Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0361/03616.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 23KB | 393 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03616}
$Pretitle{263}
$Title{Taiwan
Chapter 5.    Social Structure}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{The Director Foreign Area Studies}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{taiwanese
social
japanese
government
status
traditional
mainlanders
economic
society
taiwan}
$Date{1971}
$Log{}
Country:     Taiwan
Book:        Area Handbook for the Republic of China
Author:      The Director Foreign Area Studies
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1971

Chapter 5.    Social Structure

     Both the structure of society and the criteria for high status were in
the process of change in 1967. The primary reasons were the influx of
mainlanders that accompanied the establishment of the government on Taiwan;
the increase of industrialization and urbanization; the land-to-tiller
program; and the ever-increasing contact with Western ideas.

     The mainlanders who comprise the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) elite
hold the highest status. The Taiwanese have political power in the provincial
government or have gained economic power through the growing prosperity on the
island. Political power and wealth are the primary criteria for high status,
but high posts in the educational system also bestow prestige and social
status.

     Industrialization has opened new avenues of upward mobility for the
Taiwanese and has affected the social structure through urbanization. The
extended family tends to break down in cities. Urban factory workers are more
mobile than farmers, and families in the cities have more contact with a
variety of new ideas from both Japan and the West.

     The land-to-tiller program, which provides small landholdings to those
who previously were tenant farmers, has tended to equalize the rural farm
population which comprises about half the population of the island. A minority
group of rural poor remains, however, while the living conditions of the
majority improve.

     Officially recognized associations exist to unite people having common
interests and activities. All associations are registered with the Department
of Social Affairs. These associations are divided into several groups:
farmers' associations, labor unions, fishermen's associations, professional
groups, and cooperatives. The government encourages such organizations to
promote the interests of the people and to provide programs for social
welfare. For example, labor unions have been organized since the departure of
the Japanese, who had prohibited them. If the activities of an association
conflict with governmental policies, however, it may be dissolved or compelled
to re-elect its officers. Thus, labor unions, generally directed by members of
the Nationalist Party and partly subsidized by the government, have their
activities regulated by overseers sensitive to the desires and aims of the
government. This double role of encouragement and control over all
organizations reflects the importance and power of the governmental
hierarchy.

The Traditional Social Order

     The traditional Chinese social order was based on certain ideal
relationships associated with the teachings of Confucius and modifications of
his successors. The order consisted of traditional social classes and ideally
fixed relations of superordination and subordination, such as the
relationships between father and son, landlord and tenant, and the emperor and
his people. The limits of both authority and responsibility were defined
clearly, and the whole was realized in a land-based economy and the extended
family grouping.

     The four traditional social classes, comprised of scholars, farmers,
artisans, and merchants, actually existed only in theory. Particularly in
Taiwan, where the ancient prejudice against working with the hands was felt by
only a very few of the people, the major division was actually between the
rulers and the ruled. This division was based on the acquisition of a
knowledge of the classics, passing an Imperial examination, and subsequent
appointment to an official post by the court. The barrier between the scholars
and the common people was thus not insurmountable, and there were many men
with humble backgrounds who rose to the official hierarchy. Economic
considerations, however, severely limited the amount of such mobility.
Official position was the highest rank in the social order, and it conferred
influence, and wealth.

     Distinctions among the other three classes were hard to find on Taiwan.
Farming, the making of handicrafts, and buying and selling often were linked
closely. There were very few exclusive occupational groups. Although there
were professional merchants, their number was too small to characterize as a
separate grouping. Since wealth, prestige, and influence were linked together
only at the scholar-official level, wealthy landlords who were not also gentry
did not enjoy high prestige. Such prestige could, however, be gained by
purchasing an "irregular" academic degree or an official title.

     The primary aim of the traditional Chinese bureaucratic system was to
encourage men of ability to participate in the administration of the Imperial
domain. During the nineteenth century, however, the examinations degenerated
into mere formalized exercises, and men wholly unsuited for a particular
administrative post nevertheless were appointed to it by Imperial decree. The
resultant waste of capital, time, and talent was enormous. The consequence of
these abuses was a pyramid of social classes which had very great distance
between the bottom and the top of the structure.

     The complicated and overlapping system of land tenure on Taiwan
contributed to the character of Taiwanese society. The precedents for this
practice were set in the early days of the exploitation of the resources of
the island by enterprising officials who saw a chance to amass wealth with
relatively little interference. Land in the southern part of the island was
under grant from the government from the beginning; when people began to farm
the northern and central parts of the island, however, they had to fend for
themselves.

     Usually the rich and influential received land grants from the
government. They then hired farmers, supplied them with capital, and organized
self-protection forces against bandit and aboriginal raids. In return, the
owner received rents from the cultivators. Legally, he was the proprietor and
landlord. When a cultivator was assigned a large piece of land, he often
rented parts of it out to other cultivators; thus, in a sense, he also became
a landlord. The cultivator paid rent to the first proprietor. The first
proprietor, as the normal owner of the land, paid the land tax to the
government.

     Sometimes, with connivance of officials, an influential man could get the
first title to certain land without any investment and collect the rent
therefrom. The whole system made the transfer of ownership and the collection
of taxes difficult. Efforts by the Manchu administration to limit such
practices met with repeated failure. The first titles were not abolished until
the early 1900s by the Japanese, when the secondary owners of the land were
recognized as the sole owners.

     Up to the early years of Japanese rule, a true servitude existed on
Taiwan. Both male and female servants were bought and sold. The practice of
using indentured male servants disappeared quite early in Taiwanese history,
but indentured female servants could be found even in 1967. In the system
prevalent in Taiwan, female servants were hired by contract, but they could be
freed from its fulfillment by providing enough money to satisfy the terms of
service. In the event of marriage an intended husband had to pay the price of
freedom.

     In 1917 the higher court of justice in Taipei, under the Japanese,
invalidated the purchase system of female servants as detrimental to public
welfare and morals. The following year the Commissioner of Police instructed
the census department of the local police to confirm all existing fem