What’s a Taitai?
This is a random collection of observations, musings and rants that I hope will be as fun to read as they are to write. I’m a former expat-I-banker-turned-American-housewife now residing in Seattle. While I’ve never actually had the luxury of living the “taitai life” in Hong Kong, this blog is my attempt to detail and juxtapose some of my Hong Kong experiences with my present life in Seattle, including some of my local adventures in navigating through everyday life. I’m an American taitai in search of beauty in the mundane.
taitai (pronounced “tie tie”): 1. a term used in Chinese for wife; “Mrs.” 2. a married lady of means in Hong Kong; roughly equivalent to a privileged “a lady who lunches” in the United States. 3. an authentic Hong Kong taitai does not rise before 09:00.
american taitai: all definitions above, however while the American taitai may seem to have ample free time, she is generally a taitai who shops for her own groceries, cooks all the meals for her household, does most of the housekeeping work (i.e. the American taitai cleans her own toilets) and rears her own offspring all without domestic help. the American taitai’s life is somewhat less glamorous (but no less interesting) than her Hong Kong counterpart.
