Sunday, December 12, 2010
漁泊食堂 (Yu Bo Shi Tang)
My Personal Blog Roll
Thursday, December 9, 2010
New Exhibit at MOCA Taipei: Finding India
Others, like "Dead Smile" below, have no connection to Indian culture but are presented because they are by artists of Indian descent.
I highly recommend spending the NT 30 on the English-Chinese guide for the exhibit - some of the works (like various interspecies copulating animal pairs, below), are utterly mystifying without a guide prompt. Others, you can muse on yourself.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
For China's Women, Part II
Last week, or maybe the week before that, I linked to this article, with a promise to revisit it. I've had a lot going on recently (a family illness, other things) but here I am, finally doing so.
For me, this article stands out with examples of how Asian women, and to a lesser extent all women in Asia (who, hey, are not always Asian) are at a disadvantage not just legally, but culturally.
What I don’t like about this article, though, is that it jumps around between women in the Asian workforce and expectations of women in order to be marriageable. I feel as though those could be two separate articles – one focusing on how difficult it is for women to find purchase on a career track that’s going somewhere, and another on what is expected of women in order to be desireable. They’re two entirely different topics.
Taiwan is not quite as bad as China when it comes to seeking out work if you are female: while classified ads will still, occasionally, go over expectations of height, weight, appearance and age (with other not-lovely add-ons including specifying “with a sweet voice”), those tend to be relegated to hostess, wait staff, masseuse, “assistant” and “secretarial” positions. Nobody at a Big Four accounting firm is going to specify what new auditors need to look like. Nobody at a major bank is going to specify the appearance required for applicants to its management training program.
Of course, you’ll also remember that while hiring requirements for flight attendants in the West have become far less sexist, those in Asia are throwbacks to an earlier, more discriminatory, downright “Mad Men” era. I guess for male airline passengers, the upside shows through with adorable flight attendants. The downside? Looks valued over qualifications. Cuteness over experience. Lingering notions that a woman’s greatest asset is her beauty (ever seen a male flight attendant on an Asian airline?). In fact, many advertising campaigns for airlines put their flight attendants front and center – as if to say, “hey, our girls are sexier than the competition”. That’s demeaning for everyone, but you don’t exactly hear people complaining – except for the very occasional women’s rights group. The fact that they don’t complain is a sign of a deeper problem in Asian society.
I should note that I don’t feel bad using the sweeping moniker of “Asian society”. Yes, Asia is huge, but I’ve visited and lived in quite a few places in it and the same themes keep replaying themselves. I am sure at the individual level there are exceptional stories (I could tell a few – especially from India) but on a broader scale, I don’t doubt that what I say is true.
In short, I’ve noticed that at the lower-paid, assistant/service end of the economy there is still quite a bit of blatant sexism.
One advantage China has over Taiwan is regarding childbirth/maternity leave. While in some sectors of the workforce, and among some Neolithic bosses, I am sure there is still discrimination associated with plans for childbirth, in general I have not observed this to be a problem. Taiwanese women are guaranteed 50 some-odd days of maternity leave (it usually works out to be just about 2 months) – one month of which is usually spent in “坐月子” – the traditional month of total rest for new mothers. I can’t speak for China, but Taiwan even has “hotels” where new mothers go to rest for the duration of this month, with nurses who care for the children except when the mother requests to see her newborn. Alongside this is the still-extant tradition of mother-in-laws swooping in to take care of everything at home.
The main difference here is that Taiwanese employers don’t seem to mind this, while Chinese employers clearly do.
I attribute this to two factors: first, that Taiwan is generally more progressive than China regarding women’s rights, respect for feminine power, and women’s equality. In Taiwan it’s common to take your month off (“坐月子”) as well as any more maternity leave or saved leave a new mother can cobble together – the difference is that employers generally don’t balk at this – they accept it as necessary. I am sure there are some exceptions, but from my extensive experience working on contract at various offices around Taipei, Xinzhu and Tainan, I say with confidence that it’s usually not a problem.
For those unfamiliar with the idea of “sitting for a month” (zuo yue zi or 坐月子), it stems from a traditional belief that childbirth is a stressful and draining experience, and that new mothers need a month of complete rest before they can be expected to resume even nominal daily duties (whether that’s in the home or the workplace). Traditionally, the woman’s mother would swoop in and take care of everything – the cleaning, the cooking, the baby care – and the new mother would…well, rest. Play with her baby. But mostly rest. Some old beliefs include a rule against ingesting anything cold, drinking water (which is why soup and meat cooked for new mothers used to be made with alcohol and/or oil), washing their hair or doing anything that carried even the slightest risk of illness. Back in the old days when hot water baths were uncommon and water itself wasn’t necessarily safe, this made sense. Now, the new mother’s mother may still come to visit, but often those duties are hired out, or are taken care of in a specialized “hotel” for new mothers, which I mentioned above. Note how new fathers are still not expected to do much heavy lifting for their wives or newborn children, other than bringing home the bacon! Ah, I love the smell of sexism in the morning! I will grant the fathers this: they work hard. Too hard, in fact. All Taiwanese do. A topic for another post, that. But let it be known that I think Taiwanese people work too hard!
Second, National Health Insurance (hey America, listen up!). Employers usually contribute to monthly premiums for individual and family health coverage, but that coverage includes maternity benefits – doctors, tests, hospital stays. The employer may need to provide leave for a new mother, but this is not avoided by not hiring women. The same employer does not need to chip in to cover the costs of prenatal and post-natal care – much of it is covered by National Health Insurance (of course, some of the new, natural-birth or progressive birthing centers are not covered, but necessary hospital tests usually are, and child delivery is, as well as pediatric care).
In many ways, Taiwanese women have it better than American women when it comes to childbirth and natal care. American women are not guaranteed insurance coverage for the extraordinarily high costs of prenatal, delivery and postnatal care. There is no government-stipulated maternity leave (forget paternity leave – Taiwanese men may get a mere few days of paternity leave but that’s more than American men are granted by the US government). Most offices do offer maternity leave as a benefit, but it’s at the discretion of the employer.
It is absolutely true that many American companies quietly, surreptitiously discriminate against married women of childbearing age – there are many articles out there covering this issue. In that way, we Americans are really not that different from China. Doesn’t that just give you a great feeling? I love reading about my home country and getting a pit in my stomach for how sickening it can be.
I am sure it is also an issue at some companies for some women in Taiwan. I don’t mean to say that my experience in offices that generally respect women is the absolute – surely there are exceptions. They seem to be, however, exceptions rather than rules. One of the many ways in which China (and America) can learn from Taiwan.
I don’t mean to say that sexism doesn’t exist here – it certainly does. I’m merely trying to point out a few ways in which Taiwan gets it right.
In a future blog post, I want to address the prevalence of women in accounting and finance positions, and the lack of general belief here that women are bad with money (which is related, in my opinion, to the belief that women are just as capable and qualified to enter politics as men, and Taiwanese female politicians will generally not have sexist hate-speech lobbed at them the same way that American female politicians – Hello Hillary! – will). For now, however, this will do.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Taipei and Xinbei Elections
Friday, November 26, 2010
For China's Women...
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Some Taipei Election Posters
I've been collecting photos for this post for awhile, and after being deeply amused by David's roundup of Taizhong posters, I've finally decided to publish them.
I can't get enough of Wang Zhengde's avatar - a bobblehead cartoon Popeye. If you see the free notepads he's giving out, there's a woman (I don't know who) in the likeness of Olive Oyl. NO JOKE. What strikes me about this is how it would never go over well in the USA. It would be considered downright infantile.
I am ashamed to admit that I don't know who the older woman here is - the one that Wang Xinyi is bowing to like she's the reincarnated Confucius. Anyone?
A Taiwan Solidarity Union (Tai Lian) paper flag with a giant-headed brown ant screaming about how they want to serve the people. I love how the Japanese children's cartoon (as opposed to Japanese cartoons that are definitely not for children) aesthetic is so prominent in Taiwanese politics, of all places. "Yeah, let's stick an adorable bobble-head ant on it. People will vote for us! We could use an adorable kitty, but Li Dahua's already doing that."
I'm sorry, Zhou Ni'an (周倪安), but you look like a character from South Park. Specifically, your expression reminds me of Butters.
Keeping in the "cute animals" theme: Zhang Honglin is campaigning in the Green Party - 綠黨 - not to be confused with the "Green" faction led by the DPP and usually consisting of other small parties with similar ideologies, like Tai Lian. (The Green Party, like the Qingmingdang - the Green Party still exists? Wow).
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Pasta'ai 2010
Then a line of dancers, some with back accoutrements with beads and metal chimes, came out, moving and chanting in unison.
I asked a local if the designs had any special meaning: she said they did not, just anything the owners found aesthetically pleasing. Buddhist swastikas (a Buddhist symbol before it was a Nazi one), curved mirrors and embroideries of surnames are common design elements.
...and waited in line with tourists and Saisiyat people alike. This year we saw more children than last time in traditional costume and encouraged to participate in their tribe's customs. We also saw more foreigners than two years ago - apparently a foreigner who married into the tribe sent out a large Facebook invitation and many people did end up coming. How they get to Wufeng, I have no idea.
...and watched the festival from above the main area for awhile. As you can see, the dancers go in an arc or circle, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. When they go quickly, they often rush to the middle and chant excitedly before fanning out again. The dancers themselves don't seem to know what they're doing - I learned from one participant that any Saisiyat in traditional clothing can join, not just experienced or trained dancers (the chanters and people with chimes on their back plates clearly know what they are doing however - and the chime beaters dance separately from the main group).
Before heading to the main area, we went to the row of food stalls nearby to get dinner. We started with a traditional Saisiyat dish...
This year the rules about taking photos of the front of the dancers (thereby standing in front of them in what I had thought was a "sacred area") were relaxed.
I also noticed an investment in Christmas lights to decorate around the area (look above the heads of the dancers).
The dancing and chanting is to call forth the spirits of the Ta'ai, and appease them. The big tinsel and light-up things are made by different families - each family makes one. One woman told me that usually, the children will help decorate it, so as to teach them about their culture and heritage. I couldn't determine any pattern for the holders of these giant talismans, though they did dance and did seem to somewhat follow the arc of dancers. When the dancers would rush to the middle and excitedly chant, these were always in the very middle.
This was the friendly woman who answered my various questions about the event details to the best of her ability and to the best of my limited understanding.
By about 9pm, people were starting to get seriously wasted on traditional millet wine. As it was with the last Pasta'ai, you don't just buy and drink your own millet brew. You buy some, share it with others, and get glasses of others in return. We tried to minimize this, or at least sniff what we were about to drink this year, but it can't be helped to some extent. The two non-drinkers among us managed to actually not drink, though - which surprised me. It was impossible to avoid two years ago by the time 10pm rolled around. Forget teetotalling. By 9:30 we had plenty of new 酒肉朋友 (drinking buddies).
Some random people dressed up Brendan and Eduardo in traditional clothing - I had a touch of grease from *something* on my lens but still wanted to post these.
Plenty of traditional aboriginal food was on offer - including these roasted birds (tiny quail? Pigeons? We had pigeon in Egypt and this tasted different.) They cut it up for you so it's easy to eat, but I'd forgotten that they give you the head with everything else. Before I knew what it was, I'd bitten into the brain. EWWWWW. I am pretty openminded about food, but I do not do innards or brain. I chucked it at a pile of accumulating garbage, missed and hit some poor woman's coat.
So, at 10pm we all started dancing - not that we knew how. Last time, women would come around with wooden buckets of millet wine and ladle it into your mouth as you danced. This year that was not so common, and they had plastic pitchers of wine with shot glasses for dancers - but there was less going around. Boo.
They pretended to like Brendan because they were hoping he'd open the door to the kitchen area for them. We visited for a bit, drank tea, ate breakfast, enjoyed the view, played with the kittens and puppy, and they reminded me of how ridiculously hungover I had been last time. (Also, apparently they understand my Chinese now.)
...and anyone who managed to kidnap Chiang Kai-shek is someone I can't dislike too much, even if the Mainlanders think he's a hero.