Ko’s chauvinistic tendencies
While discussing the subject of aesthetics at a youth enterprise forum on Saturday last week, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) remarked that he thought Japanese women are rather beautiful, because they always put on makeup before leaving the house, in contrast to many Taiwanese women who go outside without makeup and look “frightening.”
Ko’s comment is discriminatory, objectifies women and although he probably thought he was making a humorous aside, his latest gaffe is a reflection of his deeply ingrained male chauvinistic attitudes.
Some women are in the habit of wearing makeup, while others prefer not to. Some women, working hard to make a living, do not have the time or money to wear makeup daily.
Sometimes a woman will wear heavy makeup, akin to wearing a face mask, while at other times she will sport a fresh and clean unmade-up look to show off her natural beauty. A clean and tidy, understated look can be just as beautiful.
Men like Ko should not admire women on a superficial level purely for their appearance alone. Instead, the appreciation of inner beauty and character should be equally prized.
There is a saying in Chinese that admiring a person starts from their facial appearance, moves on to a respect for their talents and ends with an appreciation of their personality.
Since Ko became mayor he has committed a series of gaffes, in particular expressing opinions that are discriminatory toward women.
The most memorable of these was in 2015 when Ko blurted out that “Taiwan has already imported 30,000 foreign brides.”
Ko’s use of the word “imported” revealed an undisguised commodification of and prejudice toward women — and in particular new immigrants — which, as an immigrant myself, made me extremely angry.
We have made Taipei our home, explored its every nook and cranny, studied and worked here, given birth to and raised our children in this city. Yet in the eyes of its incumbent mayor, we are an invisible caste of unworthy “imported brides” and second-class citizens. It is a view unbecoming of the mayor of the nation’s capital.
To attract the immigrant vote, during this year’s Lunar New Year festivities, Ko learned a few words of the languages of Taipei’s immigrant population and scribbled a few New Year messages in Vietnamese and Thai.
However, Ko is sorely mistaken if he believes he will be able to fool the capital’s new residents into voting for him while continuing to parade derogatory views toward women.
Why on earth would we vote for a candidate who holds such antediluvian, sexist opinions?
Lee Ya-chi
Taipei
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not