On September 12 I went to a meeting of the Singkawang
Association 山口洋地區鄉親會. It also
called Permasis in Indonesian.
Website: http://www.permasis.org/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/168710176483301/
This meeting was set up by Mr. Hartono, 李伯巧, whom Aimee
introduced me to the first week I was in Jakarta. As noted below, I did not
know what to expect before I went to the meeting. I thought I would speak with
just a few people. Instead, it was a meeting of the association as a whole that
was arranged to accommodate my schedule. I was overwhelmed. They spoke Mandarin
at the meeting for my benefit. I asked afterward how they normally conducted
meetings, and Fuidy Luckman, who was very nice to me, said they spoke a mixture
of Hakka and Indonesian.
Fortunately that morning I took time to do an overall analysis of the
interviews, counting the number of marriages with Taiwanese men discussed by
participants involving themselves (women) or a close family member. The total
is 22, and of these 15 were described as “good” and 7 as “bad.” This may seem
to indicate that marrying a Taiwanese man is a good thing, as a majority worked
out well. The problem is that the “bad” marriages were really bad. The stories
of abuse that were suffered by these women were horrid and should not be
allowed. Even one bad marriage, like those described to me, was one bad
marriage too many. (What I did not mention was that some people told me women
may cheat their husbands in Taiwan. This is something I heard of when in
Taiwan. So treating the other person badly may go both ways. But the numbers
are unequal, and neither justifies this practice.)
After I spoke for about 15 minutes (recorded), the Dongshizhang (don’t
know his name) chaired the meeting and directed the ensuing discussion. Seven
men took turns, each speaking 10-20 minutes about their experiences, knowledge
of this matter, and what they saw to be solutions. Common themes were that
Singkawang was poor because of anti-Chinese policies, the so-called paihua 排華. Mr. Li (and others?) said that the people of
Singkawang fought against the Dutch, suffered at the hands of the Japanese,
then after independence, and the anti-Communist coup of Suharto in 1965,
suffered many deaths. The result is that Singkawang was impoverished, making it
a community distinct from most other Chinese communities and populations that
were wealthy.
The city began “exporting” its women to Taiwan in the 1970s. (I
interviewed a woman married to a Taiwanese soldier in 1969.) Some of these were
poor and destitute prostitutes. Others were young girls fo 15, 16, forced into
marriage by their parents. Singkawang had many young girls, and Taiwan, with
its large population of unmarried (or separated) mainland soldiers, had a need
for brides. (There may have been a sex imbalance ratio at the time due to the
large number of killings in 1965. Presumably more males were killed than
females.) These girls were sent to marry Taiwanese men by their parents, some
willingly and others not. Many, however, did “well” in their marriages. This
also happened with Indonesian men, as an Indonesian general (don’t know name)
took for a second wife a young woman from SKw. Poverty was clearly a motivating
factor. It set up a pattern of migration by marriage from skw to Taiwan that
became known in the community, and presumably was known in Taiwan. Skw has the
reputation of being not only the city of a thousand temples, but also the city
of young women, or “Kota Amoy.” 城市阿妹 In addition to narrating the motivating factors, the men expressed a
number of the same discursive themes that I heard in skw. One man said marriage
was a 緣分的問題. (a question of fate) Another said 生女孩子 = 美金 (giving birth to daughters is like giving birth to US money). They spoke of the pattern of sisters leading each
other. Speaker 3 said he knew of a family where the older daughter married a
man in Taiwan. The younger daughter did not marry right away, and resisted.
Finally she married the oldest brother of her sister’s husband’s family. But
also in the past there was a resistance for people to share bad news. (I might
site my transgressions paper as it fits well.) Thus, even if a daughter entered
into a bad marriage, she was reluctant to share it with others. And if this
news even reached her family in SKW, they were reluctant to tell their
neighbors and extended family members. Another point came from number 6, who
said that sometimes if a woman did not want to marry a Tw husband, the family
would put pressure on her, asking her if she “loved” her family (listen to
recording). It was their duty to sacrifice for their family. Finally, number 4
said that Taiwanese women are also part of the problem. While women from Skw
work hard and can accept hardship, Taiwanese women cannot. Thus, they will not
marry a man in the countryside and accept such a life.
Solutions that they see are found through economic development and
education. They said that there are no factories in skw, and that girls will 賣身 (engage in prostitution, or sell themselves to
Taiwanese husbands) instead of gain an education. The city of Pontianak (Kundian in Chinese) was
mentioned a number of times as a place that was better because of its
factories. Yes, factories do provide jobs and can lead those who work in them
to a better life. However, driving through Pontianak was not a pretty sight. It
is a sprawling, dirty, and totally uninviting city. Singkawang is a much better
place, with a cleaner environment, and without polluting factories. Singkawang
does not need factories like Pontianak. Rather, it could benefit from an ecologically
sensitive economy, one that preserves and protects its natural beauty while
drawing in visitors who will spend money there.
