Activism
As an activist,Ho has been drawing attention to women's rights in Taiwan since the 1990s. Though there were no laws criminalizing sexual harassment at the time,sexual assaults on women were increasingly reported in the news after the first legal case on sexual harassment was heard in 1989. In May 1994,Ho led Taiwan's first demonstration against sexual harassment,and devised its slogan,"We don't want sexual harassment,we want orgasms. If you keep sexually harassing us,we'll cut it off with a pair of scissors!" [8]
Zoophilia webpage incident
In April 2003,an article appeared in the China Times claiming that Ho's website had several pages that covered the topic of zoophilia and actively promoted the practice,with images. 13 conservative groups collectively filed a complaint accusing Ho of making obscenities available to children. [9] This sensationalism led to thirteen Christian and conservative organizations collectively filing a complaint with the Taipei District Court. The process lasted for over one year,with a not guilty ruling returned on 15 September 2004,because the zoophilia pages were only one part of the website's essays and reports. Thus the incorporation of some pictures did not constitute an obscenity. [10]
The incident has been seen as an example of sensationalist media and received international attention as a perceived confrontation between conservative aspects of Taiwanese society and sexual freedom. [9] [11]
Homosexuality has been documented in China since ancient times. According to one study by Bret Hinsch, for some time after the fall of the Han dynasty, homosexuality was widely accepted in China but this has been disputed. Several early Chinese emperors are speculated to have had homosexual relationships accompanied by heterosexual ones. Opposition to homosexuality, according to the study by Hinsch, did not become firmly established in China until the 19th and 20th centuries through the Westernization efforts of the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China. On the other hand, Gulik's study argued that the Mongol Yuan dynasty introduced a more ascetic attitude to sexuality in general.
Transgender is an overarching term to describe persons whose gender identity/expression differs from what is typically associated with the gender they were assigned at birth. Since "transgender studies" was institutionalized as an academic discipline in the 1990s, it is difficult to apply transgender to Chinese culture in a historical context. There were no transgender groups or communities in Hong Kong until after the turn of the century. Today they are still known as a "sexual minority" in China.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. While the Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it", loopholes, liberal interpretations and a loose enforcement of the law have allowed the Japanese sex industry to prosper and earn an estimated 2.3 trillion yen per year.
Nijikon (二次コン) or nijigen konpurekkusu (二次元コンプレックス), from the English "2D complex", is a sexual or affective attraction towards two-dimensional anime, manga, and light novel characters, as opposed to attraction towards flesh-and-blood human. It has been interpreted by some observers as a genuine sexual orientation in which a person is not sexually attracted to flesh-and-blood humans but only attracted to two-dimensional characters. This attraction is directed towards the non-realistic characteristics found in manga and anime styles. Initially discussed as male otaku sexuality in Japan, it has more recently been examined within the context of queer studies, extending beyond Japan, and referred to as a form of fictosexuality.
Hsiao Bi-khim is a Taiwanese politician and diplomat who served as a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2002 to 2008 and again between 2012 and 2020. Since July 2020, Hsiao has been serving as the representative of Taiwan to the United States.
Hengchun Township is a township located on the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County, Taiwan. It is the southernmost township in Taiwan. Hengchun is also the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung County. Hengchun has a land area of 136.76 km2 (52.80 sq mi) and has a population of 29,821 as of March 2023.
Prostitution in Taiwan was made illegal under a 1991 law. Legislation was introduced in 2011 to allow local governments in Taiwan to set up "special zones" where prostitution is permitted. Outside these zones prostitution is illegal. As of 2017 no "special zones" had been opened.
Gender Equality Education Act of Taiwan was enacted on June 23, 2004. The General Provisions states the purposes of the act: "to promote substantive gender equality, eliminate gender discrimination, uphold human dignity, and improve and establish education resources and environment of gender equality." In recent years, this act has become controversial because it has implemented anti-discrimination on LGBT rights and LGBT sex education.
Taiwan TG Butterfly Garden, established in 2000, is the first formal transgender support group in Taiwan. Many members are transsexual; others identify as crossdressers, and others might be described as questioning or transgressive.
Li Yinhe is a Chinese sociologist, sexologist, and activist for LGBT rights in China. Her main academic interests have been sexual norms in contemporary China, homosexuality, diverse sexual behaviors including sadomasochism, and women's studies.
Sexuality in China has undergone dramatic changes throughout time. These changes can be categorized as "sexual revolution". Chinese sexual attitudes, behaviors, ideology, and relations have especially gone through dramatic shifts in the past four decades due to reform and opening up of the country. Many of these changes have found expression in the public forum through a variety of behaviors and ideas. These include, but are not limited to the following cultural shifts: a separation of sex and marriage, such as pre- and extramarital sex; a separation of sex from love and child-bearing such as internet sex and one-night stands; an increase in observable sexual diversity such as homo- and bisexual behavior and fetishism; an increase in socially acceptable displays and behaviors of female sexual desire; a boom in the sex industry; and a more open discussion of sex topics, including sex studies at colleges, media reports, formal publications, online information, extensive public health education, and public displays of affection.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) rights in the Republic of China (Taiwan) are regarded as the most progressive of those in Asia, although the attitude towards transgender (T) rights is more conservative. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal, and same-sex marriage was legalized on 24 May 2019, following a Constitutional Court ruling in May 2017. Same-sex couples are able to jointly adopt children since 2023. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender characteristics in education has been banned nationwide since 2004. With regard to employment, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has also been prohibited by law since 2007.
Ho Hsin-chun is a Taiwanese politician. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party, she has served on the Legislative Yuan since 2012.
Women Makes Waves is a film festival based in Taiwan since 1993. It is the first and only women's film festival in the country.
Despite the history of colonisation and the resulting process of Westernisation since 1842, Hong Kong still embodies many aspects of Chinese traditional values towards sexuality. It is traditionally believed that heterosexuality is the nature, coherent, and privileged sexuality. Popular media marginalises and discriminates against LGBT members of Hong Kong in an attempt to maintain "traditional lifestyles".
Taiwan has a complex history of feminist and women's-rights movements with periods of progressiveness where feminism and strong female icons flourished and periods of strict authoritarianism where equality and individual rights were devalued. Thanks in part to the work of generations of feminists, Taiwan is nowadays one of the most gender-equal countries in Asia, consistently ranking higher than its East Asian neighbors in international indices on gender equality.
Wei Tingting is a Chinese LGBTI+ and feminist activist, writer and documentary filmmaker. She is one of the Feminist Five.
Janet Elizabeth Halley is an American legal scholar in the traditions of critical legal studies, legal realism and postmodernism. A self-described feminist, she is known for her critique of American feminism, dominance feminism, and left legalism, as well as her work on family law and the regulation of sexuality. She has also been a prominent voice in the public debate regarding sexual conduct codes on campuses in the United States in recent years, arguing against the broadening of the definition sexual assault and the adoption of the affirmative consent standard. She was the first expert on gender and sexuality in the legal system to receive a position at Harvard University and is the Royall law professor at Harvard Law School.
Chi Ta-wei is a Taiwanese writer.
Fictosexuality is characterized by sexual attraction towards fictional characters. Romantic attraction to fictional characters is called fictoromantic.
