After becoming prosperous in a short period of time, some Taiwanese have formed an arrogant or even disdainful attitude toward people from other developing countries. This is especially evident in the phenomenon of mail-order brides. The first wave of mail-order brides appeared after the government allowed people to visit relatives in China after 30 years of separation.
The first to be allowed to visit China were those who had come to Taiwan with the KMT in 1949. Many of them were old veterans who had come with the KMT's troops and remained single after they were discharged from the military. China was just beginning its economic reforms. These old veterans were considered rich by their relatives back home, although they actually lived on government pensions and were poor by Taiwanese standards.
Many of them married Chinese women and brought them back home. As more and more people began to visit China, the people who married Chinese women were no longer just old veterans. But they were still mostly people who were old or had trouble finding women to marry locally. As China's economy has strengthened in recent years, more and more people have gone to China to work or study. Now, many Taiwanese men and Chinese women marry each other because they are genuinely in love.
There are even Taiwanese zwomen who have married Chinese men. Although Chinese women are still easily recognized because of their accent, they seem to adjust quickly and have formed a vociferous union to protest against the laws that regulate them, especially labor laws that restrict their opportunity to work.
Some organized-crime groups import prostitutes from China by arranging fake marriages. It is said that Chinese prostitutes dominate the prostitution market. Chinese women have been stigmatized by this phenomenon. They are also caught in the quagmire of the independence versus unification controversy.
The Vietnamese government made an announcement to its people last week, advising women not to marry Taiwanese men. TV stations and newspapers delivered horrible accounts of alleged abuse by Taiwanese. One report even alleged that a Vietnamese woman was "shared" by several male members of one family. Vietnamese consider this a humiliation to the whole nation.
Vietnamese brides have become very popular in recent years. Newspapers carry advertisements for them. There is even a program on a cable TV channel showing pictures and basic information about a host of Vietnamese women. Some ads even guarantee the virginity of the girls they advertise. They also provide a one-year guarantee that if the girls they introduce escape from their husbands, they'll provide another girl without charging an additional fee.
Vietnamese girls have become popular because people think that they are more deferential than Chinese women. This might be the case, but I think it is more probable that this deference is a result of their isolation and their inability to speak Chinese. They have no tools to build a support network.
There are two Vietnamese brides in my family. My youngest uncle and my cousin both married Vietnamese women, but their two stories are very different.
My uncle is a cram-school art teacher. Due to past disastrous experiences in love, he was still single at the age of 50. He married a Vietnamese without telling other family members. His wife gave birth to two boys last year. My uncle has learnt some Vietnamese and his wife can now speak some Chinese. It seems that they have a happy family.
My cousin's story, however, is one of disaster. He stayed in the village helping my oldest uncle to sell fish. He has always felt ashamed for staying in the village and for not having a good education. I remember that when our whole family gathered at my oldest uncle's house, my cousin yelled at his wife nonstop. We all understood that he was venting his inferiority complex on his wife. His poor wife finally couldn't stand it any more and returned to Vietnam.
Some feminist groups have started to build support networks for foreign mail-order brides. They use Mandarin-language classes to give these foreign mail-order brides a chance to communicate with each other and express their feelings and ideas about their lives here. The community college where I teach started this kind of Mandarin class last semester. At our Christmas party, the foreign women displayed their traditional clothes on the stage and were a big hit. We could see that they were very proud of their performance. I think that the class not only taught them how to communicate with Taiwanese but also gave them a chance to shine.
A real democratic society shows its values not in feverish election processes, but through an attitude of respect for every individual. Supporting basic human rights for minorities is a basic requirement of a democratic culture. The plight of mail-order brides shows that our society still has much to learn.
Charles Chang is a doctoral candidate in legal studies at National Taiwan University.
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