| Taiwan
Women in Taiwan find marriage is no fairy tale
DIVORCE RATE RISES, AS MORE WOMEN STOP TOLERATING UNHAPPY, UNFAITHFUL
UNIONS
By Lena Fung Warmack Special to the Mercury News,
Feb. 22, 2004
TAIPEI, Taiwan - As Taiwan wrestles with the future of its
political freedom, the island's women are increasingly making personal
declarations of independence -- from unfaithful, uncaring or ungenerous
husbands.
In a society that has long placed great importance on marriage, Taiwan's
divorce rate is climbing. After South Korea, Taiwan now has the highest
divorce rate in Asia -- a sign that as more women enter the workforce,
their roles and rights are changing.
Increasingly, these breakups are being initiated by women. Fewer married
Taiwanese women are tolerating their husbands' extramarital affairs or
are willing to live a lifetime with irreconcilable differences. In a
society with a tradition of looking the other way at men who have
mistresses, more professional women are accepting divorce as a way to
get out of unhappy relationships.
``They know their rights. They can live independently, and they don't
have to rely on their husbands,'' said Alice Lee, a divorced volunteer
at the Taipei branch of the Warm Life Association, a non-profit offering
legal services and marriage counseling. ``Usually the women come here
and have great anger at their husbands, and they even want to divorce
first.''
Divorce rate doubles
Experts estimate that about 25 percent to 30 percent of marriages in
Taiwan are ending in divorce -- more than double the number just a
decade ago. About 60,000 couples divorced this year, 6 percent more than
last. Surveys show 61 percent of those splits occurred after less than
10 years of marriage, according to the government's Directorate-General
of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
``The traditional view is once people get married the marriage will last
forever,'' said Anny Ko, an associate professor at the Chinese Culture
University who has published several studies on divorce. ``But this view
is changing now. People view divorce as a normal thing. It's getting
worse every year.''
Divorce laws in Taiwan have historically favored men, who had exclusive
rights to all of their wife's property, including her personal
belongings, until 1985, said a family law attorney in Taipei. Today,
women have the right to ask for their belongings and joint property.
Women's rights groups are working to simplify divorce laws so couples
can dissolve their marriages without having to go to court. Wu Wei-Ting,
secretary general for the Awakening Foundation, said her group lobbied
for a law to allow couples to have a two-year separation period before a
divorce is granted, with the hope that they might reconcile.
For some women, there can be no going back. In Jen Chen's case, her
marriage nearly killed her.
Deciding to leave
After 20 years of marriage, Chen, an account manager for a software
company, decided she could no longer put up with her husband's
infidelity. She wanted out.
In July, the 44-year-old mother of two attempted suicide, overwhelmed by
the pressure to appear ``outstanding'' as a wife, a mother, a
daughter-in-law and a career woman.
``I gave him myself. I lost myself. I almost died,'' Chen said, fighting
back tears at Warm Life. ``I just gave up hope. When I woke up in the
hospital, I realized that marriage is not the only purpose that I
have.''
She spent three months in the hospital. After her recovery she
confronted her husband at his office -- divorce papers in hand.
She kept the house, half their assets and receives alimony. He has
custody of the children.
It has been a year since her split, and she said she is only now
beginning to tell close friends and family about the divorce, because
word of their family breakup might affect her ex-husband's professional
reputation.
``I had no financial problems, and I knew I had to get out,'' she said.
``But even a strong woman like me, I couldn't really walk out at the
time. I wanted a new life, I wanted to be independent. But it's harder
for a housewife. I don't think most women can do so in an Asian
culture.''
Lee noted that, unlike Chen, many women lack the financial means to
leave an unhealthy relationship.
Rita Lai found herself in that position.
She gave up her career as a sales agent to become a stay-at-home mother
for her two children. But her idea of a perfect marriage was shattered
when her husband spent more time with his computer than her.
``I was a computer widow. I lost my husband to the computer,''
40-year-old Lai said with glazed eyes and clasped hands.
She said her marriage of 5 1/2 years ended after she discovered that her
husband was having an affair with another Taiwanese woman he met over
the Internet. After she confronted him, he reacted by saying their
relationship was finished. She got the house and about $75,000 in
savings. Today she is a production manager for a Japanese-owned
packaging company in Taipei.
``The kids are stable now, and I'm working,'' Lai said. ``Now it's OK
for us, but I don't know about the future.''
Divorced men feel pressure
Men also are untying the knots of unholy matrimony.
Eric Chu, 42, a health insurance manager, said his first marriage ended
after a friend told him his wife was having an affair with a co-worker.
Chu said that his seven-year marriage failed because he seldom talked
about problems with his wife, and that they were surrounded by family
and friends with marital problems.
Chu said that in Taiwan's culture, a failed marriage reflects poorly on
a man, because it shows he cannot maintain a family.
``I felt a lot of pressure,'' he said. ``I felt my life was meaningless,
and I went about my daily business routine like an animal without a
purpose in life. My relatives and friends comforted me. I know they
thought I was a loser.''
In the divorce, Chu did lose custody of his daughter, a relatively
recent phenomenon for Taiwanese men. Before the law was changed eight
years ago, men usually received custody.
Although divorce is growing in acceptance in Taiwan, it's still not
preferable, especially when it wrecks families, counselors say.
``Even in our society, we don't encourage divorce,'' said Lee of Warm
Life. ``We still want them to keep the family.''
Victory for Taiwan housewives
By Laurence Eyton, Asia Times, 11 June 2002
TAIPEI -- Taiwan this week passed one of the most radical pieces of
social legislation perhaps ever passed in an Asian country -- and almost
nobody noticed. The blandly named Civil Code Amendment bill makes Taiwan
the first country anywhere in the world -- to this reporter's
knowledge -- to mandate cash payment for housework.
There was of course more, and less, to the legislation, than that. The
aim of the change in the law was really to remedy inequities in the
property-holding system that put women at a disadvantage. But it was the
pay-for-housework clause which captured the headlines.
Many in Taiwan -- and they are by no means all male -- think that
lawmakers should have had better things to do with their time than
legislating on issues more usually associated with cranks and the
lunatic fringes of feminism.
Others, more thoughtfully, have pointed to the vagaries in the new law
and wondered how cases might be brought under it and judgments made
using it, and how the results of those judgments might be enforced.
But the new legislation marks another step in an area in which radical
change has taken place during the current government's two years in
office.
Much of this change has been barely noticed because it is not
politically contentious and the object of partisan squabble. But when
the humor has subsided, there might yet be a time when the presidency of
Chen Shui-bian will be seen as a watershed for the promotion of sexual
equality and the reform of a legal system that has long left women, at
home and in the workplace, as second-class citizens.
The pay for housework provision is not specifically aimed at women; it
is merely that the idea of a househusband in Taiwan is almost unheard
of. The law says that a working spouse must pay a sum to a homemaker for
the housework he or she does, the sum to be agreed between the two
spouses. This sum is exclusively for the non-working spouse to spend as
he or she pleases, and is extra to any sum that he or she receives for
household expenses. If the couple are unable to agree upon a suitable
sum to cover the value of the housework, then they can apply to a court,
which will decide the issue.
Critics of the move have said that this gives the court a far too
intrusive role in a couples personal affairs.
Supporters of the measure argue that it is up to the couple as to
whether they take their disagreement to court in the first place, the
judiciary is not forcing itself into their lives. What they think is of
greater concern is that penalties for ignoring a court ruling in such
cases were deleted from the bill in a committee stage. Supporters of the
law are therefore concerned that it might simply create a class of
deadbeat scofflaws, working spouses who refuse to pay the homemaker
partners their pocket money and ignore a court order to do so.
The new law does not only try to regulate the position of working and
stay-at-home spouses. It also stipulates that when both spouses work,
their contribution to household expenses should be in proportion to
their respective salaries. This provision has incurred a lot of
criticism; most Taiwanese believe that who contributes what to the
household is a matter strictly between family members in which the law
should have no role.
But the measure is justified, say others, as are the property-related
provisions of the amended law by a new phenomenon threatening marital
harmony in Taiwan, mistresses or second wives in mainland China.
The time was when a philandering husband in Taiwan might have a fling
with a bar girl, or even keep a mistress, but the very fact that he
continued to live in the family home with his wife gave her some
control. While married women's property rights remained weak -- property
brought into a marriage by a woman became her husband's to dispose of as
he pleasedadultery is also a crime and the threat of prosecution gave
women some leverage over erring husbands to ensure financial support.
Such redress is not open to a wife whose husband lives and works on the
mainland and either keeps a Chinese mistress or has bigamously married a
second time. And such cases have grown exponentially with Taiwan's
enormous business investment on the mainland. Thousands, perhaps tens of
thousands of Taiwanese companies have factories or offices in mainland
China that are headed by Taiwanese men, usually married and separated
from their families. And these are not short-term assignments but
involve stays of several years. Obviously some marriages fail. But the
real problem, and the one that the revised Civil Code was introduced to
solve, is that of husbands who strip their family of their assets to set
up home across the Taiwan Strait.
Yu Mei-nu, a lawyer and longtime womens rights activist, told a press
conference in April: Since wives in Taiwan have few legal methods of
redress if their husbands have affairs in China, the least we can do is
to keep the property ... in Taiwan. Yu was especially concerned about
the rights of children from a bigamous mainland marriage to inherit
property from the husband's first family in Taiwan.
Another problem with the unreformed law was that in Taiwan a husband's
wishes took precedence over those of his wife in any dispute about the
division of jointly owned property and husbands were not obliged to hand
over anything from the sale of such property. The new law says that
property that a spouse brings into a marriage or acquires as an
individual afterward remains his or hers exclusively. Property that has
been acquired jointly cannot be transferred without the agreement of
both parties, who can apply for a court order to determine their
relative shares in the property should they be unable to agree
themselves.
At a stroke this gives women far more control over both their own and
family-acquired property. It redresses a situation in which women were
often trapped in loveless marriages because if they walked out they
would be left with nothing at all. One women's rights advocate has
called the measure the last step in dismantling Taiwan's traditional
patriarchal system.
Certainly women's rights have been improved considerably since the
current government took office in May 2000. Earlier this year the Gender
Equality Labor law was passed, banning sexual discrimination in the
workplace. In Taiwan this has been a highly contentious issue, with
women being fired from jobs for getting pregnant and in some cases --
most notoriously employees of the showpiece Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in
Taipei -- being forced to resign even for getting married.
The next major step will be reform of the divorce law. Divorce is Taiwan
can be as easy as signing a contract to dissolve a marriage -- if both
parties are agreeable -- or almost impossible if one of the parties
contests the issue. The government wants to introduce a no-contest
divorce that would be allowed to proceed after three years' separation
even if one of the parties wanted to contest it.
Women's groups are worried, and once again it is mainland China that is
on their minds. Unless separation is better defined -- perhaps as an
agreement to live separately as a result of marital problems -- there is
a worry that, as Hsu Chia-ching, secretary general of the Taiwan Women's
League, told a press conference this week, Taiwanese businessmen based
in China could ditch their Taiwanese spouses easily in order to marry
their Chinese girlfriends. The issue gives a whole new dimension to the
problems of cross-Strait links.
|
Taiwan
Civil Code: Marriage
Taiwan News(2006/05/10 14:06:37)
Child cannot leave before custody
case is retried, says court
The
Taipei District Court ruled on Tuesday that Emily Juan, a
two-and-half-year-old girl at the center of a custody battle, cannot
leave Taiwan until the case is retried in a local court, after her
mother Juan Mei-fen requested a preliminary injunction to stop Emily'
American biological father from taking her back to the United States.
Juan said that she was also planning to file other lawsuits against
Emily's father, Cary Sartin, for "falsely accusing" Juan of seizing
their daughter's Republic of China passport. The passport is presently
in Juan's possession.
In addition, Juan said she would also request the court to grant her
visiting rights and also expressed her wish, via her attorney, to see
the child before Mother's Day. Sartin, however, reportedly declined to
comply with Juan's wishes, but agreed to allow local social workers to
visit the toddler.
The Bureau of Immigration said on Tuesday that Sartin could not apply
for a replacement passport for Emily because her passport is not
missing, but rather is in the possession of her mother.
Emily entered Taiwan using her ROC passport and cannot leave the country
using other travel documents, the BOI said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said
that although the U.S. court handed down a ruling in Sartin's favor and
granted him the sole custody of the child after he convinced judges that
Juan is unfit to take care of the child due to mental problems, the
verdict would now be subject to Taiwanese law since Juan has appealed
the case in Taiwan.
"The U.S. ruling was in Cary's favor because Juan was absent from the
hearing and failed to defend herself," Lu said. "Although there's a
mutual assistance judicial agreement between Taiwan and U.S., the ruling
will still have to be based on Taiwan law."
Lu further noted that the government administers its duties according to
the law. The MOFA would provide any necessary assistance in the case and
assure the citizens' interest, he added.
Source: Taiwan News(2006/05/10 14:06:37)
TAIWAN CUSTODY LAW
In 1996, Taiwan adopted the best interests of the
child standard to substitute for the presumption of paternal custody. It
appears that cultural and social circumstances may significantly
influence judges' explanations of what is best for the child. In one
analysis, seventy cases of an urban district court and a rural district
court were collected and analysed. The findings of this analysis attest
that Taiwan's court decisions of child custody cases actually reflect
many cultural ideas, such as stereotyped gender roles, a sense of
`face', and the tradition of parents' long-term financial support for
their children. Meanwhile, the varying socio-economic climate of Taiwan
across districts and the lack of public welfare programs also clearly
affect judges' custody decisions. Moreover, this study finds that since
1996, custody has been overwhelmingly awarded to mothers, whereas before
1996 fathers were favored by the courts. This change of court preference
was not only caused by the gender-neutral standard and the influence of
the women's movement, but it was also caused by the influence of
traditional ideas and social customs on judges. Judges prefer the
`all-or-none custody' arrangement that imposes a double burden on single
mothers. This decision pattern undermines both gender equality and the
child's best interests and further worsens the economic status of
post-divorce single-mother families. The study argues that judges should
stop using economic competence as a necessary factor in determining
custody. Both public welfare programs and private child support from the
non-custodial parent should be implemented to assist the custodial
parent if she or he is the more suitable but economically less competent
parent. In addition, judges should give visitation orders more often and
pay attention to the child's psychological and emotional needs.
Copyright Hung-En Liu. Article in Int. Journal of
Law Policy & the Family, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp. 185-225.
HANDBOOK OF LIVING INFORMATION FOR FOREIGN SPOUSES IN TAIWAN
Q15: How do foreign spouses apply for registration of divorce?
1. Authorized Authority: MOI (Population Administration Department)
2. Basis of Laws/Regulations: Article 17 of Domiciliary Registration Law
3. Procedures of Application:
(1) Divorce in Taiwan
a. Divorce by consent
(a) Application should be made by both parties concerned to the
Population Administration Office in the domicile place of the R.O.C.
national.
(b) If the person concerned can not make the application in person,
he/she should submit a letter of attorney requesting approval from
Population Administration Office, then proceed with the application.
(c) The effective date of divorce will be the day on which the
registration of divorce is completed in the Population Administration
Office.
b. Divorce by decree of court
(a) Application should be made by both parties or one party concerned to
the Population Administration Office in the domicile place of the R.O.C.
national.
(b) If the person concerned can not make the application in person,
he/she should submit a letter of attorney requesting approval from the
Office, then proceed with the application.
(c) The effective date of divorce will be the day on which the decree is
made by the court.
(2) Divorce abroad
a. Application should be made by both parties or one party concerned
(limited to the divorce by decree) to the Population Administration
Office in the domicile place of the R.O.C. national.
15
b. If the person concerned cannot make the application in person, he/she
should submit a letter of attorney requesting approval from the Office,
then proceed with the application. (The letter of attorney should be
certified by a R.O.C. embassy or representative if made abroad).
4. Required Documents:
(1) Divorce in Taiwan
a. Household list of the R.O.C. national
b. Divorce agreement or the divorce decree and decision of court
(2) Divorce abroad
a. Household list of the R.O.C. national
b. Original copy and Chinese translation copy of certificate of divorce
certified by a R.O.C. embassy or representative, or registration of
divorce filed with the foreign country government. |