A new documentary by the Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) examines the lives of three Vietnamese migrant spouses, following the women in Taiwan and on visits to the relatives they left behind in Vietnam.
Documentaries on migrant spouses are not new, but the TBS production team spent a year following the trio because director Laurence Lo (羅盛達) and production manager Chang Hsiao-ying (張筱瑩) said they have wanted to make a show that was different from what others have done.
“Most of the films on migrant spouses or migrant workers in Taiwan focus on their work or life here, but our documentary shows scenes in these immigrants’ hometowns and their interactions with their families. In addition, family members talked on camera,” Chang said. “One interesting thing we observed is that when these women are in Taiwan, they were reserved, but when they are in Vietnam, surrounded by their families and immersed in a familiar language and culture, they became more talkative, vivid and confident.”
Clips from Homework of Happiness (幸福作業簿) were shown at a press conference in Taipei yesterday to promote the show, which will air for the first time on Saturday on the Public Television Service (PTS).
“Here! Here! We are here!” the brother of Nguyen Thi Nhien shouted as he waved at a minibus carrying his sister, her daughter and the production team as the bus approached the family’s home in Hanoi.
As they get off the bus, Nguyen’s daughter, Chen Hsing-ju (陳星儒) ran toward her grandmother, who had a big smile on her face as she hugged the little girl, but gradually turned tearful.
“What is the matter?” Nguyen asks her mother.
“Nothing, I am just too happy,” the grandmother says.
Another emotional moment in the show occurs when the mother of migrant spouse Nguyen Tuyet Nhung spoke to the camera about how worried she was when she heard that her daughter was going to marry to a Taiwanese and move to Taiwan.
“I was so worried about whether she would lead a good life abroad, and whether her husband is a good man,” Nguyen Tuyet Nhung’s mother said. “On the night before her marriage, I told her that she could still decide not to go through with the marriage.”
Nguyen Tuyet Nhung told the news conference that she had been quite nervous before the wedding, but to be able to move to Taiwan to have a better life and help her family, she told her mother that she was not worried and would not regret it.
“After my father passed away, the family suffered financially, so I secretly sold a jade bracelet that I had bought with money I has saved through years of hard work to sign up for a matchmaking service with Taiwanese men,” she said. “I only told my family after my husband decided to marry me.”
Lo told the news conference that language problems had been a major obstacle for the production crew, as it is for the women to show their true selves in Taiwan.
“Due to the language barrier, it took us longer than normal to establish a trust relationship with their families, and it also prevented us from finding interesting points during their conservations at home [in Vietnam], since we did not understand what they were talking about,” Lo said.
“However, I think it was all worth it, and it makes for an interesting film,” the director said.
Homework of Happiness premieres on PTS’ HD channel at 5pm on Saturday and will be aired on PTS’ channel 13 at 10pm on March 26 and again on April 2.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard