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Baby Tower, also known as abandoned infant tower or baby girl tower, is an architectural structure in Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places in ancient China."A 'Baby Tower', Ningbo". Usually it is a small tower-shaped building made of bricks and stones.
"Gek Siong Sang 'Baby Tower'" "Foochow -- The Baby Tower, where formerly unwanted girl babies were thrown when born, but is now used for dead babies of either sex." [now Fuzhou] A small structure on a hill, and many others of varying designs are nearby.
May 12, 2023 · The Significance of the Baby Tower in China. The baby tower, or jigong ta, is significant in Chinese history and culture. These towers were built to provide a dignified burial for deceased infants whose families could not afford a proper burial.
Due to their link with infanticide, baby towers would forever be connected in many people’s minds with reproduction and its control, rather than with Chinese burial customs. This essay is an attempt to situate baby towers within the broader context of infant burial practices in late imperial China.
China has a history of female infanticide which spans 2,000 years. When Christian missionaries arrived in China in the late sixteenth century, they witnessed newborns being thrown into rivers or onto rubbish piles.
Baby tower, Fujian, China, ca.1911-1913. "Gek Siong Sang 'Baby Tower'" "Foochow -- The Baby Tower, where formerly unwanted girl babies were thrown when born, but is now used for dead babies of either sex." [now Fuzhou] A small structure on a hill, and many others of varying designs are nearby.
University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China reference number: Bo01-096. Unwanted babies, or the bodies of dead babies whose parents were too poor to bury the deceased baby, could be abandoned at a ‘baby tower’.
