If French-born American writer Anais Nin were Taiwanese, she could have been brought to court on the charge of adultery for what she had written in her diary. She might not be convicted, but she would have been humiliated as adultery is a crime in the Criminal Code.
This type of situation is not mere hypothesis but a real case that occurred recently in Taipei. A local woman with writing talent was brought to court on the charge of adultery, based on a diary in which she wrote of sexual contact with an anonymous man.
Anais Nin (1903 to 1977) earned international recognition for her seven-volume diary, which includes a frank depiction of her sex life.
She detailed an extra-marital relationship with renowned American writer Henry Miller in Henry and June: The unexpurgated diary of Anais Nin -- 1931-1932. Miller was also married when the affair took place.
Nin first published portions of her diary when she was 63 and her details were last published posthumously in the 1980s -- the same time the Taiwanese woman was also keeping a diary.
However, the Taiwanese woman was not as lucky as Nin in the sense that Nin had established literary fame through her frank discussion of her sex life in her journal.
The Taiwanese woman was found not guilty of adultery by the Taiwan High Court last week.
In 1999, Ko Shun-lung (
After looking into the matter through his wife's acquaintances and colleagues, Ko came to believe the unidentified man was her colleague surnamed Tsou, according to the Taiwan High Court ruling.
Ko then sued Tsou for adultery and Tsou was indicted.
In February this year, the Panchiao District Court ruled that Tsou was not guilty since Mrs. Ko and Tsou both denied the affair, adding that there was no evidence that could prove they had sexual relations.
Ko appealed to the Taiwan Hight Court, arguing that, "the sex details and the psychological struggle of a woman embroiled in an extra-marital relationship were described in such an accurate and vivid way that the account cannot be imaginary."
According to the High Court ruling, the diary was partly written in Russian, English and Japanese.
However, Ko's appeal was overruled by Taiwan High Court Judge Fang A-sheng (
"Is your diary an account recording your relationship with Tsou?" Judge Fang said in court.
"No. They were simply draft notes for my novel. My diary did not account any sex details alleged by my husband. There are no words which imply intercourse like `making love' in my journal," Ko's wife said.
According to the court ruling, "Since she is an aspiring writer who won the first Taoyuan County Literature Prize, her testimony that said the journal was not a reflection of her true life but passages of her imagination was credible."
Ko was prohibited from appealing the High Court ruling to the Supreme Court.
Taiwan is one of the few democratic countries to list adultery as a crime. According to Article 239 of the Criminal Code, convicted adulterers may be sentenced to up to one-year jail term.
Feminist groups have struggled to push for the decriminalization of adultery for more than a decade, but received a blow last year when the Council of Grand Justices ruled that "adultery is crime and Article 239 is in accord with the Constitution."
If the council is right, it means any writer wishing to deal with the theme of extra-marital relationships should not base such accounts on their true experience, but on pure imagination. Or reveal their true sensual world and go to jail.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods