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A comparative study of the realm of meaning of four child prostitutes in Taiwan: A hermeneutic approach

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A comparative study of the realm of meaning of four child prostitutes in Taiwan: A hermeneutic approach

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A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE REALM OF MEANING OF FOUR CHILD
PROSTITUTES IN TAIWAN-A HERMENEUTIC APPROACH
by
Wei-chen Chuang
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Education)
May. 1998
Copyright 1998 Wei-chen Chuang
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UMI Number: 9904982
Copyright 1998 by
Chuang, Wei-chen
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, written by
.......
under the direction of h.Q.C. Dissertation
Committee, and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted by The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of re
quirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
r
,..............................................................
r r èa n of Graduate Studies
■ /
Date . ,16, 1997
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
,,üui..h..LŒ3. frÆÂ...
Chairperson
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Wei-chen Chuang William Lee
Student’s Name Committee Chair’s Name
A Comparative Study on the Realm of Meaning of Four Female Child Prostitutes in
Taiwan—A Hermeneutic Approach
This is a hermeneutic, qualitative research on four Taiwanese young women who were
trafficked into child prostitution. Two of the informants are Chinese Taiwanese. The
other two have cultural heritages of the native tribe people in Taiwan—the Taiwanese
aborigines. One of the two informants was adopted by a family composed of two
disadvantaged groups in Taiwan—the aborigines (in this case, Ataya) and the veterans
who emigrated from China after 1949, and the other is a pure Atayan woman. (Ataya is
one of the native tribes of Taiwan.)
The focus of the study was the self-interpretation of each informant of her life as such.
The findings show that within different, individual life-story contexts, the meanings of
the common themes of their narrative—the selling incident, the love affair and marriage,
their relationships with the social workers and counselors and the expectations of
education of the four informants differ.
The social implication of dwelling in the different social worlds of the four informants
was discussed. The narrative process as a process of “meaning coming into being’’ in a
hermeneutic sense was reconfirmed in the conclusion. How did the four women and that
of the investigator as “Being-in-the-world” move forward in the narrative process under
the influence of each other was also specified in the conclusion.
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Table o f Contents
Chapters
I. THE PROBLEM OF CHILD PROSTITUTION IN TAIWAN
A General Background o f the Problem
The Social Movement Regarding the Issue of Child
Prostitution in Taiwan
The Taiwanese Aborigines—the Ethnic Group at
High Risk to Human Trafficking
The Tribes of the Taiwanese Aborigines
The Social-economic Status of the Taiwanese Aborigines
n. REVIEW OF THE LfTERATURE
English Literature Review
Chinese Literature Review
The Need of Narrative Approach in Cross-cultural Psychology
Conclusion of the Literature Review
m. METHODOLOGY 20
A Hermeneutic Qualitative Study
Linguistic Data
Data Collection and Data Analysis
Truth
Design
Informants
A Brief Introduction of the Four Informants
Data Collection
The Focus of Analysis and Interpretation
The Investigation
The Interview with the Social Workers and the Counselor
The Interview with the Informants
The Coding of the Data
IV. FINDING 33
The Four Informants
Mei
J
Sue
Mary
The Comparison of the Four Informants
The Significance o f the Selling Incident and Being in Prostitution
Love Affair and Marriage
The Relationship between the Social Workers and the Girls
Education
X I
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V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 108
Summary
Conclusion
The social Implication of Dwelling in the Different Worlds of the Four Informants
The Assumed Representative of the “Institution’Vthe Participator with More Self-
awareness
The Assumed Victims/the Narrators with Internal Power
Accessing the Atayan Mind
The Mind that Cannot Fully Expressed Itself in Language
A Culture with Strong Tradition in Expression through Body Movement
Recommendation
Implications for Research
Implications for Practice
BIBLIOGRAPHY 124
APPENDIX 129
in
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I.
The Problem of Child Prostitution in Taiwan
A General Background of the Problem
The Social Movement Regarding the Issue of Child Prostitution in Taiwan
Child prostitution has long existed in the Taiwanese society dominated by Chinese
culture. However, the problem was not seriously discussed until the late 1980 ' s in
Taiwan. In the past ten years, the Taiwanese public has begun to recognize child
prostitution as a serious social problem through the efforts of various groups,
including End of Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT in Taipei), the Taipei
Women Rescue Foundation, the Garden of Hope Foundation, the Rainbow Project,
the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Mermonite Good Shepherd Center. In 1986, the
first halfway house was established by the Rainbow Project. In 1991, the Garden of
Hope Foundation, sponsored by the Ministry of the Interior, conducted a survey to
estimate the number of child prostitutes in Taiwan; the results showed that the
number was between thirty thousand to sixty thousand. A public hearing regarding
the issue of child prostitution was held on June 13, 1992, in a conference room of the
Taiwanese legislature. This hearing aroused public discussion of the current
administrative and judicial flaws regarding the phenomenon of child prostitution. '■
In 1993, the Garden of Hope Foundation began to organize related groups to
promote the social movement against child prostitution. More than one hundred
thousand citizens signed the petitions that were distributed. Thousands of people
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gathered in one of the oldest red light districts of Taipei in May, 1994 to protest the
commercial sexual exploitation of children. A draft of " The Law of Prevention and
Regulation of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of the Children and Juveniles"
was proposed to the legislature soon after. The law was passed in July, 1995 and
proved to be a landmark case in terminating commercial sexual exploitation of
children in Taiwan. The law now requires the government to provide shelters,
halfway houses and halfway schools to the girls who were in prostitution. In a united
effort, various organizations, such as the Garden of Hope Foundation monitor the
implementation of the law, and press conferences are held annually to report the
results.
The Number of Child Prostitutes
The number of children in prostitution is estimated to be between thirty thousand
to sixty thousand (Liang, 1993; Huang, 1996). Almost eighty percent of the child
prostitutes were not sold into prostitution (Liang, 1993). However, according to the
social workers who have been working with the child prostitutes for years, the actual
percentage of child prostitutes traded into prostitution should be higher than twenty
percent. They point out that the Madam and the pimps usually tell the girls to say that
they were not sold into prostitution.
The number of teenage girls that are trafficked into prostitution has reportedly
dropped sharply in recent years. 2 - However, trafficking may exist in a more subtle
way, which the public may not even be aware of. In January, 1997, a formal
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indictment against a group trafficking teenage girls of an Atayan village to be child
prostitutes was filed. A human trafficking group had addicted the families to drugs, so
that the parents would sell their daughters to the group in order to get more drugs.
This underhanded way of trafficking children suggests that trading children into
prostitution has not been extinguished yet.
The Taiwanese Aborigines— The Ethnic Group at High Risk to Human
Trafficking:
As a culturally and socially disadvantaged group, the aborigines are at a high risk
for the trafficking of their children for prostitution. Though the Taiwanese aborigines
constitute only two percent of the total population of Taiwan, they may account for
nineteen to twenty-six percent of the child prostitutes (Liang, 1993). The study in
1993 shows that about forty-four percent of the aboriginal girls in prostitution were
victims of human trafficking (Liang, 1993). The aboriginal girls are obviously most
vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation.
The Tribes of the Taiwanese Aborigines:
The aborigines are people with ancestry native to the island of Taiwan. At least
nine distinguishable tribes of the aborigines still keep their own languages. The nine
tribes are Ataya, Saisiat, Bunun, Tsou, Rukai, Paiwan, Panapanayan, Amis and
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Tantau. Their traditional languages do not belong to the language family of Chinese.
Instead, their languages share commonalties with the languages of the ethnic groups
populated on the Pacific islands from the Philippines to Hawaii. Thus, the
anthropologists categorize their language into the language family of the Malayo-
Australian group.
The aborigines of Taiwan populated the mountain areas, the southeast coast of
Taiwan and Orchid Island. Graph I shows the areas of the aboriginal villages.
The Socio-Economic Status of the Taiwanese Aborigines:
The Taiwanese aborigines ' socio-economic status is generally below the average.
The recent statistics show that the average income of Taiwanese farmers equals only
forty percent of the average income of all Taiwanese; the average income of the
Aborigines is far less— just seventy percent of that of the farmers.
The economic system of the island of Taiwan has long been dominated by the
Chinese Taiwanese. The Chinese Taiwanese's domination of the economic system
has become even greater since the modernization of the economic system. The
economic system on the island was first modernized during the Japanese colonization,
which began in 1895 and ended at the close of WWn. The Japanese developed
industry on the island selectively in order for the island ' s production to meet the
needs of the colonial empire. During this first wave of economic and industrial
modernization, the economic activities on the island were becoming more complex
than the aborigines could understand. Because they were unfamiliar with the
capitalistic economic system, the Aborigines were usually manipulated and taken
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advantage of by the Chinese whose entrepreneurial background and training allowed
them to adapt more readily.
The land policy initiated by the Japanese government was continued by the
Chinese Nationalist Government after WWn. The aborigines have had the right to
live in these preserved areas, but they have not had the ownership of the land that had
been passed down to them by their ancestors. This land policy is a disadvantage to
the Aborigines in that the government always has the final say of what to do with the
preserved areas. Since many of these areas are now national parks, where hunting
and farming are forbidden, the aborigines have found that their hunting and fanning
practices are restricted by the governmental regulations of the national parks. This
concept of the national park, which is a product of modem civilization, is a concept
that is not familiar to the native people. Their traditional way of making a living has
been interrupted. Not only is it difficult for the aborigines to sustain their own lives
in the traditional way, but it is also humiliating to be forced to accept the view of the
modem civilization, which is believed by most Chinese on the island to be
"advanced."
Even if the aborigines are allowed to make a few leather and agricultural products,
the Chinese Taiwanese businessmen control the prices of these products. Such
control has made life difficult for the aborigines and has forced many of them to take
short-term jobs in the cities to make the ends meet. Attracted by the booming of the
economy of the island since the 1960 ' s, many of the young aborigines have moved to
the urban area to be a part of the cheap labor market. However, the profits of the
booming economy have not been distributed evenly. Although the GNP of Taiwan
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has climbed rapidly since the sixties, the aborigines have not benefited much from the
economic miracle of the island. The situation has worsened in the past three years,
because the government now allows the importation of foreign labor. This policy has
increased the unemployment rate of the aborigines.
The aborigines were underpaid and now many of them cannot even find a job.
Low SES of the aborigines as a whole is very likely to persist, and the aboriginal girls
are very likely to remain at high risk to the human trafficking.
Notes:
1. According to the criminal code before 1992, it was against the law to coerce or induce someone to
be a prostitute. However, there was not item regarding the punishment of selling human beings as a
" commodity. " In 1992, the central government did propose a new law to punish those involved in
selling human beings. Yet, the proposed punishment was limited to a maximum of five years
imprisonment. As the ex-president of Taipei Women Rescue Foundation, Dr. Ching-phon Wang,
pointed out; This punishment was no severer than that of stealing. " The other flaw in the criminal
law is the term * liang-chia-fu-nu* that is used in laws related to prostitution. In Chinese, this term
refers to " good women of good families.' Based on this distinction between " good chaste'
women or ' bad unchaste' women, people who ran the brothel can avoid criminal prosecution by
claiming that they hired " bad unchaste' women in their brothels. This very idea of distinguishing
women in this discriminatory manner showed the patriarchal nature of these laws. It also assumed that
prostitutes did not deserve equal rights. The police as the foremost line of the executive of the legal
system adhere to a male-dominated agenda. The male police officers tended to perceive child
prostitution as " not a serious issue.' They usually did not ask the girls that were rescued whether
they wanted to file a complaint against the people who sold them. The police would rather put efforts
in investigating cases such as robbery and murder, which could accumulate more points for them in the
system.
2. According to the oral report of the 1997 conference of the follow up service for the commercially
sexual exploited children, there were no child victims of human trafficking that have been referred
from the police since 1995. The conference of the following up service for the commercially sexual
exploited children is the annual conference held by the related social welfare organizations and
institutions in Taiwan. The goal of the conference is to share the clinic experiences among the
practitioners.
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n.
Review of the Literature
The goal of this literature review is to disclose the implications of the related
research reports on child prostitution through a critical reflection of the questions and
the significances of these studies. The implicit meaning and possible insufficiencies
hidden in the questions and the themes of the related studies will be pointed out in
order to introduce a new dimension of this issue with a broadened vision.
English Literature Review
Studies of general prostitution and current studies regarding child prostitution
were examined. This review will point out that most of the studies on prostitution in
general did not address the various situations of child prostitutes properly; also there
are hidden dangers and limits in these recent studies. Furthermore, this review will
discuss whether direct inference from the findings of the studies of child prostitutes
of the western world can be made to the child prostitutes of the underclass of Taiwan
and other Southeast Asian countries.
Few of the studies that discussed prostitution in general properly address the actual
situations of the minors imder eighteen who are involved in prostitution (Blom & van
den Berg, 1989; Cohen, 1980; Delacoste & Alexander, 1988; Evans, 1979; Fogarty,
1982; McLeod, 1982; Philpot, 1990; Velarde & Warlick, 1973). There are three
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perspectives on the issue of general prostitution: the structuralist perspective, the
prostitute ' s perspective, and the feminist perspective. These perspectives address the
various aspects of adult prostitution. The structrualist perspective was described by
Davis, a sociologist (1937). He stressed the demand of sex out of marriage of the
males, and claimed that that demand is the result of a simple male biological appetite.
The prostitute perspective has tried to shift the rhetoric of prostitution towards a
discourse of legally recognized work, choice and civil rights (Jesson, 1993). On the
other hand, the feminist perspective views prostitution as an institutionalized
oppression of men on women. Many feminists analyze prostitution in the patriarchal
society based on the following conditions:
1. Male sexuality is defined to include promiscuity.
2. Female sexuality is defined to dictate chastity.
3. Men have the power to enforce both (John, 1994).
Thus, prostitution is an institution that reflects the oppression of women in society.
However, prostitutes have challenged feminist argument as described above by
showing that the laws which operate against prostitutes, together with the stigma
associated with sex work, keep all women from determining their own sexuality.
Some feminists have acknowledged that prostitution may have been freely chosen as
a form of work by women in a society that has tittle to offer (Fogarty, 1982).
However, the lack of labor market opportunities open to women and the
consequences of adult females turning to prostitution as a form of work cannot
explain the situation of young women who have not yet entered the labor market and
who are still sexually or emotionally immature (Jesson, 1993).
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Some of the studies focusing on child prostitution merely reported the observable
pathological traits of child prostitutes and their families without giving proper
accounts to these traits (Bartek, 1992; Gibson-Ainyette et a i, 1988) and, there are
hidden dangers in this. Bartek ( 1992) and her colleagues compared twenty female
juvenile delinquents who acknowledged engaging in prostitution, twenty juvenile
delinquents who denied doing so, and twenty same-age control subjects who
responded to A. Colby and L. Kohlberg ' s (1987) Moral Judgment Interview, a moral
dilemma about prostitution, and P. Ioffe and M. Naditch ' s ( 1977) test of coping and
defending. The results show that these groups did not differ in their prescriptive
judgments on the Mil, but prostitutes made weaker judgments against prostitution
than the other delinquents did. The results show the relation between moral judgment
and moral behavior. This study may emit the message that prostitutes are
psychologically deviant in terms of their moral judgment about prostitution; that is,
there is an individual, pathological ground for women in prostitution. This has the
danger of " blaming the victims. " The public may tend to choose a simplified way
to understand this complex social issue and view the subjects ' deviation as the
ultimate reason for this complicated social phenomenon. Gibson-Ainyette et al.
(1988) reported that adolescent prostitutes were more likely to have a less favorable
self-concept. However, as Jesson argued, a psychological profile cannot show
whether these traits were present before the involvement in prostitution or that
prostitution caused the psychological traits (Jesson, 1993). The formulation of a
psychological profile without the discussion of the origin of these traits may simply
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reinforce the stereotypes of child prostitutes and cannot improve the actual situations
of child prostitutes.
Smith and Mitch (1984) tried to explain the possible factors that contribute to
children ' s involvement in prostitution. They suggested that the dynamics of
sexuality, money and abuse in the family contribute to a subsequent involvement in
prostitution. Among these factors, sexual abuse in the family as a precursor to
prostitution is the issue that has been most frequently studied (Fields, l98l;Harlan,
Roger, & Slatterly, 1981; James, 1976; James & Meyerding, 1977; Miller, 1986;
Silbert & Pines, 1981; Simons & Whitbeck, 1991). A causal model explaining the
relation between sexual abuse and prostitution was built based on these studies
(Simons & Whitbeck, 1991). It has been pointed out that sexual abuse may affect the
probability of prostitution indirectly by increasing the probability of participation in a
deviant street culture and illegal activities, and, once participating in a deviant street
culture and illegal activities, a teenager is an easy prey to prostitution.
It is an important finding that early sexual abuse increases the likelihood of
engaging in prostitution. However, focusing exclusively on the hypothetical model
in which the early sexual abuse is viewed as a factor has the tendency to reduce the
process of becoming an adolescent prostitute into a rather static mechanic model.
Getting into prostitution as a behavior of girls, who are humans with " the realm of
meaning" may be a symbolic expression rather than merely a mechanic result. This
" realm of meaning" of the teenage prostitutes ' being as such is concealed in this
model.
10
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Furthermore, is the model of sexual abuse as a factor for child prostitution
relevant in explaining the child prostitution of the underclass in developing countries?
The results of the studies focusing on child prostitution in Third World countries
point out that economic considerations and the desire for adventure may be of greater
significance than the factor of domestic sexual abuse in explaining the young girls '
becoming prostitutes. Penna Firme (1991) and her colleagues worked with the
adolescent female prostitutes on the streets of Brazil in one of their studies. They
found out that poverty and seeking adventure were the major reasons for girls getting
involved in prostitution in Brazil. Odzer (1994) studied the child prostitution in
Thailand. She reported that the poverty of the families drove the girls that she studied
into prostitution.
Some of the child prostitutes in Taiwan have experiences that are similar to those
of child prostitutes in the western societies. These girls who were victims of human
trafficking also share the experiences of the child prostitutes of Southeast Asia who
work in the sex industries to improve the financial condition of their families. This
review cannot find much direct inference from the English literature regarding child
prostitution in the western world to explain the situations of the girls who have low
SES backgrotmd in Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries.
11
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Chinese Literature Review
Five kinds of Chinese studies regarding the issue of child prostitution in Taiwan
have been published in the past ten years. The first type views child prostitution as
" criminal behaviors. " The second type perceives child prostitution as a sub
category of prostitution in general. The third type concerns the human rights of the
child prostitutes. The fourth type deals with the psychological and familial
characteristics of the child prostitutes. The fifth type examines the child prostitutes'
expectation of their lives after their graduating from the rehabilitation center.
Based on the moral ideology of the mainstream Chinese culture, the first type of
study used words such as " criminal behavior" to refer to children ' s involvement
in prostitution; their main concern was to " correct" this" deviant" social
behavior (Ko, 1978; Ma, 1987; Tang, 1987). The point of views of these studies
represented the most conservative view on the issue of child prostitution.
Conservative views such as these have the danger of reinforcing the stereotype that
has been imposed on child prostitutes. This may not help in improving the actual
situations of child prostitutes.
The second type of study included child prostitution in their discussion of
prostitution in general (Chu, 1991; Hsieh, 1982; Shen, 1990;Wang, 1984). However,
these authors did not think that child prostitution should be in the category of child
sexual abuse and, thus, failed to address the essence of this issue.
The third type of the study looked at this issue from the aspects of human rights.
The main concern of these writers was to improve social welfare policies and
12
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legislation (Liang, 1993; Liao, 1985; Shen, 1990;Yi, 1992). The flaws that were
pointed out by these authors were rectified after the passing of "The Law of
Prevention and Regulation of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and
Juveniles" in 1995.
The fourth type of ± e study focused on the psychological and familial
characteristics of the child prostitutes. Three kinds of findings have been reported in
these studies. First, most of the girls are from dysftmctional families (Chen, 1992;
Chen; 1993; Chen, 1995; Fu, 1994; Huang, 1996; Wang, 1984). Second, the parents
of child prostitutes generally do not have stable jobs (Chen, 1992; Chen; 1993; Fu,
1994). Third, the child prostitutes have low self-esteem, low resistance to frustration,
and various kinds of abnormal personalities (Chen, 1992; Chen; 1993; Chen, 1995;
Fu, 1994; Huang, 1996; Kuo, 1989; Lin, 1993; Wang, 1984).
The direct implication of the first and the second findings is that more social
services, such as family therapy and subsidies, should be provided for the families at
risk. However, the socio-economic status (SES) of the families with young female
members involved in prostitution should also be considered as well in order to
prevent the possible social factors that instigate the problem. If the SES of these
families is commonly low, a sociological factor may prey upon these families. That
is, a certain class of the society may suffer more due to its class standing within the
structure of the society. For instance, being of the low social class that is not
respected by society may influence the harmony of family life by lowering the self
esteem of its members, and, the unstable financial income of a family is a big threat to
a peaceful family life. A family in such a situation may have problems with the
13
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overall economic policy which promotes the capitalists before the welfare of the
laborers. If only the necessity of providing social welfare is emphasized after the
problem has occurred rather than working to prevent common social factors that
instigate the problem, the problem of child prostitution will continue into the
succeeding generations. No questionnaire focused on the SES of child prostitutes'
families, and, thus, it is difficult to support this speculation. The low SES that is
common to the population of the child prostitutes will require further investigation.
The findings regarding child prostitutes' low self-esteem, low resistance to
frustration, and various kinds of abnormal personalities should not be interpreted as
evidence supporting the general belief that child prostitutes are an abnormal genus.
Also, many of these studies also point out that the families of most child prostitutes
are not happy. Many parents of child prostitutes do not pay enough attention to their
children, and some even abuse their children (Chen, 1992; Chen, 1993; Chen, 1995;
Huang, 1996). It is not surprising that these girls with various traumatic experiences
at home are diagnosed as having psychological characteristics that differ from the
average people. Labeling them as abnormal, however, only stigmatizes them and
hurts them at an even more profound level. What is important for these girls and the
people in the helping professions to understand is the existential significance of these
mental traits such as low self-esteem. The practitioners of the helping professions
need to decode the observable symptoms with the clients and to facilitate the
development of inner empowerment.
The fifth type of study regarding the expectations of child prostitutes show that the
girls who were studied generally do not have a clear idea of how to rearrange their
14
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lives after their graduating from the rehabilitation center. Although the social
workers usually encourage them to go back to school to finish their high school
education, most of the girls dropped out before they complete their high school
education. Chen (1993) points out that although the girls in prostitution, like the
average Taiwanese high school students, believe that the educational achievement
and professional skills one possesses influence whether or not one can find a job, they
perceive themselves lacking enough resources to gain the necessary social capital,
such as education. It is not easy for these girls to continue their education in the
general schools. They have difficulties in adapting to school life. As a matter of fact,
they do not adjust to the school life, the family life nor the community life (Lin, 1993).
Since they are unable to adjust well to the accepted way of behavior, they tend to
return to work in the sex industries. Thus, Lin suggests that a gradual and circulatory
way of tunneling child prostitutes into mainstream life is necessary.
The evolution of literature on this issue suggests a shifting of the viewpoints of
the issue of child prostitution in the past decade. This change of the viewpoints is
positive as the horizon of the issue has been broadened and deepened. However,
reflecting upon the results of current studies in the nineties, one can see that most of
the studies were conducted when the girls were in the rehabilitation center. There is
still no investigation on the long-term life developments of these girls. The girls '
lives continue after they leave the rehabilitation center. They may fall in love, get
married and have children: or they may go back to school and someday make a better
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living. In order to assist each of these girls in a more relevant way, research from a
long-term perspective is required.
In addition, the girl ' s self-interpretation of their lives from a long-term
perspective is unknown to us. These young women are marginalized in society; their
voices regarding their own lives should be listened to carefully in order to develop the
relevant social services that will truly meet their needs.
The Need of Narrative Approach in Cross-cultural Psychology
What will be the proper approach to disclose the self-interpretation of child
prostitutes who may differ from the mainstream in terms of their class and/or ethnic
cultures? A quantitative approach has its limitations in a cross-cultural inquiry as
such. Jones and Thome discuss the difficulties of using the standardized
psychological inventories to measure the psychological condition of the individuals of
cultural and ethnic minority groups (1987). They critically examine some proposed
solutions to the problems in using the standardized psychological inventories, such as
the construction of new norms for conventional measures or the development of new
cultural-specific instruments. In their conclusion, they point out that, in intercultural
assessment, comprehension of the direct experience of the subject is essential for
understanding what the inventories yield.
In this case, there is not much knowledge of the direct experience of the child
prostitutes. In order to generate more imderstanding of the direct, subjective
experiences, a qualitative, narrative approach might be a better choice. This approach
is based on the narrative character of human existence. This hermeneutic and
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narrative view of the nature of human life is supported by the abundance of the recent
studies concerning the narrative character of the psychological realm of human
existence (Bruner, 1986, Howard, 1991; Mair, 1988; McAdams, 1985; Polkinghome,
1988, 1989, 1991, 1994; Sarbin, 1986; Schechtman, 1994; Omer & Stronger, 1992).
The importance of adopting the narrative approach especially in dealing with the
cross-cultural psychological issues has also been brought up in recent years (Howard,
1991).
Another characteristic of the narrative approach that has been pointed out is the
role of the interviewer as the co-author in the construction of the narrative. Tierney
calls attention to the role of the interviewer in the narrative production process
(1993). He points out that the produced story is actually an account co-authored by
interviewer and interviewee. This co-authoring has its ontological foundation in the
character of " Being-with" of human existence. Heidegger wrote on this idea of
" Being-with" the others in his book Being T Y m e. To Heidegger, we are always
" Being-with. " There are always other people in our world. He does not accept the
Cartesian model of a world as a subjective system that the others are in my world.
We are being with others in a shared world. It is in discourse that " Being-with
becomes ' explicitly' shared" (Heidegger, 1962).
Most of the recent studies of narratives of certain groups of people lay their stress
on the narrative and its relation to the mental health of the informants. However, in
addition to the current issues in cross-cultural psychology, the social implications of
the informants ' self-concepts which are often hidden in the narratives, especially
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those of the informants ' self-told stories, should also be an academic concern.
Studies of the narratives should be expanded to all groups of people in society in
respect to gender, class and ethnicity. One of the current themes for study in cross-
cultural psychology— the narrative study of the self-concepts of people with different
cultural backgrounds— should be adopted by the social researchers. The social
implications hidden in the narratives regarding their self-concepts should be
highlighted. This should be a major domain of cross-cultural study.
Conclusion of Literature Review
The literature review has pointed out that one cannot make much direct inference
from the English literature regarding child prostitution in the western world to explain
the trafficking of children for commercial sex in Taiwan. The Chinese literature
review has also pointed out that the development of the child prostitutes ' lives from a
long-term perspective and the child prostitutes ' self-interpretation of their lives
should be the themes of further studies. The review has explained the necessity of
using a narrative approach in a study concerning the realm of meaning of human
existence especially in a cross-cultural situation.
According to the literature review, narrative studies probing the " realm of
meaning" of child prostitutes are required. To accomplish the task of this study— to
disclose the self-interpretation of the child prostitutes who were sold into prostitution-
- a hermeneutical narrative approach has to be adopted with the awareness of our
being as Dasein. *
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The characteristics of the interview that meets these needs will be:
1. It should be a genuinely understanding process that brings the interviewer to the
" neighborhood" of the meaning of the issue in concern.
2. The produced narrative is a result of a co-authoring of the interviewer and the
interviewee. A narrative analysis is rather a creation of the meaning that is
continually coming into being rather than an objective description of an assumed
static meaning known only to the interviewee. To establish a proper approach
that is able to disclose that realm of meaning of human beings, a hermeneutic
view is needed to reframe the phenomenon of concern and to structure the
investigation.
There is a further discussion on these points in the following section.
Note:
I. See appendix A
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m
Methodology
A Hermeneutic Qualitative Study
The " realm of meaning" as one of the realms of human existence refers to, in
this investigation, the human device which has the function of the continual
understanding and interpreting of one's world and one’ s life. To illuminate why the
hermeneutic approach was chosen in this investigation, the nature of the realm of
meaning must be explained first. The realm of meaning is not something that is
static. On the contrary, it is something that is continually coming into being. In
addition, it is not something that can be objectified and be merely looked at without
being interfered. It is a realm of human existence that is constantly " with" the
other people in the world in a Heideggerian sense. It reveals itself in language and
other meaning-carrying human behaviors. We have to discuss the linguistic data,
data collection and data analysis, and the truth of a qualitative design that is
hermeneutic in its nature before the design is introduced.
Linguistic Data
Any linguistic data which is a verbal expression has its existential-ontological
foundation. It is the words of a human being living in a human world. This is
especially tme in this investigation in which the linguistic data that will be collected
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reflect the informants' feelings and understandings of their lives as such. There is
always more than the literal expression in each verbal expression. There is always
something unsaid that makes what is said possible and intelligible. In Being and
Time, Heidegger develops the idea of 'the totality of contexts of signification' to
explain that something ready-to-hand is seen as something. His primary goal is to
explain things that are equipments. I would like to expand the idea of the totality of
relations into a totality of a fluid, multi-level information-emotion ground that is
accumulated in living our everyday life as a being-in-the-world. And, as living
beings, it is always possible for us to generate new information to this ground through
exposing ourselves to new experience.
Since a verbal expression is an expression of a human being whose being is
characterized as Being-in-the-world, the verbal expression preserves an
understanding of the disclosed world of the speaker. What the linguistic data refers to
is the disclosed world, and the data should be understood in the totality of
significance as mentioned above.
Data Collection and Data Analysis
In a qualitative research project, it is hard to clearly separate data analysis from
data collection. The data collection process is already a process of interpretative
knowing that can be characterized as interactive and involving. It is a communicative
process in which a hermeneutic horizon is created within which the informants'
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discourse point to the disclosed worlds that belong to them, and the investigator
interprets the discourse based on the disclosed world constituted by his/her own life
experiences. Based on the investigator’ s understanding/interpreting, the investigator
respond to the informants. The interviewing process, as a continual process of
questioning and answering, is a process of involving both the informants and the
investigator to participate in a linguistic experience that both belong to. This process
of communication and understanding does not happen as a conveying of thoughts or
feelings from the interior of one subject into the interior of another. If any
understanding does happen, it means that, in time, in the process of questioning and
answering, what has been said has retrospectively reconstructured the speaker and the
listener, and both have been moving toward a "neighborhood " of the meaning of the
themes of concern, in which the understanding minds of both can roam with a feeling
of mutual understanding.
Two modes of hermeneutic understanding will be included in this hermeneutic
research. One is what has been going on in the whole face-to-face interview process.
The other is the interpretation of the transcript. This understanding is more similar to
what Gadamer described as the understanding of the traditional written text. It is an
inner conversation of the investigator with him/herself.
The whole process of investigation is a process of meaning concretion in which
something makes the investigator become more understanding of the issue and the
people being studied get clearer and clearer. This "something" that has been achieved
in the kind of understanding that will be talked about is not the kind of knowledge
that is like the whole picture of the story that we achieve in finishing reading a
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mystical novel. It is the kind of knowledge gained through a hermeneutical
understanding process that can make us feel deepened and widened.
Truth
The hermeneutic philosophers such as Heidegger and Gadamer point out that
there is something that is revealed in language which is profound to us. What is
revealed in language may be a kind of truth that can be called the realm of truth of
disclosure as opposed to the realm of truth of correspondence. And tmth in this realm
is profound to us, because it is revealed in a primordial way of knowing, and can
make us widened and deepened. This kind of truth may be very well disclosed in
poetic language and daily speech. It may be closely associated with and can trigger
the most inner meaning structure of our being as human. It is gained by our
primordial way of knowing which may be conducted primarily in our natural
language. This kind of knowledge has the character of openness that can lead to a
continuing manifestation.
What is discussed above may sound abstract. However, there is a concrete case
that can illustrate the experience of this truth. After many sessions, a psychotherapist
may become more sensitive to a certain client's feeling and more understanding of
this client's interpretation of his/her own life situation. Using Heidegger's language,
the psychotherapist has been brought to "the neighborhood of understanding".
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True understanding and sensitivity are usually reached in time through sincere
listening and talking. There is no reason to say that knowledge gained in this way is
less true than that gained in sophisticated modem scientific studies. On the contrary,
many important things that one can know in one’ s life, such as cross cultural-
understanding, have to be gained in a hermeneutic way.
Unlike knowledge gained through modem science that has the privilege to be
shown to others with less difficulty, what is disclosed in a hermeneutical
understanding is an inner experience experienced by the people involved. The
hermeneutic knowledge may not be intelligible to people who do not have any similar
experience to relate to. However, if so-called "mutual understanding " between people
does exist, it refers to what we have described above, which is hermeneutical.
Design
The specific method of inquiry in this design is inspired by phenomenologcial research methods
(Polkinghome, 1989) and narrative analysis (Polkinghome, 1994). This design is a descriptive
narrative research, which was developed to produce an accurate description of the interpretive
narrative accounts that the informants use to make sequences of event in their lives meaningful. In this
case, the researcher ' s main concern is on the informants ' on going self-interpretation of their life
stories as sexually exploited girls in the Taiwanese society.
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Informants
Four of the young women who were sold into prostitution and who were once
clients of the Garden of Hope Foundation were chosen to be the informants. At the
time of the interview, the four informants were viewed by the counseling center of the
Garden of Hope Foundation to be stable. Therefore, they were, and are, no longer the
follow-up cases of the foundation. They don ' t need to receive counseling services
and have had stable jobs or have been maintaining a stable marriage for more than
one year.
The four informants have varied backgrounds in terms of their ethnic
backgrounds, family backgrounds and the conditions that they were trafficking into
prostitution. The reason to select informants who have varied backgrounds is to
manifest the possible different self-understandings among child prostitutes with
different degrees of deviation from the mainstream.
A Brief Introduction of the Four Informants
Mei:
Mei is twenty-one years old. Her father is Chinese and her mother is Amis (one of
the tribes of the Aborigines of Taiwan). However, Mei does not speak the Amis
language, because her mother left the family when Mei was young. Mei, therefore.
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grew up surrounded by the Chinese culture. Mei was enrolled in an accelerated class
for students who were promising young dancers. However, her dream of being a
professional dancer was never realized because of her father. Mei ' s father traded her
into prostitution when she was thirteen, and she was forced to stay in the brothel for
three years. She ran out of the brothel with the help of a patron. Later, Mei ' s past as
a child prostitute was accidentally discovered by the police who stopped her on the
street; she was sent to the halfway house by the police. Mei continued her education
after she was sent to the halfway house. She is now in high school and is preparing to
attend a Christian college next year.
J:
J is now twenty-one. She is Chinese. J grew up n a village in Kongshoung, a county
in southern Taiwan. Sue ' s mother died when she was seven. Sue has an elder
brother and two younger sisters. Her father was a labor worker who had a serious
back injury at work when J was ten. Being poor, her father sold J into prostitution
when she was thirteen. J stayed in prostitution for eighteen months. She escaped
from the brothel by herself. In escaping the brothel, J broke her leg and was sent to
the hospital. The social worker at the hospital arranged for her to stay in a halfway
house in Taipei. J moved out of the halfway house later to be with her boyfriend.
The two broke up after the man began to serve in the military. J began to work to
support herself. Later, she moved back to her hometown and finally forgave her
father before he died. She is now married with two children.
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Sue:
Sue is now nineteen. She grew up in an Atayan village in Tau-yan county, a county
adjacent to Taipei. She still understands the Atayan language, but she does not want
to speak it. Her mother is an Atayan woman who was a sex worker as well. Sue is
her adopted daughter. Her family was bi-racial and had many conflicts in their daily
life. Sue ' s grandmother was an Atayan woman who married an old Chinese veteran.
She gave birth to two daughters with an Atayan man before she married the old
Chinese veteran whom Sue called grandfather. The couple had two sons. The two
brothers fought constantly with Sue ' s mother for financial reasons. Sue ' s mother
had worked as a sex worker and had abused Sue both physically and emotionally
when Sue was young. She sold Sue at the age of twelve to a brothel. Sue stayed in
prostitution for five months, and was then rescued by the police and sent to a
compulsory rehabilitation program. After Sue graduated from the compulsory
rehabilitation program, she was sent to a halfway house. Later, Sue moved out of the
halfway house to live with her boyfriend. The man left her after a while to avoid
taking the responsibility of a family. After breaking up with this man. Sue worked in
the higher level of the sex industries' hierarchy for quite a while. She had her heart
broken many times before she met her husband a year ago. Sue is now married and
works as a cashier at a restaurant.
Mary:
Mary is now twenty-two. She is a pure Atayan. She grew up in an Atayan village in
Tau-yan county. When Mary was young, she lived with her parents and her elder
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sister; her two uncles lived next door to them. At the age of thirteen, Mary ran away
from a marriage that her family arranged for her. To pay the penalty that her family
owed due to her running away and to make some money to improve the financial
condition of her family, Mary agreed to " work" in the brothel. She" worked"
in the brothel for nine months before she was discovered during an inspection by the
Military Police. Mary was sent to a compulsory rehabilitation program and was later
sent to a halfway house. Mary stayed in the halfway house for six months and went
home with the help of her sister. Six months later, Mary married a Chinese man. The
marriage lasted for only one year. After her divorce, Mary and her sister both worked
in a teahouse, which is a higher level of the sex industries' hierarchy. Mary worked
in several teahouses for more than two years until she married her current husband.
She is now a housewife with a baby daughter.
Data Collection
The procedure for the data collection:
a. The review of the file of each of the informants
The file of each of the informants that is kept in the counseling center of the Garden
of Hope Foundation was reviewed first to construct a general idea about the
background and stories of each of the four informants.
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b. The In-depth Interview
1. the in-depth interview with the staff who were the care givers of the four
informants in the halfway house and counseling center:
The interview with the staff was to gather more information concerning the
informants. The data collected in the interview with the staff was cross-
examined with the data collected from other sources to get a more
comprehensible and encompassing understanding of the informants.
2. the in-depth interview with the informants:
The interview with the informants was conducted individually. The counselor
who worked with them was the other interviewer during the interview.
The procedure of the interview was as follows:
• The informant told her life story from her first memory.
• When the informant and the researcher met the next time, they listened to
her story.
• The informant chose to talk about anything of her life according to her
own preference.
• The researcher formulated suggested themes including the events or
themes that she thought might be meaningful for the informant based on
the reviewing of the informant ' s file, and the themes that more than one
of them mentioned in the secessions of the first stage.* The researcher
encouraged the informant to say more about the themes, when any talk
that might relate to the themes was brought up in their talk.
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The Focuses of Analysis and Interpretation
1. Childhood story and feelings
2. Informant ' s own interpretation of her once being a child prostitute
3. What were the informant ' s mental images of the world and the self-
understanding revealed in this process?
4. The ways the informant expressed herself in the interaction with the researcher
who was an outsider of her world
5. The developmental meaning generating process of the investigator
The Investigation
The Interview with the Social Workers and the Counselor
The taped interview with the social workers and the counselor amounted to
twenty-eight hours. Since I had worked with the social workers and the counselor
since September 1996,1 had also gathered information through the daily interaction
between the workers and myself, and had kept notes in my fieldwork journal.
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The Interview with the Informants
The interview with the informants lasted eight months. The first interview was
with Mei in December 1996. The last interview was with Sue in July 1997. Mei and
Sue chose to be interviewed in restaurants; therefore, we did not have the chance to
see the places where they lived. J agreed to be interviewed in her home in January
1997. Lastly, Mary was interviewed in a restaurant in March 1997; however, we
were able to visit her home during our first visit.
The total amounts of formal interviews and accumulated hours for each informant
are as follows.
Formal hiterviews:
Mei: 7
J : 4
Sue: 5
Mary: 8
Accumulated Hours:
Mei: 20
J : 12
Sue: 16
Mary: 24
The following chart shows the duration of the interviews with each of the informants.
(The black shaded area indicates the duration of the formal interviews. The gray
shaded area indicates phone conversations as well as other informal talks.)
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The Coding of the Data
The data collected was arranged both according to the chronological order of the
informants ' lives and the common themes that appeared in the data. In the whole
investigation process, the narrative data was continually arranged and rearranged
according to the chronological order of the informants ' lives in order to disclose the
significance in the data. In the succeeding interviews, the interviewers raised
questions based on the on-going preliminary data analysis of the previous interviews.
The multiple plots of the life stories of each informant were manifested with more
clarity in this process. The four recognized common themes in the data were the
significance of the selling incident, love affair and marriage, the relationship between
the social workers and the girls, and their education. The data arranged according to
the common themes showed the different perceptions of the four informants on these
common concerns of the«r lives.
Note:
1» The list of the suggested themes that was formulated in the study is as follows;
Childhood life
The story of her mother or sister (if they had been in prostitution.)
Boyfriend, husband
Life in prostitution
The selling incident
Expectation and plans for the future
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IV.
Findings
The Four Informants
Mei
A Summary of Mel's Life
Mei did not remember much about her parents; they were divorced when she was
four or five years old. The only memory that she had about her mother was her
leaving home for good after a serious confrontation with her father. Mei said that she
remembered herself as a little girl sitting alone in the darkness in the living room and
seeing her mother leaving the house without turning over to look at her even for the
last time. Her father was absent most of the time when she was little. He was in
prison or was out somewhere with his friends, who were usually out-laws. She was
raised by her grandfather and his mother— her great grandmother. Though her
grandfather and great grandmother did not ignore her, as a little girl, she was longing
for more attention. Her great grandmother and her grandfather were too busy in
making ends meet. They did not have extra time for the little girl. Mei recalled
sevei'al incidents that when her cousins visited them, she envied them because her
great grandmother made so much effort to welcome these little visitors and neglected
her. She wished to be treated specially. The only person that had made her feel
special was her "I-fu", a father figure and sponsor of her dancing talent. She was
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always excited whenever her came to see her. She talked at length on how much he
cherished her. She received gifts from him. Because of her "I-fu", she even got the
chance to take a trip to Japan with her classmates. She talked about how her
appreciated her talent in dancing and that he planned to take her to Japan to help her
to become a real dancer. However, it was a beautiful dream that was never realized
because of her father.
Mei perceived her childhood to be peaceful until the return of her father. He was on
parole and came home to stay with the family. He did not have a legitimate
profession at that time. Thus, when the Mei ' s " I-Fu " offered to take Mei to study
dancing in Japan, Mei ' s father thought this was a good chance to make some money.
He asked the Japanese to pay one million dollars (forty thousand US dollars) to take
the girl to Japan. The Japanese refused. Mei ' s dream of studying dancing in Japan
never came true.
When Mee was eleven, her father took Mei and her younger brother to a
woman ' s place telling them that the woman wanted to adopt them. Mei wondered
why an adoption was to be arranged, but she did not dare ask. Mei and her brother
were left with the woman for a few months. Later, they were found by her
grandfather and taken home. As Mei recalled the incident, she remembered the
woman made a living by miming a brothel. Being afraid that the father would sell
Mei and her brother again, the children did not go home to the grandfather, until their
father left home again. She remembered that she was in fifth grade at that time.
Mei ' s father reappeared when she was thirteen, she heard that he was on parole.
She felt the inner anxiety that something bad might happen to her. She told a friend
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of hers who went to school with her of this feeling. This girl tried to help Mei by
letting her stay with her family for a while. However, Mei ' s father took action faster
than expected. Within a month, Mei was abducted by her father and was sold to the
brothel. This is perceived by Mei to be the threshold of the decline of her life. She
said: " That was the beginning of the tragedy of my life. "
She resisted staying in the brothel that her father had taken her to. Her father
threatened to take her to a brothel that would torture the girls. She was forced to
comply. Her father promised her that he would get her out of the brothel as soon as
possible. She recalled that in the first month that she was there, a group of people
broke into the brothel. She was very frightened so she hid herself in the kitchen.
They took a girl away with them. The Madame found out who did the kidnapping
through a secret channel in the Mafia and negotiated with the kidnappers through an
acquaintance. The girl was returned. Mei heard the returned girl say that the
kidnapper had the wrong girl. They were looking for a girl with long hair. After the
girl returned, Mei was sent to another place for half a year, because she was the only
girl in the brothel who had long hair. Mei believed that those people were sent by her
father. However, they never came again.
Mei lost her virginity in the brothel. The man that Mei lost her virginity to was
the son of the Madame. The man was about eighteen. He was a student at a junior
college. Mei was the new girl of the brothel and did not even dare refuse. It became
a routine that whenever the boy came to visit his mother in the brothel, she was sent
to a room to serve him; he began to decorate the room they used and bought gifts to
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please her. She felt that the man was not just wanting to have sex with her; he liked
her. Later on, Mei told the Madam that she did not want to " serve " her son any
more. As she recalled this, she said: " He was very nice to me. But, I did not enjoy
the feeling of being desired. I guess it was because we met in such an awkward
situation that I did not think that I had any choice other than complying with the order
of the Madam. "
Mei thought of escaping, but she did not know how. Failing to find a way to get
out, she became gradually more and more devastated during the first year. The pimp
broke down her morale using a strategy combining conciliation and intimidation.
They beat the girls who tried to escape in firont of all the other girls. They also tried
to appease the girls by buying them luxury gifts. Mei thought of escaping at the
beginning, but, after living in the brothel for one year, she did not dare run away, not
just because she was afraid of being beaten up if she failed to escape, but also because
of her fear of the outside world. It looked so unfamiliar to her that she did not know
where to go and how to live, even if she could escape the brothel. She recalled an
aboriginal girl who befriended her in the brothel. The girl came back again and again
even after the conclusion of her contract. The girl told Mei that as an aboriginal child
prostitute, there was no place for her in the outside world. She would rather stay in
the brothel, for she had friends there.
Feeling desperate, Mei adjusted to the lifestyle in the brothel. She smoked. She
used drugs as the other girls did to forget about the condition that she could do
nothing about. She got into physical fights with the other girls there. She behaved
and dressed in a masculine way. (She did not know why she wanted to be masculine.
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" Maybe it made me feel stronger looking masculine, " she said.) She perceived
herself " being bad" and this was an expression of the hopelessness of her situation.
However, during the last year of her stay at the brothel, a transformation took place.
She quit her harmful habits; she could not explain this change into " being good. "
Mei quit drugs and smoking a half year before she escaped. She remembered that
it was her coughing that made her give up smoking. She was not sure what made her
quit drugs. The man she had feelings for encouraged her to quit drugs. She said:
" Maybe this is the reason. I am not sure. "
The direct reason that pushed her to make up her mind to escape was that her
father came to the brothel to renew her contract. She had hoped that she would be
able to leave after she stayed there for three years, but now, she found that her
contract had been renewed. She was afraid that she might have to stay in the brothel
forever. With the help of a patron, she ran away successfully.
Mei recalled a man who used to come to the brothel and buy time to be with her.
This is the first man who meant a lot to her. He usually did not come to have sex, but
to talk. He was a foreign laborer in Taiwan. Mei asked him to buy a pair of dancing
shoes for her. Though she did not have any chance to leam dancing, she still dreamed
of it. Keeping this dream in her mind helped her in the struggle to live. The man
did buy a pair of dancing shoes for her. Since he did not know her size, the shoes did
not fit very well; but, it was the symbol that bound the sweet memories and hope
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together. Mei remembered that he wrote a phrase on the wall of her room using his
own blood to express his love for her the last time he came to see her. She was
deeply moved, but then his visa expired and he had to go back to his country. She
missed him every day after he left. One patron of hers looked like this man from a
certain angle; so she began to pay a lot of attention to him. This man, like the one
who left, did not ask for sex every time he came. Gradually he became the one whom
she had feelings for, and the feeling was mutual. The love between them became the
only treasure she had. She thought of her lover all the time, even when she was
" working. " Visualizing his face, she imagined what they would do once she got
her freedom. But, this story did not have a happy ending. The man told Mei that he
had to marry his girlfriend, because she was having his baby. It was not easy for Mei
to forget the man. Six months later, she escaped successfully with the help of another
patron. She was sent to the halfway house by the police. The first thing that she
wanted to do after she regained her freedom was to go to see the man. She did find
him. She also received a letter from the man ' s flanc» begging her to leave her fiancé
alone. Mei wanted to but she just could not stop seeing the man she loved. This
relationship was not terminated until the man finished his military service. She went
to the base to see him and was told that he had finished his service and was no longer
there. Then, she realized that the relationship was over. Recalling this relationship,
Mei said: " I always knew that I should have stopped seeing him right after he told
me that he was going to marry the girl; but, it was hard for me not to see him. He was
the only thing that was meaningful to me when I was in the brothel. Forgetting about
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the one you love is like throwing away something that means so much to you, even if
it is broken. "
Mei used " choosing a new identity" as an ending for the second part of her
life story. Seeing a girl in the halfway house going back to school to continue her
education, she wanted to be a student again too. She chose to be a full-time student
instead of part-time. She said: " I want to go back to school again, not as a part-
timer. I want to be in a student uniform again. I want to be a full-time student. "
Like a nice high school girl, she did not want to date. She dressed in a conservative
way. She concentrated on her study. She was even aware that she talked in a more
feminine way.
She was baptized not long before she passed the high school entrance examine.
She was first introduced to the Christian belief when she was in the halfway house.
When she got into high school, she joined the Christian fellowship in school. She
liked being with the students in the fellowship. She thought they were decent people.
She began to pray to God everyday. One day, as she was ready to pray as usual, she
found that she wanted to pray for her father. She said: " I hated him so much. I was
not sure that I could ever forgive him for what he did to me, now, I know I have
already forgiven him. I think God is helping me to forgive my father. "
She also thinks of going to college to study social work. She plans to go to a
Christian college. Social work is perceived to be a very desirable field to her. She
thinks that there is no greater profession than a profession that helps the
disadvantaged. She has made efforts to leam to discuss the social issues and the
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political issues since she was in the half-way-house. This helped her to gain
confidence in herself.
However, at the end of her narrative, she disclosed the uneasiness in her life now.
She still has nightmares about her days in the brothel even though she has been out
for four years. She said: " I have the nightmare quite often. In the nightmares, I am
still in the brothel. Some of my elementary school classmates are there watching me
having sex with the patrons. They are looking at me with a despising expression on
their faces. " She does not eat banana and sausage now, because they remind her of
a penis. She feels impurity in herself.
She mentioned her confused feelings about how to keep a balance between
keeping one ' s privacy and being honest to one ' s spouse. She leamt that she can
have her own privacy. However, being a Christian, she is wondering whether she is
going to hide her past from her future husband.
Premarital sex is the other theme that is bothering her. She said that nowadays
most young people do not care whether their spouse are virgins or not. But, a sister in
her fellowship told her a story that made her worried. A woman in the church told
her a story of a young woman who rejected her fiance’s sexual advance and thus won
the respect of her fiance. She is wondering whether she can ever regain her
innocence with her past of the three years in the brothel.
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Analysis
Mei's story is primarily in chronological order. Her narrative is a detailed
reflection upon her life. She recalls many events with great emotion. The integrating
plot that organizes these events is her ascent from the lowest condition of life. Her
narrative may be roughly divided into three parts— her childhood before she was
sold, her days in the brothel, and her life after she ran out of the brothel.
Her Narrative about Her Childhood
Mei ' s narrative about her childhood contains two themes. One is her recognition
of the actuality about her father and her implicit questioning of the abandonment; the
other is her self-perception as a common girl longing for more attention.
Her Perceptions about the Actuality of Her Father and Her Implicit Questioning of
the Abandonment
Mei could not recall any happy memories with her parents; she did not remember
her parents being around during her childhood. Her grandfather and her great
grandmother were the caregivers. The only memory about her parents that stands out
is their divorce. Mei remembers being left alone in the darkness of a room, hearing
her mother arguing with her father, then leaving the family and not coming back.
Mei never saw her mother again. Her memories of her father, on the other hand, were
immersed in the atmosphere of insecurity. The events that she recalled all contained
a crisis and proved that Mei perceived her father as dangerous ever since she was
little.
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Mei knew from the very beginning that her father was far from being a good
father, and she was not really surprised that he would sell her; however, deep inside,
she still questioned why abandoned her. Mei began her story by revealing that she
had discovered a great secret; however, she did not fully disclose the secret until the
end of her narrative— it was her acknowledgement of the existence of her half-brother.
In Mei's mind, the half-brother was the reason for her own father's abandonment of
her during her childhood. By the end of the narrative, it was evident that the secret
somehow answered Mei's hidden question of why her own father would sell her. She
was not sure about her emotion toward this revelation. However, to Mei, it did
explain her father's neglect.
A Common Girl Longing for More Attention
Although Mei did not have a good experience with her parents, she did not
perceive her childhood to be particularly unhappy. Her narrative showed that she
lived a peaceful life with her grandfather and her great-grandmother for most of her
childhood. But, Mei longed for more attention from her elders. Since the elders of
her family were busy and rather old-fashioned, they never prepared anything special
for Mei. However, Mei found this attention through a Japanese man who was
introduced to her by her school's principal. This man saw Mei's talent in dancing and
promised to help her. He became her "I-Fu", a father figure and sponsor.
Mei described herself as a common girl who liked dancing. She was placed in a
dancing program filled with promising young dancers. However, during this time,
her father sold her into prostitution. This event resulted in the great chasm of her life.
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She said; " It (being sold to the brothel) was the beginning of the tragedy of my
life. " The break was never mended and her memories in the brothel still haunt her.
Her Narrative about Her Life in the Brothel
The second part of Mei's narrative is about her life in the brothel. There are two
themes in this second part of narrative. One is about her resistance to the power that
was imposed on her; the other is about her descent and ascent and the role of her
lovers in this. Her narrative of this part shows that although she was in captivity and
had almost given herself up, she never really " died" completely. When the proper
incentive appeared, her oppressed inner power to fight was re-ignited— the dreams that
she once had were finally resurrected.
Sex with Unequal Power
Mei ' s recalling of the sexual relationship with the son of the "Madame" showed
that she insightfully recognized this sexual relationship as an unequal relationship in
terms of power, although it might seem rewarding in terms of money. Mei bravely
rejected the oppressed arrangement.
When she first arrived at the brothel, the Madame gave Mei to her own son. After
she lost her virginity to the son, Mei was assigned to the young man whenever he
came to the brothel to visit his mother. Though the young man tried to please her,
Mei did not feel happy seeing him. A month later, Mei finally told the Madam that
she did not want to " serve " her son any more. Although the Madame offered her
money to be with her son, Mei rejected the offer. Mei did not fully understand why
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she did not like the son until recently. She said: " Now I know why I didn ' t like
being with him. We met in such an awkward situation, in which I was in no position
to say no. I felt better after I dared to say that I did not want to have sex with her
son." Mei realized that in this sexual relationship, they were unequal in terms of
power. She rejected the Madame s offer to pay her money, because this was not
about money. Mei was upset not because she was under paid, but because she was
forced into the situation.
The Descent and the Ascent
During the first year in the brothel, feeling desperate, Mei gradually gave herself
up and adjusted to the life style of the brothel. She vented her inner desperation
through forms of self-torture. She smoked several packs of cigarettes per day, used
drugs, pierced her body, and dyed her hair with astounding colors every week. She
began to talk and behave in a masculine way. Mei could not specify why she
behaved in this maimer. I asked her whether it made her feel strong. She said:
" Maybe, I am not sure. " Finally, during her last year in the brothel, where she
stayed for three years, Mei quit drugs and smoking. Even now, Mei is not sure what
the incentives were that made her change. But, she did remark: " I changed, maybe
because of the second man that I had feelings for in the brothel... I don ' t know. "
Being in Love as Her Way to Endure the Pain
Her relationships with two men proved to have significant meaning. However, the
meanings of these relationships were not clear to her until she left the brothel. The
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two men were her patrons. She met them in her third year at the brothel. The first
relationship ended in an abrupt way, which partially resulted in the beginning of the
second relationship. Both men came over simply to see her, not to have sex. Mei
developed close relationships with these men. They were the two men that Mei met
in the brothel that she truly had feelings for and with whom she could have
meaningful talks, especially the second man. Mei intentionally thought of the second
man continually, especially when she was forced to provide sex services to the
patrons. She said: ” I let myself split at the moment that I had to have sex with
patrons. My physical body allowed them to do whatever they wanted. But, my mind
was out somewhere thinking of him. I concentrated on what I was thinking— his
words, his smile, his everything. " Although Mei was not certain whether this man
was the incentive for her to quit drugs, she did remember that he wanted her to quit.
Mei wove the dream of her future with his as the axis upon which she revolved when
she was in the brothel. She dreamed of their life together. It is possible that because
of this man, Mei desired to "live" again. Thus, she survived, with a hope in her mind.
This may account for her ascent during the last year in the brothel. Perhaps loving
someone diminished the pain of being a prostitute and allowed her to endure life in
the brothel and regain the power to resist drugs.
Her Narrative about Her Life Now
Choosing a New Identity
The third section of the narrative focused on Mei's efforts to " be a nice girl. "
She chose to be a full-time student. This was a new identity for her. It was also a
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threshold, a beginning to a new stage of her life. She identified with the social
workers and the counselors who represented the educated middle class. She tried
hard to fulfill the expectations of the social workers and the counselors whom she
perceived to be good models. She talked at length about not wanting to have a
relationship in order to concentrate on her studies. Her desire for an education was
typical of any high school girl attending the few prestigious high schools in Taiwan.
" Focusing on school " is a general expectation of the promising young people of
the society. But, Mei was enrolled in a professional track of an ordinary high school.
Having been absent from the highly competitive educational system of Taiwan for
three years, Mei was unable to compete and be accepted by any of the prestigious
high schools. However, the girls that Mei identified with were the girls who would
receive a college education.
Mei was introduced to Christianity in the halfway house. She adopted the religion
common to the social workers and counselors there. Mei went on to join the
Christian fellowship in her own school. She spoke of praying for her father as a sign
of forgiving him. Perhaps the religion helped her gain more strength. However,
religion in itself was not the only reason that she Joined and remained a part of the
group. She identified with the people who shared the same faith. Through this
Christian group she found a new sense of belonging. The group provided the social
resources that she needed; and, unlike the circle of the prostitutes and pimps, it was a
group respected by society. As a member of this group, Mei was given a new
identity, a clean one.
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The Inner Feeling of Dissonance
Filling in Mei's own story, the counselor interpreted what must have happened
during the period of time from when Mei left the brothel to when she arrived at the
half-way-house. Mei highlighted her life after her change, but downplayed the part of
her history between her escape from the brothel and her arrival at the half-way-house.
She mentioned her change in the halfway house only briefly in her narrative. Mei did
not talk about what she was like when she first arrived at the halfway house, nor did
she talk about the man who helped her escape. However, as the counselor related, ± e
change was radical and required a year. According to the records on file, she was
living with the man before being interrogated by the police. Mei never mentioned
that part of her life. The counselor believed that Mei lived with the man who helped
her escape. He was her lover; this might not have bothered her then, but now it does.
As Mei has become more like a mainstream high school girl, the history of once
being someone ' s mistress is less tolerable to her. Her new identity, the three years in
the brothel, and her being the man ' s mistress conflict with each other. Her inner
feeling of dissonance has grown stronger than ever. This feeling of dissonance is
promoted by the conservative ideology that vibrates in the words and behaviors of the
people with whom she socializes and identifies with. Mei’ s concern regarding a story
about a girl's rejecting sex before marriage shows that the opinion of her fellowship
outweighs others. For Mei, being in this Christian group, is a double-edged sword.
She enjoys the respected new identity that she has wanted, but she suffers from the
inner discordance resulting from the prevailing conservative ideology of the church.
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When Mei began high school, she usually came to visit the social workers in the
halfway house. As she immersed herself in the group of ordinary high school girls,
Mei has developed conflicting feelings toward the social workers. Though Mei
appreciates the help of the social workers, the social workers are also the people who
remind her of her past. She is now avoiding having too much contact with the social
workers. She wants to keep a distance from her past. However, at the same time, she
realizes that had it not been for her misery, she would not have had the chance to
know the social workers that led her into the social group of educated people. Mei
thinks she needs more time to understand what each of the unwanted parts of her life
mean to her. This has been a major source of her contemplation. " It may take years
for me to understand what they (the unwanted parts) mean to me. I still do not have
an answer now, " she said. However, at this point, Mei has come to enough of a
realization of herself that she will be able to move on by herself and along with the
resources available to her.
A Summary of J's Life
J was bom in a working class family. She had an elder brother and two younger
sisters. Her mother died when she was seven, and her father had to work and take
care of the children all by himself. The financial condition of the family became
worse after her father had a serious injury at work. He was no longer able to work as
a labor worker, and , thus, he could not support his family. J was about ten then. She
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remembered how her grandmother cared for them after her mother ' s death. Her
grandmother always prepared chicken soup, because she knew that her son-in-law
could not afford to bring enough food home every day. J loved her grandmother very
much. She said; " She always kept the thighs for me. Those are my favorite. "
As a child, she had to babysit her sisters and cook for the family. Her grades in
school were never very good. J was not interested in school. She worked part-time in
a butcher ' s shop when she was in the six grade. After graduating from the
elementary school, J was eager to find a full-time job. Her father told her that she
could work as a waitress in a restaurant run by a woman he knew. The woman was
willing to pay more than any other employer, and promised to pay the salary for the
first year in advance. J accepted the offer knowing that the money could be used to
support her family. Without hesitation, J packed her belongings and left the village
with her father. The restaurant was in a town near where they lived. When they
arrived at the restaurant, the women counted the money to pay J ' s father. J watched
the exchange and then watched her father walk away.
During the first few months, J did work as a waitress. However, she knew that
some of the girls in the restaurant were not waitresses. They would come out to be
picked up by the customers who made special requests. J did not think much of that,
and she did not want to know anything that was not her business, J also had no way
to know what was going on for she was told to stay in her room unless she was
working.
One day her boss told her that she had another assignment because there were
not enough girls to serve the customers. J did not know what she meant. The boss
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simply told her not to ask too much. She took her to a salon to have her hair done.
The boss sent J to a room and told her to wait there. As J was wondering why she
was left in the room, a man came in, pulled her to the bed and tried to undress her.
She screamed and fought back. Her boss came in and dragged her out. She showed J
a contract signed by her father. At this moment, J realized what kind of work that
she was expected to do. She cried for days. The other girls tried to persuade J to
accept the fact. They told her that there was no way that she could escape. " The
guards will beat you to death, if you try to run, " they told her. " Just be patient.
Wait for three years, then you are free. " J was very angry with her father, not for
the fact that she was in prostitution but for the fact that her father did not negotiate the
contract with her. She felt that she was deserted by him. She said: " If he could
have told me in advance, I would not have been so angry. He should have discussed
this with me, and let me participate in the decision making....What upset me most
was not that I had to work as a prostitute. I was not acknowledged at all. That upset
me the most. "
The guards beat up the girls who did not cooperate in front of all the other girls.
The girls who cooperated received rewards. J did not cooperate very well and was
beaten many times. She finally complied. J recalled that whenever she had time, she
went up to the roof of the building, looked at the outside world and planned her life
outside of the brothel. J paid attention to the other girls ' discussion of the girls who
had escaped and collected information to develop a plan for herself.
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One day her father actually returned for more money. J was so furious that she
went to the boss ' s room and told her that since her father had taken the money, she
would not stay another three years for the money was not hers. The boss grinned.
When the police arrived to check the hotels and the restaurants around the area,
the girls were forced to hide in a factory and to pretend that they were workers at the
factory. In the factory, the girls were assigned basic work on the assembly line. The
Madam would call the roll in the evening to make sure that everyone was there.
During one of the police raids, the girl who sat beside J in the factory ran away with
her boyfriend during the break time. J saw them, but she did not say anything. When
the Madam found that the girl was missing, she interrogated everyone sitting near the
girl and threatened each one with punishment. J was afraid that she would be beaten
up. Although she had not yet developed a perfect plan for her escape, she decided to
escape at midnight with another girl in the brothel. They crawled out of the window
and jumped from the second floor. J jumped first and hurt her legs. She felt a severe
pain in her legs and lost consciousness. A man saw J and sent her to a clinic near by.
The doctor knew the Madam and called her to come over. J thought that her escape
was over. They would take her back to the brothel. But, she was lucky. She hurt her
legs so bad that she was referred to a provincial hospital. The social worker of the
provincial hospital got suspicious and took charge of her case. With the help of the
social worker, she was protected by the police. When she got better, she was sent to a
halfway house in Taipei. The district attorney filed a formal indictment against her
father and the Madam.
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J continued her education in the adult school. She met a young man there and
fell in love. They hung out with each other and stayed out late. The social worker
of the halfway house became upset, because she broke the curfew of the halfway
house. As a result, J moved out with a couple of girls and dropped out of school.
For all the aspiration of education while in the brothel, J was all too willing to give up
her schooling for love. She decided to follow the young man. She tried drugs with
her boyfriend out of curiousity. However, the happy times did not last long. The
boy was eighteen and he had to serve in the military. After he left, his family began
to treat J with hostility. The family said that they had heard that J had been with
another man. They did not want her to have anything to do with their son any more. J
was very angry with them and verbally confronted them. J was not able to make
contact with the son, and, in desperation, she returned to her hometown.
J went back to Koushoung. Still mad at her father, she stayed alone. Her sister
told her that she hoped they could be a family again. At first, J refused to step into
the gate of their house. Living alone, she realized how hard it must be to support a
family. J began to visit her siblings but still avoided seeing her father. Eventually J
discovered that her father felt guilty for what he bad done to her. Whenever she came
to visit, J found her favorite food on the table, prepared by her father. He knew that
his daughter did not want to see him. He would leave the house just before she came.
J softened, however, " He has paid fo r what he did, and he is sorry for what he did.
Maybe I should try to accept him, " she thought. One year later, her father became
ill. His health worsened. She went to visit him occasionally. Once, he held J ' s
hands and told her that he wished they could all forget what had happened and start
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all over again. Her father told her that he was sorry that he had sold her to the
brothel. He told J that they were so poor, and, he was such a loser that he could not
afford to bring enough bread for the family. He felt ashamed of himself and he
thanked her for her sacrifice to the family. A couple of months later, J ' s father died.
J felt that her pain of being sold was gone with the death of her father.
J wanted something of her own that would give her the sense of security— a
house and enough saving. She tried many jobs intending to save money. However,
the goal of buying a house proved to be difficult with the amount of money that she
earned. J pointed out that her sister attained a stable life by getting married. She
began to think that maybe she should find someone to get married to, so she could
have her own house and a family. A customer of J 's betel-nut cart business planned
a marriage between J and her son. J accepted the arrangement. The woman wanted
grandchildren as soon as possible. J quickly realized that she was not just marrying
the man, but also his family. She was expected to live with a new family and take the
roles of wife, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law. J married. She said: " The death of
my father ended one stage of my life. The marriage meant the beginning of the next
stage. " A year later, J had her first baby. Two years later, she gave birth to her
second child. Now J has returned to work in order to earn the second income for the
family. " After what happened, I learned to rely on myself and prepare for any
unexpected misfortune in advance, " J said. After being asked what she would do if
her family fell apart, she responded: " You mean, like, if we get divorced, or if he
dies? I have thought of these possibilities. However, I am not afraid to be single
again. My first boyfriend left me when I was in a much worse condition. I was
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much more vulnerable then than I am now. But, I survived. I think that I am much
better prepared now than I was then ... I'v e even bought life insurance for my
husband. In case anything happens, the kids and I will have enough money for quite
a while. "
Analysis
According to the counseling center ' s file, the story of J ended with her moving
out of the halfway house. We located J through a Christmas card that she had written
the counselor in 1996. At that point, more than four years had passed since she had
left the halfway house. Our interview with her continued her story beyond the
halfway house. Many of her conflicting feelings and her decisions are clarified in the
narratives.
The narrative can be divided into two stages. The first stage of her narrative
consists of a range of stories starting from the tough financial condition of the family
and ending with her decision to get married. The narrative of the first stage is about
her family life, the selling incident and the life in the brothel. The narrative of the
second stage is a revelation of the meaning of being in love when she came out of the
brothel.
The Narrative o f the First Stage
The Father-Daughter Relationship and the Selling Incident
The first stage of J's narrative is composed mainly of themes of the dissolving
relationship of the father and daughter and the eventual reunion of the two. J
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explained how she finally forgave her father for the once-perceived, unforgivable
deed. What I, as the researcher, did not expect was that the unforgivable deed was
not that her father sold her, but rather that her father did not gain her agreement in
advance. J used the expression " negotiation with me" to refer to what she thought
her father should have done before he sent her to the brothel. J explained to us that
due to the poor financial condition of the family then, she would have accepted
" work" in the brothel for a certain time, if her father had negotiated with her.
Thus, the selling incident was not necessarily perceived as a betrayal in itself. The
role of J in the decision-making process of sending her to the brothel was more
critical to her understanding of this incident. Not being acknowledged, J perceived
herself to be the victim that was abandoned by her own father. If her father had
consulted her and had gained her agreement to " sacrifice " for the family, J would
have perceived herself as the respected provider of the family from the very
beginning. J forgave her father before he died, because her father apologized to her
and showed his appreciation for her " sacrifice " to the family. J ' s self-perception
as a worthless being deserted by her own father was reconfigured into an appreciated
image of a goat sacrificed for the well being of the family. J ' s shifting
understanding of the event suggests that to her, being sold into prostitution without
acknowledgement is the abandonment and the ultimate source of pain; on the other
hand, to prostitute for the improvement of the family’ s financial condition is an honor.
J's story illustrates that in the lower class, it is not necessarily impossible for a girl to
accept prostitution; what matters is how and why she has come to prostitution.
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In her narrative at the first stage, J also proved herself as a woman who fought
against obstacles. She talked about her resistance and desperation. J remained
optimistic by thinking of what she would do once she got out of the brothel. She paid
attention to the stories of how some of the girls had escaped from the brothel. By
listening to the stories about how some girls escaped the brothel, J constructed her
own fugitive plan in her mind. According to her narrative, she never lost hope in the
year and a half in the brothel. J believed that she would leave the place some day
and begin her new life.
The Narrative o f the Second Stage
The Meaning o f Her First Love
The second stage of her narrative revealed the meaning of her first love. J felt
reluctant to mention her love in the first stage of her narrative because of the
arguments created by her first love affair at the halfway house. According to the
records, J moved out of the halfway house to avoid the curfew. She was madly in
love with the man then, and this regulation was perceived to be unreasonable. Her
boyfriend was everything to her then. J did not mention her relationship with the
young man, until we told her that we were reviewing the treatment and the
regulations of the halfway house and would like to have her opinions. J then
discussed her opinions regarding the routine of the halfway house such as bible study,
the weekly talk with the psychiatrist, and the sharing of the cleaning work of the
house. This discussion allowed her to more freely express her first love and what it
had meant to her.
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When J was sent to the halfway house, she was still worried that the guards of the
brothel would come and get her. She was insecure and still angry at the abandonment
of her father abandoned her. J had lost complete trust of her father and felt that she
did not belong to her family. Thus, although J had the support of the social workers
and the counselors, she still needed someone with strength who could love her
passionately. J desired the abstract quality of security and love that could be
actualized through a living person. The intensity of care given by the female social
workers and the female counselors could not compare to the passionate love offered
by her boyfriend. She also said that she liked the man because she experienced many
" exciting things " such as doing business with the gang members. Having the
boyfriend then symbolized protection, caring, love, excitement and adventures in the
outside world.
However, the feeling of security and being loved faded when the young man
began his military service. J felt that her world had shattered when she failed to
locate where her boyfriend was. The feeling of happiness that had been restored
through being in love deserted her again. She moved back to her hometown and
buried herself in work. As J reflected on her life then, she recognized it as the
toughest time in her life. However, by surviving the break up, J gained the self-
confidence and the belief that she could survive alone in a menacing world. J was no
longer afraid of losing the one that she loved anymore; she would always have
herself.
J did not understand why she felt that she needed the man desperately, until the
relationship was over for three years. She could not clearly tell the social workers
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and the counselors why she needed him as she can now. J recalled that as a teenage
girl, the social workers and the counselors were to her like teachers who wanted to
discipline their pupils. She did not know how to explain her desperate need of being
in love to the social workers and the counselors who she viewed as the older
generation. She simply wanted to get out of their control. It is inevitable that this
relationship existed between the caretakers— the social workers and the counselors -
and the minor to be guarded as an essential tension in terms of the unequal power
relation between the two parties. It is possible that J ' s inner feelings were hard to
clarify and express smoothly facing the caretakers. The meaning of the passionate
love for the man and the rebellion against the caretakers for the passionate love did
not become understandable and could not be talked about to the social workers, until
the unequal power relation between J and the social workers no long exited.
Both the narrative of the first stage and that of the second stage have the theme of
recovery from the trauma of betrayal. Along with J’ s inherent power of self-healing,
her background should also be considered in her successfully overcoming her
hardships. J experienced being loved and cared for in her family life before she was
sold. Her father hurt her by selling her; she felt betrayed and deserted. However, as
she began to have contact with her family again, J discovered that her being sold into
prostitution was considered a sacrifice for the family. " Her sacrifice" was
appreciated. She was recognized as a respected family member who had greatly
contributed to the improvement of the family’ s financial condition. The selling
incident was reframed into a positive incident. J was not a worthless being
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abandoned by her family; rather she was the respected sacrifice chosen for the
welfare of the family. Her breaking up with her boyfriend also turned out to have
been a positive experience. Through this painful break-up, J realized that she could
live independently of a man both financially and emotionally. This empowered her
and rendered her with a positive attitude toward her life.
Sue
A Summary of Sue's Life
Ever since Sue was a little girl, she had lived with her maternal grandparents.
They lived in an Atayan village. Her grandmother was an Atayan woman who
married an old Chinese veteran. Sue ' s mother and her aunt were the daughters her
grandmother had with an Atayan man before she married the old veteran. She gave
birth to two boys after she married the old veteran.
Sue remembered that she was raised by her grandparents. She seldom saw her
mother. Her mother and her aunt worked in the sex industries in the city. They came
home sometimes for a vacation. She remembered her mother and her aunt coming
home bringing a lot of things for the family. The three Ataya woman— her
grandmother, her mother and her aunt would hold each other and talked cheerfully in
the Atayan language. Sue lived with her grandparents and her uncles and her older
uncle ' s wife. (The other uncle of Sue ' s was still single at that time.) Her
grandmother died when she was about four or five. After that. Sue took care of her
grandfather. Her grandfather had been sick long before he finally died. Sue stood on
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a small stool to cook for the old man and herself, because her uncle ' s wife did not
want to prepare food for them. The poor old man finally took his last breath when
Sue was about six.
Sue stayed with her mother after her grandfather died. Once Sue was still living
with her grandparents her uncle and his wife, she happened to hear her uncle ' s wife
say that she was actually adopted by her mother. S ue's memories of her mother were
never happy. Her mother was once married to a Chinese man. They got divorced
before she went to elementary school. Sue never accepted the man as her father. On
the contrary, she remembered the man touching her in a way that scared her. She did
not know that was sexual harassment. Her mother moved back to the Ataya village
after she divorced the man. Upon their return, Sue began to attend the first grade.
She recalled her mother got drunk so often that she usually saw her screaming and
crying outside the house whenever she came home from school. Very often her
mother got into fight with her uncles and their wives. Sue remembered her mother
always complaining that they used her money.
In the village, her mother moved in with an Atayan man. They were not married.
Sue did not like that man, either. He also sexually harassed her. Sue ' s mother lived
with several different men after she was divorced, but, she never married again. Sue
thought that her mother purposely stayed unwed for some unknown reasons.
Her mother, her mother ' s lover then. Sue, her younger uncle, her older uncle and
his wife all lived in the same house. The house was bought by her mother and her
aunt for their mother and their step-father. After they died, the house became Sue ' s
older uncle ' s property. The family fought constantly. Sue ' s mother kept
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complaining that her property was stolen by her half-brothers. Sue ' s uncles and their
wives called her mother a slut and a nut. Sue ' s mother would beat Sue whenever she
was upset or drunk. Sue liked her younger uncle the most. He usually protected the
girl whenever her mother lost control. Sue perceived him as a father figure.
However, none of Sue ' s uncles ' wives liked her very much. She recalled that once
the wife of her older uncle reviled her because the woman thought Sue was lazy. The
woman said: " You are big enough. Can ' t you make yourself more useful rather
than being a slacker. " The girl was so incensed that she did not go to sleep until she
finished washing the clothe of the whole family. She was only nine.
Sue did pretty well in school. As she recalled her schooling experiences, she kept
saying proudly that she did not need to take much time to study, but she was always
the first in the class. " If it hadn ' t been for of my mother, God knows what I could
be now. " Something happened during the summer of her twelfth year. She was
raped by a boy she knew. Her mother threatened the boy ' s family asking for
compensation. The boy ' s family refused. The boy was jailed. Sue said: " All she
wanted was money." After this incident, for some unknown reasons. Sue' s mother
felt the pressure to sell her as soon as possible. Sue was taken to a hotel and sold to a
female acquaintance of her mother ' s.
She did not say anything about her days in the brothel. " It is something
disgraceful. Why bother to talk about it, " she said. " But, it was not as horrible as
you imagine. I believe some girls do like to make money using their own bodies. "
She never tried to escape. She said: " Where can I go, if I do ran away?" She was
rescued by the police in a random check which took place after she had been sold for
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five months. She was sent to a compulsory rehabilitation program. After six months
of compulsory protection and rehabilitation, she could choose to go home or be
transferred to a halfway house. She chose a halfway house. She continued her
education. At first, she really wanted to stay in school. However, after she got her
elementary school diploma, and entered the middle school, she had difficulties
catching up with her classmates. This upset her a lot because she realized that she
would not be able to go to high school. Sue complained that since she went to an
adult school to finish her elementary school education, her actual level of educational
achievement was below the average of the graduates who attended the ordinary
elementary schools. She felt she would not be able to compete with classmates in the
middle school. Feeling desperate, she chose to drop out.
Sue was a very attractive girl. There were always boys around her. The social
workers and the counselors of the halfway house suggest that she concentrated on her
studies and avoid being distracted by the boys. However, Sue got serious with a
young man and decided to move out to live with him. Failing to stop her, the social
workers help her move out. Not long after she moved out, the social worker found
that Sue was pregnant, and bad no job. The life with the man was not as happy as she
imagined. She did not want to give up the relationship, but the man became
impatient. He was not prepared to be a father, and he did not know that it would have
so much pressure in supporting a family. The girl did not say much when the social
worker came to visit her. She just wept. The social worker could only tell her that
she could come back to the halfway house any time she wanted. The next thing the
social worker knew. Sue got an abortion and broke up with the man.
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Sue changed jobs many times. But, with a elementary school diploma, there were
no good Jobs that she could find. She said: " I needed to pay for the rent, utilities,
clothes, and I needed to eat. In Taipei, you cannot survive with less than ten thousand
dollars (NT) a month. " Sue once thought of buying a house for her younger uncle.
He was the only one who had been nice to her. She worked in a KTV as a
" princess " — an employment in the sex industry. A " princess " is something
between a waitress and a bar girl. A " princess" brings food, drink, and napkins for
the guests, and usually sings Karaoke with them. This position is lower than " public
relations lady. " A " public relations lady" can join the business talk of the
guests. The girls who are perceived to be smart and tasteful can be raised to " public
relations lady. " B oth" princess" and" public relation lady" can provide the
guests sex service, if they agree. Sue proudly said that the girls in the KTV thought
that she has the potential to be a " public relation lady. " She told us that for the
young generation, it is not dishonorable to work in KTV. Working as a
" princess" can earn more thanlOO'OOO NT dollars a month. Sue planned to save
money to buy a house for her uncle. However, Sue found that although she was paid
well, she spent a lot of money on luxury clothing and cosmetics. There was not much
left each month. The job also required drinking a lot every day and thus ruined her
health. Sue finally quit the job within a year. She fell in love with a married
policeman when she was working in the KTV. She did not know that he was married.
She was very upset when she realized that the man would not divorce his wife for her.
She once told the counselor that she thought of killing herself. But, she does not want
to talk about it anymore. She said: " I think I was silly. " She had a new guy in her
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life. He was a non-commissioned officer. Very soon, they were sexually involved.
She believed that the guy loved her very much, and she loved him as much, too.
However, they had verbal fight with each other very often. They could argue over any
trifle. But, Sue still married him. She thought that she needed to settle down, to have
a family of her own. She began to work in a restaurant as a cashier. She saved
money in order to buy a house in her husband ' s hometown— Pen-tong. " Houses
there are much less expensive than in Taipei." She plans to have children when
their financial condition is more stable. " I want to give my children the best.
Whatever other children can have, I hope mine can have, too. "
Analysis
Sue ' s interview consisted of two parts. The first part of her narrative was a self
told story in chronological order. The basic plot of Sue ' s self-told story was that of
an innocent girl, who had talent and pride, but suffered many misfortunes. The
narrative was full of self-pity and cynicism. The second part of the narrative was a
dialogue between Sue and the interviewers regarding issues and incidents that we, the
interviewers, wanted to discussed in greater detail. The second part of the narrative
revealed her masked fear of being alone and her mother ' s actual role in the family.
The Narrative o f the First Fart
" I am Innocent and Superior. "
Sue ' s self-told story projected images of a superior girl imposed upon by fate.
The first image presented was that of a poor girl who had to take care of her
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grandfather. Sue began her story with the memory of cooking for him daily. In
preparing the meals, she had to stand on a stool in order to reach the stove-top. She
felt sad for herself that ever since she was a little girl, she had to take care of someone
else instead of being taken care of.
The second image presented was that of a girl with a witch-like mother. She
repeatedly expressed how much she loathed her mother. Sue's most vivid memory
was that of her mother shouting insanely through the gate when she got drunk. Sue
called her mother ” hsiao po " , an insulting term referring to women who do not
have any basic sense. Sue accused her mother of beating her without any reason.
She despised her mother for her debauchery and for her bad taste in men. " Women
like her deserve those scum, " Sue said.
Throughout her narrative. Sue described herself as superior. She believed that she
deserved to have more than she had. She emphasized repeatedly her good grade in
elementary school. Sue said more than once that had she not been sold by her
mother, she would have attended one of the prestigious high schools and would
probably be in college now. Even in the sex industries, she perceived herself to be
superior to the other girls. In a condescending tone. Sue told us how the other girls in
the brothel were actually willing to take prostitution as their profession. " They want
to do it. They are not good at school. For the low achievers that they are, what else
can they do? I was not like them; I was forced to be there. " In regard to her work in
the KTV, Sue emphasized that she insisted on " bu-dei-chu-chang" . That is, she
did not go as far as sexual intercourse with her patrons. Sue proudly told us that
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people had told her that she had the taste of a " public relations lady, " not just a
" princess."
Sue distinguished herself from the other girls in the brothel by saying that she was
forced there. She began as a child prostitute. However, she looked down on most of
the child prostitutes as the average people do. She was reluctant to be viewed as one
of them. Sue viewed herself differently from most of the girls in the brothel— she
was not there, because she was not good at school and had nowhere else to go; rather,
she was there because of her evil mother. Even within the sex industry. Sue
perceived herself to be classy enough to be a public relations lady. She believed that
she should not be considered a whore at the lowest level. It was very important for
Sue to be recognized as superior to the average child prostitutes.
Even in the present. Sue emphasized that she was admired. Sue spent much time
talking about how her husband cared for her, and how much his family liked her. She
thought that she projected an image of a smart and fashionable city girl; and since her
husband ' s parents were uneducated villagers, she believed that they must admire her.
Sue consistently portrayed herself as a brilliant, classy girl, whose misfortunes
were a result of her evil and despicable mother. However, when comparing her
narrative with the observation recorded by the counselor of the halfway house, we
found that Sue was avoiding issues in her narrative. Sue did not complete her
elementary education before she entered the brothel. She repeatedly stated how well
she did at the elementary school before she was sold and avoided talking about her
failure at the junior high school. She blamed her failure on the watered-down
program of the adult school where she finished her elementary education. Her
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remark regarding the adult school may be true. However, Sue also avoided
mentioning the fact that the counselor did talk to her about how to catch up with her
schoolwork. Having been notified of her difficulty in the junior high school, the
counselor suggested that Sue see a tutor. Sue, however, believed that there was no
hope for her and rejected any help. She was afraid to try. Sue kept on saying that if
she could not be the best at something, then she would rather not have any part of it;
she did not want to be a mediocre. Being better than others was so important to Sue
that she could not stand to be in a situation in which she was not the best.
Although she had once been at the bottom of social status and still was a part of
the lower socio-economic status. Sue continually emphasized her superiority to others
of the same class. Sue held onto this pride so tightly because it appeared to be the
only thing that she had. This pride helped her to sustain the suffering of her life. Sue
believed that she deserved better, and this feeling of superiority is what drove her on.
However, it also hindered her. Sue was afraid that if she tried, she would have to face
the fact that perhaps she was not as good as she thought. Sue could not afford a
failure. This would take away the pride that she had held onto so tightly— and that
was all she had.
The Second Part of the Narrative
The Masked Fear of Being Alone
Sue ' s emphasizing of her superiority somehow masked her fear of being alone
in the world. At first, the counselor believed that Sue was too emotionally dependent.
The counselor encouraged Sue to become more emotionally independent. However,
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the counselor ' s plan did not succeed. Before marrying her present husband. Sue fell
in love again and again; and her heart was broken more than one time. She had
unrealistic expectations toward relationships and marriage. When she was married.
Sue even denied the inherent possibility of a marriage falling apart. In her first talk,
her denial was followed by a lengthy narrative of how much her husband loved her
and what plans she had for their family, children, and future together. Afterward, she
called the counselor several times complaining about her husband ' s hanging out with
his friends and leaving her at home alone without telling her where he had been. In
the following interviews. Sue complained once again. However, she still stressed
how much he loved her. We perceived that she was reluctant to admit that her
husband was not as reliable as she expected. Previously, Sue had been financially
independent. She did not want to live off a husband. The counselor did not
understand why Sue, who had been educated by the halfway house to be independent,
did not progress firom financial to emotional independence. On the other hand. Sue
complained that the coimselor did not understand her feelings.
Only in later interviews, when we conceded that it must have been difficult for Sue
to have lived all by herself for the past years, did she agree that it was hard to survive
alone. She finally revealed how a family was her answer to not being alone in the
world. Sue never had a loving family, a normal job, nor did she have enough
education. Sue could not understand why everyone else seemed to have more than
she did. She wanted to " have" something" in" her life, too. She told us that she
had a family now, and that she had plans for them. Sue wanted to have a house and
to have enough savings for her children. In the future, she wants to be able to provide
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her children with what others have. At that moment, we realized that for Sue, " the
family" is the starting point of her own meaningful world, a world filled with people
who truly care about her. Having a family was the starting point in terminating her
feelings of being alone in the world; now she truly had something " in" her life.
Losing her husband and her family would mean that she would be forced to retreat
into the fngid world of being alone. Although Sue could support herself financially,
money would not prevent her loneliness.
The Story o f Her Mother and its Social Implication
Sue attributed her misfortune to her mother and avoided revealing the actual role
of her mother in supporting the family. Nevertheless, the story of her mother has
profound social implications that should not be ignored. The story illustrates the
situation of women who went into prostitution in order to support their family and
then were deserted by them. It also reflects the life situation of two disadvantaged
groups in Taiwan— the aborigines and the veterans who emigrated from China after
1949. '
Sue complained that her mother picked fights with her uncles very often at home.
She did not explain what they were arguing about until we asked her. She said her
mother kept on grumbling that Sue ' s uncles used her money, stole her house, but still
looked down on her ungratefully. Sue said that her uncles always disputed her
mother ' s accusation by calling her a " nut. " However, after being asked who
bought the house. Sue admitted that her mother and aunt had bought the house that
the family lived in.
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After being questioned insistently. Sue admitted that ever since she could
remember, her grandfather did not have a job, and, her mother and her aunt were the
people who paid for her grandparents ' living expenses. Since Sue's mother's
stepfather, the biological father of the two brothers, was an old veteran, he did not
have much income. Sue ' s mother had worked as a sex worker long before Sue was
bom. From the difference in the ages of her mother and her uncles, it is apparent that
Sue ' s mother must have supported the family through her work in the sex industries.
Sue avoided mentioning this in the first part of ± e interviews. Although her mother
is the abuser who hurt Sue both physically and emotionally, this woman is not the
ultimate reason for all of Sue ' s misery.
Sue is also a part of a typical family composed of two disadvantaged groups— the
old veterans and the aborigines. In Taiwan, it is not unusual to see the old veterans
marrying aboriginal women. The old veterans ' socio-economic-status in Taiwan is
generally below the average. They usually marry young girls or widows in the
aboriginal villages through the arrangement of match-makers. Those who cannot
afford to buy a bride marry women who are mentally retarded. The marriages of
most of the old veterans can be characterized as marriages between highly
disadvantaged groups of the society. Their families are usually poor and are not
stable (Hu, 1990). The disadvantaged situation of the parental generation usually
continues to the next generation. A survey concerning the ethnicity of the child
prostitutes shows that most of the child prostitutes who have at least one parent that is
" wei-sheng-jen" , an emigrant firom China for the first generation," are offspring
of these old veterans (Liang, 1994).
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It is not surprising to see inner conflicts in these families suffering from poverty
and discrimination. It is not unusual for low SES women to work as sex workers to
support their families. Various sources show that many of the family members who
benefit from the blood money of these women show contempt for them. The
daughters of these women usually become the prey of their pain (Huang, 1996).
Living in faulty life condition, the families composed of the old veterans and the
aboriginal women are at high risk to such family tragedy. Being the abused child.
Sue does not have to forgive her abuser. However, it is necessary to point out that
both Sue and her mother are victims. The public did not recognize the life situations
of these disadvantaged groups of the society until the early nineties. The tragedies of
these families ultimately resulted from the society ' s ignorance of the disadvantaged
life situations. Lacking comprehensive policies that integrate and reform the existing
social welfare, education, and economic systems, the pain and the misery evident in
this society will continue to prevail among generations. Sue is only one among the
many who have suffered inadvertently by being the child of a family composed of
two disadvantaged groups in Taiwan.
Mary
A Summary of Mary's Life
Mary was bora in an Atayan village called Lo-fu in Tau-yan County. Ataya is one
of the tribes of the aborigines of Taiwan. They populate the northern part of the
island. There are many Atayan villages in the mountain area of Tau-yan County.
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Lo-fti is a small village. Farming and seasonal fishing and hunting were the
major economic activities of the village when Mary was young. Mary ' s parents
sometimes took part-time work in construction to make some extra money for the
family. " We were very poor, " she said. Mary remembered how she envied some of
her classmates whose houses were prettier than her parents '. She said: " I made up
my mind that I would improve the financial condition of my family as much as
possible. "
Most Atayan families are nuclear families. Members belonging to the same
extended family usually live in the same neighborhood. Mary and her sister lived with
their parents. Their uncles lived next door to them. Mary is aware that she has aunts,
but she does not know how many as the family has no contact with them.
When Mary was little she used to work in the field with the adults of the family.
She said: " Helping the adults in the field was fun. I competed with the adults on
cutting the straws.... My sister and I played in the field throwing mud at each
other.... My mother worked in the rice field. I planted the vegetables seeds in the
firont yard. " In the village, young girls share much of the housework, including
baby-sitting their younger brothers and sisters, or little cousins. In Mary ' s case, she
had to baby-sit for her uncle ' s youngest child, though Mary was less than twelve.
She also went hunting with her youngest uncle. She can still recall many of the
animals that she saw in the mountains. " Do you know flying squirrels? Many
" plainers " (Chinese) do not dare to eat the flying squirrels. They are so tasty after
you roast them. " She said: " I hope I can bring my daughter to the mountains
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with me. We can spend some time there and have fun. When she grows up, she will
remember that her mama brought her to the mountains when she was little. "
People in the village drink a great deal. The adults of Mary ' s family are no
exception. She remembered how her grandmother— the second wife of her
grandfather, her mother and she went selling bottles they collected, and used the
money to buy liquor. Her grandmother and her mother drank on their way home.
Her mother got so drunk that she could not walk home in a steady way. Her
grandmother, intoxicated as well, scolded her mother all the way home, because her
mother could not catch up with the old woman. Mary walked with her mother in
order to assist her. She said that her mother and grandmother always made up when
they reached home.
The family seemed to buy liquor often after they sold something for cash. Mary
said: " Mother usually bought Uquor after she sold the fish that she caught from the
brooks. She shared the liquor with her own mother living in the upper area of the hill.
She brought liquor home to drink with daddy, too She always got drunk.
Sometimes she was so drunk that she slept on the side of the road. " Once, Mary and
her father went looking for her drunken mother in the forest. They found her lying on
the road with an empty bottle in her hand. They carried her home. Mary cleaned her
mother, and complained to her that she got drunk all the time. She talked to me
about her memories of the drinking habit of her family in a cheerful manner. She
attributed their alcoholism to the lack of entertainment. The people in the village
could not watch TV as the location of the village prohibited adequate reception. They
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did not have much to do other than drink. " People in the village always invite each
other to drink in their houses. It is the way we socialize with each other, " she said.
As a child, Mary experienced domestic violence as another aspect of her family ' s
alcoholism. Her father would often pick fights with her mother when he was drunk.
Mary recalled that one time her father got drunk and then began to shout loudly at his
wife, who then grabbed Mary and jumped with her out the window. Mary said that if
there had been a domestic violence hot line, she would have called and asked for
help. " I would have taken my mother to the shelter to teach my dad a lesson. " ^
However, the relationship between Mary ' s parents was not always violent. The
couple often went to the town to sell the fish that they caught and the agricultural
products that they grew. They used the money they received from these sales to buy
liquor that they then shared. Once intoxicated, they went home cheerfully hand-in-
hand.
Schooling has never been a very important experience to Mary. All she
remembers about school is that she felt bored in the classroom. " I was not a good
student. I was not interested in what the teachers taught. My parents did not care
about my study anyway. " She skipped school with friends. Sometimes they played
in the brooks in the mountains. Sometimes they jumped on a bus and went to play in
the KTVs in the plain area. ^
According to the records of the halfway house, Mary had relationships with
several men in the village before she was sold to the brothel. However, she never
talked about her love affairs in the village in detail with the counselors. When asked
in the interview about these affairs, she did not elaborate, but, in the following
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interview, she admitted that she was pregnant before she was sold into prostitution.
Upon being asked about the particular man who impregnated her, she simply stated
that it happened a long time ago and, she did not remember.
The record also shows that when Mary was in the halfway house, she recalled
being lured by a woman she met in a railway station. She told the counselor that this
woman told her that she could find her a job. Mary trusted this woman and went with
her. She ' worked ' in a brothel for a while, then left because she felt like going
home. Her description of the event was so simple that the counselor said it was hard
for her to understand. However, being asked to say more by the counselor, Mary
simply said: " That is all that happened. " The counselor could not elicit more
information about the event. Eight years later, Mary still did not say anything about
the event in her interview with me. She said that she was very young, so, she could
not remember much about what had happened. It seems that her life before she was
sold was more complex than most thirteen-year-olds. Yet, she never really elaborated
about the details of her story. We are still very puzzled about the actual condition of
her sexual life during her young life before she was sold.
Her family arranged a marriage for Mary when she was thirteen. She did not say
much about why and how her family did this. She simply stated that her family
arranged the marriage without her consent. She found out that the family of the man
who was going to marry her was poor. With the help of a friend of her father ' s, she
ran away from home a couple of days before the wedding. A penalty was due to the
groom ' s family for running away from the marriage and in order to pay this penalty
Mary agreed to work in order to earn the money.
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Her brief description of what happened before she was sold did not reveal any
details about her flight, nor did she clarify her relationship with the man who was a
friend of her father ' s who helped her escape from the wedding. She hid with the man
for several days and then went home on her own.
The members of Mary ' s extended family gathered together to discuss what to do
with her. Someone, whose identity she did not remember, suggested sending her to
' work ' in the brothel, and Mary agreed to this work to pay for the penalty. Her
mother talked further to her about the job, and although Mary did not know exactly
what would be required of her, she thought by taking the job she could pay the
penalty and improve the living condition of her family as well. She told of how her
uncle and his wife took her to the brothel."* Her parents went with her, also. Mary
remembered seeing the woman who was the Madam of the brothel counting the
money to pay her family. She felt relaxed and thought: " They pay us in advance. "
The woman took her to a salon to have her dressed up.
The Madam found out that Mary was pregnant. Mary did not know she was
pregnant until she was told. She was sent to a clinic to have an abortion, and began to
' work ' after resting for a week. " At first I was not used to ' it. ' I wept. I missed
my family. I asked some of the clients to call my family. But most of them said yes
without really doing it. One client tried calling my parents from my room using his
cellular phone, but he did not succeed because the Madame got suspicious and
knocked on my door.^ He was forced to hang up. From that time on, I thought I ' d
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better be patient. At least I was not alone. There were other aboriginal girls keeping
me company there I still feel sad whenever I think of it. But it is history now. "
In a following interview, Mary revealed that her parents were allowed to visit her
every now and then. They went out to eat together without the supervision of the
people of the brothel. They ate and chatted until the time was up. Her parents sent
her back to the brothel after their family gathering. Her parents visited their daughter
in the brothel as if their daughter had been attending a boarding school.
Her memories about her days in the brothel are not all sad. She had a romance
with a man she met there. The man was the younger brother of the Madame. ” He
was cute, and he was very nice to me. " The man took her out on occasion. " He
told me that he liked me, but he could not let me leave the brothel, because he did not
want to betray his sister. " When Mary ' s parents came to visit her, they went out
together with Mary and this man. " I think now it was a kind of puppy love... not
very mature* ut he was really good looking. " She made this last remark with a
gratified expression on her face.
For Mary, the Madam of the brothel was not so bad in her estimation. " She
allowed the girls to go to the hair salon. She took us to the doctors whenever we got
sick. " Yet, the way of life there was painful, because she spent most of her time
during this period lying on her bed servicing her customers. " No human being
should live like that, " she lamented.
During an inspection by the military police, Mary was rescued (in her view,
arrested) and was sent to the Compulsory Rehabilitation Program. What impressed
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her most during the inspection was the refusal by the MPs to allow her to go back to
her room to get her jewelry. She begged them, saying: " If you think I want to go
inside to be a prostitute again, and, if you don ' t trust me, you can go inside with me.
I kept on begging them. But, they still did not allow me to go inside to bring my stuff
out. What a pity. You know, it took me quite a while to save the money to buy that
jewelry. " She said that that is what comes into her mind first whenever she thinks of
the inspection that resulted in her leaving the brothel.
In Mary ' s understanding, the Compulsory Rehabilitation Program was a
punishment that had to be accepted with patience. She was very eager to leave it.
She did not even try as hard to leave the brothel. Her strategy was to cooperate with
the executives in the Remedial Program in order to gain the possibility for release.
However, when she found out that she could not go home right after she finished the
program, she was disappointed and furious. In a letter to a friend, she wrote:
" Everything that I did here was done to get the chance to go home. I cannot believe
that all the effort that I put out was in vain. Anyway, I have to leam to accept the
fact. "
Against her will, Mary was sent to the halfway house. The social workers and the
counselor of the halfway house explained to her that the arrangement was to protect
her. Mary did not say much, although she did not want to stay in the halfway house.
The social workers and the counselor made a plan for Mary. They encouraged her to
go back to school, but it embarrassed Mary being asked questions by the teacher in
her classroom. She told the counselor that as she had been out of school for so long,
she was afraid that she could not catch up with the others in her class. Education had
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never been something meaningful in her world. She had no real intention to continue
her schooling.
In contrast, getting married was something that meant a great deal to her. While
still in the halfway house, she dated several men. This was the topic that she most
enjoyed talking about with the counselor. According to the records of the counseling
center, she had feelings for a certain man, but was thinking about going steady with
another man whose financial condition was better.
Mary stayed in the halfway house for six months. Seeing other girls moving out
of the halfway house with the agreement statements written by their legal guardians,
she finally figured out that it was not mandatory to stay in the halfway house; she
could go home as long as she had an agreement statement written by her elder sister.
She did not hesitate in applying to leave.
Six months after Mary left the halfway house, she wrote the counselor a letter to
say she was getting married. She was so happy. " It happened so fast. It must be
God that planned this for me, " Mary wrote. She met her first husband at a friend ' s
place. He was a Han Chinese and she thought he was cute. She told him about her
being a child prostitute prior to their meeting, but he did not seem to care; she thought
that he must be a nice guy, who did not care about her past as a child prostitute; she
thought she found happiness. However, she began to be upset not long after they got
married. According to the letter that she wrote the counselor, she complained about
her mother-in-law, who restricted her movements. Although she worked at
improving her relationship with her mother-in-law, the relationship worsened. Mary
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also complained about her mother-in-law ' s attitude toward her parents, and she was
unhappy, because she had not gotten pregnant yet in this marriage. She once asked
the counselor whether she could help her find a baby to adopt, and she did not even
care whether the adoption was arranged in a legal manner. Her husband called the
counselor to complain about her staying out late and drinking with strange men. Her
mother-in-law had doubts about her fidelity. The counselor remembered that once
Mary called her, crying that one of the men who was a drinking partner, may have
raped her.
Mary and her husband finally got divorced. She remembered vividly the situation
of leaving her husband and his family. " He (her first husband) ran out of the house
and shouted loudly: ' Mary Chu was a prostitute. She ' s a slut. ' His mother was
watching this with a smug expression on her face. I grabbed her right away to beat
her."
The marriage ended with Mary and her mother-in-law pulling each other ' s hair
and scratching each other ' s faces. " It is funny, " she said smilingly.
Mary had a tough time after her divorce. After living a rather comfortable life with
her first husband for more than one year, she felt upset that she had to live a poor life
again. She lived with her sister for awhile, but complained to the counselor that her
sister was not like she used to be. Her sister vented her anger on Mary often. Mary
went home to live with her parents in the village where she grew up. People in the
small village talked about her divorce all the time. She finally lost her temper and
scolded the people who were gossiping about her. During that period her parents
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gave her the emotional support that she needed; they comforted her. She worked in a
teahouse in Mau-li for a while. Working in the teahouse, she drank with the clients,
and sometimes went dancing with them. To her, it was like playing while you work.
Then friends from her village told her that they worked in a teahouse in San-shan, and
that their boss was a nice guy. Upon hearing this, she quit her job in Mau-li to work
in the teahouse in San-shan. San-shan is not very far away from her village. Her
father picked her up everyday from work while she was working in San-shan. Every
night she went home, the food prepared by her mother was ready on the table. She
enjoyed the warmth of her family and felt emotionally closer to her parents after her
divorce. " No one in the world is as trustworthy as your own parents, " she told us.
Mary had had several relationships with more than one man before she met her
current husband. She used to live with a man who was once her boyfriend in
Taichung. The man offered Mary the material resources that she wanted. She left
him later because he gambled, and Mary was afraid that he was entering into an
unstable financial condition.
Mary decided to quit her job in the teahouse after she found herself pregnant once
again. She told us that she had worked for quite a long time and she wanted to get
married. Although she found work in the teahouse interesting and lucrative, after she
met her second husband-to-be, she began to feel that she needed to move on to the
next stage of her life. She had her own plan. " The things you do at different ages
are different." She had seen what the outside world was like. She has tried
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whatever she thought to be fun. Now, she felt that she had reached the age to settle
down and raise a family. " I have seen enough. I want to live a steady life now."
This time she did not tell her husband too much about her prior life. Her husband
and his family knew nothing about her past in Shen-chu. Mary did not even want to
talk about the details of her work in the teahouse in San-shen with her husband ' s
family, even though she met her husband there. " Why did I become a sex worker?
You know how poor we were? If my family were wealthy, I would not have needed
to make money that way. Some people don ' t consider the difficult situation that you
are in; they don ' t have much consideration for others. " Mary experienced the
negative side of human nature before. Her honesty to her first husband ' s family did
not result in a happy ending. People in her hometown were not on her side after her
divorce. They all thought it was her fault that the marriage fell apart, because she
were once a prostitute. Thus, this time, she was very careful about revealing her past.
She thought that she did not have the obligation to confess her past to her husband ' s
family. She said: " Who knows what they will say about you. You ' d better keep
your own story to yourself. You don ' t need to tell anybody. People usually don ' t
ask why you went into prostitution. They simply say bad things about you. "
Mary now admitted that it was not all her first husband ' s fault that her marriage
failed; she shared responsibility. She admitted that she should not have drunk so
much then, and she was not as thoughtful as she is now. Her explanation for this is
she was under much more stress. " My first husband ' s family complained about my
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not being able to give birth to a child. If they could have waited, I believe I could
have gotten pregnant sooner or later. Also, they despised my family. "
Now Mary thinks that she is a happy mother and a good wife, as well as a good in
law to her husband ' s sister and brother. She said that she has felt really happy since
the birth of her daughter. Mary suggested to her husband that he reestablish a
relationship with his own father who left the family when her husband was young.
She is proud that her in-laws all praise her as a good woman. Talking about the
future, she hopes that she can raise her child and keep a good relationship with her
husband. She told us that she plans to run a small business selling candies when her
daughter grows older.
Analysis
The narrative of Mary ' s first interview is in the form of a traditional story; that is,
it is a narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an end with one single plot. We did
not ask her any questions during the talk. In the follow-up interviews, the discourses
are not in the form of a story as in the first interview. Rather, they are flashbacks of
her life. She talked about a theme, an event or a person. As the discourses go on, the
plots shifted, because we asked questions, or because she thought of something else
and began to talk about another issue.
Juxtaposing the self-told story with the information revealed in the other sources
renders an inclusive and comprehensible understanding of the meanings of her
narrative as a whole.
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What She Wanted to Convey to Us in her Self-told Life Story
In her first seif-told life story, which was told without being interrupted by us,
there are three segments of her life story. The first segment is about her family
selling her into prostitution. She chooses ' being poor ' as the scenario of her life
story. Because of the poor financial condition of her family, Mary and her sister had
thought of improving their financial condition ever since they were little. The main
story line of the first segment of her self-told life story is as follows: She was a girl
bora into a poor family. Being poor, she had long had the thought in her mind that
she wanted to improve the family condition. Her family arranged a marriage for her
when she was thirteen. She ran away from the wedding, for she found that the family
of her husband to be was very poor. She was afraid to marry someone who was even
poorer than she was. Her family could not afford to compensate the man ' s family.
They came to the agreement that she had to " work" to pay for the penalty. She
thought working in the brothel to be a reasonable solution to solve the problem that
her family was facing. Also, she considered it as a way to earn fast money to
improve the financial condition of her family. She never thought of escaping when
she was in the brothel. In a random check of MP, she was taken away from the
brothel. The plot of the first narrative is about " struggling for a better life."
The description of her leaving the brothel was followed by a short description of
her first marriage at age sixteen. This is the beginning of the second segment of her
self-told story. Her original intention in mentioning her first marriage was to tell us
± at her family gave her emotional support after the collapse of her marriage. She
talked at length describing her parents as people with integrity. In her narrative, her
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father was depicted as a respectful, decent man; her mother was illustrated as an
honest and loving mother.
The third segment of her first narrative is about how she met her present husband
and married. In this segment she gave us a story on how she pursued the marriage.
In describing the role of her father, she repeated what a decent man he was, and that
he won the respect of her in-laws. At the closing of the first narrative, she ended her
story with what a good wife she strove to be.
The reason why she laid stress on depicting her parents as responsible, and on her
being a good wife becomes more comprehensible as the narratives goes on to the next
stage.
W h€U is Revealed in the Later Dialogue and the Record about Her
A Childhood that Was Not Necessarily Sad
When Mary was telling her life story in the first interview, the only thing that she
said about her childhood is poverty. But, she was much more than a poor girl even
when she was only twelve.
There were other memories of her childhood other than her memories of being poor.
When she was asked to talk about the interesting things of her childhood, she recalled
her experiences of farming, hunting, and housework. She also recalled taking care of
her mother. She recognized these work as ' fun. ' Being poor was the condition
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that she and her family were in when she was little. However, she also had
childhood memories that she recalled as interesting. It seems that though they were
poor, she still enjoyed her young life through participating in the work of the family
and taking care of her own mother. The atmosphere of her childhood was not as sad
as one would expect under the circumstance. Even though she was only a child, she
was actually fairly capable in terms of her physical and mental state of being. She
took care of her family in many ways including caring for her mother and helping in
the field. She did not recognize these as sad memories, instead, she recalled them as
something ' fun ' in her childhood. She did not view herself as a poor little child
who needed to be protected and to be taken care of. Her understanding of her
childhood was not really a sad one. Instead, at the later stage of the interview, she
talked about her childhood in a rather joyful way. She chose to lay stress on the poor
financial condition of her family, and omitted the other aspects of her childhood in
her self-told life story in order to justify her being sold by her own family. She gave
us a story that is socially acceptable.
Rejecting Talking about Her Early Sexual Relationships
Mary rejected talking about her sexual experience before she was sold and her
relationships with several men before she got married again. According to the record
of the counseling center, she told the counselor that she had boyfriends before she
was sold. She had sex with at least one boy and got pregnant. In addition, a woman
in her village lured her to work as a free sex worker in a small city nearby, before her
family sold her into prostitution. However, she did not mention any of these
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incidents, even once, in any of her talks. I tried to encourage her to talk about these
events. She simply said that she was a Little girl then, and that she could not
remember the details.
The Memories in the Brothel
In the following interviews, Mary gradually revealed more memories regarding
her life in the brothel gradually. She got used to the lifestyle of the brothel in a few
months. Her family would visit her every few weeks. When they came visiting, she
got a half-day off. They went out to eat and chat without the company of any people
of the brothel. Her description of these visits does not sound sad. The situation is
similar to that of the parents from the countryside visiting their daughter working or
studying in the boarding schools in the city. It is rather like a warm and merry
visiting. She always came back to " work" when the time was up. No tears and
complaints were in the reunion.
She recalled her relationship with a young man there who was the younger brother
of the Madam. This is what she talked about with great relish. According to the
record, she told the counselor that she competed with the other girls in the brothel for
the guy, and she won. She did not mention the competition when she talked to me.
In her talking to me, she laid stress on describing what a handsome guy he was. At
the conclusion of her recollections of the man, she said, in a highly gratified tone:
" Yes, he is really cute. " As a child prostitute, who had to conform to the sexual
advences of her patrons, she sometimes took an active role in chasing men. She
enjoyed responding to the sexual attraction of the men she liked.
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Not wanting to Give Comment on the Social Welfare Institution
Mary did not speak of her life in the social welfare institutions— the compulsory
remedial program and the halfway house. Upon being asked to reflect upon her life
in these social institutions, she simple responded: " Everything was fine. " The only
information that she offered regarding her moving out of the halfway house was that
she missed home very much.
It is possible that she avoided giving comments on the social welfare institutions.
She did not want to confront these institutions verbally in front of us. I was not sure
why Mary avoided giving comments on the social welfare institution, until the then
social worker of Mary told me about the awkward situation that Mary faced when she
first arrived at the half-way house. Mary faced the situation of testifying against her
own parents. She told the social worker that she did not want her parents to go to jail.
She asked for suggestions from the social worker. The social worker realized that if
she told Mary to lie in the court about her being sold into prostitution, the charge on
her parents would be dropped. However, the charge on the traffickers of the girls
would be dropped, too. Although the social worker wished that Mary ' s parents
could be released, in order to save more girls from being trafficking into prostitution
from these traffickers, the social worker made a painful decision to suggest Mary to
tell the truth. After telling the truth, as suggested by the social worker, Mary
complained to the social worker that her parents were still punished. She thought she
could negotiate her parents ' freedom by cooperating with the authority. However,
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the result was not as she expected. Mary felt betrayed. It may have caused Mary ' s
distrust of the social welfare institutions.
Emphasizing the Stress that She Had in Her First Marriage
Mary did not say much about her first marriage, except for her infertility in the
marriage and the resultant pressure. She told us that she felt very much stressed in
her first marriage. She admitted that she had faults in the marriage— she drank too
much. Yet, she thought it was due to the pressure that her mother-in-law gave her.
She did not mention that she ran away several times. However, according to the
record in the counseling center, her husband called the counselor complaining about
her hanging out with guys drinking all night and running away more than one time
after he interrogated her. In contrast, Mary laid stress sole on how upset she felt
because of not being able to get pregnant when she was in the marriage. She avoided
saying much about her acting-out at that time. Mary gave rather short accounts of
her life in her first marriage. Nevertheless, she gave a vivid description of the scene
of the melee in which the marriage finally ended. She said after her husband signed
the agreement of divorce, he ran out of the house shouting: " Mary Hu was a
prostitute. " Her mother-in-law watched with a sarcastic grin on her face. This
irritated Mary so much that Mary grabbed her mother-in-law ' s hair with one hand
and pounded on her face with the other. The two women grappled with each other in
the passage. The neighbors all came out of their apartments to watch. With a big
smile on her face, she said she thought it was fun.
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Avoiding Talking in Detail about Her Relationships with Several Men She Dated or
Lived with Before Her Second Marriage
Mary mentioned her relationship with a wealthy man before her second marriage.
Her original intention was to tell us that since she had seen enough of the outside
world when she was with this man, she wanted to be a housewife now. She avoided
talking more about the relationship. She told me: " Oh, there is not much to talk
about. It is all past. " In an another interview, she accidentally mentioned that she
was seeing yet another man right before she married her husband now. She, again,
avoided talking further about this second relationship. She simply said that the man
was after her. She did not choose him, because she was pregnant with her future
husband ' s baby.
The juxtaposition of her first self-told life story with that of the data revealed
through other sources many reveals aspects of her being as such. Mary had been a
capable being since she was a little girl. She took care of people. She did not look at
herself as a poor little thing. She can look at the supposedly unfortunate memories,
such as the taking care of her drunken mother and the fight with her ex mother-in-
law, in a jolly way. Learning from her life experience, she has her own way of
surviving. She also knows very well how to deal with mainstream people.
The Expression o f Her Life as Such at the Different Stages
Regarding the sequence of the disclosure of her own understanding of her life as
such, there are three stages of Mary ' s narrative. At the first stage, she tried to
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convey the message that her family ' s decision to send her to work in the brothel was
not despicable. She described her father as a decent man, and her mother as a loving
mother. They visited her regularly when she was working in the brothel. They gave
her emotional support when she felt down after her first divorce. When she was
working in the teahouse, she and her family took care of each other. They were a
loving family. She worked to improve the financial condition of the family. Her
parents took care of her daily life.
She first viewed me as a representative ft’ om the authority. She was careful about
not revealing too much that was contradictory to our values. But, at the second stage,
she began to reveal more of her true feelings and understandings. I invited her to talk
about the memorable things when she was young. Her memories of her childhood at
this stage suggest that she did not perceive her childhood as misery. She considered
her romance with the young man in the brothel who was the younger brother of the
Madame as something memorable. This suggests that she took advantage of
whatever moments of her life that she could. This speculation was later confirmed at
the third stage. During this stage, a new meaning of the selling incident emerged.
Mary used the term " the job that I took in Shen-chu" to refer to her being a child
prostitute. We began to talk about her ' working there. ' She may have always
considered being sold into child prostitution in Shen-chu as the first job in which she
was employed. She was aware to a certain extent that she was going to work in the
sex industries before her uncle took her there; she simply did not know what kind of
sex service that she would be expected to do. During the counseling sessions she did
not express this understanding of being sold to the brothel in Shen-chu. She may not
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have expressed her understanding, because of her awareness that in the context of the
social welfare system, as well as the judicial system, she had been assigned the role of
victim. In order to increase the chance to terminate her status as a ward of the social
welfare institution, she chose to take on the role it had assigned her. A letter she wrote
to a friend showed that she had made a great deal of effort to cooperate with the
authority in the remedial program with the hope of getting permission to go home as
soon as possible. She was upset and did not understand why she was sent to the
halfway house after being so obedient in the remedial center. She did not understand
why the social worker kept on telling her it would be better for her to stay in the
halfway house. What she was strongly aware of was that " the authority" — the
various social institutions, including the social welfare system and the judicial system
— had the power to decide where she should stay. She realized the power they had
over her. She believed she could not win by confronting the authority directly. She
chose to conform to it for ± e chance to get her freedom as soon as possible. What
she did not know when she was first sent to the halfway house was that she could
move out of it with an agreement statement from her sister. When she fount out
about this she enlisted her sister ' s aid and moved out of the halfway house shortly
thereafter. This reconfirms that she did not feel at ease in the care of the social
welfare system.
At the second stage of the narrative, an important aspect of her being was
unveiled. Far from being a poor little thing, she was revealed to be a strong person.
Although she was only a child, she was able to take care of her alcoholic mother, and,
as well, she was able to stand up to her mother-in-law when she made up her mind to
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end her first marriage. She recalled the story with her first mother-in-law with a
satisAed smile.
Although a great deal of information were revealed in the narrative of this stage,
some parts of the narrative are hard to be interpreted at this point. Mary talked about
taking care of her drunken mother and her jumping out of the window with her
mother in an incident of domestic violence (my standards) as " funny. " It is hard to
come up with a coherent explanation for why were her mother ' s drinking problem
and the domestic violence that is viewed by the mainstream as supposedly traumatic
experiences expressed by Mary in a jubilant manner? For an Atayan, can the daily
experiences of these supposed traumatic experiences be truly intemalized as
something that is " funny" in the Atayan way of life? Or, is down playing the pain
in the experience and emphasizing the funny part of it is a way to keep the memory in
a non-hurting way? At this point, there is not enough evidence to support either
speculation yet.
Moving toward the third stage of her narrative, she began to disclose more about
why she worked in the sex industries, and her relationships with the men she lived
with. She did not make these disclosures intentionally. Her primary goal was to say
that she had seen enough of the outside world, she wanted simply to be a housewife.
However, her talk also revealed her desire to seek pleasure in life and to take full
advantage of what was available. For her, working in the teahouse and having
relationships with men was attributable, in part, to her desire to seek pleasure and see
the outside world. The employment that she took in the sex industries after she
moved out of the halfway house connected her, an aboriginal girl grown up in a poor
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mountain area, to the colorful world outside of the village. She mentioned that it was
" haowan" (fun) to " work" (as a teahouse girl).
Among the four informants, Mary is the one who cared most about the financial
condition of the men with whom she had relationships. What is kept in the records in
the halfway house suggests that she left a man when she found him not financially
viable. Although it cannot be known whether or not she had feelings for the men
with whom she had relationships, what can be known is that she did, to a certain
extent, achieve her dream of living a better material life, and of experiencing the
world through these relationships. She has a very pragmatic view on her marriage
now. As long as her husband still performs the function of providing financially for
the family, it is not necessary to break the partnership, even though he has affairs with
other women. For her, the issue in marriage is not one of betrayal, it is one of
survival. It is possible that, deep inside, she perceives her life to be an adventure in
exploration. She always takes fully advantage of the resources she has to widen her
life experiences.
Mary is witty in that she knows what to emphasize and what to avoid revealing
in order to gain acceptance from me. In the first stage of her narrative, she
emphasized assisting her family. She did not say that she did not think that her life in
the brothel was horrible, and that she even had some good memories about her days
there. She repeatedly told us how stressful her first marriage was, and attributed her
drinking problem to this stress. She hid her desires to seek pleasure in life in the first
stage of the interview, and laid stress on her working in the sex industries as primarily
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due to the poverty of her family. She knew very well that though seeking pleasure,
and supporting her family financially were both reasons why she worked in the sex
industries, she had better lay stress on the latter, and avoided mentioning the former.
She knew that her desire in seeking pleasure, and the means she used to reach her
goal were not acceptable to the mainstream. In her perception, though the social
workers of the foundation of Garden of Hope offered assistance, and were kind to her,
they, the social workers, did not share the same desires and values as she. The social
workers played an awkward role in her life— they were people who were nice to her,
who offered help to her, but they also represented the mainstream ideology that
condemned her.
Mary is an amazing being. She is far from a " nice kid. " She is shrewd. She
is pleasure-seeking. She desires adventures. She is full of vigor in that she can look
at the supposed misfortune in her life in a jubilant way. She does not conform to the
ethical standards of the dominating culture. However, she never surrenders to the
dominating ideology. She is wild in her own way. Though the social resources that
had been distributed to her were limited, this limitation did not restrict her ability to
enjoy life. She is socially disadvantaged, but she makes every effort to live her life to
the fullest. Unlike sociologists and intellectuals who challenge the dominating
ideology only through the use of speculative language, Mary ' s very life embodies the
challenge to this same ideology, true as she is to her untamed instincts.
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A Comparison of the Four Informants
The Significance of the Selling Incident and Being in Prostitution
Each of the four informants recognized the significance of the incident of being
sold into child prostitution. The meaning of the selling incident varied significantly
according to the social world they each inhabited.
For Mei, being sold into child prostitution was the chasm in her life. The incident
dramatically changed her life. She found the three years in prostitution irreconcilable
to her life prior to being sold and to her life in the present. The feeling of
irreconcilability is even stronger now than it was when she came out of the brothel.
The people that Mei associates with are high school girls who belong to the Christian
fellowship of her school. Most of them are from conservative middle-class families.
Their world generally does not overlap with that of any of the marginal groups. They
distinguish themselves from the " low, dirty and sinful " girls who have sharply
discernible behaviors and ways of dressing. They separate themselves from the
" corrupted" girls, whom they perceive to be morally wrong and religiously sinful.
Associating with them, Mei becomes more aware of the rejection of the mainstream
society of what she once was. Though she was forced into child prostitution, out of
desperation, she acted according to the prevailing life style in the brothel. This made
Mei feel that she was corrupted by her own choice. Her feeling of impurity and sin
became even stronger after she rejoined the world of the main stream. The
mainstream world condemns " moral corruption" according to a simplified
behavior standard. Being sold into prostitution is not the problem; her choice to
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accept her role as a child prostitute is the problem. She thinks that she chose to be
one of the adulterated. She perceives herself to be soiled and unforgivable.
Sue also recognizes the selling incident as the critical incident of her life. It
terminated her days as a promising student, and broke her dream of moving upward
through education. Nevertheless, unlike Mei, Sue does not perceive her past as a
child prostimte strongly irreconcilable to her life in the present. Sue ' s personal
network consists of people who are familiar to these sex industries. She worked in
the KTV after she moved out of the half-way-house. KTV is the kind of place where
men can pay the girls working there to sing or to chat with them in a private room. If
they paid more, the girls would even provide sex service. It is the higher rank of the
sex industries compared to the brothel. Sue clearly stated that it is " pu-kuang-
ts 'a i" to work as a prostitute in the brothel, but, it is not a shame to work in the
higher ranks of the sex industries in the social world she is in.® She smokes and
dresses in a seductive way. She thinks it is the fashion. Considering her associates,
her anxiety is not aroused by a need to identify with the image of a high school girl.
J used to view the selling incident as a betrayal of her father. After her father
apologized to her and thanked her for her sacrifice for the family, she reframed the
incident into a worthwhile sacrifice for her family. With a personal network that is
more similar to that of Sue ' s, she also views working in the bars and KTV as
acceptable. Like Sue, though she does not think it honorable to be a child prostitute,
she does not think prostitution is an unforgivable sin that exempts someone from the
right to live with dignity. She does not perceive any parts of her past irreconcilable
with her life in the present. According toJ's narrative, it suggests that she may not
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associate immorality with many behaviors viewed as delinquency by the mainstream.
Her " doping with" her now ex-boyfriend is recognized as stupid, not as corrupted.
Mary is the only one of the four informants who perceives being a child prostitute
as a job. The major complaint that she had regarding the incident of being sold into
prostitution is— her uncle found her a lousy job as a prostitute in the brothel. There
was other employment in the sex industries; however, she was not resourceful then
and was introduced to a job that was at the lowest rank of the sex industries. After
moving out of the half-way-house, she found herself working at a teahouse.
Teahouse girls are sex workers that are of higher rank than the prostitutes in the
brothels. Mary tried hard to convince me that it was a decent job that paid well. She
had long been used to the idea that girls and young women work in the sex
industries.^ It is very common for Atayan girls upon reaching their puberty to
leave the village in order to work in the sex industries in the cities. They do not
necessarily perceive themselves to be sinful. To Mary, using one ' s own body to
make a living is simply a part of being poor, just like doing labor to make a living. It
has nothing to do with moral corruption.® She does not have conflicting feelings
toward her parents. Her working in the sex industries is an agreement among the
family members from the very beginning. The discrimination of the Chinese
mainstream is what bothers her.
The different interpretations of the selling incidents depend on the worlds of the
informants. The meaning of the selling incident of each person is understood within
the context of the whole life situation- the person ' s stream of life from the past to
the present.
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Each of four informants ' feelings toward the parent(s) who sold them varies.
To J, being sold by her own father was about being betrayed. She had never
imagined that her father would hurt her in such a terrible way. The feeling of being
betrayed was so strong that it was hard for her to accept that the man who sold her
was really her father. After she moved out of the half-way-house, J even went to the
local office of civil service to check her birth certificate to see whether the man who
sold her was her biological father. Having confirmed that the man was her father, J
found resolution in her father ' s apology. She realized that her father viewed her
prostitution as a sacrifice for the family and, thus, was able to reframe the incident in
her mind as a worthwhile sacrifice.
Having been sold by her own father, Mei also questioned why her father never
really treated her as his own offspring. However, her sense of betrayal is not as
defined as J ' s. Mei found out that her father had a son with a woman whom she did
not know. She seems to think that this accounts for her father ' s abandoning her
more than one time. Mei does not identify her father's selling her into prostitution
and her father's being unfaithful to her mother as betrayal. This feeling could stem
from the belief that her father never loved her. Therefore, she has never been
surprised that he sold her for money.
Sue is very angry with her mother, because she ruined her life by selling her into
prostitution. Similar to the situation of Mei, Sue did not identify her mother ' s act as
betrayal. Her mother had long abused her, both emotionally and physically. Sue is
not just angry with her mother, she is angry at the world that she has been thrown
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into. Everything is unfair to her. Having a mother like this is just one of the things
about her that she does not think that she deserves.
Mary, on the other hand, does not think that her parents betrayed her in any sense.
On the contrary, her parents were her emotional supporters in her continual struggle
against the discrimination of the outside world. In the Ataya village, the group made
the decision that Mary would become a prostitute. Her prostitution was an agreement
among every member of the family. Prostitution was a means of supporting the
family.
Love Affair and Marriage
The meaning of being in love and the meaning of marriage vary according to the
different situations of the four informants. The meaning of being in love changed for
the various informants at different stages of their lives.
Mei never discussed marriage, but she recalled her relationships with two young
patrons. Her relationships with these two men were the most meaningful for her at
the brothel. When Mei was in the brothel, she constructed a world for herself with
the men she loved in it. In actual everyday life, she was caged and oppressed. The
promised gifts so coveted by others gave her no satisfaction. With the men she loved,
she constructed an imagined niche into which she could retreat while having sex with
other men. This helped her to successfully endure the pain of daily life in the brothel
and regain the power to struggle for a better life. Now attending high school, Mei
resists having a relationship for it is not encouraged in the group of " nice" high
school girls. Mei ' s resistance is a way of identifying with the group she associates
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with. The significance of a relationship diminished as Mei escaped the oppressive
world of prostitution and entered a world of average high school girls.
Sue is married but still longs for a relationship that can give her the feeling of
security. She mentioned that she needs a family. In Sue ' s case, to love a man is
associated with having a sweet family. She has been disappointed many times
because the men she had relationships with did not want the responsibility of having a
family with her. She complains that she has always loved with her full heart, but the
men whom she loved often let her down. The men Sue loved only added to the
trauma of her life. Perhaps she is insecure and has unrealistic expectations of what a
family life should be like, because she never experienced a loving and trusting
relationship in her family. The insecurity renders a great deal of dissatisfaction in her
marriage now. Whenever there is a conflict between them. Sue feels terribly
insecure— she wonders whether he still cares about her. Sue is looking for a man to
end her insecurity and the ultimate loneliness that she attaches with it. However, her
relationships with men usually cause her even more insecurity.
J was in love with her first boyfriend and moved out of the half-way-house to be
with him. J explained what it meant to be with the man whom she loved. She
pointed out that, now, she knows he signified security and excitement. She did not
know how to articulate the meaning of the love for her at the time; she simply knew
that she wanted to be with the man. Not until years later could J articulate the
significance of the desperate love. Her present relationship with her husband is more
family- oriented. She married him to belong to a family. J, unlike Sue, is more
realistic in her perception of a married life. J knows that she was not simply marrying
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a man; she was marrying his whole family. She knows that family life is full of
conflicts and endless housework, and a family may easily fall apart. J is more
prepared for the less romantic facts about marriage.
Mary has the most extreme view of the four women. Mary ' s desire to see the
world comes before having a relationship with a man. The emotional attachment that
is seen in the other three women is not evident in Mary. According to the record in
the counseling center, she was concerned about the financial background of the men
she dated. She once accidentally mentioned the relationship that she had with a
wealthy man. She quit her job in the teahouse to live with the man, then left him
because he liked gambling. She did not feel very sad. Her original point in
mentioning this relationship was to tell us that she has seen the world and now feels
satisfied being a housewife. Mary has had the chance to live a life of luxury and
adventure, and she feels no regret. She also mentioned that when her first marriage
broke down, she only felt sorry that she had to live in poverty again. Was a man ' s
financial background the major consideration in her decision to have a relationship?
Was having a relationship a way for Mary to live a better life and to explore the
world? It could be. But, she smartly avoided saying it clearly. Instead, she casted an
image that she did not care that her husband was poor, insisting that she could live a
life without much money. She did this to make herself conform to the values of the
educated middle class which we, the interviewers, belong to.
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The Relationship between the Social Workers and the Girls
The relationships between the girls and the social workers are evolving. Mei is
the only one who has had a very good relationship with the social workers from the
beginning; but now the friendly relationship is moving into an awkward stage as Mei
rejoins the mainstream. On the contrary, the other informants had a rough
relationship with the social workers in the beginning. As the power relationships
between the girls and the social workers changed, the social workers became a trusted
social resource. The professional relationship between the girls and the social
workers usually evolved into a more equal relationship with the progression of time.
From the beginning, Mei has viewed the social workers and the counselors of the
foundation as her idols. She has wanted to be like them. However, as she has
become more assimilated into the mainstream, she feels less tolerant of her past in the
brothel. She knows the social workers and the counselors because of her once being a
child prostitute. They are people that she identifies with. But, they are also people
who are associated with the memory of the three years that she wants to forget. She
now has very conflicting feelings about the social workers and the counselors of the
foundation. The relationship between the social workers, the counselors, and Mei is
now at an awkward stage. The relationship between the three depends on how well
she will reconcile with her past.
Sue ' s relationship with the social workers has evolved in the opposite direction
of Mei. Her relationship with the counselors has developed from one of opposition
to one of consultation. When she was a resident of the halfway house, the social
workers were viewed as the authority. Since Sue was only fourteen then, she was
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protected as a junior without the full right of making her own decisions. She
complained that she was treated like a child and argued with the social workers quite
often. The relationship between Sue and the social workers of the halfway house was
similar to the relationship between an irritable, adolescent child and her parents. Sue
moved out of the halfway house to live with her boyfriend. After being estranged
from her boyfriend. Sue began to consult the social workers on how to get ahead in
her own life. The social workers became trusting and resourceful friends rather than
the authoritative parents.
J ' s evolving relationship with the social workers and the counselors is similar to
that of Sue ' s. J also felt restricted in the halfway house. Like Sue, she felt that it
was necessary to move out in order to have a closer relationship with her boyfriend.
The social workers did not support her doing so. J realized that the social workers '
intention was to protect her; however, like the other girls, she felt that the social
workers did not understand her feelings. The social workers of the halfway house
were viewed as the controlling parents. J, too, after separating from her boyfriend
resumed a fiiendly relationship with the social workers. The parental relationship
between J and the social workers moved into a new stage of fnends. Although J does
not m aintain as close contact with the social workers as Sue, she does maintain a
friendly relationship which shows her appreciation of the help she received.
Mary ' s relationship with the social workers is similar to that of Sue and J,
however, her background creates a greater barrier between the social workers and
herself. Her original self-telling story is a prepared rhetoric with the purpose of
telling us, firom the beginning, that neither her parents nor her working in the sex
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industries is despicable. Her narrative assumes that the listeners from an educated,
middle-class background are likely to view the Atayan family, who sent their own
daughter to prostitution, as shameful. Her experience with the judicial system and
the social welfare institution has given her the impression that her family ' s beliefs
are not accepted by the mainstream society. According to the counselor, when Mary
arrived at the halfway house, she faced the awkward situation of testifying against her
own parents. She told the counselor that she did not want her parents to go to jail, and
she did not understand why they should be there. After telling the truth, as suggested
by the social workers, Mary complained that her parents were still punished. She
obviously was not able to distinguish between the role of the social worker and that of
the district attorney. Mary thought she could negotiate her parents ' freedom and
thought that as long as she told the truth as the social workers suggested, her family
would not have any trouble. After her parents were convicted, Mary felt betrayed and
realized that her views were not that of the mainstream. Prostitution, this one Atayan
family ' s solution to poverty, was perceived as wrong and contemptible by the people
in power. Her awareness of this attitude of the dominating group is revealed in
almost every narrative and is the blocking factor in her relationship with the social
workers. Mary has maintained contact with the social workers in order to benefit
from their resources.
Education
The four girls ' expectations of education differ. Mei, Sue and J all believe that
education is the way to move up in society. However, Mei is the only who rejoined
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the normal school life and survived well. Sue and J wanted to go back to school, but
they did not succeed in school as well as Mei did. Mary, the one who deviated the
most from the mainstream, never even thought of going back to school.
Mei was eager to rejoin the school life soon after she arrived at the halfway house.
She is the exception. Going back to school did not simply mean continuing her
education; it also meant coming back to the world that she used to belong to before
she was sold. J first planned to continue her education. She was distracted, however,
by her boyfriend and dropped out of school soon after. Sue, on the other hand,
wanted to succeed in school so much that she did not know how to deal with her
failure in class. Both J and Sue still want to go back to school if possible. They also
realize that without a high school diploma, they will not be able to find jobs other
than in the low-paid labor markets and sex industries. Mary is unique to the group;
she never wanted to go back to school. Schooling just does not make any sense to
her. Mary is an Atayan girl who grew up in a pure Atayan family. The cultural
discrepancy between the school life and the family life in Mary ' s situation is the
greatest among the four cases. Therefore, it is not surprising that she does not feel
comfortable attending the school system dominated by the mainstream Chinese
culture. Although education is ideally the way for people to move up in society,
people who have greater ethnic and class-cultural differences are not as likely to
benefit from the mainstream school system.
Notes:
1 .The old veterans coming to Taiwan from mainland China with the KMT government, are also one of
the most disadvantaged and discriminated classes of the society. They were dismissed by the
government with very little severance pay.
2.The domestic violence that Mary experienced should not be viewed as an individual case. In the
sixties, Wu (1963) reported that the traditional Atayan society is patriarchal, and that it is not unusual
to see women being violated physically. He wrote: " For many Atayan women, families are not what
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they can rely on. ' The situation has not improved in the nineties. The woman writer. Li ke A-wu
(1996), who marries an Atayan man also reports that domestic violence is still a serious issue in the
Atayan villages that she observed.
3." Go to KTV" is a popular entertainment in Taiwan. People go to KTV to sing with the help of
Karaoke— a machine that can play the songs and modify the voice of the one who sings with the
machine. In a KTV, there are rooms for rent by the hour that are equipped with Karaoke and a big
screen TV. Some KTVs hire young girls to sing with the customers or even to provide sex service for
the customers.
4.According to Mary, her parents could not speak Mandarin very well; Mary ' s uncle and his wife
mastered the language better. Thus, they were the spokespersons of the family who negotiated with
the brothel about the " deal. "
5 There were holes on the walls of the rooms where the patrons had sex with the prostitutes. The holes
were for the Madam and the pimps to monitor the activities in the room in order to ensure that the
prostitutes and the patrons were " doing nothing else but the business. "
6.and 8. Both Sue and Mary used the adjective " pu-kuang-ts ' ai" to describe their past as child
prostitutes. The literary meaning of this word is * (something) that is not honorable." This word
does not necessarily refer to morally despicable things or persons. It is not a word as strong as
* shameful. " It is rather an adjective that describes something about a person that he/she would not
boast of. For example, if a woman thinks that the financial condition of the husband that a woman can
marry is what tells how valuable she is, she may say that it is " pu-kuang-ts'ai" to marry a husband
who earns only minimum wage.
7. It is a phenomenon that has been continued for thirty years. It has resulted from the breaking down
of the sex taboo, the modernizing of the transportation system and the invasion of the economic system
of the mainstream.
The traditional Atayan cultiu-e forbade sexual relationships out of marriage. There used to be a
religious reason for this. The Atayan people believed that if unwed men and women had sexual
intercourse, the spirit of the ancestors of this gaga— the same hunting and farming unit, would punish
the whole gaga by reducing their farming and himting products. However, though real sexual
intercourse was strictly forbidden, kissing, caressing, and even holding each other to sleep between
unwed young couples who were attractive to each other was allowed (Wu, 1962). Comparing with the
Chinese society in the sixties ', the traditional Atayan society allowed more intimate body contact
between unwed men and women. As modernization invades the Atayan society, the taboo of gaga has
been broken. Young Ataya people do not need to hold the last line of defense anymore. Sex is no
more a taboo.
The modem transportation, which shortens the distance of the villages and the cities also, takes a
part in the prosperity of the prostitution of the Atayan women. The highways across the central
mountain area were built in the fifties and the sixties. Women can travel to cities where their mothers
would have never been to. Taking a job in the cities has become a choice for the Atayan women since
the early sixties. Since most of the Atayan women did not have much education, they filled in the low
status of the labor market And, very soon, many of them were allured by the highly paid jobs in the
sex industries.
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V.
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation
Summary
This is a hermeneutic, qualitative research on four informants who were trafficked
into child prostitution. The focus of the study was the self-interpretation of each
informant of her life as such. The findings showed that within different, individual
life-story contexts, the meanings of the selling incident, the love affair and marriage,
their relationships with the social workers and counselors and the expectations of
education of the four informants differed.
Conclusion
The Social Implication of Dwelling in the Different Social Worlds of the Four
Informants
Although the four girls are distant from the mainstream world in varying degrees,
they have one thing in common; that is, it is very difficult to join the mainstream
world for all four of them. The mainstream encourages the girls to be " good
girls," so that they will be forgiven and accepted by society. However, this
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reconfirms that the girls, as prostitutes, are not to be tolerated, and are therefore,
contemptible.
Mei suffered a great deal in dealing with what she was. Though she identified
with the mainstream culture, she could not erase memories of her years as a
prostitute. If her prostitution was not viewed as shameful in the mainstream ' s eyes,
Mei would not have had so many inner conflicts. J, Sue and Mary have not suffered
as much from their past as child prostitutes as Mei has. Gang members and sex
workers constituted their personal worlds. J, Sue and Mary ' s attitudes toward sex
and the way in which they spoke, dressed, and carried themselves were not perceived
as abnormal to the people around them. However, the fact that they were not viewed
as aberrant in their own social worlds implies that they belong to a marginal world.
What is normal in this marginal social world could easily be viewed as abnormal and
disreputable in the mainstream world. Mary knew very well that her family and she
were condemned by the mainstream; and she was brave enough to say that they were
poor, not disgraceful.
The Assumed Representative o f the " Institution" / the Participator with More
Self-awareness
As their narratives unfolded, each girl recreated her history into a language form.
The personal histories represented in language form a creative matrix. This re
creation is closely related to what I was perceived prior to the interviews. That is, I
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was already in the creative, narrative process, even before I began the interviews.
Since I was introduced to the girls through the social workers and the counselors that
they knew, I inherited the image of the practitioners that the girls had prior contact
with; I also inherited what they had wanted to say to the practitioners. In the girls '
minds, the practitioners in the helping professions (I was counted as one of them.)
were the people representing the " institution." T his" institution" meant
something different to each informant. The most sharply contrasted perception of the
" instimtion" was between Mei and Mary. Mei, identifying with the mainstream,
viewed the institution as, " the rightness, " and " the can be trusted. " Mary, being
the one most marginal to the mainstream, viewed the institution as " the
oppressing. " J and Sue ' s views are in-between. Each of them had their own way to
respond to the " institution. " Mei has reflected upon her life in great detail; she
was a cooperative counseling client. She was willing to reinterpret her life with us.
On the other hand, Mary, at the beginning stage, prepared a story for me, the
representative of " the institution." She selected certain events and gave relatively
concise descriptions of these events. Her goal was to tell us that her family and she
were not as despicable as thought of by the mainstream. J and Sue, at the beginning
stage, avoided criticizing the social workers who were a part of the institution. What
each of the girls communicated arose out of their prior experiences with " the
institution." I did not begin a new story telling process with each of the girls; 1
joined a story that had already been going on for years.
As the story telling of each girl progressed, 1 began to ask questions and talk about
myself sometimes, more was revealed about myself as an individual. 1 began to join
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the story in a more active and visible role. It was inevitable that whatever I
communicated was from the point of view of my world; I understood their talk based
on what I had intemalized in my own world. They understood me from the point of
view of their worlds, also. As the interactive process went on, neither my world nor
theirs fixed or stopped at a certain point. We were moving forward under the
influence of each other. In this process, my " image" in their minds was being
continually reshaped. The narrative reshaped my image in their minds, and, in turn,
my image redirected the narrative. At the latter stage, we had conversations on the
issues that concerned us all. More personal issues were brought up. We spoke about
surviving, about love, and about the desire of having a family. I was more
individualized in the girls ' minds. I became someone who shared the commonality
of being a woman. I might not have been able to rid myself of the image as one from
the " institution" completely. I am, after all, part of the advantaged mainstream
which backs up the ' institution. " How I have benefited from the process of this
study is that I have become more aware of the state of being-in-the-world that I
inhabit. Both the world that I dwelled in and I, myself became more intelligible to
me set against the life experiences and world view of the young women who have
participated in this study.
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The Assumed Victim s/ the Narrators with Internal Power
I had the pre-existing image of these girls as little girls in misery. I thought they
would talk in tears about the oppression in the brothels. However, none of them did.
They were oppressed in the brothel, but the oppression there was not the only
obstacle, and maybe not the greatest one, that they had ever conquered. Although
each girl ' s struggle was unique and her internal power expressed differently, the
common element of the four proved to be that they were all strong individuals.
Mei ' s narrative was a careful reflection of her life. She tried to face what
happened before and to interpret the unwanted past. She wanted to give the dark
segments of her life new meaning— meaning that could be in harmony with the role
that she chose for herself. Before she was sold, her life promised a brilliant future
because of her talent in dancing and the enthusiastic help of her Japanese foster
father. The beautiful dream was broken when she was sold. Though she has
regained her freedom, the dream of being a dancer was not likely to be realized— she
has stopped dancing for too long. She needed to reinterpret the cruel chasm of her
life in a way that would empower her. The whole process of the interview with Mei
revealed her continuing struggle to understand the imdesired parts of her life.
Sue ' s narrative was basically an accusation of her mother. She attributed most of
her misery to her mother. Though Sue may not have faced her own weakness and the
actual situation very well, she still showed strength in arising from the boarder line of
desperation again and again. She showed that she had never been defeated
completely by the world that she thought unfair.
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J ' s narrative contained stories regarding her recovery from feeling deserted. J ' s
understanding of being sold had stabilized so that the incident of being sold had been
reframed in a positive way. The first segment of her narrative was about how she
reached an understanding of her father ' s selling her. The second segment was about
her boyAriend ' s meaning to her when she felt deserted by her family and how losing
tfiis once-significant person did not defeat her, but rendered her into a self-reliant
woman. In her narrative, she showed herself to be a person with a solid mind, who
had suffered and recovered.
Mary initially told us a story to give the impression that her family and their
decisions were not despicable. Later, in her narrative, she disclosed unintentionally
that her life was an adventure to explore the world, to widen her life experiences. She
was a girl with her own vision, who had an uncivilized but vigorous passion for life.
She sustained the pain and the discrimination in her life and enjoyed the happy
moments to the fullest. Mary was disadvantaged in terms of the social resources that
had been distributed to her. However, amazingly, this did not restrict her abundant
passion for life. She tried her best to enjoy her life to the fullest. She never
conformed to the mainstream ideology. She followed her heart. She wanted to
explore the world, to experience her life to the fullest, even if her desires did not
match the mainstream ideology. She had her own way of looking at the world.
The narrative of Mary as a whole reveals that she was shrewd in telling us
selectively about her life in her first self-told story. She knew how to deal with the
mainstream, but, in her mind, she was never tamed by the dominating ideology.
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These four girls are very different in terms of their understanding of life; but, what
they have in common is that they were all struggling hard to survive, to pursue what
was meaningful in their life contexts. I realize that what I saw were not four little,
innocent, pitiable victims of human trafficking; they were strong women who
survived the rigid situations of their lives with amazingly internal power.
Accessing the Atayan Mind
Mary, as the mind that perceived the world most differently from myself, was the
most difficult for me to understand. To come to an understanding requires a
discussion regarding the accessing of the Atayan mind as such. Mary ' s experiences
were extraordinary; however, her tme emotions as well as her self-interpretation of
many of these extraordinary experiences are still unknown to me. Mary ' s case raises
the question of how much understanding we can achieve in a cross-cultural situation.
In the narrative process, the inherent existential significance was assumed in each
informant ' s narrative. However, the existential significance of Mary ' s narratives
was not disclosed as comprehensible to the investigator as was in the narrative of the
other three informants. For instance, the disclosure of the assumed painful memories
regarding the drinking problem of her families and the domestic violence within the
family was not expressed with sad emotion. On the contrary, Mary recognized them
as something " fimny. " The reason she gave regarding identifying these memories
as fimny was that the " scenes " of these events were fimny. There can be many
explanations for her responses as such. First, an event has several aspects, and, these
aspects may stand in paradoxical relationship to each other. The question to ask is, is
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it possible to hold a supposedly sad memory in tandem with a funny interpretation of
that memory? Moreover, this seemingly inappropriate response of Mary occurred
when she was asked to recall something " fun " in her life. Thus, is it possible that
since the climate of the talk was cheerful, only the funny aspect of the events, which
suited the climate of the talk, was expressed? It is also possible that the interviewers,
unaware, made a mistake in the interviewing process that blocked the further
disclosure of the painful aspect of the supposedly sad events. Language
considerations must also be taken into account. Mandarin is Mary ' s second
language; Mary might find it difficult to talk about her deeper feelings in Mandarin.
Furthermore, Mary ' s childhood incidents occurred in an Atayan cultural and
linguistic environment. She retrieved those memories in another linguistic
environment, that of Mandarin, and this was not be the language directly associated
with her deeper feelings about her childhood memories. Therefore, speaking in
Mandarin may not have created a dialogical condition that could elicit the deeper
feelings regarding those early memories. In addition, it is obvious that the
interviewers were perceived as the representatives of the institution, which had
labeled her family as disreputable. The interviewers were very likely not viewed as
the proper people to whom she could disclose her pains related to her family. It is
also possible that the memories were severely painful, and that she had to detach her
real feelings from them in order to express them; the expression of these emotions, as
such, was a transformative expression of her memories. Thus, the disclosure of these
events was, at the same time, a closure of these events.
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The possibility remains that the memories simply were not sad to Mary; they were
assumed to be sad by me. Drinking problems as well as domestic violence is
prevalent in the Atayan society and they have been a part of Atayan life for a long
time. Lacking life experiences as an Atayan, I may also lack the relevant context to
realize the actualities of alcoholism and domestic violence in Atayan culture. It is
possible that Atayans, as a culture group, do not interpret alcoholism and domestic
violence within the same context that their counterparts in Chinese society do, thus,
the associated emotions are not what we expect. (Alcoholism in Atayan society does
have a different form from that of the Chinese and the Westerns. Unlike alcoholics
in Chinese or Western society who often drink alone, aborigines have a strong
tendency to drink in groups; it is, for them, a way of socialization.)
The Mind that Cannot Fully Express Itself in Language
Furthermore, what is pain? What is consciousness or memory of pain? Is pain
always distinctive and distinguishable from whatever else is in our consciousness?
Physical pain is directly given in our consciousness, whereas the recognition of a
memory of one ' s life as a painful memory is reflective and interpretative. There are
memories that we definitely identify as painful; there are also cases in which the
feelings associated with the memories are vague. The emotion of the event at the
moment that it happens can be voided, or too confused to be clarified, and we do not
always clarify such vague feelings later in our lives. Furthermore, if the Atayan
language does not have as many words to describe these vague feelings as does a
language of a culture with an analytical tradition, and if language structures the minds
in the way that many contemporary philosophers claim, the Atayan mind may not
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distinguish the fine feelings in the consciousness as does a ntind of a culture with an
analytical tradition. The meaning manifestation in language requires a linguistic
mind, a mind that has a higher tendency in making linguistic self-expression. If the
Atayan mind does not distinguish feelings in such a detailed way and is thus less
structured linguistically regarding these fine feelings, there is a limit to the linguistic
expression of meaning manifestation of such a mind concerning the delicate inner
states. This does not mean that an Atayan mind as such is less abundant than a mind
that is more linguistically expressive. Life, with numerous events and emotions
within, is an abundant whole; it is possible that the Atayan mind perceives whatever
is presented to the consciousness as a holistic whole, as distinctive from the mind of
cultures with an analytical tradition. Yet, perhaps Atayans, through the way in which
they live their lives, more authentically express the unity of their being-as-such.
Mary had been observed by the social workers in the halfway house and by her
present husband enjoying " doing" things together with her sister and her Atayan
girlfiiends; they usually " worked" and" played" at the same time. That is, they
worked, they sang, and they danced all at the same time. Like other aborigines, Mary
and her girlfriends do not separate working time from leisure time; they do not
distinguish work, leisure and the expression of their souls. It seems that, to these
Atayan women, life is lived as a whole, as a holistic expression through body
movements in work and in rhythm.
A Culture with Strong Tradition in Expression through Body Movement
Another related experience of mine involved female aboriginal labor workers who
were unfairly laid off by the owner of a textile factory, and who sang and danced in
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an apparently jubilant way in protest. These women were protesting against the
government, which did not protect their rights. They did not show their anger in
language, instead they sang and danced in a seemingly cheerful way as if they were
celebrating. What does this expression of sorrow in their lives through rhythm say?
It is possible that the dance of people suffering is a way to forget about their pain.
Although music and dance can be entertainment, they can also be human expression
with abundant meaning.
Valery (1936) wrote:
Dance is not merely an exercise, an entertainment, an ornamental
art, or sometimes a social activity; it is a serious matter and in
certain of its aspects most venerable. Every epoch that has
understood the human body and experienced at least some sense of
its mystery, its resources, its limits, its combinations of energy and
sensibility, has cultivated and revered the dance.... For the dance is
an art derived from life itself, since it is nothing more nor less than
the action of the whole human body, (p.55)
Martin (1946) believed that
Every emotion tends to express itself in movement, and that
movement thus created spontaneously, though they are not
representational, reflect accurately in each case the character of the
particular emotional state. " " This principle is at least as old as
man himself; primitive societies, as we have seen, have found it so
potent that they have called it magic and based religious and social
practices on it. (p.22)
Dance, generally with music, has always been a human expression, and may be the
most primordial human expression. What is conveyed in dance is what cannot be
conununicated in reasoned terms, in statements of fact; it reflects something in human
minds that is beyond language. Since dance may reflect emotional experiences in
human life in a more primordial way, and life ' s primordial form is a unified whole,
with joy and pain mixed together, the dance and music of the female aboriginal labor
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workers may be the simultaneous expression of that joy and pain. Dancing and
singing may help one attain temporary relief from the pain in üfe, and may also be the
most essential expression through which life as a whole is expressed in a primordial,
authentic manner, and through which the human mind is thus freed.
The sound of the bell emancipates the imprisoned minds o f the aboriginal
pupils.
Through music and dance, our souls are finally set free.
— MoNanen (A blind aboriginal poet)
MoNanen ' s poem may be the illustration of the feeling of many of the aborigines. It
is possible that both Mary and the protesting aboriginal women workers have
uncanny, abundant minds which " show" their being as such in a holistic manner
through body movements, instead of " tell" through linguistic expression.
Mary as the most exotic case among the four informants was the most difficult for
me to understand; however, she was also the most enchanting. Maybe I will never
know how much understanding I have achieved, and how much that I can achieve in
such a cross-cultural situation. Yet, the animated mind of Mary had its own
attraction. It illustrated how splendid a human mind can be and demonstrated ± at
there is a wide range of human possibility. A mind as such, whether or not subjected
to analysis, deserves an appraisal.
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Recommendations
Implications for Research
1. Children who were trafficked into prostitution are a diverse group. The possible
categories among this diverse group should be one of the topics of further studies
in order to develop relevant treatments.
2. There are still few studies regarding the life of the marginal families in Taiwan.
Since many of the children who were victims of human trafficking are from
marginal social groups, the family life of the marginal families requires the
attention of the researchers. In order to understand the life situations, the
experiences and the feelings of the families properly, more field studies should be
conducted regarding the lives of the low SES families in Taiwan, especially those
of the ethnic minorities.
3. It has long been observed that the Atayan women are at high risk to prostitution.
The social workers know from their experiences that if an Atayan family is
involved in prostitution, there are generally more than one female members of this
family are in prostitution. The stories of the two informants with an Atayan
background in this study are in accord with the social workers ' observation.
Atayan women ' s prostitution should be an important issue for further
investigation.
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4. Since the alcoholism of the aborigines in general and the domestic violence of the
Atayans may have different social and existential significance from that of the
mainstream, studies regarding the significance of alcoholism and domestic
violence in the aboriginal cultural contexts should be conducted.
5. It is possible that the aborigines perceive the world in a different manner from the
mainstream; the being of the mentality of the aborigines should be a topic of
further investigation.
6. The current arrangements for the children who were trafficked into prostitution to
continue their education has not been successful. The factors that hinder these
children ' s continuing their education should be studied in order to develop an
educational program that truly considers their situations and meets their needs.
Implications for Practice
1. It is important for the social workers and the counselors to be aware of the
clients ' subjective understanding of prostitution. It is necessary for the
practitioners, who work with the girls once in prostitution, to recognize that the
subjective understanding of prostitution of each client varies. In order to respond
to each of the clients properly and efficiently, the subjective understanding of a
client should be comprehended correctly. When the issue of child prostitution
first gained its recognition as an important social issue, the people who first
offered services to these girls were a group of educated, middle-class women.
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With very different life experiences from that of the girls, the workers were eager
to channel the girls to live a mainstream life. However, their experiences showed
that the girls might comply for a short time due to the unequal power relation
between the worker (the caretakers) and the girls (the minors to be guarded).
Most of the girls would resist the arrangement of the workers whenever they
could. The workers often felt frustrated for not being able to channel them into
living a normal life effectively. Though it seems that each client made her life
plan with the help of the counselors and the social workers out of her own will,
and the client was granted the right to decide what kind of life she wanted to have.
However, the girls do know that they were encouraged to switched to a normal
life style rather than to stay living in the way that they had been used to. Thus,
they pick up the message that if a girl does not want to live a normal life, she is
not viewed as a nice girl; she is less acceptable to the mainstream world. Thus,
the help of the social workers and the counselors could sometime paradoxically
imply restriction, rejection, and even oppressions. If a girl came into prostitution
out of a decision of a family conference with her agreement, she may have been
willing to " work" as a prostitute to help her family in the first place. She may
not have conflicting feelings toward her family. That the family as whole is being
despised and condemned in the society could be what hurts her more than having
to work in prostitution. The workers should be sensitive in dealing with such a
difficult situation.
2. It is important for the social workers and the counselors to be aware of the
clients ' subjective significance of being in love. For the social workers and the
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counselors who work with the clients who just come out of a brothel, it is
important to recognize that it is possible, in many cases, that to be with the men
that they love is truly what the girls need desperately. The men whom they love
can signify whatever they needs and desire at a certain stage. It is true that in
most of the cases, the role of a boyfriend is hard to be replaced by the social
workers and the counselors. In a patriarchal society such as the Taiwanese
society, it is not unusual for a girl to seek for salvation from a man who loves her
and she loves. A woman loves a man because he symbolizes what she values
and desires. He is protection; he is the guarantor of a better life; he is power; he is
whatever she desires but does not have in herself. The treatment of the social
workers and the counselors can only wait for a proper opportunity to lead a client
to became aware of the existential significance of her boyfriend to her and
encourage her to find the power in herself to be more self-reliant.
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Appendix
Human Existence as " Being-in-the-W orld"
The project of Heidegger in his book Being and Time is to show human existence
as such in a human world in its primordial sense. This is the domain of human
existence that modem human sciences— psychology, sociology, and even
anthropology — fail to reveal. The ideas that he proposed in Being and Time are
related to each other in one way or another. We will choose to explain roughly some
of the ideas of his that are most directly relevant to our investigation.
Being-in-(the-world):
As we are, we are already "Being-in-the-world." Heidegger write:
Being-in-the-world is a state of Dasein which is necessary apriori,...(p.79I)
Heidegger uses the word "Dasein" to refer to our being human. He did not use the
commonly used term "human beings" because this terms has been associated with too
many concepts that distort our vision away from the primordial realm of being human
that he wants to show us.
Being-in-the-world is what we already are. And it is impossible that we can at any
moment stop being "Being-in-the-world." We will explain this term through
explaining "Being-in" and "world" separately. Though it has to be kept in mind that
"Being-in-the-world" indicates a unitary phenomenon.
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The essence of the expression "Being-in" lies in the existential sense of "in." "In"
here does not refer to the "in" as an entity in another one. The example that
Heidegger gives is: "as the water in' the glass." This is not "in" in its existential
sense. The entities that are "in ' each other have the character of being that he
describes as Being-present-at-hand. Heidegger says:
All entities whose Being in' one another can thus be described have the same
kind of Being— that of Being-present-at-hand — as Things occurring within' the
worl.(p.79)."
This type of Being has the ontological characteristics that he calls "categorical " as
opposed to "existential."
Being-present-at-hand 'in' something which is likewise present-at-hand and
Being-present-at-hand-along-with in the sense of a definite location-
relationship with something else which has the same kind of Being, are
ontological characteristics which we call "categorical: they are of such sort as
to belong to entities whose kind of Being is not of the character of Dasien.
(p.79).
Being-in, on the other hand, is a state of Dasein's Being. It signifies "to reside
alongside " , "to be familiar with" (p.80)
Heidegger states clearly that "Being-in is thus the formal existential expression for
the Being of Dasein,.which has Being-in-the-world as its essential state (p.80). "
"World " in "Being-in-the-world" refers to "that "wherein" a factical Dasein as such
can be said to "live"" (p.93). It is the entire constellation of values, beliefs,
techniques, equipments, practice, concerns, and so on. Unlike Descartes and Husserl,
who begin their philosophical speculation with subjectivity, Heidegger thinks that
though different people are in different worlds, theses special worlds that are different
from each other are all public. That is, once a world is, "it is always already world
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which one shared with the others.” (BP. 297) There have been other people in each
special world.
Concern:
The word "concern" is used to designate our way of Being-in-the-world that leads
us to encounter other entities in existential sense.
In contrast to these colloquial ontical significations, the expression concern'
will be used in this investigation as an of a possible way of Being-in-the-
world. (p.83)
It is the kind of dealing that is closest to us.
He writes:
The kind of dealing which is closest to us is as we have shown, not a bare
perceptual cognition, but rather that kind of concern which manipulates things
and puts them to use; and this has its own kind of knowledge, (p.95)
Things are known as such and such in various usage contexts. This "knowing how to
do with things" is accumulated in living everyday life. And it is what we can know
most primordially.
Being-in-the-world as Understanding and Interpretation
Heidegger does not use the word "understanding" in the same way as the ordinary
usage of the word. It refers to a bearing of a group of implicit and unarticulated
possibilities that can be developed and become concrete into interpretation.'
Heidegger expalins:
As understand, Dasein projects its Being upon possibilities. This Being-
towards-possibilities which understands is itself a potentiality-fbr-Being....
This development of the understanding we call "interpretation."... Such
interpretation is grounded existentially in understanding; the latter does not
arise from the former, (p. 188)
131
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Interpretation is, therefore, the working-out of possibilities projected in
understanding.
Something ready-to-hand is understood as something in a pre-existing context that
everything involved in it is related to each other in one way or another. And this
totality of relating to each other need not be explicit in our consciousness.
Interpretation is to make what is implicit in our understanding explicit in a certain
condition.
Heidegger wrote:
The ready-to-hand is always understood in terms of a totality of involvements.
This totality need not be grasped explicitly by a thematic interpretation. Even
if it has undergone such an interpretation, it recedes into an understanding
which does not stand out from the background. (p. 191 )
Something can be really understood as something only when that "wherein" of is
seen. For instance, what does "axle boots" mean can only be understood perfectly
when the totality of the relation of the mechanical system of a car is understood.
To Heidegger, the meaning of things comes into being when an entity is
encountered by human beings in our life world:
When entities within-the-world are discovered along with the Being of
Dasein— that is, when they have come to be understood— we say that they
have meaning. ... Meaning is that wherein the intelligibility of something
maintains itself, (p. 193)
Meaning is an existentiale of Dasein, not a property attaching to entities, lying
'behind' them.... (p. 193)
Hence, only Dasein can be meaningful or meaningless.
132
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Everydayness and Fallenness:
According to Heidegger, Dasein in living its everyday life maintains itself in the
kind of Being of the "they," which is not what it is in its primordial sense. He calls it
"falling-away." In section 34, he explains how Dasein falls away from a primordial
relation to itself through absorption and language.
Failing reveals an essential ontological structure of Dasein itself, (p.224)
He thinks that Dasein in living its everyday life maintains itself in the kind of Being
of the "they"— that is, to think, act, and talk as other people do. He calls this "falling-
away 'ffom a primordial relation to itself. He describes two manners of falling away:
one is through absorption into the world, and the other is through language. To
capture the results of the two forms of falling away, he speaks of fallen Dasein as lost,
and as uprooted.
Absorption in the world means Dasein’ s being absorbed in coping with things:
In falling, Dasein itself as factical being-in-the-world, is something from
which it has already fallen-away... [Dasein] has fallen into the world, which
itself belongs to its being. (p.220)
Thus, this is a state of being that is what Dasein always already is. Dasein is
"absorbed in the thing one is handling." (p.420) We are "absorbed" into things in the
world through our daily manipulating of them in order to meet some kinds of needs
that we have. That is, our being as human consists mainly of " doing" things that
we have to do, such as washing the car, typing the letter, doing the laundry, etc. It
seems that doing these things is being human. We are "lost" in the things we do.
This falling-away is certainly a structural necessity. However, it has the tendency
133
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toward interpreting Dasein in terms of the world. It may lead Dasein to turn away
from itself.
Being too absorbed in the world, Dasein turns away from itself. Heidegger calls
this "being fascinated with the world":
In... familiarity Dasein can lose itself in what it encounters within-the-world
and be fascinated with it. (p. 107)
Heidegger encourages people to be authentic. That is, though we cannot stop being
absorbed, because this is ontologically impossible, we can choose to resist becoming
too fascinated by everyday activities.
According to Heidegger, language as the other form of falling, by its very
structure, leads Dasein away from a primordial relation to being and its own being.
This can result in Dasein's falling into groundlessness. This falling happens in what
he calls "idle talk" and "curiosity. "
In the beginning, Heidegger said that the term "idle talk" is not used in a
disparaging sense:
Terminologically, it signifies a positive phenomenon which constitutes the
kind of Being of everyday Dasein ' s understanding and interpreting, (p.211 )
When something is said, it is said in a totality:
The way things have been expressed or spoken out is such that in the totality
of contexts of signification into which it has been articulated, it preserves an
understanding of the disclosed world and therewith equiprimordially, an
understanding of the Dasein-with of others and of one's own Being-in. (p.211 )
This depicts the way that something is said primordially. However, people have
the tendency to use language in a way that is to retell what is said. Thus, something
that is originally said not in a groundless way can be retold groundlessly. What is
134
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even worse is, it is possible in language to express something that is absolutely
groundless, and get it passed along in further retelling;
Discourse, which belongs to the essential state of Dasein ' s Being and has a
share in constituting Dasein ' s disclosedness, has the possibility of becoming
idle talk. And when it does so, it serves not so much to keep Being-in-the-
world open for us in an articulated understanding, as rather to close it off, and
cover up the entities with-in-the-world. (p.213)
Idle talk here has become something negative.
In the primordial relationship that we have with things, things are encountered as
ready-to-hand'. However, when we are not preoccupied by how to find and use a
thing to meet some practical needs that we have, "care subsides into circumspection
which has been set free " (p.216). In this situation, "there is no longer anything ready-
to-hand which we must concern ourselves with bringing close " (p.216). Thus, things
that are primordially encountered as ready-to-hand are faded into a "far and alien
world":
Care becomes concern with the possibilities of seeing the "world" merely as it
looks while one tarries and takes a rest, (p.216)
When curiosity has become free, however, it concerns itself with seeing, not in order
to understand what is seen but just in order to see.
He points out that " idle talk controls even the ways in which one may be curious. It
says what one "must have read and seen" (p.217).
This results in what he calls "ambiguity". That is, we are no longer able to decide
what is disclosed in a genuine understanding, and what is not. We are ' uprooted ' in
our groundless idle talk.
135
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Thus, in our daily life, more than often, we are immersed in talk full of groundless
thoughts. We tell and retell in this groundlessness and internalize these groundless
thoughts deep in our mind.
Heidegger’ s phenomenological analysis shows that the essential Being of Dasein is
Being-in-the-world. The primordial way that Dasein understand the things in the
world is existentiell. In dealing with the things that are ready-to-hand in the world,
Dasein generates the primordial knowledge.
136
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Asset Metadata

Creator Chuang, Wei-chen (author)

Core Title A comparative study of the realm of meaning of four child prostitutes in Taiwan: A hermeneutic approach

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag anthropology, cultural,education, bilingual and multicultural,OAI-PMH Harvest,sociology, ethnic and racial studies,sociology, individual and family studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Lee, William (committee chair), [illegible] (committee member), Wellard, Dallas (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-372066

Unique identifier UC11353618

Identifier 9904982.pdf (filename),usctheses-c17-372066 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 9904982.pdf

Dmrecord 372066

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Chuang, Wei-chen

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA