Two episodes stand out from one of my last research sojourns to Taiwan a few years ago. Episode 1 ! With the factory owner in a textile factory in one of the export processing zones we look at the large empty production halls while he tells me of a disappearing work force. “Two years ago half of the work force left and the same happened again last year. Next year I expect the same if I´m not allowed to import workers! Only R&D, (Research and Development) and high-end products, such as suede c..

Thorborg, Marina

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 China Perspectives 
64 | march - april 2006
Varia
Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity.
Labor and Gender Politics in Taiwan´s Economic
Restructuring
Catherine Farris, Anru Lee, Murray Rubinstein
(eds.), Women in the New Taiwan. Gender Roles and
Gender Consciousness in a Changing Society
New York, State University of New York Press, 2004, 196 p.
Armonk, New York, Londres M.E. Sharpe, 2004, 390 p.
Marina Thorborg
Édition électronique
URL : http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/618
ISSN : 1996-4617
Éditeur
Centre d'étude français sur la Chine contemporaine
Édition imprimée
Date de publication : 1 avril 2006
ISSN : 2070-3449
 
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Marina Thorborg, « Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in Taiwan
´s Economic Restructuring
Catherine Farris, Anru Lee, Murray Rubinstein (eds.), Women in the New Taiwan. Gender Roles and
Gender Consciousness in a Changing Society », China Perspectives [En ligne], 64 | march - april 2006, mis
en ligne le 21 décembre 2006, consulté le 28 octobre 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/
chinaperspectives/618 
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Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and
Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in
Taiwan´s Economic Restructuring
Catherine Farris, Anru Lee, Murray
Rubinstein (eds.), Women in the New
Taiwan. Gender Roles and Gender
Consciousness in a Changing Society
New York, State University of New York Press, 2004, 196 p.
Armonk, New York, Londres M.E. Sharpe, 2004, 390 p.
Marina Thorborg
1 Two episodes stand out from one of my last research sojourns to Taiwan a few years
ago.
2 Episode 1 ! With the factory owner in a textile factory in one of the export processing
zones we look at the large empty production halls while he tells me of a disappearing
work force. “Two years ago half of the work force left and the same happened again last
year. Next year I  expect the same if  I´m not allowed to import workers! Only R&D,
(Research and Development) and high-end products, such as suede clothes are left,” he
says with a sigh.
3 Episode 2 ! I am sitting in a hotel lobby in Taipei with an old Taiwanese friend of mine
and some of his colleagues, all male. It is almost 8 p.m. and we are having a drink.
Suddenly my friend turns to me and says “Why don’t you go and have a nap ?” “A nap,
why ? The evening has just begun!” I ask. “Well, you’re the only woman here and, in
addition,  a  Westerner,  so  you can’t  come with us,  my colleagues would never ever
accept it”. So this Taiwanese professor and his friends politely say goodbye to me and
leave !
Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in...
China Perspectives, 64 | march - april 2006
1
4 Both books under review here deal with Taiwan´s rapid economic development and
how this development has built upon the hard, undervalued labour of young women,
just as it did in South Korea
1
, and how with increasing diversification of the economy
more and more workers voted with their feet, leaving the least attractive jobs, those
with the lowest pay and the longest working hours, such as was typical of the textile
industry.  This  phenomenon  occurred  in  Taiwan  ten  to  fifteen  years  ago  and  is
beginning to happen in the Pearl River Delta in southern China´s Special  Economic
Zones, and also first in textiles, and for the same reasons
2
.
5 Anru Lee,  in her dissertation turned book, has one of her chapters,  “Between Filial
Daughter and Loyal Sister” already published in the other book under review here. This
chapter gives an excellent feminist analysis of how the unequal treatment of daughters
is hidden under the cover of the Chinese “corporate family”. This chapter on Taiwan is
an equivalent to Janet Salaff´s important work on working daughters in Hong Kong
3
.
Both show the flexibility and adaptability in family structures that basically remain
strongly  patriarchal  and  hierarchal  benefiting  sons  at  the  expense  of  daughters.
Another chapter on “Guests from the Tropics”—also published in Nan Chow Lee´s book
4
—deals with how, from the late 1980s, the ban on importing foreign workers was lifted,
while  simultaneously  Taiwanese  entrepreneurs  began  to  move  their  operations
overseas. This will explain the first episode above.
6 Rapid industrialisation in  Taiwan contributed to  an optimistic  mood and helped to
explain why in Taiwan just as earlier in the United States and as well in Thailand a
notion of class-consciousness by workers had a hard time to develop. The ideology of
“Black hand becoming boss” (hei shou bian tou jia) meant that everyone working hard
enough could  one  day  become a  self-made  man and boss  himself.  Therefore  many
workers were prepared to endure a few hard years. A pervasive structure of small and
medium-sized enterprises made this seem even more likely.  This ideal was for men
only.  Research  from  around  the  world  has  shown  the  worst  working  conditions
precisely  in  small  family-style  enterprises,  where  young  women  in  so-called  light
industry did the most tedious work
5
. So the place where many, hardworking young men
could aspire to be their own boss was also where exploitation of labour was greatest
and hitting young women more than men.
7 A  central  theme  of  Anru  Lee´s  work  is  the  embeddedness  of  culture  in  capitalist
development.
8 Some  other  researchers  have  termed  this  East  Asian  development
“hypermasculinisation”,  showing  young,  single  women  as  the  big  losers  and
questioning  this  “England-1840-model”,  asking  if  this  is  “development”  when large
segments of a population, particularly young women, are left out
6
.
9 The  same  development  and  similar  analysis  can  be  found  on  women  and  export-
industrialisation in China showing a patriarchal and hierarchal society joining hands
with global capital to the detriment of particularly young female workers
7
.
10 The anthology on Women in New Taiwan not only deals with women and gender roles
but  as  well  includes two chapters  on male roles  with a  chapter on “Carousing and
Masculinity !  The  Cultural  Production  of  Gender  in  Taiwan”,  by  Avron  Boretz
explaining male bonding in all male groups in all classes of society where only paid
hostesses  participate,  showing  a  confluence  of  both  Chinese  and  as  well  Japanese
Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in...
China Perspectives, 64 | march - april 2006
2
patriarchal legacies, long traditions of sex segregation, and veneration for old age. A
woman in such a male group competing in singing and heavy drinking would upset the
rules  of  male  bonding  and  be  an  embarrassment.  Only  paid  hostesses  for  sexual
titillation would fit in. This will explain episode number two above.
11 This fits with what is aptly described as typical behaviour of unattached, young men in
strictly sex segregated, patriarchal societies in a new study called “Bare Branches” and
would according to it in other types of societies be regarded as immature, adolescent
conduct not fitting for mature, educated, and attached men
8
. 
12 The chapter on “A Bright Summer Day” by Yu-hsiu Liu in this anthology brings this
degrading of women to a logical conclusion by showing clearly that the film with this
name is  more concerned with the structure of  the film then with the murder of  a
woman. Male relationships are more important and a man becomes a real man only by
killing a woman, with sex and killing starkly intertwined. Here Freud is used to the full
with some dubious explanations.
13 A most interesting chapter by Ping-chen Hsiung on “Sons and Mothers” is concerned
with the practical implications of filial piety, showing that with simple demography few
men were  ever  to  practise  it  as  they  would  most  likely  be  in  their  teens  or  early
twenties when their parents passed away given the short life expectancy in traditional
China.
14 Hence only in exceptional cases did a son have to take long time care of his parents,
particularly his mother. Because of discrimination and frequent and dangerous child-
birth men were outliving women. This meant that this ideal was so much easier to
uphold as it only exceptionally had to be practised.
15 Murray A. Rubenstein in her chapter on “Lu Hsiu-lien and the Origins of Taiwanese
Feminism”—currently Vice President of Taiwan—shows how influential one person can
be, given the right personality and timing. Most often Anette Lu Hsien-Lien has been
ahead of her time and by being tolerant and all encompassing has encouraged diversity
and co-operation,  which has given the Taiwanese women´s movement a head-start.
This could have been more stressed in this otherwise well-researched and well-written
chapter. 
16 In the chapter on, “Women´s Liberation Under ‘East Asian Modernity’  in China and
Taiwan Historical, Cultural, and Comparative Perspectives” by Catherine S. P. Farris a
few mistakes are made. Firstly on the opening page modernisation is said to contribute
to  changing  traditional  views  on  gender  while  latest  research  show that  the  main
change occurs in the transition from industrial to post-industrial society
9
. On page 343
the main reason is not given for why the campaign for the new marriage law during
1950-52 ended.  It  was  because of  mass  murder,  often with the  accomplishments  of
cadres, of women wanting a divorce, meaning those the authorities wanted to help with
the new marriage law of May 1st 1950 instead became the victims. 
17 Therefore  a  new  campaign  started  on  Women´s  Day,  March  8th 1953,  promoting
harmonious families, which also of course furthered production, while a divorce would
cause land to be split and slow production
10
. On page 366 labour force participation is
said to be the highest in advanced socialist  countries,  (if  they still  exist ?)  while in
reality it was higher in Scandinavia and without the very negative side effects as in
socialist countries, such massive overwork by women or high accident rates
11
. Posing
Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in...
China Perspectives, 64 | march - april 2006
3
socialism against capitalism seems a bit  outmoded, like asking the wrong questions
after  socialism´s  massive  failure.  In  Scandinavia  already  those  things  exist  that
socialism is supposed to give to women but has not usually delivered.
18 The short chapter on Feminist Art in Taiwan by Richard C. Kagan after a brief,  but
informative introduction only four female artists are presented which feels like a few
more would essentially have substantiated the introduction. 
19 Together these two books give a comprehensive introduction to women and gender in
Taiwanese  modern  development  with  some  useful  comparisons  to  China  and  some
highlights  on  the  importance  of  culture  in  explaining  which  particular  type  of
capitalism  evolves  and  shows  how  Taiwan  and  China  though  they  have  different
political systems still have a common culture of degrading women leading to similar
types of exploitation. Hence there would be a great cross-Strait learning potential.
NOTES
1. Marina Thorborg, Korea Program on Women, United Nations Industrial Development
Association, UNIDO, Vienna, 1991, 146 pp.
2. Juliette Li, “The Pearl River Delta migrant labour shortage” in CSR Asia Weekly, Vol.
1, Week 9, p. 2, and Mei Fong, “A Chinese Puzzle”, The Wall Street Journal, August 16th
2004, and “Labour shortage in Pearl River Delta”, www.amrc.org.hk/5210.htm, April
13th 2005.
3. Janet Salaff, Working Daughters of Hong Kong, New York, Columbia University Press,
1995.
4. Ester Ngan-ling Chow (ed.), Transforming Gender and Development in East Asia, New
York, Routledge, 2002.
5. Oxfam Hong Kong Briefing Paper, “Turning the Garment Industry Inside Out
Purchasing Practises and Workers´ Lives”, Oxfam, Hong Kong, 2004. 
6. Stephanie Seguino, “Gender, Quality of Life, and Growth in Asia, 1970-90”, The Pacific
Review, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2002, pp. 245-277, and Lawrence Haddad, “Women´s Status !
Levels, Determinants, Consequences for Malnutrition, Interventions, and Policy”, in 
Asian Development Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1999, pp. 96-131.
7. Pun Ngai, Made in China Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace, Durham and
London, Duke University Press, and Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, “ 2005,
and Ching Kwan Lee, Gender and the South China Miracle, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London,
University of California Press, 1998.
8. Valerie M. Hudson, Andrea M. den Boer, Bare Branches Security Implications of Asia
Surplus Male Population, Cambridge, Mass., London, MIT Press, 2004.
9. Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Rising Tide ! Gender Equality and Cultural Change
around the World, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
10. Marina Thorborg, “Chinese Employment Policy in 1949-78 With Special Emphasis
on Women in Rural Production”, in Chinese Economy Post-Mao, Joint Economy
Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in...
China Perspectives, 64 | march - april 2006
4
Committee, Congress of the United States, US Government Printing Office, Washington
D.C., 1978.
11. Marina Thorborg, “Work and Unemployment” and “Women and Gender in the
History of the Baltic Region”, in Witold Maciejewski (ed.), The Baltic Sea Region Culture,
Politics, Society, The Baltic University Programme, Uppsala University, 2002, pp. 401-414
and pp. 431-444. Marina Thorborg, “Latvian Women in a Comparative Framework”, in
Marina Thorborg and Inna Bronislava Zarinna (eds.), Gender Equality in Latvia at the
Threshold of the New Millennium, Riga, Latvian Academy of Sciences, 2000, pp. 10-23.
Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in...
China Perspectives, 64 | march - april 2006
5


Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in Taiwan´s Economic RestructuringCatherine Farris, Anru Lee, Murray Rubinstein (eds.), Women in the New Taiwan. Gender Roles and Gender Consciousness in a Changing Society

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Anru Lee, In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity. Labor and Gender Politics in Taiwan´s Economic RestructuringCatherine Farris, Anru Lee, Murray Rubinstein (eds.), Women in the New Taiwan. Gender Roles and Gender Consciousness in a Changing Society

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