Skip to main content

Taiwan's Nightlife and Male Chauvinism

A recent article by the popular Taiwanese tabloid Apple Daily reveals a dark side of the island's nightlife: the phenomenon of men who sexually assault drunk women.

I myself witnessed something that did not but could have ended in sexual assault. I was in a club in Taipei (it was the first of the only two times I've been to a club here) and there was a girl whom I couldn't help noticing, not only because she was very young and pretty, but also because I saw her kissing at least six men, one of whom was way older than herself. The problem is that she was obviously completely drunk; so drunk that she could barely stand on her feet. Some guys approached her, told her something, and then began groping her. I don't know if she was consenting, or if she simply did not understand what was going on. 

This article is particularly interesting because, for once, it does not serve the stereotype of the bad Western guy who goes to Taiwan to find easy girls in nightclubs, but it focuses on the native population, openly referring to male chauvinism (ē”·ę€§ę²™ę–‡äø»ē¾©). This shows that the phenomenon of nightlife and the ambiguous way in which it is perceived by the public is a reflection of deeper social concerns. The topic of nightlife and female behaviour seems to stimulate the imagination of Taiwanese in a manner that transcends the issue of Westerners vs locals.

Advertisement of a nightclub in Taipei. You don't need to be a genius to understand how they are consciously objectifying and playing with female sexuality.

I've lived in Taiwan for more than a year and a half, and I often planned to write a post about Taiwan's nightlife. But I never went beyond the first couple of lines. I simply cannot make sense of it. What I know is that - like many other foreigners - I too feel a morbid and strange fascination for it but cannot entirely explain it to myself.  

I believe that every apparent contradiction can be resolved by understanding the values behind human judgement. Anthropologist Ruth Benedict once said about Japan: "I found that once I had seen where my Occidental assumptions did not fit into [the Japanese'] view of life and had got some idea of the categories and symbols they used, many contradictions Westerners are accustomed to see in Japanese behavior were no longer contradictions" (Benedict 2006, p. 19).

Indeed, contradictions are often caused by a lack of understanding of the premises of other people's thinking. Whenever we see in other cultures something apparently strange, fascinating, disturbing, inexplicable etc., it is worth trying to understand what are the motives and the assumptions behind such behaviours.

Nightlife - and how Taiwanese perceive nightlife - is exactly one of those phenomena that tell us much more about a society than one may at first think.

In the aforementioned Apple Daily article, one can see how divisive the issue of girls going to nightclubs is in Taiwanese society. According to the report, there are internet users (I assume a small minority) who defend sexual assault on drunk girls. Some of them justify it, arguing that if "you're not a foreigner", or "you're not a Mr Perfect", you cannot help but resort to aggressive conduct. They attempt to conceal the criminal nature of such behaviour by blaming the victims themselves.

Among a certain part of Taiwan's male population, the image of girls who go clubbing seems to be extremely negative. Some people go as far as to argue that "girls who go clubbing and then are sexually assaulted do not deserve any pity (去夜åŗ—č¢«ę€§ä¾µå®³ä¾æę˜Æę“»č©²äøå€¼å¾—åŒęƒ…)", or "a drunk girl is an instigation to commit a crime (ēˆ›é†‰å°±ę˜ÆčŖ˜äŗŗēŠÆē½Ŗ)".

The author of the article points out that these people mostly question the morality of women who go to nightclubs, but not the morality of men. The journalist therefore asks provocatively: "Don't tell me that women do not have the same right as men to have a nightlife? (é›£é“å„³ę€§å°±äøč©²ę“ęœ‰å’Œē”·ę€§åŒē­‰ēš„夜ē”Ÿę“»ę¬Šåˆ©?)

I remember that a Taiwanese teacher in my Mandarin school once told me that women who wear miniskirts only have to blame themselves if they are raped. After she said that we had an argument. She didn't seem to make a distinction between a criminal behaviour that harms a person physically and mentally (sexual assault) and the behaviour of a free individual which may or may not be considered morally despicable by other people according to their own views (wearing a sexy outfit). The first must be condemned, the latter is a matter of opinion.

But why are women so often blamed for their nightlife. Why do they anger people? And how do they react to their negative image?

I will make three points about which I will write in future posts:

1) contrary to what one may hear from Taiwanese people themselves, Taiwan is a highly sexualised society in which appearance is extremely important and the objectification of the female body common;

2) the "love market" in Taiwan is extremely competitive, and this creates a lot of tensions, envy and resentment;

3) the image of women is somewhat stuck between the old concept of female virtue (č²žę“) and the actual reality of economically independent women.


What are your thoughts about this topic?

Comments

  1. The biology of males has not changed. When men have had a few drinks, the intellect is not the primary driver. There are still compelling reasons why women should not get drunk in public. Every other generation thought this was obvious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do all the reasons for women not to get drunk in public relate to men not being able to control themselves though?

    ReplyDelete
  3. There are a lot of reasons why women should not get drunk in public. However, the most compelling reason, in my opinion, is because people do things when they are drunk that they would not do when they are sober. Another reason is drunk driving.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think that women have the right to get drunk and be sure that nothing's going to happen to them. Of course, one may or may not agree that getting drunk is a good thing. But if one thinks that men can get drunk while women shouldn't, and if one blames women who are raped instead of blaming the men who commit such criminal acts, then one is clearly discriminating women.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Saying a girl deserves to be sexual assaulted is because she's being drunk or wears revealing clothes is like saying a store is deserved to being stolen or robbed because it doesn't have any or doesn't have enough security cameras , security guards , security measures to protect itself. Indeed, a girl being drunk or with less clothes is like a store without enough security system will put themselves in a higher risks of being raped (stolen, robbed). But the one should be blamed and go to jail should always be the rapist, thief, robber. Not the other way around for us to blame the girl or store owner.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is such a thing as proceeding rationally from an irrational premise. The argument about whether or not the male or female should be blamed is academic. Primal biological drives of young males do not conform to the rules of logic. Add alcohol and inhibition and social controls evaporate. Women are accountable for the situations that they create, and share the blame when those situations spin out of control.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @linds: I agree with your opinion.

    @Mai: I think that biology should not be used as an excuse to justify violence. We have enough evidence that human beings are capable of controlling their aggressive and violent impulses through a system of social and moral checks and balances. There is no natural evidence that wars, killing, beating other people or raping women is an inevitable consequence of human biology. What I see here, is a cultural lack of understanding that men and women are equal. There is no justification whatsoever for committing a crime, and whoever can't control himself must be confronted with the legal consequences of his actions. I do not see any reason why women should be blamed. I have seen many sexy and hot women in my life, but I am absolutely capable of controlling myself and respecting them although I, as a man, of course found them attractive.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am just curious about that why you did not visit the east part of Taiwan for having being stayed in this island for over one year. That region is a totally different world with different landscape and culture.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Window Trick of Las Vegas Hotels

When I lived in Hong Kong I often passed by a residential apartment complex commonly known as the " monster building ".  " Interior of the Yick Cheong Building November 2016 " by  Nick-D  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 4.0 . _____

Living in Taiwan: Seven Reasons Why It's Good to Be Here

Chinese New Year can be a pretty boring time for a foreigner. All of my friends were celebrating with their families, and since I have no family here, nor have I a girlfriend whose family I could join, I had nothing special to do. Shops and cafes were closed - apart from big chains like McDonald's or Starbucks, which were overcrowded anyway. So I had a lot of time to think. On Saturday evening I went out to buy my dinner. While I was walking around, I heard the voices of the people inside their homes, the sounds of their New Year celebrations. Then I suddenly asked myself: "What on earth are you doing here? Why are you still in Taiwan?"  Before I came to Taiwan, some Taiwanese friends of mine had recommended me their country, highly prasing it and going so far as to say that Taiwan is a "paradise for foreigners" (bear in mind that when I say foreigners I mean 'Westerners').  "It's easy for foreigners to find a job," t

Is China's MINISO Copying Japan's MUJI, UNIQLO and Daiso?

Over the past few years Japanese retailers such as UNIQLO and MUJI have conquered foreign markets, opening shops in cities such as Paris, Berlin or New York and becoming household names in several countries. But the success of their business model seems to have inspired people with dubious intentions. As the website Daliulian recently showed, a new chain called MINISO, which claims to be a Japanese company selling ‘100% Japanese products’, seems to be nothing more than a knock-off of UNIQLO, MUJI and Daiso, copying their logos, names and even the layout of their stores. The company’s webpage proudly announces – in terrible English – that “ MINISO is a fast fashion designer brand of Japan. Headquartered in Tokyo Japan, Japanese young designer Miyake Jyunya is founder as well as the chief designer of MINISO, a pioneer in global 'Fashion & Casual Superior Products' field. ” According to the company’s homepage, MINISO advocates the philosophy of a simple,

Macau: Gambling, Corruption, Prostitution, and Fake Worlds

As I mentioned in my previous post , Macau has different faces and identities: there is the old Macau, full of colonial buildings and in which the pace of life seems to resemble a relaxed Mediterranean town rather than a bustling, hectic Chinese city, such as Hong Kong or Shanghai. On the other hand, there is the Macau of gambling, of gigantic hotel and casino resorts, and of prostitution. These two Macaus seem to be spatially separated from each other, with an intact colonial city centre and nice outskirts with small alleys on the one side, and bombastic, modern buildings on the other.  The Galaxy - one of the huge casino and hotel resorts The Importance of Gambling for Macau's Economy Dubbed the 'Monte Carlo of the East', Macau has often been portrayed as the gambling capital of China. Media reporting on Macau tend present pictures of the city's glistening, apparently luxurious skyline. But a visit in Macau suffices to realize that it is fa

Trip to Tainan

Tainan Train Station Last weekend I made a one day trip to the Southern Taiwanese city of Tainan (Chinese: č‡ŗ南, pinyin: TĆ”inĆ”n), the former capital and one of the most important centres of culture, history and architecture of the island. This blog post is also intended as a special thank to Grace, a Taiwanese friend who was so kind to show me around, and very patient, too. Since Tainan doesn't have an extensive public transport net, Grace picked me up at the train station with her motorcycle, a vehicle that, along with cars, is regarded by locals as indispensable for living comfortably in Tainan. To my great embarrassment, though, I had to admit that I cannot ride a motorcycle. That's why we had to take busses to move around. It was the first time she ever took a bus in Tainan. And now I know why: busses come more or less every half an hour, and service stops early in the evening. No wonder Tainanese snob public transport. Grace had no idea about the routes and about whe