Daughters in Taiwanese Families

國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

16

2012). Still, the context of transnational daughters from Taiwan in other countries as migrant workers is not fully addressed. Lan (2008) also demonstrated that transnational migration studies mainly focus on women as mothers and wives, while studies of unmarried adult women are usually neglected. Thus this study intends to focus on unmarried adult Taiwanese women in the Netherlands as transnational daughters to explore their intimate relationships with their parents and the ways they use ICTs to practice the role of daughters as defined by traditional gender roles, in the context of the transnational family.

2.2 Daughters in Taiwanese Families

Family is an important unit in a society and members in families play different roles under social expectations and cultural norms. In the Philippines, daughters, as women in family, are less expected to be responsible for supporting their families of origin financially, socially and culturally, but the discourse of responsibility becomes fluid if daughters are financially independent. Women who are working abroad fulfill their roles and obligations as daughters, eldest sisters, and mothers by providing for their family (Madianou, 2012). Similarly, Vietnamese transnational daughters become potential financial providers, which are culturally the duty of sons, because of transnational marriage (Thai, 2012). Therefore, the role of daughters beyond borders may be significantly distinct from those of non-mobile daughters. In order to understand the practices of daughters in Taiwanese contexts with social and cultural factors embedded in ICTs, it is crucial to discuss the roles of daughters in the Taiwanese family.

The family in Taiwan remains a central socioeconomic unit in society and is also an important network to support each family member (Yeung, 2013). In contrast to mainstream Western family culture, traditional Taiwanese culture emphasizes that the

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

17

individual exists in order to support and continue the family, and that the family as a whole is superior to any individual in it (Kung, 2014). The family, the fundamental basis of society, still provides the primary and important functions of education and socialization (Yeung, 2013), which are derived from Confucianism (Baker, 1979).

Therefore, the family as a sphere of socialization provides social roles for the individual to perform, as well as gendered roles under social expectations and cultural doctrines (Cai, 2012). Fathers who are usually absent at home are the main economic supporters of a family, while mothers are responsible for domestic affairs and caring in traditional Taiwanese families. However, with the changing population structure and the economic development in Taiwan since the 1970s, the composition of the family has been changed from the extended family to the nuclear family, which is identified as a household consisting of parents and their unmarried children (Zhang et al., 2014). In addition, with the rising status of women in terms of economic status, educational background and widespread achievement of gender equality in Taiwan, there are more and more dual income families in which both parents support the whole family, economically replacing the traditional structure. Thus, women in the family are still restricted from being caretakers, and they are struggling to find a balance between work and care.

Offspring in the family are also expected to play different roles based on gender roles and cultural norms. In Taiwan, the relationships between parent and children are maintained by a superior-and-subordinate relationship from Confucianism, dictating that children have to follow their parents’ orders. Filial piety, which is characterized as a worshipped value in East Asia (Wang, 2012), is the basis of order in parent and child relationships in a Taiwanese family, meaning that children must please, support, and be subordinate to their parents. However, the filial piety that parents expect from their children is different in terms of gender. Sons, especially elder sons, are educated

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

18

to be responsible for running the family’s business in the future; however, daughters are not expected to support their original families, because they will eventually leave from their homes of origin to support her husband after she gets married. Sons generally carry the major responsibility for taking care of their older parents, while daughters typically only fulfill the son’s roles when sons are not available. With regard to the division of domestic labor, women who are sons’ sisters, wives, and parents’ daughters-in-law or tend to provide emotional support which are asked by sons, sons tend to be responsible for providing the parents with economic support (Zhang, Poston Jr, & Zhang, 2014). Daughters also, as women who are perceived to be weak and passive (Tsai, 2010), will undergo three stages of their life traditionally.

First, they are born to be subordinate to their fathers. Daughters’ formal obligations to their own parents generally terminate at marriage, while unmarried daughters are more likely to provide support to their parents (Lin, Goldman, Weinstein, Lin, Gorrindo, & Seeman, 2003). Second, once married, they are ruled by their husbands.

Thirdly and finally, they are responsible for their sons. The important role for women is to bear children to carry on the family name and lineage (Tsai, 2008).

While the fact that the traditional superior-and-subordinate relationship and the traditional patriarchal type of relationship between parents and children that are constructed by Confucianism have been weakened in contemporary Taiwan (Kung, 2014; Zhang et al., 2014). Most of parents put their resources and hopes on their children regardless of the child’s gender to help them compete for life opportunities and success, and teach their children good values. Shih (2013) who explored father and daughter relationships in daughters-only families found that familial values for daughters have transformed into “bring a son home,” which still compares daughters with imagined sons. Single daughters have more access to work abroad in order to escape from parental control and marriage pressure (Asis, 2002).

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

19

Parents are less strict toward daughters in terms of family responsibility. Rather, daughters are taught to be caring and to follow their future husbands’ families.

However, most of the family and gender studies focus on mother and wife, while the role of unmarried daughters in a family is waiting to be discovered. This study is also interested in whether the role changes after migration. With the fact of the rising existence of transnational families, this study addresses the context of transnational unmarried daughters who choose to work abroad and present fluid roles of daughters in the context of the transnational family. Benítez (2012) also demonstrated that the generational perspective is critical to our understanding of transnational families because it introduces new considerations when paying attention to relationships among transnational families through analyzing communication practices in both generations.

To go beyond the aforementioned studies, this study will explore how unmarried adult daughters abroad practice their roles from a generational perspective. In addition, this study will explore and compare the difference between daughter-mother and daughter-father relationships with ICTs under transnational contexts, which are seldom addressed in family studies, ICT studies, and transnational family studies in Taiwan. In order to examine daughter-mother and daughter-father relationships respectively and comparatively as this study aims to do, the daughter-parents relationship in Taiwanese contexts is discussed below.