Local writer and women’s rights advocate Shih Chi-ching (施寄青) died on Tuesday of a heart attack at the age of 68, police and prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday.
Shih was found by her godson at about 10pm on Tuesday on the bathroom floor in her home in Miaoli’s Nanjhuang Township (南庄), they said. There were no signs indicating a struggle.
Shih died before an ambulance arrived and no attempts to resuscitate her were performed to respect the writer’s wishes as stated in her will, they said.
Photo courtesy of Public Television Service
A longtime sufferer of heart disease, Shih underwent heart surgery more than a decade ago.
Born in 1947 in China, Shih and her family relocated to Taiwan in 1949.
Shih graduated from the Chinese literature department at National Chengchi University and taught at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, the top boys’ senior high school in Taipei.
She was well known for advocating women’s rights. In 1988, she founded the women’s association Warm Life (晚晴協會) and served as its head, and she also served as a consultant and board member for local women’s rights group the Awakening Foundation (婦女新知基金會).
Her earlier works focused on women’s rights and gender education, while her later works emphasized religion and the supernatural.
In 1989, her book Zou Guo Hun Yin (走過婚姻, “Having been married”) about her marriage, divorce and her path to becoming a women’s rights advocate became a bestseller, earning her the title “Divorce Guru.”
She famously said that if she had not gotten a divorce, she would have led a dull life.
Shih also translated books such as Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India into Chinese.
In 1996, the writer decided to run in the first-ever direct presidential election, coming up with the campaign slogans “Let women run the country” and “Liberate domestic slaves,” but she failed to garner enough signatures to qualify as a candidate.
Before her death, she was scheduled to attend a talk about her new book Dang Tou Bang He (當頭棒喝, “A strike and a shout to the face”) at the Taipei International Book Exhibition next month.
The book is a collaboration between Shih and a psychic about their attempts to help people resolve their issues in the present by recalling their experiences in past lives.
Representatives of local women’s rights groups were in mourning on Wednesday, praising Shih’s contribution to the local women’s rights movement.
Awakening Foundation chairwoman Chen Yi-chien (陳宜倩) said she was shocked to hear the news and expressed her admiration for the writer.
Shih made many contributions to reforms of the nation’s divorce laws, which have historically favored men, Chen said.
Shih was not afraid to write about her own experiences of marriage and divorce, and she educated many Taiwanese women about how to fight for custody of their children and to protect themselves under the law, National Alliance of Taiwan Women’s Associations vice president Chen Hsiu-hui (陳秀惠) said.
Society was not as open at that time as it is now and many divorced women suffered discrimination, she said, stressing that Warm Life has helped many divorced women.
Garden of Hope Foundation chief executive Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said Shih would be remembered as a charismatic speaker and women’s rights advocate.
Even though she had withdrawn from the spotlight in recent years, Shih still frequently donated her royalties and fees from making speeches to women’s rights groups, Chi said, praising the late writer for turning her own struggles into a strength.
“I am very, very sad. May she rest in peace,” said Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), a longtime friend of Shih.
Shih was known for her sharp wit and humor, and for encouraging women to leave unhappy marriages.
One of her most famous sayings was: “There will be affairs as long as there are marriages. Affairs and marriages coexist, but when facing affairs we must know what to accept and reject.”
She also once said that “the beauty of the body is transient. It is the most unreliable aspect of us. We can only survive in society with solid ability.”
Rather than put their marriages as the first priority, Shih advised women to love themselves and accomplish their own goals.
“Whether to have an affair or not is his problem, but if you don’t take care of yourself it’s your problem,” she once said.
She had also once joked that children are the “killers who destroy women’s movements” and that if her sons end up getting divorced, her only wish is that they “don’t leave me my grandchildren.”
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths
Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today. Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17. Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production. However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday demanded that Somalia reverse its decision prohibiting Taiwanese passport holders from entering or transiting through the country. Somalia said it is following the “one China” principle based on UN Resolution 2758. The ministry said that Somalia is misinterpreting the resolution under China’s instigation, creating a false impression that Taiwan is subordinate to China. The Somali Civil Aviation Authority told airlines on Tuesday last week that starting today, any passengers with passports or travel documents issued from Taiwan or its affiliated institutions would not be allowed to enter or transit through Somalia. The decision comes as Taiwan is boosting
RSS