What is "bamboo wife"

n. In East Asia and Southeast Asia, a hollow bamboo bolster roughly the size of a human body, embraced by a person while sleeping during hot weather because its open structure exposes the body to cooling air flow.

A' bamboo wife' (; Chinese: zhúfūrén; Korean: 죽부인, jukbuin; Japanese: chikufujin), also known as a Dutch wife or in Tagalog as kawil (literally, fish hook or chain), is a hollow bamboo bolster roughly the size of a human body.

The origin of the English term "Dutch wife" is thought via folk etymology to be from the Dutch colony of Indonesia where Dutch traders would spend long periods away from their wives. A more likely explanation is the link with Dutch courage, Dutch auction or to go Dutch. Here the use of the word Dutch was something dodgy or not regular. It arose in the 17th century where there were a series of Anglo-Dutch wars and the Dutch were seen as untrustworthy by the English. This then carried over to American and the colonies and sees this use of Dutch applied in other circumstances such as in the phrase "you can trust me or I am a Dutchman". It has nothing to do with Dutch women as they really are as wives nor otherwise.

Bamboo wives are typically hand-woven from bamboo cane.