In recent weeks, a wave of #MeToo accusations has reached the top of Taiwan's political, judicial and artistic scene, forcing a new reckoning over the state of women's rights on a democratic island that for has long been proud to be among the Asian countries. more progressive places.
New allegations emerge almost every day, sparking debates on talk shows and on social media, with comments in newspapers and activist groups calling for stronger protections for the victims
In many ways, Taiwan stands out for the significant strides made by the women who helped elect the island's first female president and strengthen laws against rape and sexual assault, before #MeToo took off in the United States. . But the spate of new sexual harassment allegations points to what activists and academics say is entrenched sexism that leaves women vulnerable at work, and a culture that is quick to blame victims and cover up accusations against powerful men.
The spate of complaints was sparked by a popular Netflix drama about Taiwanese politics called โWave Makers,โ which featured a subplot about a political party member telling her boss that she had been sexually harassed by a high-ranking member. party rank. Her boss promises to help her report the bullying, and as a sign of how often these politically inconvenient complaints are ignored, she says, "Let's not let this happen this time."
That quote from the fictional supervisor became a wake-up call, inspiring more than 100 mostly female accusers to speak out on social media, sharing their accounts of unwanted kissing, groping and, in some cases, attempted rape. . They described humiliations suffered in the workplace, including inappropriate touching and unwanted advances by male colleagues and bosses, as well as lewd comments. Some of his posts have been shared thousands of times.
The stakes are high for President Tsai Ing-wen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Senior party and government officials were among the first to be accused of harassment and trying to silence accusers, forcing Ms. Tsai to apologize twice for her party's mishandling of internal grievances. . The criticism goes against the party's record as a champion of liberal values, which includes legalizing same-sex marriage in 2019 and giving gay couples the right to adopt earlier this year. And it poses risks to the party's credibility among younger voters ahead of next year's presidential election.
โThe Democratic Progressive Party has seen itself as the ruling party that supports gender equality,โ Fan Yun, a lawmaker from the party who is also a professor specializing in gender issues at National Taiwan University, said in a phone interview. "Others saw the Netflix show as a snapshot of what's going on inside the party, and it's had a huge impact."
Among the most senior figures accused of harassment is Yen Chih-fa, who denied the accusation but resigned as an adviser to President Tsai. Taiwan's highest legal body said it would investigate a complaint against a former chief justice, Lee Po Tao. Tsai Mu-lin, a high-level party official, has been accused of intimidating a party staffer into silence when she reported that a colleague had tried to break into her hotel room.
Mr. Tsai, who is not related to the president, has since resigned. The woman who accused him, Chen Wen-hsuan, said she felt empowered to speak out publicly for the other women who had shared her experiences. โThis movement has taught me that injustice should not be swallowed,โ she said. "After all, we can't just let it go."
Accusations have also been leveled against men from the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, as well as all of Taiwanese society at large, including in academia, journalism and, more recently, entertainment.
TV personality Mickey Huang has apologized after a woman he met at work accused him of kissing her without her consent and forcing her to take nude photos. Aaron Yan, a pop star, has apologized after an ex-boyfriend accused him of secretly recording videos of them having sex, when the ex-boyfriend was 16 and underage. Local prosecutors said this week they would investigate the allegation.
In some ways, the #MeToo movement points to a generational shift in attitudes brought about by the strides made by women's rights activists in decades past. Taiwan's younger generation began learning about gender equality in elementary school, as part of curriculum changes enacted in 2004, and has since come of age.
But workplaces are struggling to keep up.
Taiwan's younger generation has "a greater awareness of diversity and gender equality than the older generation," said Wei-Ting Yen, an assistant professor of government at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. โHowever, the workplace that young people are entering is still dominated by the older generation.โ
Lawmakers have vowed to quickly pass changes to the law to make workplaces and schools safer by holding organizations accountable for protecting victims of bullying. The changes would require organizations to track complaints and provide independent third-party review panels if necessary. Women's rights groups have called on Taiwan to extend the statute of limitations on sexual harassment complaints, which is currently one year.
But campaigners also say more needs to be done to tackle the culture of sexism that underlies misconduct and deters many women from speaking out. A survey conducted last year by Taiwan's Ministry of Labor showed that only a small percentage of the women surveyed who said they had experienced sexual harassment at work had filed complaints. Activists and academics in Taiwan say that men in power, whether they are workplace supervisors or police officers or judges, are often seen as sympathetic to other men in power and are likely to blame the victim.
This month, Lai Yu-fen, 27, accused a Polish diplomat, Bartosz Rys, on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, of what Ms. Lai described as sexual assault last year. She said that when she filed a police report, investigators asked her why she had apologized to the diplomat by refusing her advances and why she had not told her family about the encounter. He said a defense attorney gossiped about her with mutual friends. โI want to get my own story back,โ Ella Lai said in an interview.
The Polish Office in Taipei, Poland's de facto embassy in Taiwan, confirmed that it cooperated with authorities. Prosecutors decided not to charge Mr. Rys, whose tenure ended last year and who later left Taiwan. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment, but said on his Twitter page that Lai had sought money in exchange for dropping the accusation. (He said the request for money was part of negotiating a legal settlement.)
For those working in civil society in Taiwan, perhaps the most troubling allegations are those directed at activists considered influential leaders in the rights community. Lee Yuan-chun, a 29-year-old activist, this month publicly accused Wang Dan, a veteran Chinese pro-democracy dissident, of pressing him on a bed and asking for sex in 2014. He said he was suing Mr. Wang.
In a statement, Mr. Wang said he hoped the public would reserve judgment until a court ruled on the lawsuit. "As a public figure, one's private life will be subject to the most stringent scrutiny," he said. โThrough this incident, I will pay more attention to this in the future.โ
