The National Cultural Association yesterday held a launch ceremony for a book documenting 17 different landmarks in the history of women and feminist movements in Taiwan, "herstory" instead of only "history."
The association is a continuation of the Cultural Reconstruction Movement Promotion Committee and was officially established in 1991 with former president Lee Teng-hui (
At yesterday's ceremony, Vice President Annette Lu (
PHOTO: CNA
Although the company was eventually forced to close down, it played a vital role in the awakening of Taiwan's women and as the core of the nation's feminist movements, Lu said.
She said that she was happy to see the new book, titled The Tracks of Women (
Taiwan's women rank first in Asia in terms of success but twentieth worldwide, leaving room for improvement, Lu said.
"It's not only about gender equality, but more so about gender cooperation and harmony," Lu said.
The secretary-general of the association, Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀), said that the book describes cultural landmarks such as the Tamshui Girls' School (淡水女學堂) and Kaohsiung's 25 Ladies' Cemetery.
The Tamshui Girls' School was established in 1884, at a time when very few girls had the opportunity to receive an education and was the first girls' school in the country.
The 25 Ladies' Cemetery is a park dedicated to 25 Kaohsiung working-class women, all unmarried, who lost their lives in a fishing boat accident in 1973.
The accident induced the government to reassess the safety of water transportation but also highlighted how young women and child workers were exploited at the time.
Tchen said that in the Chinese title for the book Nu Jen Chi Hen, Chi means the wooden clogs that women in the past wore but also represented how a women's footsteps can be heard "click-clacking" through history.
Su Chien-ling (蘇芊玲), director of the Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association and the head of the first feminist bookstore in the country, Fembooks, said the stories in the book speak of the sadness and struggles of women in the past, but at the same time tells the stories of women who wanted change and took action to implement it.
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