Through marital relationships, more and more women from China and Southeast Asia are moving to Taiwan. Marriage is providing a new source of diversity for Taiwan and raising questions about just what it means to be Taiwanese.
It is becoming more complicated to define the Taiwanese these days. Officially, Hsieh Hung-mei, who was issued an ID card by the government five years ago, is a citizen of the island nation, but often the 32-year-old woman from Nanjing, China, is referred to as a mainland bride. The term, shorthand for a woman from China who has come to Taiwan to marry a Taiwanese man, is sometimes used derisively, however, or simply to emphasize that the woman is not a local. "I'm a Taiwanese citizen now," says Hsieh, "but I don't mind being called a mainland bride either, although the user of the term may still look at me as an outsider."
Hsieh is one of the growing number of brides that constitute one of the primary sources of immigration to Taiwan, and the majority of these new immigrants are from China. (A quarter of the 173,000 Taiwanese men who got married last year did so to a woman from abroad.) Hsieh married her husband, an engineer five years her senior, in 1991, when the number of marriages between Taiwanese and mainland Chinese was increasing rapidly. The jump in marriages was the result of easing tensions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. In 1988, a ban on visits by the people of Taiwan to China was abolished, and for the first time since 1949, the Taiwanese could legally travel to the mainland. A large number of mainland-born veterans that moved to Taiwan around 1949 with the Nationalist military have taken the opportunity to visit their hometowns, and some have since married mainland women to find companionship in old age.
Marriages between the old soldiers and mainland women, in part, drive the new phenomenon of cross-Strait marriages. Many of the brides themselves have been married before and are generally aged 40 or above. Gradually this kind of union has helped form a stereotypical image of mainland brides over the years, but many younger Taiwanese are also marrying main land spouses.
As Taiwan's economy prospered, Taiwanese businessmen began setting up factories in China and Southeast Asia to take advantage of cheaper labor. By the 1990s, local businesses had developed substantial interests in both regions, and closer contacts with these regions resulted in the increasing number of marriages between Taiwanese men and non-Taiwanese women. By June 2003, more than 150,000 mainland women had married Taiwanese men, according to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI). Meanwhile, Taiwan is home to more than 90,000 foreign brides, other than those from China. After China, the brides most commonly come from Vietnam (the number of which reached about 43,000 in 2003), a country with cultural similarities to Taiwan and in which the Taiwanese have heavily invested in recent decades. The next largest group of foreign brides comes from Indonesia, numbering over 10,000, followed by brides from Thailand, the Philippines, and Cambodia.
These marriages seem to offer something for both the bride and the groom. The women are often driven by a desire to seek a change in their lives by marrying Taiwanese men. Many, especially those from the countryside, are understandably motivated by the wish to stay in a comparatively prosperous environment. "Foreign brides come here often in the hope of bettering the lives of their families in their countries of origin by marrying Taiwanese men," notes Kathy Ke, executive director of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in Taiwan, a social services organization started in 1968. Women like Hsieh have other reasons. Materially speaking, she does not see much difference between the economic prospects in Taiwan and Nanjing, which has benefited from China's economic reforms over the past few years. "What really impressed me about Taiwanese society is the political system and democratic atmosphere," she notes. "I feel attracted to this aspect of Taiwan a lot."
Taiwanese grooms, on the other hand, often find it necessary to look for a wife outside the country partly because of demographics. "In Taiwan males outnumber females, which is quite obvious in some parts of the island, such as the south," says Kathy Ke. She also notes another phenomenon that plays a role. As Taiwan has become more prosperous, the standard of living has risen quickly. Many Taiwanese women have received an excellent education, and they have entered the workforce in great numbers. This often provides a challenge for more traditionally minded men, who would like a wife to stay home and take care of the household. "Taiwanese women tend to choose men of a better social background as their husbands," Ke says. "Thus, some men find it hard to find suitable wives in Taiwan."
Many of the grooms, Ke notes, are often considered to be passing the marriageable age and are under pressure to find a wife. They turn to foreign women accordingly. An MOI survey indicates that among the non-Taiwanese brides married to Taiwanese men in 2001 around 40 percent have at most junior high school diplomas. This is not necessarily a problem for men looking for wives to stay home with the children, but it can present a problem for the women as they try to adjust to Taiwanese society.
For foreign brides in Taiwan, life is not necessarily easy. Indeed, getting married and moving to a new country would be a challenge for anyone. "The language barrier is the biggest problem for many foreign brides," says Ke. "Even seeing a doctor can be a big headache for them. If they don't speak Chinese or English, they just can't get across what they want to say." The situation is further complicated by the fact that many foreign brides give birth to children within the first year of marriage and are then expected to start raising a child before they themselves have adapted to the new environment.
Ke's organization, the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, named after the American author who became concerned with the plight of women while working as a missionary in China, was originally established to address the problems of children of American soldiers and local women. The group is now shifting its focus to other social problems, including the plight of foreign brides in Taiwan. Today, the group offers non-Chinese-speaking foreign brides language classes and other means of support to help them adjust to life in Taiwan, which can be quite isolating for the brides entering a foreign community. "For many, their social circle is limited to the few contacts made along the road from home to a nearby market," Ke says.
The attitude of the bride's Taiwanese husband and his family is sometimes partly to blame as well, since they tend to keep the wife at home for fear that she may look down on her husband after knowing more about the outside world. "Some wives suffer from depression, especially the very young ones, who are supposed to be outgoing and carefree at their age," Ke says. (According to the MOI, among the foreign brides from places other than mainland China that married Taiwanese men in 2001, 72 percent were under the age of 24.)
The marriages that have not turned out so well for the brides have caught the attention of the media in the brides' countries of origin. Juan Hsueh-ming, a Vietnamese who is happily married to a Taiwanese man, was hesitant at first because of the many negative stories she had seen on TV in Ho Chi Minh City about Taiwanese husbands. "Oftentimes the Vietnamese wives were portrayed as maids taking care of all the family chores," she says. "I've also heard of many cases of Vietnamese wives being battered."
Juan, who met her husband by chance, believes that part of the problem is the dating services that arrange marriages to Taiwanese men and the short period of time that the couple has to get to know each other. She thinks the arrangements made by marriage services tend to produce low-quality marriages of convenience. Without an underlying respect for each other, the couple might quickly be disenchanted with the quick marriage arrangement. "It's true that some foreign women are treated as tools of their husbands meant to continue the family line or offer cheap labor," says Hsieh Ai-ling, director of MOI's Department of Population. "Therefore, the brides' status in the family can be very low and the marriages can easily fall apart."
Because of the cultural similarities and the fact that mainland brides can speak Mandarin--the official dialect in Taiwan--and sometimes the local Taiwanese dialect, if they are from the province of Fujian, they adjust faster to their new surroundings. Mainland brides, however, encounter different obstacles in Taiwanese society. Specifically, they run up against the stereotypes created by well-publicized cases of mainland women working in Taiwan as prostitutes or entering the country through fraudulent marriages. "But you know, the media likes to play up negative news," notes Hsieh Hung-mei. "In fact, the vast majority of mainland brides are honest and come simply to get married and start a new life."
Even after a mainland bride is formally recognized as a Taiwanese, she is still thought of as a second-class citizen, according to Antonia Chao, associate professor of the Department of Sociology at Tunghai University. Chao notes, for example, that Taiwan's government does not recognize academic degrees beyond senior high school diplomas. "Compared with other foreign brides, mainland women are much more discriminated against," Chao says. Obtaining citizenship in Taiwan is also a more complicated process for mainland women. At the very least, it takes about four years for a non-Chinese foreign bride to obtain citizenship, but about eight for a bride from mainland China. The difference arises from the complicated history between Taiwan and China, and national security concerns on Taiwan's part. Some Taiwanese simply have doubts about the idea of mainland Chinese becoming their compatriots and do not feel comfortable with them holding certain jobs in Taiwan.
Hsieh Hung-mei, the mainland bride from Nanjing, encountered resistance to her own career ambitions. Two years after obtaining citizenship in 1998, she passed a civil service examination allowing her to work at an elementary school doing administrative duties. A newspaper reporter, however, pointed out in a story that according to Article 21 of the Statute Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, Hsieh was teaching illegally. According to the statute, mainlanders must not take a public post until they have had citizenship for ten years. "That's simply discrimination," says Antonia Chao. "All people on the island should be able to work for the government as long as they're citizens." Hsieh too believes the law is unfair and is pursuing a lawsuit to win her job back.
Hsieh, like many other mainland brides, is willing to fight for her rights as a Taiwanese citizen, but others have chosen to set up homes with their Taiwanese husbands on the mainland instead. "All the limitations put on these mainland wives have deterred them, especially the younger and more competent ones, from staying in Taiwan, and some Taiwanese husbands simply move to the mainland and develop their careers across the Strait with their mainland spouses," Antonia Chao observes.
Despite the difficulties of cross-Strait marriages, however, they are increasing, as are marriages with other non -Taiwanese spouses. The annual limit of mainland nationals eligible for permanent residency has reached 3,600 today, up from 240 in 1992. Meanwhile, the number of non-Chinese foreign brides--who do not face an annual quota for permanent residency--could reach 150,000 in four years' time, according to the MOI.
In response to the growing number of foreign brides, the central government this year has earmarked NT$68.7 million (US$2 million) for various plans to assist foreign brides and their families. The budget, which will be increased to NT$123 million (US$3.56 million) next year, is distributed among seven Cabinet-level government organizations. The MOI has received the lion's share of the funding, much of which it redistributes to other agencies. The MOI redirects funding, for example, to the Children's Bureau, which offers social services to children born to immigrant mothers. No matter how people react to the presence of foreign brides, they and their children are becoming a permanent part of Taiwanese society. (Children born to foreign mothers numbered 30,833 in 2002 alone, up from 13,904 in 1998.) The MOI has also commissioned Kathy Ke's foundation to start a foreign-spouse protection hotline in March to help curb domestic violence against foreign brides. The service is provided in English and four Southeast Asian languages.
In addition, a major plan to survey mainland and foreign brides through house calls is scheduled to be carried out in November. The survey is intended to collect data on the population and on the needs of foreign brides in Taiwan. "The main purpose of the survey is not to find out whether they're causing problems," notes Hsieh Ai-ling, director of the Department of Population, which will conduct the survey. "Rather, it's supposed to help the government know what kind of services they need."
Regulations on mainland Chinese have been changed in recent years to make immigration easier. When Hsieh Hung-mei married her Taiwanese husband in mainland China at the end of 1991, she had to wait two years before she obtained permission to enter Taiwan. When she was ready to give birth to her daughter in Taiwan in 1994, the mainland wife was told to return to the mainland for the delivery. Now the situation is different: Soon after a mainlander marries a Taiwanese, he or she can come to Taiwan to visit his or her spouse. Besides, today a mainland wife can give birth to her children in Taiwan and, if this takes place within one year of marriage, the wait for citizenship could be shortened by one year.
Society also seems to be adopting a more tolerant attitude toward these new immigrants. Kathy Ke notes that when the Pearl S. Buck Foundation started to offer help to foreign brides, many of its donors were not supportive. "I explained to them why these brides appear in Taiwan," Ke says. "Now I rarely hear of them complaining about this." Mainland brides, for their own part, are gradually projecting a different image, says Antonia Chao. "The stereotype that they only marry old veterans and that they marry for nothing but money is breaking down," Chao says. She also points out that an increasing number of cross-Strait marriages are between well-matched couples that enjoy a better social status. Indeed, xenophobia and prejudice against new immigrants should be discarded if Taiwan wants to open up to the outside world and create a society that welcomes diversity. It might be that someday soon, the term Taiwanese will refer to a whole new group of people, and that women like Hsieh Hung-mei will simply be known as brides instead of mainland brides.