1. Golden Orchid Societies (chin-lan hui) by Stephanie Mathews

3. These societies were located in the Guangdong province of Southern China.

4. Why?

10. Life inside the Golden Orchid

11. Members became sworn sisters. They were considered shuang chieh-pai (mutually tied by oath). They lived in cooperative households that were financially supportive, and there in times of illness or death.

12. Sisters took oaths to the goddess Guan yin that they would never marry a man. If they were already married they vowed to no longer live with their husbands.

13. There were sexual relationships amongst the community. Couples were allowed to take marriage rites, unlike in other non orchid communities couples could adopt and female children were allowed to inherit the property of both parents.

15. One woman’s spiritual explanation of the lesbian relationships: A women may be predestined to marry a certain man. If her husband is reincarnated as a female she is attracted to her predestined mate. (Topley1975) Not all women in the sisterhood engaged in lesbian relationships. There were women amongst the community that lived where it was accepted to reject the oppressive ways of social norms.