The Socio-Cultural Exclusion and the Regulation of Sexuality in Taiwan

Abstract

My paper begins with an analysis of recent emergence in Taiwan of public discourse and administrative ordinances that aim to regulate the internet, TV programs, newspapers, romance novels, comics, video games, education, obscenity laws and teenage culture. My analysis points out that the discourse and regulations have signaled significant changes in the relationship between Taiwan’s civil society and its nation-state. An exclusive civil society, a concept which I have partly drawn from Jock Young’s The Exclusive Society, is emerging as an extension of state power rather than as the antithesis of the state. I argue that as a result of this development of the exclusive society and the new regulatory state, a “culture war” between socio-cultural exclusion and social freedom (especially in the area of sexuality) is now being waged in Taiwan’s civil society. The role of the mainstream NGOs, the tactics of regulation and the wider context of this culture war will be analyzed in this paper.