Tue, Jun 10, 2003 page2

• Adultery law complicates life for romance writers

  • By Lindy Yeh / STAFF REPORTER
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  If French-born American writer Anais Nin were Taiwanese, she could have been brought to court on the charge of adultery for what she had written in her diary. She might not be convicted, but she would have been humiliated as adultery is a crime in the Criminal Code.

  This type of situation is not mere hypothesis but a real case that occurred recently in Taipei. A local woman with writing talent was brought to court on the charge of adultery, based on a diary in which she wrote of sexual contact with an anonymous man.

  Anais Nin (1903 to 1977) earned international recognition for her seven-volume diary, which includes a frank depiction of her sex life.

  She detailed an extra-marital relationship with renowned American writer Henry Miller in Henry and June: The unexpurgated diary of Anais Nin -- 1931-1932. Miller was also married when the affair took place.

  Nin first published portions of her diary when she was 63 and her details were last published posthumously in the 1980s -- the same time the Taiwanese woman was also keeping a diary.

  However, the Taiwanese woman was not as lucky as Nin in the sense that Nin had established literary fame through her frank discussion of her sex life in her journal.

  The Taiwanese woman was found not guilty of adultery by the Taiwan High Court last week.

  In 1999, Ko Shun-lung (柯順隆), reportedly a senior official of a well-known vehicle dealership, received a photocopy from an anonymous source of his wife's journal which allegedly contained a detailed account of sex with a man she did not identify.

  After looking into the matter through his wife's acquaintances and colleagues, Ko came to believe the unidentified man was her colleague surnamed Tsou, according to the Taiwan High Court ruling.

  Ko then sued Tsou for adultery and Tsou was indicted.

  In February this year, the Panchiao District Court ruled that Tsou was not guilty since Mrs. Ko and Tsou both denied the affair, adding that there was no evidence that could prove they had sexual relations.

  Ko appealed to the Taiwan Hight Court, arguing that, "the sex details and the psychological struggle of a woman embroiled in an extra-marital relationship were described in such an accurate and vivid way that the account cannot be imaginary."

  According to the High Court ruling, the diary was partly written in Russian, English and Japanese.

  However, Ko's appeal was overruled by Taiwan High Court Judge Fang A-sheng (房阿生), who believed the dairy was not based on her real life but was a draft for her literary works.

  "Is your diary an account recording your relationship with Tsou?" Judge Fang said in court.

  "No. They were simply draft notes for my novel. My diary did not account any sex details alleged by my husband. There are no words which imply intercourse like `making love' in my journal," Ko's wife said.

  According to the court ruling, "Since she is an aspiring writer who won the first Taoyuan County Literature Prize, her testimony that said the journal was not a reflection of her true life but passages of her imagination was credible."

  Ko was prohibited from appealing the High Court ruling to the Supreme Court.

  Taiwan is one of the few democratic countries to list adultery as a crime. According to Article 239 of the Criminal Code, convicted adulterers may be sentenced to up to one-year jail term.

  Feminist groups have struggled to push for the decriminalization of adultery for more than a decade, but received a blow last year when the Council of Grand Justices ruled that "adultery is crime and Article 239 is in accord with the Constitution."

  If the council is right, it means any writer wishing to deal with the theme of extra-marital relationships should not base such accounts on their true experience, but on pure imagination. Or reveal their true sensual world and go to jail.
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