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Marriage
and Family in Taiwan: The Widow's Perception
by
Hsu Min-Tao Modern
East Asia Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 2002) |
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Abstract
This
essay intends to comprehend Taiwanese women’s perception of marriage
so as to elucidate how Taiwanese culture constructs their reality and
affects their social actions toward marriage.
From the widows' narratives, we will see how the sociocultural
value on womanhood of
Taiwan's specific cultural context propels the
widows into a vulnerable situation.
In this paper, the author first summarize the characteristics of
women’s status predominate in traditional Chinese society. Then she
reports how Taiwanese women perceive their marriages. In addition, three
other themes attached to women's perception of marriage are also
discussed: one man in a lifetime, dependence, and subordination.
This is followed by a description of how they feel no choice but fit in
to this socially constructed reality and an analysis of how traditional
Chinese cultural ideology of familial continuity helps to shape this
coping strategy. Finally, the author concludes that cultural ideology
of marriage forms the natural context and the reality surrounding a
woman.
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