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.