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recorded in her fathers genealogy, and when she died only her family
name surname was entered in the genealogy charts of her husbands
family.
Even then her remains have to wait the death of her husband
before they could be granted their final resting place. Wolf has
described the womans family as the uterine family a
contemporary group that comes into existence out of a womans need
and is held together insofar as she has the strength to do soThe
uterine family has no ideology, no formal structure, and no public
existence, It is built out of sentiments and loyalties that die with its
members but it is no less real for all that.
What is fairly certain for both sexes and all social classes, however,
is that sexual life, except as instrumental for reproduction was deemphasized for the married couple. Love and marriage were kept in
quite separate compartments
areas. Through out Taiwan, the family is still the nexus of social existence
and most importantly, the Confucian familism is still the cultural ideal.
Despite the intrusion of industrialization, social life remains embedded in
kinship networks and the interests of the individual take a poor second
place to the requirements and face of the familyface signifies honor or
shame as in allowing a person to save faceexample of Taiwan boss and
banquet for employer of honor who is allowed to resigned rather than be
fired.
The emphasis on face and appearances continues to underlie much
of the fiercely competitive behavior.
As usual it is the women who are expected to subordinate their
interests to the success and requirements of their husbands and children.
According to one Chinese scholar, the Chinese self has traditionally found
its meaning in terms of well-defined sets of relationships rather than in
terms of the individual.
Also, in the literature on Taiwan, one is struck by the stong
repression of sexuality. At the same time that female sexuality is
repressed, women are sexual objects, Sexual exploitation has been
virtually eliminated in the new China but not so on Taiwan, were sex is a
growth industry. However, in both the new China and Taiwan sexuality is
de-emphasized during adolescence and young adulthood. Sex education is
absent from the curriculum in both societies
Finally, patrilocality is common in both cultures. In Taiwan it takes
on an extreme form. Not only are rural brides expected to be imported from
different villages, but marriage with appropriate mates from mothers
relatives is considered a social disgrace.
As we see in the House of Lim, in countless ways womans extreme
low status in the traditional family was brought home to her. In a system