Negotiating with intimacy: Being a good Vietnamese mother in Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vietnamese immigrant women in Taiwan often encounter difficulties in being “good mothers,” compared to their local counterparts. Their mothering is stigmatized and they are represented as “alien wombs” or are said to be “unfit” for reproductive roles. This has negative impact on the next generation of children of mixed ethnicity. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 16 Vietnamese immigrant women married to Taiwanese men, we used a feminist perspective on mothering to explore intimacy as experienced within unhappy marital lives. We found that to become “good mothers” in the eyes of the society they now live in, such women try to build harmonious familial relationships with family members. They do this by attempting to change people’s negative ideas and images regarding them and doing whatever they can for their families and society. We conclude that these women use intimacy with their children as a strategy for being respected as mothers in Taiwan, the country in which they now live.