Taiwan Today

has many a custom all its own, though it owes its basic cultural heritage to proper. The institution of the adopted daughter on this island is a typical case in which the local peculiarities outweigh the original qualities derived from the mainland.

The institution of the adopted daughter in is not what is generally imagined. Neither is it the same that is provided by law. It is actually different thing, produced by a combination of deep-rooted conventions of the island.

The girls who fall into the category under discussion are distinguished from their fellow citizens by only two words Adopted Daughter printed on their identification cards. With this mark of status, tens of thousands of young girls lead a life that is anything but happy. For the sake of convenience, they may be divided into four different classes as follows:

1. Genuine Adopted Daughters

Certainly we have genuine adopted daughters in our midst. When childless parents adopt other people's children and treat them with indiscriminate kindness and affection, that is adoption in the true sense of the word. Adop­tion in this sense is a noble thing; it is sanctioned both by law and by custom. Of course, instances of such genuine adoption are not lacking in , and their number can not be too small. But the trouble is that behind such adoption there are sometimes mercenary motives. This is due to the local marriage system, which is a great disadvantage to women. While the middle class, cannot afford dowries for their daughters, the poor can get a handsome reward for marrying off a daughter. For this reason, the poor generally adopt girls rather than boys as their children.

2. Adopted Daughters-in-law

It has become the custom to adopt a little girl, commonly under 10, and make her help in the housework until she grows up to become a daughter-in-law. As a marriage is always an expensive thing, this can save the money required for the purpose. While the girl is doing the household duties, she is actually a substitute for the servant. When the time comes fur her to become the family's daughter­-in-law, it is not necessary to hold a wedding ceremony on a bill scale; it would be sufficient to take the opportunity of, say, the New Year's Eve by the lunar calendar to announce that the wedding ceremony is thereby completed. Not an extra cent is required for the occasion. All members of the household are there; all the wishes prepared for the celebration of the New Year's Eve are there. It would, of course, be nicer to make the girl some bridal presents to add to her rejoicings, but this is not absolutely necessary.

The adopted daughters-in-law are originally an outgrowth of agricultural society. But they abound in all the middle and lower classes in , not confined to the rural districts. The underlying cause of this abnormal condition is economic in character. To save the money required for the marriage, to make use of the labor made available by the girl during the long period of adoption, the practice has naturally grown of getting a girl young and cheap and keeping her as a servant until she emerges as a daughter-in-law.

It may sound strange, but many people go in for adopting other people's daughters, while giving away their own. Their motives are obvious. They simply want to save the money required by the local marriage custom. Money isn't everything, but it means a lot to the girls of .

3. Maid Servants

Maid servants are no new phenomenon. What is new is the fact that some maid servants in are registered with the census authorities as adopted daughters.

It is interesting to note that the origin of the institution of maid servants in this part of the world had a good deal to do with polygamy. The rich used to keep a number of maids in the hope that some of them might subsequently be picked up as concubines. It is not accidental that many concubines in old were originally maids. Those who failed to become concubines were all married off, when they were grown up.

4. Prostitutes

Prostitution, which is found in other parts of the world, is found in also. The only difference lies in the fact that many a prostitute here on this island goes under the name of an adopted daughter. In this way the name of the adopted daughter has turned out to be a cloak for the worst sort of vice. The advantage of the adopted daughter's status is obvious. It provides a good screen for the social evil.

In this connection, it may be pointed out that many girls of this kind are registered as the so-called resident adopted daughters. This implies that there are non-residents, who by their very nature are not easily to be identified, let alone counted.

So much for the different kinds of what we may lump into a common designation: the adopted daughter. The classification may not be complete, but it throws adequate light on the whole subject. Now let us ask another interesting question. Just how many adopted daughters, including all the different kinds mentioned above are there in ? I do not claim to know the exact number and I do not think anyone really knows. According to statistics gathered in December 1951 by the Committee for the Protection of Adoptee Daughters in , the total number is 135,343. That constitutes 4.5 per cent of all the female population of this island. Their distri­bution is as follows:

The above figures show the seriousness of the problem of adopted daughters in in unmistakable terms. The problem arose long ago. The Japanese did not fail to take notice of it. But their attention centered on the academic study of the subject; no serious attempt was ever made to bring about a reform. This was no accident. On the one hand, the Japanese never quite gave woman her due. On the other, as an imperialist Power, prewar was not really interested in the improvement of the lot of the people in her colonies. Such being the case, the problem remained unsolved under Japanese rule.

It was not until after the" retrocession of to following World War II that the all important problem of the adopted daughter on this island began to receive more than usual attention. , like all other democracies, has unshaken faith in fundamental human rights. In 1951 the Committee for the Protection of Adopted Daughters in was established. In the space of two and a half years the Committee handled and settled 1,129 cases, among them 177 cases of forced prostitution, 389 cases of violation of personal freedom, 561 cases of maltreatment, and 2 cases of incest. There can be little doubt that the Committee has rendered a distinct service to the fair sex on this island and that it has even greater duties to perform now and in the future.

However, the Committee has its limitations. It will certainly prove inadequate to meet the situation, if the fundamental causes of the problem of adoptee daughters on this island are not removed. Under the present circumstances, the problem can never really be thrashed out; in other words, the task of the Committee can never come to an end. So long as that is the case, we shall almost certainly work to no purpose. Some more positive measures will have to he taken to provide a basic answer to the situation facing us.

As it is, the institution of the adopted daughter is in itself lawful. There is nothing wrong with the laws that provide for that in­stitution. In view of the fact that the laws now in operation are inadequate to protect the interests of adopted daughters on this island, it is maintained in some quarters that a new set of regulations to that effect should be enacted to meet the local requirements. That is a good idea. It deserves our serious consideration.

Of course, it is extremely important to instill the proper concepts of marriage into the minds of the masses as a preliminary step to reform. If only the marriage system on this island is reformed, the number of adopted daughters will decrease. This will be a long process, since it is difficult to change traditional practices overnight. Needless to say, amelioration can also be brought about by promoting birth control, abolishing prostitution, and imparting the knowledge of some particular technical skill to the unfortunate girls. As the institution of the adopted daughter in is due to many different causes, it must be approached from all sides. Beyond all doubt it should have no place whatever in a democratic society dedicated to the promotion of fundamental human rights.