Dragon Ladies and Martyrs

In 1933 two American researchers asked 100 Princeton University students to chose words that best described ten ethnic groups. The results revealed that 84 percent thought that American blacks were "superstitious" and 75 percent thought they were "lazy," 79 percent thought that Jews were "crafty," and 78 percent thought that Germans had "scientific brains." Chinese were seen as hard working, practical and superstitious.

Since people's environments (both natural and social) are extremely variegated and complex, preventing people from having firsthand knowledge of all of the people, matters and things in the world, sociologists have theorized that people by necessity simplify things, making people who share one characteristic--such as old people or poor people conform to a single mold.

Hsu Chia-shih, a professor of journalism at National Chengchih University, points out that images can be molded and are not entirely accurate. In the mass media people's thoughts and behavior are presumed, simplified and polarized. For example, most people believe that the Cantonese love to eat, the Ningpoese make good businessmen and the Shanghaiese are big spenders, but in fact these are all stereotypes.

In the "magic mirror" of the media, what shadows do the women on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait cast?

Recently three programs have been aired that have shed light on images of mainland women and their R.O.C. counterparts "Cousin Chi-hsiang," "The Bride from Hsiamen" and the mainland production "Desire."

The mainland women in the first two shows are pure, self-sacrificing and submissive, whereas the Taiwanese women portrayed are wealthy, trendy and professionally capable, proud and unruly but impotent in the face of romantic difficulties.

And in the Shanghai production of "Desire" the main character is a classic sufferer of indignities--tender, patient and self-sacrificing.

Quite a few of the male viewers on the mainland found the character attractive, but even more mainland women objected, saying the character was "too passive, too weak, too lacking a sense of self, too unlike women in this day and age."

Women viewers in Taiwan were also not convinced of the superiority of the arrogant rich bitches from Taiwan.

The truth of the matter is that images of "all-suffering martyrs," "strong-willed dragon ladies" and "coddled cutiepies" all lapse into being stereotypes. But from another angle, such larger-than-life characters and their melodramatic goings-on are what people want to watch. (See page 6.)

In the R.O.C. the rate of women working rose from 26 percent in 1965 to about 44 percent in 1991. The vast majority of Taiwanese women are neither "strong-willed bitches" nor "coddled cutiepies." Quite a few of them are white collar or blue collar workers struggling to juggle family and career, enduring pressures and difficulties on the job, in caring for their children, in their relationships with their in laws and in their marriages.

Since the 1960s women in Taiwan have been entering the labor market in droves, making a major contribution to the island's economic miracle. There are equal educational opportunities, greater opportunities in the work place, and an ever more diverse society . . . . These have allowed Taiwanese women to break through the historical Chinese mold for women as weak, dependent and subservient, revealing active, independent and self-motivated women striving for personal achievement. There are more and more women who aren't putting family as a priority over career. ( See page 14.) Yet most women outside of their careers are standing firm in doing their family duties.

In Taiwan just what does "Equality of the sexes" mean?

In 1988 the Washington-based Population Crisis Committee did a five-item study of women around the world. Looking at health, marriage and the number of children, education and professional and social equality, they gave points in each category from one to five, and then graded the countries from one to seven based on the totals.

No country got a seven. Such countries as Sweden; Finland and the United States had sixes. The Republic of China, Japan and Hong Kong had fours and mainland China had a three. Our total score was higher than the mainland's.

But for social equality, the mainland, Hong Kong and Japan were all 3.5 on a scale of five, whereas Taiwan scored only two.

The R.O.C. had higher scores in education, health and living standard. But in comparison with men in Taiwan, women have lower political, economic and legal status here. In marriage, the duties of men and women are still not equal, and women still encounter discrimination in society. Hence, the social status of women in Taiwan was graded lower than on the mainland--a far cry from the media stereotypes.

In the years since, maybe the situation on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait changed. Mainland women, who were seen in the study as having a higher social status than Taiwan women, are still quitting their studies and their careers (the layoffs accompanying economic reform often hit women first) and baby girls are still being drowned (as a result of the one-child policy) . . . .

From the look of it, there's a long way to go to sexual equality on both sides of the strait.