(Hsueh Chi-kuang)

They are not abused;
They are not latchkey children;
They do not want for food or clothing;
They seem perfectly ordinary.
And yet, they rarely smile or laugh;
When they do, they still hold something back.
All people have a mother and father;
They are our Heaven and our Earth.
But these children lack one or the other,
Leaving them lost at sea, their lives unsteady.

The children of divorce are all around us,
Their scars not easily seen by others,
And as such becoming deeper.
Listen to their stories;
They need not your pity,
Only your best wishes.

In recent years Taiwan's divorce rate has soared, becoming the highest in Asia and fifth in the world, close behind only the US, Puerto Rico, Russia, and the UK. While no one can fail to be concerned at the rapidity of the dissolution of the family in Taiwan, children of the current generation have special reason to worry.

The home is the castle of a child's life--the last bastion where it finds support and refuge in turbulent times. A divorce by the parents represents not only the termination of legal rights and responsibilities between the partners, but also a dramatic transformation in family and parent-child relationships. Once the parents divorce and the family is shattered, it is the children who are most severely affected.

What physical and psychological position do children find themselves in when they cannot grow up under the same roof with both parents, and cannot receive care and attention from two parents concurrently? What kinds of attitudes are these children likely to have as they face life in the future?