Taiwan Gender Equality Education Association panned the Ministry of Education (MOE) over its definition of “new good woman (新好女人)” in the ministry’s online dictionary, saying the definition was “neither new nor good.”
According to the ministry’s official online dictionary, a “new good woman” is a woman who “focuses her life on the family, admires her husband, takes good care of her children and tries her best to maintain happiness and harmony in marriage.”
“I don’t see anything ‘new’ or ‘good’ about the MOE’s definition,” association secretary-general Lai Yu-mei (賴友梅) told the Taipei Times by telephone. “Rather, it’s a very traditional, stereotypical, old and discriminatory definition of the role of women.”
The definition, she said, is discriminatory not only against married women, but also against those who are not married, lesbians or those without children.
The ministry definition triggered an uproar among Internet users when the association posted it on its Facebook page.
“I was so shocked that I almost spat out my coffee this morning when I saw it,” Facebook user HP Liang said on her Facebook page.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” Facebook member Naomie Huang said.
National Languages Committee executive secretary Chen Hsueh-yu (陳雪玉) said the ministry would make changes to its online dictionary.
“The definition of ‘new good woman’ has been on our page for nearly 20 years. When we look at it today, it is certainly no longer appropriate,” Chen Hsueh-yu said. “We will ask the editorial committee to look into it and make changes accordingly within one or two weeks.”
“Whether it’s a married woman, a single woman or a woman without children, everyone can be a ‘new good woman,’” she said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS