Children who use — or would like to use — their mother’s family name celebrated the first Mother’s Day yesterday after an amendment to the Civil Code was recently passed allowing adults to choose their own family name.
“I’ve waited for this day for many, many years. I will file the application [for family name change] as soon as the law takes effect,” a man (currently) surnamed Chuang (莊) said at the celebration in Taipei.
Before the amendment was adopted by the legislature at the end of last month, a person — whether underage or an adult — could only change his or her family name upon receiving the consent of both parents.
The newly adopted amendment will take effect when the president signs it into law, which is expected to happen later this month.
Although still carrying his father’s family name, 31-year-old Chuang has not seen his father for nearly 30 years after his mother, Chang Shu-chen (張淑珍), divorced his father when he was very young.
Over the past few years, Chuang has been appealing to change his family name, but has always been rejected by the court “because the judge said carrying my father’s family name would not have any negative impact on my life and that my father never committed capital crimes,” he said.
In fact, Chuang’s father was repeatedly abusive, which was the reason why Chuang’s parents divorced.
“The judge asked for the father’s consent, but where do I find his father after decades of not being in touch?” Chuang’s mother said.
However, even with consent from both parents, there are still other obstacles hindering children from taking their mothers’ family name.
Lin Meng-ying (林孟瑩), a mother of three daughters, said she and her husband had already agreed to give one of their daughters their father’s family name, while another would take the mother’s surname.
“My eldest daughter takes her father’s family name, so, originally, the second daughter was to take my family name,” Lin said. “However, when my second daughter was born, we didn’t know how to raise the issue with our parents.”
Their second daughter was also given her father’s surname.
Finally, Lin and her husband were determined that their third daughter, who was born three years ago, would take Lin’s name.
“We still didn’t know how to talk to our parents about it so we just went directly to the Household Registration Office to register my surname as my third daughter’s surname. We only told our parents about it afterward,” Lin said.
“They were a little shocked and upset that we didn’t talk to them about it first, but fortunately they became more accepting later on and there was no serious conflict,” she said.
Green Party Taiwan member Calvin Wen (溫炳原) and his wife Sandra Peng (彭渰雯) went through what he called a “small family revolution” before getting both sets of grandparents to agree to let their grandson Peng Chuan (彭川) take his mother’s surname.
“It was especially difficult to convince my parents because my family is a big Hakka family and are more traditional,” Wen said.
Not only were Wen’s parents opposed to the idea, but also Wen’s sister and Peng’s parents.
Wen tried to explain the idea of gender equality in a way his parents could understand, and he even went as far as explaining how, according to fortune tellers, the name Peng Chuan could be beneficial to the child’s future.
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