During yesterday's post I started to move on to another topic and i figured it would be best to move it to another day. I also am sure it's quite clear to anybody who reads this, but I just want to state that of course there are exceptions to everything I say on this blog and of course not everybody in Taiwan acts or thinks the same way.
Anyway, while writing the post yesterday it reminded me that most Taiwanese women don't have any hobbies. At first used to joke about this that Taiwanese women's only hobby are their boyfriends, but the more I talked about this, the more people told me that it's in fact completely true. Having taught many many students, I can tell you that the answer to the question "what are your hobbies?" is always "go out to a cafe with friends, go to a bookstore and read, watch tv at home."
It's quite fascinating and I think after i "finish" all my research about the hidden parts of Taiwanese history, I'd love to start examining the emotional and mental development of women in Taiwan. I'm guessing they don't really have hobbies, cause culturally women are not "supposed" to be independent, and as much as there is the stereotype of asian women being "submissive" there is a lot of kowtowing (this word is actually from chinese) to men. Whether it's female students who don't talk in class when men are around, or ladies always having their boyfriends make all the decisions.
But I'm also confounded by this because how comparatively the status of women in Taiwan is extremely high. Cause even though there is so much "bad" when it comes to a woman's place in society in Taiwan, there is also so much good. Taiwan i believe has the highest rate in asia of women in power positions in companies, and on the whole are treated with much more respect than most countries in asia. But it's still not so rosy, women's rights in marriages is still abhorrently low, and if your first child isn't a boy, your mother in law is going to kill you.
As for the picture, this bicycle belongs to a girl who i'm guessing is around ten years old. her family owns the store the bike is in front of (which is in my neighborhood). This whole summer, all day long the girl rides this back in front of the store back and forth, back and forth. she goes about 10 meters one way, turns around and comes back, then turns around, on and on.
This is her whole summer vacation. And it's quite depressing, but really what else can she do? Taiwanese girls are considered too fragile to take care of themselves, so she can't go ride her bike too far away from the gaze of her parents. In Taiwanese culture people don't go over to friends' houses and hang out. And in taiwan there really aren't any summer camps. Neither the ones were you go off into the woods for a few weeks, nor the ones where you just go to some rec center to hang out with other kids for the day.
Goodness, I'm quite depressed now, and before i posted this i asked my friend to read it to make sure i'm not exaggerating things. Her response "no it's correct. We don't have life here."
