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\"An interdisciplinary analysis of Taiwanese popular culture over the past two decades, examining various shifts in the country's identity politics\"--Provided by publisher.

In the past two decades, a uniform representation of cutified femininity prevails in the Taiwanese media, evidenced by the shift of Taiwan's popular cultural taste from a Chinese-centered tradition to a mixed absorption from neighboring cultural capitals in the global market. This book argues that the native term \"sajiao\" is the key to understand the phenomenon. Originally referring to a set of persuasive tactics through imitating a spoiled child's gestures and ways of speaking to get attention or material goods, sajiao is commonly understood to be women's weapon to manipulate men in the Mandarin-speaking communities. By re-interpreting sajiao as a \"feminine\" tactic, or the tactic of the weak, the book aims to propose a \"feminine framework\" in exploring identity politics in the following three aspects: the rising obsession with the immature female image in Taiwan's popular culture, the adoption of the feminine communication style in native speakers' everyday language and interactions, and the competing discourses between dominant/subordinate, central/peripheral, global/local, and Chinese/Taiwanese in shaping the identity politics in current Taiwanese society. The micro-analysis of everyday language politics leads the reader to examine layers of discourse about gender, identity, and communication, and finally to inquire how to situate or categorize \"Taiwan\" in area studies. The \"feminine framework\" is a useful theoretical tool that not only deconstructs everyday communication practice but also provides a bottom-up, alternative angle in analyzing Taiwan's role in political, economic, and cultural flows in East Asia. The massive imports of popular cultural products in the late 80s, mainly from Japan, fermented the kawaii (Japanese cute) type of femininity in regulating everyday communication and the perception of gender roles in Taiwan. The popularity of the baby-like female image is concurrent with the simmering debate on Taiwanese identity. Taiwan offers a unique perspective for observing identity politics because it still holds an undetermined status in the international community. The collective uncertainty about the island's future and the diminishing voice in the international society become the backdrop for the growth of defining, interpreting, and appropriating sajiao elements in the popular culture. This book offers an in-depth examination of the interplay among local historical contexts, cross-border capitalist exchange, and everyday communication that shapes the dialogism of Taiwanese identity.

The Resilient Self explores how international migration re-shapes women’s senses of themselves. Chien-Juh Gu uses life-history interviews and ethnographic observations to illustrate how immigration creates gendered work and family contexts for middle-class Taiwanese American women, who, in turn, negotiate and resist the social and psychological effects of the processes of immigration and settlement.  Most of the women immigrated as dependents when their U.S.-educated husbands found professional jobs upon graduation. Constrained by their dependent visas, these women could not work outside of the home during the initial phase of their settlement. The significant contrast of their lives before and after immigration—changing from successful professionals to foreign housewives—generated feelings of boredom, loneliness, and depression. Mourning their lost careers and lacking fulfillment in homemaking, these highly educated immigrant women were forced to redefine the meaning of work and housework, which in time shaped their perceptions of themselves and others in the family, at work, and in the larger community.    

In comparison to other countries in East Asia in which a significant gender gap can be identified, Taiwan is reported to have an exceptionally high level of gender equality. However, Taiwan’s fertility rate is notably low (1.05 in 2019), even among East Asian countries with declining fertility rates. Childbirth outside marriage is rare in Taiwan; hence, the marriage rate directly affects the number of newborn babies. This implies that Taiwan’s gender equality index does not properly reflect the actual situation in society and that the situation may not be so different from in other East Asian countries. Namely, invisible forms of gender inequality may exist in Taiwan, and traditional gender roles may affect women’s lives, including their willingness to start a family. To examine this proposition, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 43 women aged 30–40 years old, with a focus on those with a basic university education or higher who are most likely to experience gender equality. Results show that Taiwanese women—especially highly educated women—enjoy superficially equal positions and avoid traditional contexts in order to protect their rights and avoid the gender roles associated with traditional families. Welfare that the state should be responsible for, such as childcare and nursing care, is supplied by women in the name of tradition, but the willingness of females to start a family is declining. Promoting family participation for males and supporting more comprehensive equality are two of the keys to increasing the marriage/fertility rate and closing the gap between public and private equality.

Transforming Gender and Development in East Asia brings together a collection of original essays from top scholars in the United States and Asia to explore the centrality of gender in the process of economic development in East Asia. Contributors demonstrate through ethnography, personal narratives, field observation, and in-depth interviews the essential parts women have played in the national growth, economic restructuring, and industrialization of East Asian countries, including South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China.

This study examines how heterosexual couples in Taipei used space when both were working from home. I interviewed 29 heterosexual couples on how they arranged working space at home and how these spatial arrangements influenced their working experiences and career development. I found that space was gendered: men tended to work in a preferable space at home compared to their partners. However, a preferable space was not always defined by its physical setting, such as a room. Interviews revealed that women tended to move around to accommodate their family members’ needs when they worked from home, having unstable and interrupted working environments. Their experiences revealed that women’s family roles, such as mother, daughter, and wife, are prioritized at home, resulting in constant interruptions. On the contrary, men’s roles as workers were prioritized and protected when they worked from home. Gender superseded and transformed the physical space and reproduced gender inequality at work for people who work from home. This study suggests the need to consider the impact of gender norms before treating remote work as a pro-work–family policy.

To understand variations in citizenship behavior within a culture, we examine the relationship between citizenship behaviors and organizational justice in two studies in a Chinese context, using two cultural characteristics (traditionality and modernity) and one individual (gender) characteristic. In Study 1, we develop an indigenous measure of organizational citizenship behavior and explore the similarities and differences of this measure with its Western counterpart. In Study 2, we use this citizenship behavior measure to test its relationship to justice. Results demonstrate that organizational justice (distributive and procedural) is most strongly related to citizenship behavior for individuals who endorse less traditional, or high modernity, values. In addition, we found the relationship between justice and citizenship behavior to be stronger for men than for women. The studies are discussed in terms of the generality of citizenship behavior and its relation to organizational justice and cultural characteristics.

The occupation of flight attendant traditionally carries strong gender connotations and expectations. Based on the gender schema theory, in this study we investigated the relationships among work adjustment, family support, and gender role of male flight attendants, and how to improve the work adjustment of the men working in these circumstances. We conducted a survey with 221 male flight attendants employed by the leading airline in Taiwan and found that both gender role and family support had a significant effect on work adjustment. In particular, male flight attendants who had feminine or androgynous gender roles had lower levels of work adjustment and required more family support, whereas flight attendants who had masculine gender roles had higher levels of work adjustment and tended to seek less support from their family. Our findings suggest that both type of gender role and family background influence men's adjustment to working in a female-dominated work environment.

The Resilient Selfexplores how international migration re-shapes women's senses of themselves. Chien-Juh Gu uses life-history interviews and ethnographic observations to illustrate how immigration creates gendered work and family contexts for middle-class Taiwanese American women, who, in turn, negotiate and resist the social and psychological effects of the processes of immigration and settlement.Most of the women immigrated as dependents when their U.S.-educated husbands found professional jobs upon graduation. Constrained by their dependent visas, these women could not work outside of the home during the initial phase of their settlement. The significant contrast of their lives before and after immigration-changing from successful professionals to foreign housewives-generated feelings of boredom, loneliness, and depression. Mourning their lost careers and lacking fulfillment in homemaking, these highly educated immigrant women were forced to redefine the meaning of work and housework, which in time shaped their perceptions of themselves and others in the family, at work, and in the larger community.