It is a powerful video, revealing a subtle process. We share in the stitching sisterhood and follow their self-discovery. In a nurturing environment, they began speaking of deeply repressed feelings, bringing up topics untouched at home. They acknowledged a sense of alienation from the world of their fathers and husbands; they wept over the endless waiting that "filled" their days, of being a person who makes life for the family -- but not for herself.
Then we see their Bedcovers of the Soul. One was sewn with dead leaves, "I long deeply for Death. Death of this life, so that a new life can begin." Another applied lacey fragments bounded by the outlines of a tight-necked bottle. One loose fragment flies outside, but remains attached to the bottle by a string, "My soul dreams of escape. But try as I might, wherever I go, I remain chained to my home."
Wu's bedcover was a huge fluffy red broken heart cushion with broken bits of red fluff that, once moved, revealed beneath a pair of huge fluffy white wings -- of flight, of benediction and succor. Here the essence of womanhood is revealed as Genetrix who, through suffering, heals and nurtures.
At a recent Taipei video-showing, someone in the audience asked to screen it at the coming Asia-Pacific NGO Forum in Bangkok on the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) titled "Celebrating women's gains ... Confronting emerging gender issues" in July.
Watching Taiwanese women emerge from traditional mental confines and become able to see themselves and society in a new light, the man at the show said, would help other Asian women waken to their vibrant inner life -- so simply accessible without preposterous patriarchal costs -- once the heart and mind is gently opened.
For information on where to buy the DVD, contact the Taipei Women Awakening Association at (02) 2351-1678.
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