Feminism in Taiwan

Taiwan has a complex history of feminist and women's-rights movements with periods of progressiveness where feminism and strong female icons flourished and periods of strict authoritarianism where equality and individual rights were devalued.

The 1970s and 1980s

Annette Lu is considered the founder of feminist thinking in modern Taiwan and established the first formal women's-rights movements in 1972.[1] After delivering a twenty-minute keynote address during the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979, Lu was arrested, court-martialled and sentenced to twelve years in prison. She served five-and-a-half years and was released in 1985. She would later serve as the Vice President of the Republic of China between 2000 and 2008.

While Lu was in prison, Yenlin Ku and other activists published Awakening, a feminist magazine. Five years later, the same group founded the associated Awakening Foundation and, at the same time, a Women's Research Program at the National Taiwan University. Yenlin Ku later published a paper, Selling a Feminist Agenda on a Conservative Market – The Awakening Experience in Taiwan, summarising Taiwanese feminist history from the 1970s forward. titled,[2]

The 1990s and after 2000

Hwei-syin Lu's Women's Self-Growth Groups and Empowerment of the 'Uterine Family' in Taiwan provides a more detailed analysis of the progression of feminism in Taiwan and the role of uniquely Taiwanese concepts of gender.[3]

Prominent Taiwanese Feminists

• Li Ang (writer) Feminist writer
• Chen Hsiu-hui Feminist activist and politician
• Fangge Dupan Feminist Poet
• Josephine Ho Feminist scholar and activist
• Huang Sue-ying Feminist activist and politician
• Yenlin Ku Feminist involved in the women's movement in Taiwan
• Annette Lu Feminist politician active in the Tangwai movement
• Miss Ko Feminist singer-songwriter and rapper
• Tina Pan Feminist politician and member of the Legislative Yuan from 1993 to 2002 and again from 2005 and 2016
• Peng Wan-ru Feminist politician. Former director of the Democratic Progressive Party's Women's Affairs Department
• Jolin Tsai Feminist singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and businesswoman
• Wu Yi-chen Feminist lawyer and politician
• Xie Xuehong Feminist activist and politician
• Yang Fang-wan Feminist lawyer and politician

See also

• Women in Taiwan
• National Alliance of Taiwan Women's Associations

References

1. Chang, Doris T. (2009). Women's Movements in Twentieth-Century Taiwan. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252090813.
2. Yenlin Ku (12 November 1998). Selling a Feminist Agenda on a Conservative Market – The Awakening Experience in Taiwan. National Chiao-Tung University.
3. Farris, Catherine S.; Rubinstein, Murray A.; Lee, Anru (2004). Women in the New Taiwan: Gender Roles and Gender Consciousness in a Changing Society. M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0765640260.