The nuclear family is undergoing a dramatic shift, a new study suggested yesterday after looking at contemporary changes in family structure.
The number of women postponing or declining traditional notions of marriage is on the rise; more singles are opting to bring up children by themselves and more men are increasingly looking for brides abroad, the study by the non-profit Millennium Cultural and Educational Foundation showed.
“What we are seeing is the disintegration of Taiwan’s traditional definition of a nuclear family,” Hu Cheng-wen (胡正文), a director at the foundation, said when releasing the study. “The trend shows no signs of stopping.”
The study shows that more women are becoming upwardly mobile and no longer content to be bound by the confines of marriage.
More than 37 percent of female respondents in the survey said having children outside of wedlock was “acceptable.” That number increases to 62.5 percent for female respondents in their 20s.
The report also showed a discrepancy between spouses that suspected their significant other of engaging in extra-marital affairs and the number of respondents who admitted to engaging in one.
It showed that 24.1 percent of female and 6.9 percent of male respondents have at one-time suspected their spouses of engaging in an affair.
Meanwhile, only 3.3 percent of respondents admitted to it.
“More people are feeling insecure about their marriages ... affairs are becoming the biggest factors in unstable relationships,” Hu said.
All these signs point to the fact that more people choose to focus on themselves rather than a family unit, said Wu Chyi-in (吳齊殷), who conducts sociology research at Academia Sinica.
“Taiwan’s societal values are in a high-speed transformation phase ... many people want to find their own sense of self worth,” Wu said. “Many people feel that they lose this sense upon marriage.”
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would