Human rights groups yesterday staged a protest outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, urging People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chang Show-foong (張曉風) to apologize for the remarks on marriages she made on Thursday.
However, Chang refused to apologize, insisting that she had said nothing wrong.
Holding signs asking both Chang and the PFP caucus to apologize, representatives from several rights groups — including the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR), TransAsia Sisters Association Taiwan (TASAT), Awakening Foundation, Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan and Taiwan International Family Association (TIFA) — protested against remarks Chang made during a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee on Thursday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
During the meeting, Chang suggested that the government should provide aid to women who “should have married, but have not” and urged Taiwanese men to refrain from marrying foreign women, since “when one more man marries a foreign woman, that’s one less opportunity for one local woman to get married.”
She said Taiwanese men have chosen to marry women from Southeast Asia, probably because “foreign brides are easier to control and they don’t even make a sound when they are beaten.”
Chang even referred to unmarried women in the country as shengnu (剩女) — literarily, “leftover women.”
Ministry of the Interior officials who were at the meeting were quick to disagree with Chang, and her remarks drew fire from civic groups and the public.
“I think Chang is full of gender and racial discrimination,” said TASAT executive secretary Yadrung Sata (邱雅青), who immigrated from Thailand more than a decade ago after marrying a Taiwanese man.
“Immigrant spouses are not ‘goods’ that can be ‘imported’ — we deserve respect,” she said.
TIFA board member Liu Chuan (柳川), whose wife is from Cambodia, also disagreed with Chang.
“My ex-wife died at a young age and I raised my children on my own,” he said. “I met my [current] wife when I was traveling in Cambodia. We’ve been married for 13 years and I have a happy family now.”
“Marrying a wife from another country is my right and it is nobody else’s business,” he added.
Responding to the protests, Chang said she talked for 10 minutes during the meeting on Thursday and that the groups “should not take a few sentences out of context and lash out at me.”
“I was speaking for the 460,000 women who are in the [prime] age for marriage, but have not married, and I was blaming Taiwanese men for not marrying them,” she said.
“Immigrant spouses are part of the family when they are married in Taiwan, and I have no objection to the government providing assistance to them. What I was saying was that the government should also allocate resources for unmarried Taiwanese women,” she said.
“There’s no need for me to apologize,” she added.
Meanwhile, PFP caucus whip Thomas Lee (李桐豪) said the PFP stands absolutely behind immigrant spouses.
“In fact, we will soon propose law revisions to speed up the naturalization process for immigrant spouses,” he said.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
RSS