by themselves through a particular ritual. By doing so they were showing their determination of never marrying throughout their life. Once their hair was coiled up, they could not marry, nor could their parents force them into a marriage.

If any one self-dressing woman was to commit any ant of indiscretion, she would be looked down upon by her neighbors. Sometimes, she would suffer severe punishment or be beaten to death before being thrown into a pig-cage, which was then thrown into a river. Under such circumstances, not her parents, but other self-dressing women, were allowed to bury her with a straw mattress and a door plank. In case nobody came to bury the dead women, her body would be thrown into the flowing river.

Generally, the parents bitterly resented and opposed their daughter's determination of staying single throughout her lifetime, and would always keep a close eye on the daughter. Therefore, those very determined girls had to evade their parents to go through the secret ritual, which was always held by other elder self-dressing girls.

The legacy of self-dressing women was usually inherited by the self-women' sworn sisters or apprentices, the latter of whom also had to be self-dressing women. Usually, a ceremony was held when a self-dressing woman was taking in an apprentice, who had to show filial obedience to her. The apprentice also had to wait on her master when the master was ill, and when the master died, the apprentice had to bury her. Therefore, it took a long time for a self-dressing woman to really take in an apprentice. Once the master-apprentice relationship was established, neither side should regret it.

Author: Jessie

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