This paper explores the daily life of female Japanese spouses and the performance of their cultural citizenship under the constraints of the Taiwanese mainstream culture and social structure.. With in-depth interview of fifteen female Japanese spouses marrying Taiwanese men in Taiwan, and observation of two field sites where these spouses teach their children, this research finds that the ¡§cultural citizenship¡¨ of these Japanese spouses is not a static concept which marks the differences between Taiwanese and Japanese cultures, but a dynamic process that these Japanese spouses need to negotiate the daily Taiwanese cultures in everyday life, especially in the domain of language use and maternity performance.

This paper aims to explore male abusers of intimate violence in Taiwanese- Vietnamese Marriages, and discuss opinions of their marriage and violated behaviors under the social structure. Hence, the research tries to figure out: 1.in what ways do these male-partners deal with the intimate violence and respond to potential changes of their marriages? 2.what are their strategies to maintain their power and masculinity in their marriage? 3.what would be the obstruction in their intimate relationship? With in-depth interview of six Taiwanese husbands, the results show that the imagination of perfect marriage in these male-partners¡¦ mind is full of the traditional gender vision. That¡¦s why these male-partners tend to reinforce the intimate violence when they find their partners couldn¡¦t fit in with the ideal model. In fact, these male abusers could deny all counts about their violated behaviors later. Besides, male-partners even use ¡¨gender¡¨ and ¡§nationality¡¨ to rationalize their behaviors, such as accusing their female-partners with horrible family concepts, unfaithful, engaging in prostitution, cheating, and over- aggressive.

This thesis illustrates how love, legality, money, sex(uality) and sin direct Malays’ marital strategies in the face of various social, moral, religious and structural pressures. Passionate love (cinta) is cherished and celebrated by Malays – that is, if it is indulged within marriage. Marriage serves as a license to engage in (otherwise illicit) sexual desires by rendering them “halal” or lawful in the eyes of Islam and Malay adat (traditions). A vigilant State-led Islamic Bureaucracy, which polices and punishes pre- or extramarital sexual liaisons between unmarried couples through strict moral surveillance, further ensures that access to physical intimacy remains a conjugal privilege. However, hindered by complex bureaucratic procedures for marriage and pressured by escalating passions, many of my Malay informants are compelled to seek cheaper, quicker, and discreet alternatives in neighboring Southern Thailand to “halal-ize” pre- or extramarital romances, resulting in secret – and legally contentious – monogamous or polygamous cross-border marriages. Cross-border marriages – specifically polygamous ones – are subsequently explored here as a careful (and often failed) negotiation between discretion and disclosure: their stability decreases with increased exposure, rendering them highly precarious. Contrary to the dominant male-centric scholarship on polygamy, this study privileges the perspectives and experiences of polygamous wives by considering how their position within the marriage informs their capacity to engage in – or conversely, disengage from – this multi-marital arrangement. Polygamy is embraced by some women as a female choice that secures access to marriage and motherhood – both crucial towards achieving Malay womanhood. For others, polygamy is hardly a “choice” at all, and they must cope with the discomforting reality in which the husband’s money, time, and attention are now “halved” between his wives. Love in polygamy is experienced in visible and measurable terms, and the husband’s unequal distribution of his emotional and economic resources create discontent among wives that may culminate in divorce, or covertly confronted through sorcery. In Malay polygamy, more therefore means less.

自開放探親以來，兩岸交流日趨熱絡，截至民國九十四年底陸續來台團聚及申請居留、定居的大陸配偶已逾廿三萬人，成為新興移入人口的主流。「兩岸婚配」的盟合大多係由台灣男性主動認識大陸女子、或經由親友介紹、及婚姻仲介等方式而結婚，大陸配偶透過「跨海婚姻」的歷程來到台灣，在陌生的社會民情與生疏的家庭環境中試圖展開新生活，她們無不努力地學習並詮釋新的角色；然因兩岸的社經環境、風俗習慣，人民的成長背景及價值觀念等文化之差異與隔閡，建立自己的同儕生活上有所困難，加上在台灣取得社會資源的不易，使其與台灣社會網絡互動貧乏，只能依賴婚姻的狀況下更顯得被孤立，而成為社會的弱勢族群，且因人數眾多已形成嚴重的社會問題。 由於大陸配偶來台者日眾，在相關的社會新聞中，造成台灣民眾常抱持著偏執與異樣眼光看待她們，總將其視為外來者或麻煩製造者而產生了許多誤解，使她們在異鄉的生活適應上備感艱辛，諸如她們漂洋過海的婚姻動機為何？來台後對於兩岸的生活習慣與價值觀念之差異要如何適應？又將如何與台灣的社會相連結？對於國家與社群的認同為何？微視她們真正的心聲是值得我們作抽絲剝繭的探究。本文針對中國移民女性來台的社會適應問題進行研究，讓現實生活中的大陸配偶自己發聲，筆者實地去瞭解她們的生活底層，聆聽她們的心聲、感受與生活經驗，試從其自身的敘述中來勾勒出她們的「台灣經驗」，而非新聞媒體上所建構與杜撰的故事，或是三姑六婆們街頭巷尾的竊竊私語。 / Ever since Taiwan and PRC opened door for citizens to visit their relatives across Taiwan Straits, cross-border interactions from both sides are becoming more frequent. According to statistical data released by Taiwan government, more than 230 thousand PRC immigration requests to Taiwan have been granted by the end of 2005. In consequence, PRC residents are becoming the mainstream in Taiwan immigration population. Typically, cross-border marriage took place through matchmakers or relatives’ introduction or Taiwanese males actively create opportunities to know PRC female. Thereby female is the dominant gentile in PRC immigrant population. Due to different value systems, and vast cultural gap, it is not easy for PRC spouses to quickly adapt to the new environment and families. In addition, for lack of proper access to Taiwan social networks, PRC immigrants are usually isolated and speechless. And the issues become more severe as PRC immigrants increases in Taiwan. From time to time, social incidents caused by PRC immigrants are mistakenly reported or even exaggerated by public media that lead to biased misunderstanding from Taiwanese pollution. And there’s virtually no chance for PRC spouses to speak up. In this paper, we will focus primarily on the following issues: what are the motivations of PRC spouses to come to Taiwan, how they adapt themselves to make up the cultural gap and the new value system, as well as how can they link up with Taiwan societies. Rather than referencing to media reports that could possibly be distorted, we chose to collect first hand experiences by face to face interviews with PRC spouses. Let’s listen to their genuine voice about their “Taiwan experiences”.