清晨七點

你望著電視發呆

彷彿裡頭的災難是劇情

哭聲懸浮奔流

你嚥下一口咖啡

 
你的書房是一座安寧的島嶼

溫暖、明亮

與那村莊遙遙隔著空中的海洋

哪怕陸地相連

只是道路坍方

聽那雨聲吧

少年的阿母煮了路上撿到的虱目魚

聽那雨聲吧

布農青年在喊著尋找失蹤的阿嬤

聽那雨聲吧

婦人摟著浸濕的衣服爬上屋頂

那座島嶼沒有光，沒有存糧

拖著盪動的影子在腳下

 
你告訴自己，那座島嶼高不可攀

你一向安於盆地內陸

於是到廁所洩出你自己的溪流

同樣黃濁

如昨晚宴會上的麥酒

流進你地圖裡未標記的河口

不是眼淚的顏色

 
聽那雨聲吧

聽那雨聲吧

“At the present time, when women are beginning to take part in the affairs of the world, it is still a world that belongs to men–they have no doubt of it at all and women have scarcely any.  To decline to be the Other, to refsue to be a party to the deal–this would be for women to renounce all the advantges conferred up ton them by thier alliance with the superior caste.  Man-the-sovereign will provide woman-the-liege with material protection and will undertake the moral justification of her extence,; thus she can evade at once both risk and the metaphiscal rsik of a liberty in which ends and aims must be contrived without assitance.  Indeed, along with the ethical urge of each indivdiaul to affirm his subjetcitve existence, there is also the tempetation to forgo liberty and become a thing.  This is an inauspicious road, for he who takes it–passive, lost, ruined–beocmes henceforth the creature of another’s will, frastrated in his transcendence and deprived of every value.  But it is an easy raod; on it one avoids the strain invovled in undertaking an authentic extence.  When man makes of woman the Other, he may, then, expect her to manifest deep-seated tendencies towards complicity. Thus, woman may fail to lay claim to the status of subject because she lacks definite resources, because she feels the necesary bond that ties her to man regarldess of reciprocity, and beacuse she is often very well pleased with her role as the Other.”

This is only an excerpt from the introductory chapter.  With some 700 pages left to read my impressions and understanding of what De Beauvoirs is getting at will surely change. Although she was writing over 50 years ago, I can only wonder how much has changed?  It is true that women now have the capacity to challenge patriarchal institutions and systems of thought, but De Beauvoir raises the serious (and frightening) question of complicity in performing to this role of the Other, simply because it  suits one’s lot in life.

In the coming weeks I’m going to continue thinking about how this might, or might not, look in the United States. As I do this, I’d like to hear back from people with thoughts and critiques, especially from Taiwan or China as the role and power of women are drastically changing.

I’ve been reflecting what I get from Strait Talk during the last two more weeks. I found it’s hard to reorganize myself unless I write/ talk something initiated by Strait Talk. It would be a long article, surely not well organized. I try to imagine that I’m talking to you honeys so I may get started.

I. English Hegemony?

After got back from Strait Talk @ UCB, I attended an international conference discussing hegemony within the field of sociology. The most important issue is that sociological theories and studies are evaluated through the lens of unbalanced power of this academic regime. What count as good social studies are heavily judged by the narratives from the society of U.S or west Europe, as if they are the center while other societies are all periphery. In sociology, the experiences of being colonized, of land loosing for the aborigines, and of uneven power in publication are highly neglected. Interestingly, English as some kind of language and idea hegemony were often mentioned.

I’ve always being sensitive to language, to the idea that ppl deliver through talking, and to the obvious/ hidden power relation underlining. Speaking about English hegemony, I notice that several civilizations are using their cannons to fight back. For example, China and Islamic societies are building sociologies of Confucian or Qur’an. I was a little bit concerned if these would be merely a repetition of building hegemonies, but the voices from below are still neglected.

So I raised a question to professor Raewyn Connell from Australia, who actually inspired me in her answer. She said that it’s one way to start by building cannon, but she worries that all these cannons may not be close enough to what ppl are living in their real life. She appreciate more those theorists in African societies who may not be part of an professional academy, but who are successful play writers, artists, philosophers and build their own critical social theories totally different from the center— Because they are talking and getting more closer to people and civil society.

Isn’t that what we are trying to do in this blog? First we try to talk and talk and talk. In English, in Chinese, or in Taiwanese-Chinese (I would like to call it so. Ha.), in languages that we are familiar to. As students, as bloggers, as professional flirter(:-P), as belly dancer, as playwright to be, as mother to be(? Clearly not everyone wants to. Ha.)

Firstly, we talk and we think. And hopefully we challenge and change.

To be continued…

I’ve long admired from afar, however, a number of blogs I’ve come across in my Internet wanderings:

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com
http://jeremydenk.net/blog
http://www.chesternet.org
http://chocolateandzucchini.com

Each quirky and unique in their own way, full of musings and off the wall anecdotes, I can’t begin to enumerate the ways these bloggers have inspired me to pick up this project.  What it will take for me to loyally and regularly contribute to this blog is the fact that I am using this as a platform to stay digitally connected by the infinite space of the world wide web to 3 extraordinary women who inspire me on so many levels.

My intention is to use this as a space to explore the greater connections to be made between women who see eye to eye on so many levels yet because of national conflict and high politics are forced to communicate in “what if”s and “but”s.  It’s a sad affair that makes little sense on a day-to-day basis.  However, because I am a Strait Talkin’ Honey I believe that women around the world have the desire and capability to envision a peace based on mutual love and respect, shared living memories, and conscious and continued dialogue.

With that said, I welcome you to this beautiful writing and reflection space and hope you can join me for this incredible adventure as I explore the possibilities for blogging for peace by sharing my life with 3 women across the world. Expect anything AND everything!

Too often women’s voices and perspective are excluded from the bargaining table—be it in the space of work, international politics or academia. Through the practice of self-reflexive writings, drawings and much more, this blog project allows us to not only rethink the status of women in other societies, but our own, in the hope of fostering greater understanding and empathy for our common problems.

We hope that by sharing our success stories and words of encouragement, we can provide a space where local and international struggles for solidarity can converge and that our writings will have real and long-lasting impacts in the efforts to improve the situation of women not only on both sides of the Cross-strait Conflict but across the globe.