On the Hsiamen seaside, with a beautiful sunset and waves rolling in the distance, the Taiwanese businessman and the mainland woman are extremely happy. After passing numerous obstacles, the two plan to get married:

"Tell me why you chose me. Are you sure you won't regret not having married Min-chu [the daughter of a legislator from a wealthy family in Taiwan]? She is so capable, so beautiful . . . " says the girl.

"Never! It's because you're easy to get along with, gentle and warm, that I finally chose you." (from "The Bride from Hsiamen")

An open green field, broad and limitless; the country road opens out with happy music all the way. A woman in cloth dress, with black shoes, combing out two long pigtails, is driving an oxcart. She is with the refined young man from Taiwan who has come to visit his mainland relatives, joking all the way, taking in the rustic scenery.

The two cousins eventually fall in love. His Taiwan girlfriend is so angry she rushes into marriage with a young roughneck and suffers. Little did anyone expect that the mainland cousin would take on the guard posted on the Taiwan girl barehanded and rescue her rival in love. ( from "Cousin Chi-hsiang")

An outdoor scene shot in Hui'an, Fukien Province, for "The Bride from Hsiamen." Most people think that the character of the Hui'an girl Li-ping really captures the spirit of a mainland girl, but that the shaping of "Hong-lien," the daughter of a high ranking cadre, is a bit off the mark from real mainland women. （photo courtesy of Tien Yen Co.Ltd.）

"Adorable" vs. "proud and willful":

These are scenes from two TV series which were popular at the end of last year and the beginning of this year.

The two popular dramas built around current events both revolve around female leads from mainland China, reflecting changes in emotional relationships, marriage, and familial relations in Taiwan households after the liberalization of contacts between the two sides.

What's interesting is that the main female character in both series--the mainland's "Chi-hsiang" and Hsiamen's bride "Li-ping"--both have a bit of the country hick about them, but are none the less impassioned women.

They treat others kindly and wrong themselves in the interests of the overall situation. For example, even when the male lead "Wen-ching" was in a bad mood and wouldn't even speak to her, Chi-hsiang worked hard to help him with his business in order to help him find peace of mind. In order to improve her family's financial situation, Li-ping broke up with her good mainland boyfriend and married into far-away Taiwan.

On the other hand, looking at the supporting actresses in the two dramas--Chi-hsiang's rival "Mei-tai" and Li-ping's sister-in-law "Ah Ying" -- and other Taiwan women, they are all rich and trendy, protected and helped by family and friends; though capable, they are proud and willful. For example, Mei-tai married the gangster in a fit of pique; after taking over her father's business Ah Ying devotes herself to her work, even forgetting her own daughter's birthday.

Rich vs. poor, trendy vs. rustic, petty and childish vs. sincere and appropriate in handling matters. It's like the two heads of the seesaw. Given exaggeration by TV dramas, the images of Taiwan and mainland women are made extreme opposites. Where do these ideas come from?

When Wen-ching, visiting relatives in the mainland, was injured, cousin Chi-hsiang （right） accompanied him to the hospital every day. His willful Taiwan girlfriend Mei-tai caught a plane and rushed over, playing out their rivalry in the hospital. （photo courtesy of Hauh-Tian Production Co.）

Go with the feeling?

"The mainland misses in the TV series in fact are in fact classic forms of how the great majority of the public imagines women on the other side of the Strait to be," suggests Kung Peng-chang, head of the cultural office of the Mainland Affairs Council. Its just like the relatively forgiving, romantic attitude many people have about all kinds of contacts with the mainland.

Is taking a male's romantic ideal and using it to imagine women on the other side of the strait who fill the bill food for thought for Taiwan women? Is it just a case of "the grass is always greener on the other side of the Straits"?

Chen Kuan-cheng, a researcher at the Academia Sinica, points out that in real life many Taiwan people do indeed "go with the feeling." When the two sides come in contact, they not only imagine, they deliberately exaggerate the patience, humility, diligence, and self-sacrifice of the so-called "traditional" female in the mainland. This is despite the fact that when people go to the mainland, what they see and hear has absolutely no relation to what they imagine; they just block it out.

The problem is, although the mainland women are indeed ladylike and always thinking of others, the arrangement of the plots also always allows the proud Taiwan misses to find love in the end. Why is that?

Hu Chin-yuan, an associate professor in the Department of Western Languages at National Chengchi University contends that whether it be "Cousin" or "Hsiamen," both are replete with a sense of the superiority of the "great Taiwanese." She points out this sense of superiority is not only displayed in the relationships between men and women. Even in the control of the young by the old, and of the weak by the strong, the dominant one is always from Taiwan, the weaker party from the mainland.

For example, at the end of "Cousin," in a completely illogical development, the male lead marries his Taiwan girlfriend, and Chi-hsiang leaves hurt and hateful. There is nothing said about what happens to Chi-hsiang after she goes back, simply having her accept everything amidst a chorus of praise about how courageous and perfect she is. Hu Chin-yuan feels that this type of story is ridiculous.

The cute young "comrades" on the streets of Canton still have some of that traditional Chinese beauty; this is a street stall that sketches from old photographs.

Taiwan uber alles?

But the writers of "Cousin" have something to say about it, too. Chu Chu, who produced the script, argues that the ending of the story is completely to satisfy the desires of the audience. Because many female viewers wrote in and said, "How would a man from Taiwan ever marry a woman from the mainland?" It seems that many Taiwan women are not only "proud and willful," but are "defiant" as well.

Chou Ping, like Chu Chu a member of the "Cousin" production team, laughs that "this shows that Taiwan women are beginning to feel the threat from mainland women is all around them."

Chu Chu notes that because the two sides were separated for 40 years, this created the reality of "husbands with two wives" (i.e. married mainland men who fled to Taiwan in 1949 and then remarried here). Today, Taiwanese--especially Taiwan businessmen--go to the mainland and meet young mainland girls, who become the third party or even the "lesser wife" in a love triangle. This kind of situation has played itself out frequently in real life, and the story in the TV show is just reflecting this mindset and reality.

Although there may be debate about whether the outcome comes under a "sense of superiority," in fact viewers even have different ideas about the different images of the women from the two sides as they are portrayed in the scripts.

After "Liberation" and the founding of "New China," the Chinese communists emphasized that there is no difference between the sexes. The photo, taken during the Cultural Revolution, Shows a team of "barefoot doctors." （ Sinorama file photo）

Paternalistic structure, male standards:

After "Cousin" was broadcast, the "Chi-hsiang" character played by mainland film star Dan Feng was very popular among older viewers, especially old mainlander veterans. On the other side, the Mei-tai character played by Taiwan star Hsiao Chiang swept the hearts of the younger set.

The shaping of Dan Feng in "Cousin" gave her dark eyebrows and large eyes, a wide nose and large mouth, and when she appeared she was in the old getup of a simple print cloth dress with her hair in two long braids. When speaking, it wasn't in a soft and refined voice, but in a deep, slightly husky tone. For the average person who's a bit fed up seeing gaudy pop stars and screen idols, Chi-hsiang emerged as quite healthy and natural -- an unusual image to be portrayed in a TV show.

As for Mei-tai, she was also the standard type with deluxe hair style, a face covered with makeup, wearing the latest fashion, willful and petty--the classic "dream beauty" that has been used over and over by the Taiwan broadcast media.

Where do these definitions of feminine beauty come from? Cheng Chih-hui, an advisor to the Awakening Foundation, states that she is also mystified as to why the broadcast media finds this image so entrancing and sexy. If you want to take a rather cold explanation, it reflects the "paternalistic structures" omnipresent in Taiwan culture--a case of using standards that place men at the center.

She suggests that the petty, proud bickering behavior, completely inconsistent with the character's age, is in fact deliberately intended to show that women lack the intelligence to take in the "big picture" and lack autonomy. A head of luxurious hair, and an hourglass figure like Miss Universe in fact are to attract men's attention(s) to women.

In her eyes, all these are part of "lowering the threat women pose to a men's world." Some people argue that this perhaps is a reaction to another model of women in contemporary society--the superwoman.

What is it the colorfully dressed, elaborately made-up working women ofShenzhen are thinking about? （ photo by Yang Wen-ching）

Who am I getting dressed for anyway?:

Hu Chin-yuan feels exactly the same way. She points out that in the story, the development of the character of the Hsiamen bride Li-ping completely accommodated the her epileptic husband from Taiwan, Fu-chi. In the story she first had an instinctive dislike of Fu-chi, and even because of it fled unhappily back to the mainland. Later she gradually accepted Fu-chi, and discovered he had many good qualities like being straightforward, friendly, and helpful to others. She gradually opened her heart and was willing to spend her life with him. Hu states that of course any script has to have its trials and tribulations, but it's the same old story of how all the women find themselves by identifying with husband or family.

Even more extreme, even the wealthy and career-oriented Taiwan women in both dramas. with their so-called "independence and autonomy," turn out to be "soft-shelled" when it comes to love and marriage, and can only rely on the men to make decisions. Take for example the sharp-dressed, in control Ah Ying in "Hsiamen." When she faces off against her bad husband, it's always using sobs and tears and causing a scene in order to get him back. Finally, he does come back, and she finds her life renewed.

Hu Chin-yuan finds that, from a feminist point of view, the women from both sides of the Strait end up the same on TV--they don't have any of the answers. Interestingly, at the same time as Taiwan TV tries so hard to create the genteel and self-sacrificing mainland woman in order to "fit the bill," a hot TV series on the other side has also come up with a woman of traditional virtues around whom the story revolves. Is this "a reflection of reality" or just "fitting the bill" like in Taiwan?

A real-life healthy-looking, straightforward country woman from rural Anhwei Province. She still takes traditional female roles of feeding the pigs, planting the rice, cooking the food, and raising the kids. （photo by Yang Wen-chin）

"Desire" on the other side of the Strait:

Two years ago, the series "Desire" that caused such a sensation in the mainland centered on a woman with "traditional feminine virtues" like gentleness, patience, self-sacrifice, and the ability to consider the overall good, starting from that premise to a tale of two families.

Liu Hui-fang, the female character in "Desire," is a factory worker. She marries university student Wang Hu-sheng, who turns out to be a weak coward so that she suffers great indignities.

Liu Hui-fang, to borrow the description of Cha Hsiao-ti, a writer for the Hongkong periodical Ming Pao, is truly a "repository for bad vibes." She fails to pass the university entrance exam; her child miscarries; her marriage breaks up; she has a car accident; and in the end even the abandoned child she struggled bitterly to raise in turn walks away from her.

This was a portrayal of a patient, self-effacing, even masochistic feudal type woman. Yet in the post-"liberation" mainland, where women are said to "hold up half of Heaven," it turns out this character was incredibly loved, even causing a "Desire' Fever."

Su Wei, a mainland scholar living abroad, says that over the many months that "Desire" was broadcast, from north to south, city to country, people fought for the chance to watch; traffic accidents declined, thefts of novels abated, and wherever there was a TV, there was sure to be the title song, "Boundless time, yet how bitter were those years . . . ." This is similar to the situation in Taiwan, where "Cousin" and "Hsiamen" always got the highest ratings in their time slots.

This response to "Desire" generated a lot of discussion outside China, and scholars even held seminars about it. Why did the popularity of "Desire" attract such attention?

How much "Desire" do Taipei's ubiquitous wedding photo studios reveal? （Sinorama file photo）

"Red Army Women" entering a new era?

After building the "Socialist New China," the Communist Chinese have repeatedly pledged to "liberate" women from the slave-like conditions of "old China" in order to "eliminate inequality between men and women."

Hence, over the past 40 years, mainland women have been repeatedly instructed that "there is no difference between the sexes." Both externally and internally, they were supposed to be like men. "Women became just 'workers,' and like men had to 'hold up half of Heaven," explains Kung Peng cheng. Over a long period of time, the ideal woman as designed by the Chinese communists was perhaps the high-ranking cadre like Chiang Ching or Teng Ying-chao - dressed in Mao jacket, severe bowl-cut hair, stern-voiced, glint-eyed--a hardened image. Or during the Cultural Revolution it was the "woman" who like the men scaled the mountains and went to the seas, shovel in hand, overcoming every challenge, with even a shape and a character just like the men.

Writer Liu Ta-jen recalls that at the University of California he saw a film of Red Army Women. This was a representative work of the image the Chinese communists tried so hard to spread of the post-liberation new woman. "The women in the poster were a line of the new Chinese woman who 'hates makeup and loves weaponry,' leaping into the air with legs extended outward. It made you think that one half of mankind was actually flying toward a fully liberated new era, a new world."

How has this hard-charging image of women changed overnight in the hands of the media into the gentle, patient, self-sacrificing "feudal woman" that the Chinese communists have always rejected?

How much change and how many movements have there been on the road from tradition to modernity? What is the woman's role that she desires?

A mother's love: Of course

"Desire" was hated as well as loved.

Cha Hsiao-ti notes that some female viewers were quite dissatisfied: "too passive, too weak, too lacking in self-awareness, nothing like women of our generation," is how Cha describes the attitude of many in the mainland audience.

Correspondingly, many viewers saw Liu Hui-fang as personifying the beauty of the traditional Oriental woman. A male reporter for the mainland magazine Chinese Woman says that "Desire" helped him to set standards for choosing a partner; he hopes to find a lover just like Liu Hui-fang.

Cheng Chih-hui points out that those who liked "Desire" are perhaps the middle generation in mainland society. These people have been through the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the Cultural Revolution, and other tumultuous political movements, and are perhaps the "generation which has lost human warmth." Perhaps they see the Liu character in "Desire" as compensating in some way.

Chou Ping also points out that over the past few years, Taiwan series like "The Stars Know My Heart" and "Mother, Love Me Again"--which are family dramas in which the mothers play a central role--have swept through mainland China, which to some extent seems to reflect this psychology. "It's like the 60s or the 70s, when we saw Liang Chu, like going to the movie theater to have a good cry and let it all out," he says.

Scholar Lee Ou, now living in the States, that though "Desire" is kitsch, the script did indeed bring long-repressed "desires" to the surface, and served as a collective emotional outlet.

Chinese Woman concludes, "What 'Desire' realizes is the human 'calling out for virtuous beauty'."

Economic reform, women transformed?

Since economic reform, there have been great changes in mainland society and culture, moving from collective values to individual, emotive values. The understanding of women's roles and feminism have become revitalized and discussed.

Kung Peng-cheng believes that this type of thinking is the driving force explaining why "Desire" and family dramas like "The Stars Know My Heart" and "Mother, Love Me Again" have caused such a stir; even why popular Taiwan writers like Chiung Yao and San Mao, who write of freedom and release, and of unrealizable fantasies, have become popular; and perhaps why books like Family and Women and How To Run A Household have been bestsellers in the mainland.

On another front, feeling the stimulus of the market economy since reforms began, the phenomenon of women being "materialized" has already become widespread. Under the current vogue of "everything for money," "you can't even hear conservative, moralistically-based criticism," states Cheng Chih-hui.

From the point of view of Taiwan, in the past mainland women were seen as "no different from men" and "holding up half of Heaven." And now the media has gone from the Red Army Women to recognizing feminine, family, and motherly roles.

In comparison, the image of Taiwan women has gone from hard-luck roles like "Ching-ching" in search of her mother in early days, and "The Stars Know My Heart" to the midstream of women who are either "brilliant and capable, willful and strong, who disregard their families" or else "cute but not-so-bright and very childish."

As interactions between the two sides of the Strait become increasing close, and television cultures act on each other, in what shape will women of the two sides emerge in the future?

After passing the "hard-luck culture," will the mainland follow along with "superwomen" and "cuties"? Will Taiwan dramatic series return to extolling virtuous wives and dedicated mothers?

So let us maintain an attitude of an audience to be entertained and continue to be happy and angry, sharp and spaced-out TV series fools.

[Picture Caption]

p.6

Liu Hui-fang, the female lead in the mainland TV series "Desire," was widely loved by the mainland audience for her "traditional virtues" of self-sacrifice and living for others.

p.7

An outdoor scene shot in Hui'an, Fukien Province, for "The Bride from Hsiamen." Most people think that the character of the Hui'an girl Li-ping really captures the spirit of a mainland girl, but that the shaping of "Hong-lien," the daughter of a high ranking cadre, is a bit off the mark from real mainland women. (photo courtesy of Tien Yen Co. Ltd.)

p.7

When Wen-ching, visiting relatives in the mainland, was injured, cousin Chi-hsiang (right) accompanied him to the hospital every day. His willful Taiwan girlfriend Mei-tai caught a plane and rushed over, playing out their rivalry in the hospital. (photo courtesy of Hauh-Tian Production Co.)

p.8

The cute young "comrades" on the streets of Canton still have some of that traditional Chinese beauty; this is a street stall that sketches from old photographs.

p.9

After "Liberation" and the founding of "New China," the Chinese communists emphasized that there is no difference between the sexes. The photo, taken during the Cultural Revolution, Shows a team of "barefoot doctors." ( Sinorama file photo)

p.10

What is it the colorfully dressed, elaborately made-up working women of Shenzhen are thinking about? ( photo by Yang Wen-ching)

p.11

A real-life healthy-looking, straightforward country woman from rural Anhwei Province. She still takes traditional female roles of feeding the pigs, planting the rice, cooking the food, and raising the kids. (photo by Yang Wen-chin)

p.12

How much "Desire" do Taipei's ubiquitous wedding photo studios reveal? (Sinorama file photo)

p.13

How much change and how many movements have there been on the road from tradition to modernity? What is the woman's role that she desires?