Mr. Hsu Li-Teh, Vice-President of the Executive Yuan, announced that maternity leave for civil servants should be shortened in order to accommodate the establishment of a five-day work week, saying: "Other countries only give one week of maternity leave." (The Independence Post, March 18, 1997).

*In fact, current regulations in Taiwan stipulate a 40 day (not including days off) maternity leave for civil servants, while the new Basic Labor Code allows for eight weeks. Neighboring Korea provides for 60 days, mainland China for 90, Singapore for eight weeks, Hong Kong for ten, Germany for fourteen, and France for sixteen weeks... ...The International Covenant on Labor states that twelve weeks should be allowed for maternity leave. To what place, then, does Mr. Hsu's "other countries" refer? Perhaps grave flaws in those unknown nations' codes for "maternal protection" have caused their female citizens to refuse maternity altogether, leaving them to wither into the unknown!

Garnering 55.2% of the votes, Lu Hsiu-lien defeated the Kuomintang's candidate Fang Li-hsiu by a margin of nearly 110,000 votes (March 16, 1997).

*On March 26, columnist Yang Tzu penned an article titled "Lu Hsiu-lien Changes Course in Midstream," appearing in the Literary Supplement of the United Daily News. Yang quotes Huang Hsin-chieh, calling Lu, "that spinster," adding, "love and marriage are irreplaceable sources of human satisfaction... ...it is a cause for deep regret that women cannot be accomplished in love as well as in social causes." Yang Tzu commented that while he does not much care whether or not he is invited to Lu's swearing-in ceremony, he is eager to get an invitation to Lu's marriage. Here we have a fine example of a latter-day version of the feudal tract, "Admonitions to Women": Leave success to the winds, ye good sisters, marriage is what counts!

On March 16, The Modern Feminist Foundation unveiled a draft proposal for the Domestic Violence Code. Specialists point out that the standards for determining "unbearable domestic maltreatment" are too severe. Female victims of domestic violence who escape from home are often charged with negligence. The present draft adopts the practice of "protective order" designed to isolate victims from their attackers common in other countries. Statistical evidence shows that women make up the majority of disappeared persons in the Taiwan area. This trend is largely attributable to domestic problems such as violence and conflict with the mother-in-law, leading the groom's family to file a missing person report. The female brigade of the Taipei Municipal Police points out that when female missing persons are located and family members notified, no thought is given to the possibility that these women left home because of domestic violence or that the "family members" themselves might be the perpetrators of violence! (Independence Post, March 16, 1997, p. 7; China Times, March 17, p. 3; Liberty Times, March 25, p. 5).

Married for five years with one child to her college classmate, a women recently discovered that her husband was homosexual, living with his lover in mainland China. The husband proposed, according to the idea of the film "The Wedding Banquet," that the three parties should live together, but the wife refused, asking instead for a divorce. The court ruled malevolent negligence of conjugal obligations on the part of the husband, permitting separation on the grounds that his homosexual conduct had already caused unbearable mental suffering to the wife. Child custody was awarded to the female. (China Times, March 24, 1997, p. 6).

*Society's refusal to recognize the legitimacy of homosexual marriage forces homosexual men to resort to heterosexual marriage as a defense tactic, dragging an unsuspecting female down along with them. A pop song says: "If we could just come out, we wouldn't have to sneak around."

The Ministry of Justice recently proposed an amendment to the Penal Codes for Rape, changing the original "obstruction of social mores" to "obstruction of sexual freedom and social mores." This amendment includes: 1) expanding the definition of rape to include anal intercourse and the insertion of foreign objects; 2) "unable to resist" would be changed to "difficult to resist"; 3) "holding women of good repute" would be changed to "holding men or women"; and 4) pornographic CDs and phone calls would also be subject to these regulations. (United Daily News, March 19, 1997, p. 6).

Wu Ying-chang, Director of the Taipei Municipal Department of Education, agreed two months ago to a formula used in Kaohsiung according to which female teachers would be given half pay during maternity leave. The Director rescinded this proposal, however, due to "budgetary deficits," drawing sharp protests from city councilors. The councilors pointed out that the Department of Education's budget was not in trouble and the Director should stop waffling on the issue. (Independence Post, March 21, 1997). Wu Ying-chang's Office: (02)7200558.

Following multiple rape offender Hsu Wei-chan's arrest, Police suspect that he is the infamous "Chung Shan Stalker." In spite of Hsu's denials, however, a victim has already given a positive identification. Hsu Wei-chan, formerly of the military police, states that he used a special technique he learned from the army's special forces to twist and break his victim's neck. (Independence Post, March 16, 1997, p. 6).

*"I have two guns of unequal length; the longer one is for Commies, the shorter is for babes"--So goes the line from a popular song in the army which tells us reams about the misogynist sentiment rampant in that organization. Hsu Wei-chan's statement once again reminds us that gender equality education is urgently required in the army. Otherwise, the end result will still be the same: both kinds of "guns," short and long, end up being used to beat girls.

The I-Lan Prison has started a "beauty salon course" for female inmates. Over thirty prisoners have already received a license by passing the Department of Labor Education's secondary level technical exam. Instructors in the program report that the training includes an emphasis on figure shaping, physique, cultivation of feminine manners, and attention to disposition. (China Times, March 22, 1997, p. 5).

Physicians at the Taipei Muncipal Hospital's Emergency Room have noticed that female high school students habitually delay defecation and urination because of a combination of stress from exams, pressure to lose weight and the lack of restrooms, thereby resulting in an elevated rate of constipation among young women. (China Times, March 21, 1997, p. 15).

The 1643 beauty salons across Taiwan have joined in the volunteer campaign against breast cancer, teaching detection techniques to their clientele. All beauty salons with a "Save the Wave" Poster in their window provide free service in this regard. (China Times, March 16, 1997, p. 7).

Many families with mentally-handicapped members believe that marriage is beneficial to the emotional stability of the mentally-handicapped. In the current market for mail order brides, those from mainland China can fetch as much as NT$80-90,000 (approx. US$3,000), while those from Southeast Asia may be had for NT$30-40,000. Countless numbers of these foreign brides jump ship after they find out the real truth of their marriage.