# Tai tai

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tai_tai
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tai_tai.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_tai
> Source revision: 1315962109
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

"Taitai" redirects here. For the Kiribati politician, see [Tetaua Taitai](/source/Tetaua_Taitai).

**Tai tai** (太太) is a [Chinese](/source/Chinese_language) colloquial term for an elected leader-wife; or a wealthy [married](/source/Marriage) woman who does not work.[2] It is the same as the [Cantonese](/source/Cantonese) title for a married woman.[3] It has the same euphemistic value as "lady" in English: sometimes flattery, sometimes subtle insult.[citation needed] One author describes it as equivalent to the English term "[ladies who lunch](/source/Ladies_who_lunch)".[4]

## Cultural significance

By the time of the [May Fourth Movement](/source/May_Fourth_Movement) in 1919, the term had come to imply a wife who was "dependent on her newly rising bourgeois husband" for her [consumerist](/source/Consumerism) lifestyle, and Chinese feminists and "new women" of that era tried to disassociate themselves from the term precisely for that reason.[1]

The term has become well-known, and features in Western discussions in the field of [Women's studies](/source/Women's_studies).[5] [Pearl Buck](/source/Pearl_Buck) uses the term to describe Madame Liang in her novel, *Three Daughters of Madame Liang*.[6]

The 1947 film *[Long Live the Missus!](/source/Long_Live_the_Missus!)* (Taitai wansui), written by [Eileen Chang](/source/Eileen_Chang) and directed by Sang Hu, represents conflicts between taitai in the mode of a [comedy of manners](/source/Comedy_of_manners).[7] In Hong Kong, there's a bar named "tai tai" (太太) which uses Tai Tai as a name to connect with the local population, playing on the elected leader wife saying for making a female empowered bar |url=https://taitai.hk

## References

1. Wang Zheng (1999). *Women in the Chinese Enlightenment*. University of California Press. p. [20](https://books.google.com/books?id=tFMEdEJVx4cC&pg=PA20)

1. Sylvie Phillips (2005). [*Tai Tai Tales*](https://books.google.com/books?id=0EGDO__EaZIC&dq=%22tai+tai%22&pg=PA6). Bangkok Books. ISBN 974-93100-3-9.

1. Price, Fiona L. (2007). [*Success with Asian Names: A Practical Guide for Business and Everyday life*](https://books.google.com/books?id=-FRIYcHARa0C&dq=%22tai+tai%22+cantonese+mrs&pg=PA74). London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85788-378-7.

1. Kain, Elizabeth (6 August 2008). ["Are you a Tai Tai?"](https://web.archive.org/web/20170528042506/http://blog.seattlepi.com/redlantern/2008/08/06/are-you-a-tai-tai/). *Seattle Post-Intelligencer*. Archived from [the original](http://blog.seattlepi.com/redlantern/2008/08/06/are-you-a-tai-tai/) on 28 May 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2015.

1. Radosh, Alice & Maglin, Nan Bauer (2003). [*Women confronting retirement: a nontraditional guide*](https://archive.org/details/womenconfronting0000magl). New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3126-8.

1. Buck, Three Daughters of Madame Liang. London: Moyer Bell, 1969.

1. Christopher Rea, trans. *Long Live the Missus!* (*Taitai wansui*): translation of the full filmscript. MCLC Online Publications, 2019: [https://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/long-live-the-missus/](https://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/long-live-the-missus/)

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tai tai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_tai) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_tai?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.