www.amcham.com.tw THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN TAIPEI
Taiwan Business
Topics
TAIWAN BUSINESS TOPICS October 2014 | Vol. 44 | Issue 10 中華郵政北台字第 號執照登記為雜誌交寄 5000 10_2014_Cover.indd 1
WomEn In TaIWan: RaIsIng ThE BaR 台灣女性跨越性別藩籬 更上一層樓 • Industry Focus: Environment
October 2014 | Vol. 44 | Issue 10
NT$150
Published by the American Chamber Of Commerce In Taipei
2014/10/7 10:58:38 PM
CONTENTS NEWS AND VIEWS
6 Editorial
In Search of Regulatory Coherence
OCTObE r 2 0 1 4 vOlumE 44, NumbEr 10 一 ○三年十月號
尋求法規的一致性
7 Taiwan Briefs Publisher
By Timothy Ferry
發行人
Andrea Wu
11 Issues
吳王小珍
Editor-in-Chief
How to Tackle Online Piracy; Requiring Stricter GMO Food Labeling; Good Goal, Right Approach?
總編輯
Don Shapiro
沙蕩
Associate Editor
副主編
Tim Ferry
法緹姆 美術主任 /
Art Director/ Production Coordinator
後製統籌
Katia Chen
陳國梅
Manager, Publications Sales & Marketing 廣告行銷經理
Caroline Lee
李佳紋
Translation
打擊網路侵權；基因改造食品原料 標示問題；立意良善，但做法是否 正確？ By Don Shapiro
翻譯
Jay Chen, Yichun Chen, Agnes Chiu 陳正杰,陳宜君,邱意豪
American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei 129 MinSheng East Road, Section 3, 7F, Suite 706, Taipei 10596, Taiwan P.O. Box 17-277, Taipei, 10419 Taiwan Tel: 2718-8226 Fax: 2718-8182 e-mail: amcham@amcham.com.tw website: http://www.amcham.com.tw 名稱：台北市美國商會工商雜誌 發行所：台北市美國商會 臺北市10596民生東路三段129號七樓706室 電話：2718-8226 傳真：2718-8182 Taiwan Business TOPICS is a publication of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, ROC. Contents are independent of and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Officers, Board of Governors, Supervisors or members. © Copyright 2014 by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, ROC. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint original material must be requested in writing from AmCham. Production done in-house, Printing by Farn Mei Printing Co., Ltd. 登記字號：台誌第一零九六九號 印刷所：帆美印刷股份有限公司 經銷商：台灣英文雜誌社 台北市108台北市萬華區長沙街二段66號 發行日期：中華民國一○三年十月 中華郵政北台字第5000號執照登記為雜誌交寄 ISSN 1818-1961
Chairman/ Thomas Fann Vice Chairmen/ Scott Meikle / William J. Farrell Treasurer: Cosmas Lu Secretary: Fupei Wang 2013-2014 Governors: Thomas Fann, William Farrell, Ajit Nayak, Neal Stovicek, Stephen Tan, Fupei Wang, Bill Wiseman. 2014-2015 Governors: William E. Bryson Jr., Sean Chao, Rodney Van Dooren, Douglas Klein, Cosmas Lu, Scott Meikle, Dan Silver, Ken Wu. 2014 Supervisors: Anita Chen, Midee Chen, Joseph Lin, Louis Ruggiere, Vincent Shih. COMMITTEES: Agro-Chemical/ Melody Wang; Asset Management/ Christine Jih, Derek Yung; Banking/ Victor Kuan; Capital Markets/ Miranda Liaw, C.P. Liu, Shirley Tsai; Chemical Manufacturers/ Michael Wong; CSR/ Lume Liao, Fupei Wang; Customs & International Trade/ Stephen Tan; Education & Training/ Robert Lin, William Zyzo; Greater China Business/ Helen Chou, Cosmas Lu; Human Resources/ Richard Lin, Seraphim Mar, Vickie Chen; Infrastructure/ L.C. Chen, Paul Lee; Insurance/ Arthur Cozad, Joseph Day, Dan Ting; Intellectual Property & Licensing/ Jason Chen, Peter Dernbach, Jeffrey Harris, Vincent Shih; Manufacturing/ Thomas Fan, Hans Huang; Marketing & Distribution/ Wei Hsiang, Gordon Stewart; Medical Devices/ Susan Chang, Tse-Mau Ng, Dan Silver; Pharmaceutical/ Margaret E. Driscoll, David Lin, Jun Hong Park; Private Equity/ William Bryson; Public Health/ Jeffrey Chen, Dennis Lin; Real Estate/ Tony Chao; Retail/ Prudence Jang, Ajit Nayak, Wern-Yuen Tan; Sustainable Development/ Kenny Jeng, Kernel Wang; Tax/ Cheli Liaw, Jenny Lin, Josephine Peng; Technology/ Revital Golan, Scott Meikle, Jeanne Wang; Telecommunications & Media/ Thomas Ee, Joanne Tsai, Ken Wu; Transportation/ Michael Chu; Travel & Tourism/ Anita Chen, Pauline Leung, Achim v. Hake.
COVER SECTION
18 Women in Taiwan: Raising the Bar
台灣女性跨越性別藩籬
更上一層樓 In business, education, government, and throughout society, Taiwanese women are making an increasingly important contribution. Progressive legislation promoting gender equality has been enacted, though enforcement sometimes is lagging. And even under the best of circumstances, juggling career and family responsibilities is never easy. By Jane Rickards
21 Best Places to Work 23 Progress in Legal Protection 26 Powering to Gold at the Asian Games 28 Some of the Trailblazers
BOOKS
32 Taiwan's Past, Present and Future
Reviews of Technology Transfer Between the U.S., China, and Taiwan: Moving Knowledge and Taiwan’s Struggle: Voices of the Taiwanese.
By Don Shapiro
BEHIND THE NEWS
35 12-Year Compulsory Educational System Off to a Bumpy Start
In response to dissatisfaction with the process, revisions in the exam and application system are expected next year.
By Philip Liu
coVer pHoto: cna 4
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o ct o b er 2 0 1 4 • Volu m e 4 4 n u m be r 1 0
INDuSTrY
F
CuS
A Report on the Environmental Sector New Technologies, International Cooperation By Katherine Moon
40 Blind to Borders: U.S.-Taiwan Cooperation in Fighting Pollution 43 Urban Mining: Treating Waste as a Resource 46 Slow but Steady Progress in Soil and Groundwater Remediation 48 Getting People to Care
AMCHAM EVENT
15 AmCham Marks 63rd Anniversary By Philip Liu
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In Search of Regulatory Coherence
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ast month, with funding from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Total Economic Engagement (TEE) program, a senior trade specialist from the Department, Bryan O’Byrne, came to Taipei to give several seminars on the U.S. experience in developing best practices for the regulation of medical devices. The presentations – organized by the American Institute in Taiwan together with AmCham Taipei and industry organizations TAMTA and AdvaMed, and with Taiwan health officials in attendance – broached a number of valuable fundamental concepts designed to make the regulatory process more efficient and effective. Although medical devices is an especially complex industry, the principles of “regulatory coherence” that O’Byrne introduced can be applied not only to medical devices but to most other fields as well. Basic concept number one is for civil servants, before adopting a new regulation, to go through a rigorous analytical process to determine whether there is actually a “need to regulate” the activity in question. Unnecessary regulation is a burden not only on the industries being impacted, but also often on consumers, as the cost of compliance in the end may have to be reflected in the price of the product or service. Further, over-regulation becomes a severe burden on the regulators themselves, who often already face a heavy workload. Another central concept is the importance of thoroughly engaging the private sector during the regulation-making process. In the United States, the main instrument for achieving transparency and public consultations is the daily government journal known as the Federal Register, whose contents are also accessible online. The Federal Register, whose role is supplemented by the websites of individual government agencies, announces all proposed new or amended regulations, inviting public comment by any concerned parties. When the
final regulation is decided on, it will also be published in the Federal Register, along with agencies’ responses to most comments. By providing sufficient time for comprehensive and thoughtful input from a wide variety of sources – including all those who will be directly affected by the proposed regulation – the regulators are actually making their own job easier by identifying potential problems well before they arise. Those issues can then be addressed while regulations are still in draft phase, avoiding the time and economic cost of having to go back and redo problematic rules that are already in effect. In fairness, Taiwan also has systems in place for public hearings and industry comment during the regulation-drafting process. But the comment period is too abbreviated (sometimes just two weeks), and the format of the public hearings too constraining, with the result that regulators do not have the benefit of wide-ranging, informed opinion to help guide them during the decision-making. In addition, the Taiwan government websites that are the closest equivalent to the Federal Register are not as complete or easy to navigate as the U.S. version. One of O’Byrne’s conclusions is that countries with a well-organized, smooth-functioning regulatory system have a distinct advantage in attracting foreign and domestic investment and international trade. He quotes the World Bank as saying: “Where regulation is burdensome and competition limited, [business] success tends to depend on whom one knows. But where regulation is transparent, efficient, and implemented in a simple way, it becomes easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to compete, innovate, and grow.” For Taiwan, which has been struggling to boost the economy through increased investment and entrepreneurship, that is a compelling message.
尋求法規的一致性
美
國商務部資深貿易專家歐本由該部「全面經濟交往」計
邦公報中發布，同時附上相關部會對於多數意見的回應。
畫出資，於上個月到台北主持多場研討會，討論美國如
若能夠提供足夠時間，讓各方─包括會受到擬訂中的法規直
何發展出最好的辦法，用來制定醫療器材的規範。會
接影響者─充分表達經過仔細思考的意見，主管單位的工作會比
議係由美國在台協會、台北市美國商會、台灣先進醫療科技協會
較輕鬆，因為他們可以在問題發生之前便早早掌握。這些問題可
和美國先進醫療技術協會共同合作辦理，出席人士主要為台灣衛
以在法規仍在草擬的階段加以處理，不必在有問題的法規生效之
福部官員，會中談到可使規範過程更有效率且更為有效的多項寶
後，再花時間和經濟成本去解決。
貴的基本觀念。雖然醫療器材是個特別複雜的產業，歐本提到的
平心而論，台灣在法規擬訂的過程中，也有舉辦公聽會與聽
「規範一致性」原則不僅適用於醫療器材產業，也適用於多數其
取業界陳述意見的制度。但意見陳述的時間太短（有時僅為期兩
他行業。
週），而且公聽會的型式限制過多，導致主管單位無法聽取到廣
第一個基本觀念，是公務員在採行新的法規之前，要先透過縝
泛而專業的意見，做為決策過程中的依據。此外，台灣政府最類
密的分析過程，判定相關活動是否確實有「規範的需要」。不必
似美國聯邦公報的網站，內容不像聯邦公報那麼完整，瀏覽的便
要的規範不僅對受到衝擊的產業形成負擔，對消費者往往也會形
利程度也有所不如。
成負擔，因為業界為符合規範所付出的成本，到最後可能會反映
歐本的結論之一，是如果一個國家具有完善而且順暢的法規
在產品或服務的價格之上。此外，監管單位往往原本就有龐大的
制度，在吸引國內外投資與國際貿易方面便享有明顯的優勢。他
業務壓力，過度的規範對他們又會形成沈重的負擔。
引述世界銀行的話說：「在法規繁瑣與缺乏競爭的地方，（企
另一個重要的觀念，是要在訂定規範的過程中與民間充分溝
業）成功與否往往要靠關係，但在法規透明化、有效率而且執行
通。在美國，透明化與徵詢大眾意見的主要工具是政府每天發布
簡便的地方，有宏遠目標的創業人士便比較容易競爭、創新與成
的聯邦公報。公報內容每天在網上公布，各政府部會的網站則扮
長。」
演輔助的角色。公報的功能在於宣布所有新增或修訂的法規草 案，並徵求任何有關方面的公開意見。法規定案之後，也會在聯 6
台灣在努力設法吸引更多投資以推動經濟成長，而對台灣來 說，歐本所傳達的訊息十分重要。
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— by ti m f erry —
econoMic indicaToRs
MACROECONOMIC GrOwtH COntinUes On GLObaL reCOVerY Ta i w a n ’s e c o n o m y w e n t f r o m strength to strength in August, buoyed by modest but ongoing expansion in developed markets such as the United States and successful efforts in China to maintain growth rates. Taiwan’s real GDP growth in Q2 exceeded forecasts, coming in at 3.74% and seasonally adjusted to 3.85%, according to the Directorate General of Budgeting, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). These numbers are expected to be even better in Q3, leading the DGBAS to forecast an overall growth rate of 3.41% for 2014, followed by 3.51% in 2015. The Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute raised its forecasts for 2014 GDP growth to 3.57%, up from 3.18% in June, on the strength of export growth and domestic demand. Cathay Financial Holding Co. also raised its forecast, from 3.29% to 3.59%, but warned that widely anticipated interest rate hikes in light of a growing U.S. economy might dampen Taiwan’s growth rates in 2015 to 3.33%. Given the Taiwan’s economy dependence on global tech markets, the
Taiwan sTock exchange PeRFoRMance
THE RED LINE SHOWS CHANGES IN VALUE AND THE SHADED AREA CHANGES IN THE TAIEX INDEX.
9750
135
9500
120
9250
105
9000
90
8750
75
8500
60
8250
45
8000
30
7750
15
7500
0
September data source: twse
Unit: nt$ billion
Current Account Balance (Q2 2014)
16.47
13.8
Foreign Trade Balance (Jan.-Aug.)
22.87
22.5
New Export Orders (Aug.)
38.21
40.7
423.07
409.39
Foreign Exchange Reserves (end Aug.) Unemployment (Aug.) Discount Rate (Aug.)
4.08%
4.33%
1.875%
1.875%
Economic Growth Rate (Q2 2014)p
3.74%
2.69%
Annual Change in Industrial Output (Aug.)p
7.03%
-0.97%
Annual Change in Industrial Output (Jan.-Aug.)p
5.04%
Annual Change in Consumer Price Index (Aug.)
2.07%
-0.78%
Annual Change in Consumer Price Index (Jan.-Aug.)
1.39%
0.87%
p=preliMinary
mid-September launch of the iPhone 6 is expected to boost Taiwan’s monthly export totals between August and October by 2 percentage points, contributing a 0.4 percentage point increase in this year’s overall GDP. Exports in August rose 9.6% over the same month last year, mainly on the strength of electronics products (which account for nearly a third of total exports). Electronic exports gained 14% in August to reach US$9.2 billion. The United States also saw exceptionally strong performance in Q2, with revised figures showing a 4.6% surge in GDP growth, mainly on the back of a 9.7% rise in business expansion. Tailwinds of this revival might partially explain the 7.4% climb in Taiwan’s machinery exports – 6.7% of overall exports – in August. Nevertheless, exports to the United States, which receives over 10% of Taiwan’s total exports, rose a modest 4.9% yearon-year in August, to US$3.02 billion. Exports to China, which has so far staved off a major economic slowdown through a series of stimulus measures, increased by 8.7% in August. Total shipments in August to China/Hong Kong were valued at US$10.7 billion, comprising 39.8% of exports.
sources: Moea, dG bas,cbc, boFt
Despite sluggish growth in Europe (1% in Q3, according to the European Central Bank), the financial crisis there is considered “quasi-officially over,” according to Deloitte Development. In expectation of better conditions ahead, Taiwan’s exports to the continent rose 13.5% in August to reach US$2.54 billion, equal to 9.1% of Taiwan’s total exports. Exports to the ASEAN-6 nations, which take over 19% of Taiwan’s exported goods, also surged, gaining 12.7% to reach US$5.379 billion. While export growth was strong in August, import growth was even stronger, at 14.1%, mostly in basic metals used in manufacturing. This spurt reflects the rise in export orders, an indicator of future export performance, which advanced 5.2% year-on-year in August to come to US$38.2 billion, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). The rise in export orders is likewise attributed to Taiwan’s powerful technology sector, with analysts pointing to growing demand for devices related to the Internet of Things and Wearables. The balance of trade remained in Taiwan’s favor at US$4.11 billion. On the domestic side, unemployment remained fairly steady at 4.08%, a slight decline of 0.25 percentage points
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compared to the previous year. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 2.07% for the month.
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ter Chang Sheng-ford and chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission Tseng Ming-chung jointly announced on September 22 that the government would pump significant amounts of money into the local bourse to increase liquidity. Making the announcement during an interpellation session of the Legislative Yuan, the financial heads cited several causes for the recent lackluster performance of the stock market, including the Ukrainian crisis and the local waste oil food scandal. More than NT$70 billion will likely be pumped into the market, courtesy of national pension funds. Local media have also speculated that the government may be pumping liquidity into equity markets in advance of the November elections in hopes of boosting voter support for ruling party candidates.
BUSINESS natiOn’s first LOw-COst Carrier set fOr taKeOff Ta i w a n ’s b u d g e t t r a v e l m a r k e t looks set to expand, as the first budget carrier launched service this past month. Ti g e r a i r Ta i w a n – a j o i n t v e n t u r e between Taiwan’s China Airlines and Tiger Airways of Singapore – began service with an inaugural flight from Taoyuan International Airport to Singapore’s Changyi Airport on September 26. It will operate daily flights to and from the city-state. When the budget carrier adds more aircraft in November, it will also offer flights to Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand four days a week. Tigerair Taiwan joins 13 other foreign-owned budget carriers operating routes from Taiwan. Together they have a 7.2% market share, according to the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
DEFENSE new naVaL VesseLs tO be MaDe in taiwan In an effort to reduce reliance on weapons procurement from abroad, Taiwan’s Navy announced a 20-year expansion plan that calls for replacing aging vessels in its current fleet with locally designed and built ships. Citing China’s growing interference in efforts to
biLLiOns earMarKeD fOr eQUities MarKets In response to a lagging stock market and diminishing returns, Finance Minis-
Taiwan's Jan.-sePT. 2014 TRade FigURes (YeaR- on-YeaR coMPaRison)
2014
22.82 18.23
18.06 18.95
19.41 20.39
Europe
21.57 16.88
U.S.
2013
2013
2014
2013
2014
Exports
TOTAL 208.23 185.36
2014
39.29 22.71
2013
38.23 20.98
13.05 28.06
2014
12.62 29
32.59
79.23 28.89
2013
8
ASEAN
201.37 178.86
Japan
82.44
HK/China
Imports
r
2013
2014
UNIT: US$ Billion SOURCE: BOFT/MOEA
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acquire weapons from the United States and European nations, Navy officials said the nation’s force modernization efforts will include replacing all of its U.S. and French-made frigates and corvettes, as well as Dutch-built submarines. Defense News Weekly reported that the Navy will rely on the combined efforts of the Ocean Industries Research and Development Center for design, the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) for systems and integration, and the Kaohsiung-based China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. for construction. The Navy says it may seek assistance from the United States or other foreign nations on the design phase of the project, which it hopes to complete within the next decade, but is committed to building the ships domestically. According to Navy officials, the decision stems in part from past cases of corruption involved in procuring weapons systems, such as the scandal surrounding the purchase of Lafayette-class frigates from France in the 1990s. Defense News reports that the Navy plans to build four 10,000-ton destroyers, ten to fifteen 3,000-ton catamaran frigates, amphibious transport docks to replace 11 docklanding and tank-landing ships, and four to eight diesel 1,200-3,000-ton submarines to replace two Dutch-built subs. The Navy says that the ships will operate using locally produced weapons and radar systems as well, and that the whole project will generate jobs in the local economy.
annUaL Han KUanG war GaMes HeLD The annual Han Kuang military exercises, designed to test the readiness of Taiwan’s military to repel an invasion from China, concluded on September 19. The largest in 25 years, the exercises included more than 100 naval vessels, plus F-16, F-5, and Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) jets; S-70C helicopters; P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft;
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TRAINING EXERCISE — A Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter jet lands on a closed section of highway during the annual Han Kuang military exercises. photo : ap/wally santana
and ground transport vehicles. On the third day of the five-day event, President Ma Ying-jeou observed the naval exercises on the east coast from the deck of the domestically made 9,525-ton, Keelung-class destroyer Tsoying. More than 2,000 Naval personnel participated in the drills, aboard Knox-class frigates procured from the United States, Frenchmade Lafayette-class frigates, and locally built Keelung-class destroyers, Kuang Hua VI-class missile boats, and Chengkung-class frigates. The drills simulated attacks by Chinese military vessels into Taiwan’s surrounding waters, including areas off the east coast near Hualien, in southern waters off Pingtung, and in the Taiwan Strait near Taichung. In the exercises, the “defenders” fired anti-ship rockets, depth charges, 76mm and 5-inch ship guns, and Phalanx close-in weapon systems. Defense News quoted a Navy spokesperson as saying the training exercise “reveals not only the superior combat capability of the new-generation naval and Air Force platforms, but also the great training achievements of men and women involved in the exercise.”
air fOrCe PraCtiCes freewaY LanDinGs As part of the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s Air Force practiced takeoffs and landings on the National Sun Yatsen Freeway to simulate emergency conditions in the event of a Chinese invasion. The exercise was held in the early morning of September 16 on the Minxiong section of the freeway in Chiayi County, and included practice refueling and reloading of armaments onto F-16, Mirage 2000-5, and IDF fighter jets. This year’s Han Kuang exercises also premiered the P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. Taiwan purchased 12 P-3C aircraft from the United States last year, with the first three already delivered and the rest scheduled for arrival by the end of next year. The P-3C aircraft was used in drills that simulated forcing an enemy submarine to the surface.
I N T E R N AT I O N A L taiwan reaCts tO HOnG KOnG Unrest Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that have seen tens of thousands
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take to the streets against Beijing’s tight grip on local politics have galvanized Taiwanese political leaders of all stripes. The protests are in response to Beijing’s promise that the territory will be permitted universal suffrage, but only for candidates that are pre-approved by Beijing. The Hong Kong demonstrators have dubbed this “fake democracy,” and what started as a student movement has morphed into a general protest against the rule of Beijing-appointed Chief Executive, C.Y. Leung. In support of the Hong Kong protests, Taiwanese Sunflower Movement leaders Chen Wei-ting and Lin Fei-fan led a group of over 100 supporters to take over the Hong Kong representative office in Taipei late in the night of September 28. The protestors held the representative office until early September 29. President Ma Ying-jeou, often the target of the Sunflower Movement’s ire, also threw his weight behind the Hong Kong protestors. “We fully understand and support Hong Kong people in their call for full universal suffrage,” he said in an open letter to the media. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party, however, rejected the president’s statements as insufficient and called on Taiwan to issue a formal announcement “voicing support for the actions of Hong Kong’s people” and denouncing what it called the Hong Kong government’s “violent crackdown.”
DOMESTIC fOOD OiL sCanDaL taints taiwan In yet another major food scandal, an unregistered factory in Pingtung County owned by Kou Lieh-cheng was found to have been selling food oil made from waste or “gutter” oil to several of Taiwan’s largest food manufacturers, including Chang Guann, impacting more than 1200 restaurants, schools and food processors. At least 569 tons of defi-
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was washed away by a swollen river while cleaning a storm drain. Meanwhile, several people suffered broken limbs and lacerations from flying debris in the moderately heavy wind. The storm caused numerous flights and trains to be canceled or delayed, and the closure of several highways as heavy rains caused landslides in certain areas. The Central Weather Bureau reported that rainfall was heaviest in the southern counties of Taitung and Pingtung, which received 900 and 1,100 millimeters respectively.
BROUGHT DOWN – Yeh Wen-hsiang, CEO of Chang Guann Foods Co., begs for forgiveness in front of the media for his company’s role in the “gutter oil” scandal last month. CNA.
photo : cna
cient oil made it onto the market, where it was used in the production of everything from instant noodles to dumplings and pastries. The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) ordered the recall of more than 250 tons of food products and levied an NT$50 million fine against Chang Guann for its role in the scandal, while the owner of the oil factory is being held by prosecutors. The scandal took on international proportions when a Hong Kong oil vendor, GlobalWay Corp., was also implicated in selling waste oil to Chang Guann for use in food products. The incident follows other highprofile breakdowns in the food safety systems in Taiwan, including the addition of copper chlorophyllin – an illegal coloring agent – to counterfeit olive oil in 2013, and the use of plasticizer in cold drinks and puddings in 2011. NGOs called for the resignation of TFDA Director-General Yeh Ming-kung.
MOb KiLLs COP OUtsiDe HsinYi CLUb Mob violence turned deadly for an off-duty police detective outside of department store ATT4FUN in the trendy Hsinyi District in the early morning of September 14. According to media reports, Detective Hsueh Chen-kuo, who
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had been having dinner in the area with a colleague, responded to police reports of violence outside the popular nightclub Myst. The detective encountered up to 50 knife-and-stick wielding gangsters, reportedly members of a Bamboo Union chapter, who had been summoned by main suspect Tseng Wei-hao as retaliation against the nightclub for denying him entrance. In front of horrified onlookers, the mob pummeled the officer for as long as three minutes, leaving him for dead with a knife protruding from his mouth. Thirty-seven people have been questioned in the incident, with 13 arrested, including Tseng, and several being held incommunicado. Questions remain over the incident, particularly why the off-duty officer responded to the incident, and allegations have been raised regarding police corruption in connection with the area’s high-end nightclubs.
tYPHOOn fUnG-wOnG batters taiwan Despite being downgraded from a typhoon, Tropical Storm Fung-Wong brought torrential rainfall to parts of Taiwan September 21, leaving one dead and injuring several others. The Central Emergency Operation Center reported that a man in Taitung County
taiwan GOes GaGa fOr iPHOne 6 Consumers waited for up to 34 hours in line to be the first to purchase the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The latest versions of the iPhone went on sale in Taiwan September 26, and despite media reports of glitches to the updated iOS8 software and possible susceptibility of the larger sized 6 Plus model to bending, merchants report that sales have been brisk. Apple’s main distributors, including Data Express Infotech Co., reported that the top seller on the day of the launch was the gold iPhone 6 64G. Worldwide, as of September 29, 10 million units of the two new models had been shipped. But despite consumer interest in the new models, questions remain over how much Taiwan’s economy benefits. Taiwanese firms have long been deeply involved in Apple’s supply chains, and Taiwanese electronics makers Hon Hai and Pegatron between them are assembling the entire production of the iPhone 6. But Taiwanese makers reportedly earn only around US$35 of the total manufacturing costs, which amount to around US$200, as determined by analytics firm IHS. While IHS observes that Taiwan semiconductor maker TSMC produces 60% of the new A8 processors in the iPhone 6, Taiwan analytics firm Trendforce says that Taiwanese components suppliers are otherwise “virtually absent” from the iPhone 6 supply chain.
taiwan business topics • october 2014
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How to Tackle Online Piracy Specialists from other markets offer their experience as reference for Taiwan policy makers.
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ast year, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs proposed legislation designed to combat online piracy by requiring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block domains or IP addresses of websites identified as being chronic infringers, especially through illegal file sharing. But TIPO quickly backed away from the initiative in the face of staunch opposition from both consumers and websites who argued that the wording of the proposal was too vague and subject to abuse. The issue – how to protect intellectual property rights while still respecting the public’s freedom of speech and access to information – has been a difficult and controversial topic in many countries. In hopes of advancing the conversation in Taiwan, last month the American Institute in Taiwan, the European Economic and Trade Office, and Taiwan International Screen Foundation (which represents the film and TV industries) jointly sponsored a half-day seminar with participation from government, industry, and legal experts. A key point of discussion was whether a way can be found to block access from Taiwan to foreign websites that are flagrant violators of IPR. To lay out the extent of the problem in Taiwan, the participants were briefed on a recent survey by Sycamore Research of netizens aged between 18 and 59. The results showed that 73% of respondents admitted to having engaged in illicit downloading of copyrighted material, compared with 61% in Singapore. Asked why they watched pirated content, 89% said “because it’s free” and 49% said because “there are no enforced laws in place to stop me.” At the same time, a majority of those taking the survey recognized that piracy is wrong and has negative consequences. Of the respondents, 81% said they “agree that piracy is stealing,” 74% said they “agree that piracy damages Taiwan’s creative industries,” and 67% said they “agree that the internet needs more regulation.” Significantly, 63% said they could accept “court-sanctioned site-blocking of foreign websites that profit from piracy.” One of the main speakers at the event, David Lowe of the United Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Office, described a new mechanism recently introduced in Britain under which rights-holders – once other potential remedies have failed – can obtain a judicial injunction enabling the authorities to block user access to offshore websites deemed to be flagrant offenders. Another presenter, Matthew Cheetham of the Motion Picture Association, reported that within this region, countries such as Australia, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore have adopted measures – through either regulatory or judicial channels – to enable the blockage of seriously infringing sites. In discussion, opinions varied among legal specialists on the feasibility to taking similar action in Taiwan, whether administrative or judicial. Although no clear consensus on the way forward was reached at the seminar, there was wide agreement among the participants on the seriousness of the problem and the need for further study to identify a feasible solution to the challenge. —– By Don Shapiro
打擊網路侵權 國外專家分享經驗，供台灣借鏡
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濟部智慧財產局去年提出打擊網路侵權 的新法案，內容規定，對於經常侵犯著 作權的網站，尤其是透過檔案分享方式 侵權者，網路業者必須封鎖他們的網址或I P位 址。但消費者與網站聲稱法案文字過於模糊，容 易導致濫權，在他們強力反對之下，智慧財產局 很快退讓。 如何保護智慧財產權並兼顧民眾言論與取得 資訊的自由，在許多國家都是個爭議、難解的議 題。為了促進有關此事的討論，美國在台協會、 歐洲經貿辦事處和台灣國際影視基金會（代表電 影與電視產業）上個月共同舉辦一場半天的研討 會，邀政府官員、業界代表與法律專家討論。會 議的一個焦點，在於能否設法不讓台灣的網民造 訪嚴重侵犯智慧財產權的外國網站。 為說明這個問題在台灣的嚴重性，會中提報 Sycamore Research最近一項針對台灣18到59歲網 民所做的調查。調查結果顯示，有73%受訪的網 民承認曾經非法下載有版權的影片；新加坡的 比例為61%。對於為何要觀賞非法下載影片的問 題，有89%回答說：「因為是免費的。」有49% 說：「因為現行法律並不禁止。」 同時，多數受訪民眾承認侵權行為是不對的 事，而且有負面的後果。有81%表示，他們「認 同侵權就是竊盜行為」，74%表示，他們「認同 侵權行為有損台灣的創意產業」，67%表示，他 們「認同網際網路需要加強規範」。重要的是， 有63%受訪民眾表示，如果「法庭下令封鎖靠侵 權獲利的外國網站」，他們可以接受。 研討會主講人之一英國智慧財產權辦公室代表 羅大衛說明英國最近採行的新機制。根據這個制 度，如果其他辦法達不到效果，智慧財產權所有 人可以取得法院的強制令，讓有關當局封鎖被認 為經常侵權的海外網站。另一位主講人美國電影 協會的齊登說，這個區域內的澳洲、韓國、馬來 西亞和新加坡已透過法規或司法渠道採取措施， 讓當局可以使國內網民無法造訪嚴重侵權的網 站。 在研討會的討論時間，法律專家對於台灣採取 類似行政或司法措施的可行性有不同意見。會中 雖然未就應該採取的措施達成明確共識，但與會 人士普遍認為此一問題已相當嚴重，需要進一步 研究，以找出因應這項挑戰的可行之道。 — 撰文／沙蕩
taiwan business topics • october 2014
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Requiring Stricter GMO Food Labeling Given the absence of a safety issue, such measures only serve to raise prices for the consumer.
基因改造食品 原料標示問題
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he dismaying spate of food-related scandals in Taiwan in recent years has understandably prompted pressure for strengthening of food safety laws and enforcement. Some of the amendments made to the Food Safety and Sanitation Act (FSSA), however, have been only tangentially related to food safety, if at all – and their implications for both business and consumers have not been fully examined during the legislative and regulatory process. An example is the announcement by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) early this year regarding portions of the FSSA governing Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) corn and soybean raw materials. The TFDA plans to lower the threshold at which food manufacturers and importers must label their products as containing GMO material from the current 5% of total content to 3% (with exemptions from GMO labeling provided to corn syrup, soy sauce, and soy vegetable oil). The new regulation is to take effect from January 2016, and there have been indications that the TFDA may further lower the threshold to 0.9%, the level adopted by the European Union. Such labeling regulations have been enacted by many countries, based on consumers’ “right to know” what they are eating. But in many major markets, including the United States, which is known for upholding high food-safety standards, there is no such requirement. A 2012 statement issued by the well-respected American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), stresses that “the science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.” In fact, because of the rigorous analysis and testing to which each new GMO crop is subjected before receiving U.S. regulatory approval, the statement continues, “contrary to popular misconceptions, GM crops are the most extensively tested crops ever added to our food supply.” As a result, the AAAS concludes, “legally mandating such a label can only serve to mislead and falsely alarm consumers.” Another consideration is the potential impact on food prices. A study by Colorado State University notes that the “cost of labeling involves far more than the paper and ink to print the actual label.” Rather, extensive testing and detailed record-keeping would need to be carried out at each step along the food supply chain. Those costs would inevitably have to be passed on to the consumer, and some studies suggest that as much as 10% would be added to household food bills. The situation would grow even more serious if the Taiwan public, despite the evidence, is led to doubt the safety of GMO 12
基因改造作物安全無虞，嚴格標示只會讓 消費者負擔加重。
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灣近年連續發生幾起與食品有關的醜聞，要 求強化食品安全法律與執行的壓力自然隨之 升高 ，但食品安全衛生管理法的部分修正 條文，即使跟食品安全有關，其中的關聯性也並不 高，而且這些條文對企業和消費者的影響，在立法 規範的過程中並未充分討論。 舉例說，食品藥物管理署今年初宣布食安法有關 包裝食品含基因改造玉米、黃豆原料標示應遵行事 項 。目前食品製造商與進口商的產品成分如果有 5%是基因改造原料，必須加以標示，而根據食藥署 宣布的計畫，這個門檻將降為3%（玉米糖漿、醬油 和大豆沙拉油不適用於此一規定）。新的規定將在 2016年1月生效，而且食藥署可能進一步將門檻降到 0.9%，與歐洲聯盟一致。 許多國家基於尊重消費者對於食品「有知的權 利」，已經頒行這類標示的規定，另一方面，美國 以維持食品安全的高標準著稱，但包括美國在內的 許多主要市場，卻並無類似規定。2012年，備受敬 重的美國科學促進會發表聲明強調，「這項科學道 理相當明確：運用現代生物科技分子技術改良作物 的做法是安全的」。事實上，每一項基因改造作物 在獲得美國主管機關的認可之前，都必須通過嚴格 的分析與檢驗，因此，聲明說：「基因改造作物是 我們食品供應鍊當中經過最廣泛檢驗的農產品，這 點跟一般人的錯誤認知正好相反。」美國科學促進 會因此做成結論說：「立法要求標示只會誤導消費 者，使消費者產生不必要的驚慌。」 另一項考慮因素，是這類標示可能對食品價格造 成影響。科羅拉多州立大學的一項研究指出，「標 示的成本遠超過印製標籤所需的紙張和墨汁」。在 食物供應鍊的每一環節，都需要有許多檢驗與仔細 的記錄，這些成本必定會轉嫁到消費者身上，有些 研究顯示，家庭食品消費帳單因而上漲的幅度可能
taiwan business topics • ocotber 2014
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Issues crops and demand an alternative. Unlike the EU, Taiwan relies almost entirely on imports for its corn and soybeans. It is questionable whether sufficient supplies of accredited non-GMO raw materials are available on the international market – and if they are, again the price would be much higher, raising inflationary concerns. Ironically, the main potential supplier for non-GMO materials would be China – whose food safety record is unlikely to give Taiwan consumers much confidence. AmCham Taipei’s Retail Committee has urged the TFDA to benchmark the practice of other major soy-consuming countries in this region, including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, which look only at the level of non-intentionally added GMO in the top three or five ingredients in the end product.
多達10%。 如果台灣民眾不理會證據，反而受外界影響，懷 疑基改作物的安全性並要求替代產品，則問題將更 形嚴重。台灣跟歐盟不同，幾乎所有的玉米和黃豆 都仰賴進口。國際市場上是否有足夠來源可靠的非 基改原料，本身就是個問題，但即使供應無虞，價 格也會高出許多，可能引發通貨膨脹。諷刺的是， 非基改原料主要的潛在供應者是中國，而中國的食 品安全紀錄很難讓台灣消費者放心。 台北市美國商會零售委員會已敦促台灣食品藥物 管理署參考日本、韓國、馬來西亞和泰國等區域內 其他主要黃豆消費國家的做法，只看終端產品內前 三大或前五大原料的非故意摻雜容許率即可。
—– By Don Shapiro
— 撰文／沙蕩
Good Goal, Right Approach? A proposals to regulate the advertising/promotion of food items to children raises some knotty questions.
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esides the GMO provisions mentioned above, another new addition to the Food Safety and Sanitation Act is Article 28, designed to promote healthy eating habits in children. While supporting that goal as a worthy objective, the AmCham Taipei Retail Committee has had strong reservations about some of the implementation measures being considered under the revised law – provisions that would regulate the advertising and promotion of food items deemed “unsuitable for long-term consumption by children.” One of the basic problems is how to arrive at a reasonable definition of such “unsuitable” food. When this question was previously addressed in this column in the May 2014 edition of Taiwan Business TOPICS, the focus was on a proposal to base that determination on nutritional criteria that included the level of total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, and sodium in each product. Those standards can only logically be applied to the whole of one’s daily intake, however. When used to evaluate individual products, they wound up classifying much of the Taiwanese diet – including rice, dumplings, and even bottled water – as “unsuitable.” It now appears that the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) is rethinking the approach to take, and may at least modify the originally proposed definitions. But the Retail Committee position continues to be that any such set of nutritional guidelines on what is appropriate for children must be based on solid evidence derived from thorough research, not on mere assumptions. If such science-based criteria is established, AmCham member companies have said they would voluntarily
立意良善， 但做法是否正確？ 一項規範兒童食物廣告與促銷活動的草案， 觸發若干棘手的問題。
除
了有關基因改造作物的條文，食品安全衛生 管理法另一項新增內容是第28條，目的在 於促使兒童養成健康的飲食習慣。台北市美 國商會零售委員會支持這個崇高的目標，但對於修 法後在執行面若干考慮採取的措施持強烈的保留態 度。這部分內容是要對「不適合兒童長期食用」的 產品在廣告與促銷方面設限。 一個基本問題在於這種「不適合」的食品要如何 合理界定。2014年5月號的Taiwan Business Topics 也曾討論過這個問題，當時的焦點是一項以營養成 分做為判定標準的提案。這些標準包括每項產品所 含的全部脂肪、飽和脂肪、反式脂肪、糖分與鈉。 但這些標準要拿一個人全天的攝取量來衡量才算合 理，如果用來評估個別產品，則台灣民眾日常飲食 當中有很多項目都會不及格，包括米飯、水餃，甚 至瓶裝水在內。
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Subscriptions
cease advertising on children’s media channels of products that do not meet the criteria. Regarding the other aspect of Article 28 – the regulation of “promotion” to children of unsuitable food items – the Retail Committee has also had its concerns. In addition to pointing out the lack of any scientific evidence that promotional activities lead to poorer health outcomes for children, the Committee has also noted that “promotion toward children” is a vague concept that would be very hard to implement in practice unless further carefully defined. Although a few other countries such as Britain, Canada, and Korea have enacted legislation regulating advertising of food to children, no other government has sought to similarly restrict promotional activities. The Committee has reminded the authorities that “adopting a unique-to-Taiwan regulation would be out of place at a time when Taiwan is trying to align itself with international regulatory practice” as it looks ahead to its potential candidacy for membership in free-trade groupings such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. —– By Don Shapiro
台灣的食品藥物管理署目前似乎在重新考慮此事， 可能至少會修訂原本提案中的界定方式。但台北市美 國商會零售委員會的立場並未改變，那就是界定是否 適合兒童的任何營養標準，不能只根據假設，而必須 以透徹研究所得到的可靠證據做為依據。如果建立以 科學為根據的標準，台北市美國商會的會員公司表 明，他們將自動停止在媒體兒童頻道宣傳未達標準的 產品。 至於第28條的另一個層面，也就是有關「促銷」不 適合兒童食物的規定，零售委員會也感到關切。委員 會指出，促銷活動會導致兒童健康受到不良影響的看 法並無任何科學根據，而且「對兒童促銷」的模糊概 念除非進一步謹慎釐清，將會很難執行。 英國、加拿大和韓國等少數國家有立法規範針對兒 童製播食物廣告的行為，但除此之外，沒有其他國家 試圖對促銷活動做類似的限制。台灣正在爭取加入跨 太平洋夥伴協定等自由貿易組織，零售委員會已提醒 有關當局，「在台灣試圖與國際規範接軌的此刻，採 行台灣獨有的規定並不合宜」。 — 撰文／沙蕩
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amcham event
AmCham Marks 63rd Anniversary
T
he American Chamb er o f Com merce in Taipei had much to celebrate when members and guests gathered on September 17 for an outdoor party to observe the 63rd anniversary of the organization’s founding in 1951. Over the past year, membership in AmCham Taipei passed the momentous 1,000 mark for the first time, the annual “Doorknock” delegation to Washington, D.C. attracted a record 22 participants, and the Chamber made impressive headway on a number of the important industry issues presented in its annual Taiwan White Paper. The evening, entitled “Jazz Night at the Maji Maji Square,” featured live band performances, a delectable array of dishes provided by the Three Lions Inn, and craft beer from Steve’s Brew – all in the charming setting of Maji Maji Square in Taipei Expo Park’s
Yuanshan Park Area. Audi was the event sponsor. In brief remarks, 2014 AmCham Chairman Thomas Fann reviewed some of the highlights of the previous year. Besides the record levels for membership and Doorknock participation, and the Chamber’s advocacy for continued regulatory liberalization to pave the way for Taiwan’s participation in the TransPacific Partnership (TPP), he touched on AmCham’s establishment of an Innovation Council to help put Taiwan at the cutting edge of technology and business, as well as the revamped AmCham website, which now offers informative podcasts and original blogposts. On behalf of the American Institute in Taiwan, AIT Acting Director W. Brent Christensen thanked AmCham for its contributions over the decades to strengthening the bilateral economic relationship between Taiwan and the United States.
taiwan business topics • october 2014
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整合創新技術，克服惱人問題
3M提供地下管線管理 最佳解決方案
些日子南北數起氣爆事件 使得人們意識到管線安全 的重要性，也讓多年來致 力推廣地下管線安全管理的3M，成 為多方諮詢的焦點。 早在30年前，3M即已推出 「地下管線電子標識系統」(3M Dynatel)，在管線上裝設含低頻晶片 的電子標識器，並允許使用者依自身 需求寫入重要資訊，例如所屬單位、 埋管深度、埋設日期、管徑、及管內 物質等，以便日後能藉由定位儀快速 讀取並判斷地下管線位置，在第一時 間找出所需管線，使挖掘效率及準確 度大為提高。 「地下管線電子標識系統」(3M D y n a t e l)已在許多國家廣泛使用多 年，美國及一些歐洲國家甚至立法要 求地下管線裝置類似定位設備。而紐 約愛迪生聯合電力公司和國家電力公 司，也在該公司的整體解決方案中納 入了3M的電子標識系統，來管理紐 約、這個地下管線以錯綜複雜聞名的 都市。只要使用可讀可寫的電子標識 系統，再複雜的管線也能在最短的時 間輕鬆找到。 在台灣也有許多單位採用了相同 的「地下管線電子標識系統」(3M Dynatel)系統，例如台電、中油、中
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華電信、自來水公司、高速公路局、 高鐵工程局、警察電訊所、陸軍及空 軍等，除了在路平專案期間使用電子 標識系統來管理降埋的人手孔蓋外， 對於一些重要的地下管線或設施也同 樣加以標識，以利日後的探測與維 護，真正做好地下資產管理的工作。 氣爆事件也暴露了管線鏽蝕的問 題。爆炸現場挖出來的管線經長時間 埋設及濕氣侵蝕，已是斑駁不堪，薄 如紙片，顯示早期埋設管線時防腐處 理不足。石化管線輸送的材料皆具腐 蝕性，應採用高等級的防蝕技術。台 灣現有管線多採用傳統防蝕技術，以 射出聚乙烯(Extruded PE)或三層聚 乙烯(3L P E)覆蓋管線，再將兩者用 膠黏合，經年累月之後，膠會老化、 脫落，造成管線腐蝕。尤其在管線的 接縫處，即便經過處理，日久也易造 成腐蝕。台灣鹽害高，情況更糟。 3M在地下管線的防蝕技術上已 有54年經驗，目前最新技術為「雙 層熔結環氧樹脂防蝕工法」（D u a l Layer FBE ）。金屬管線於加熱情 況下以粉狀熔結環氧樹脂與管線表面 直接結合，可提供附著力強，杜絕氧 化，進而做到防蝕效果，即使在潮濕 環境也不例外。耐撞擊、絕緣性佳， 是地下管線最佳解決方案。美國哥倫
比亞煤氣公司在1967年於賓州啟用 的管線，即採3M熔結環氧樹脂防蝕 工法，於1985年時施以電位量測， 仍可看出管線與土壤間的電位差並無 明顯變化，證明3M熔結環氧樹脂是 可高度信賴之長效防蝕工法。 五十年來，3M防蝕產品已在全 球超過50個國家獲得採用，包括美 國、加拿大、澳洲、中國、委內瑞 拉、俄羅斯、馬來西亞、義大利， 做為超過40萬公里管線及4萬座橋樑 的塗料。澳洲太平洋液化天然氣公 司多年前建造長達530公里的媒層氣 (coal seam gas)輸送管時，就是使 用3M 雙層熔結環氧樹脂防蝕技術。 台灣地下管線亟待相關單位重視 並起而行。台灣地處濕氣重、高鹽化 地區，但是許多管線不僅防蝕工法 不足應付，更因埋設多年連基本圖資 均付之闕如，更遑論定時檢視維修， 對居民而言如同不定時炸彈。建議 相關單位積極研擬符合國際相關組 織、如美國石油協會API(American P e t r o l e u m I n s t i t u t e)及加拿大標 準組織C S A(C a n a d i a n S t a n d a r d Association)等規範的管線法規，確 實涵蓋管線防蝕及標識標準，讓業者 有所遵循，以建立一個安全的工業及 居住環境。
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advertorial
3M Taiwan Offers Optimal Solutions to Pipeline Safety
H
eavy casualties caused by the petrochemical pipeline explosion in Kaohsiung have aroused awareness in Taiwan of the crucial importance of pipeline safety. In fact, 3M has been playing an active role in promoting pipeline safety in many countries for years.
as some of the pipelines excavated from the site had seriously corroded to the point that they were as thin as paper, underscoring the inadequacy of the anti-corrosion treatment. Wi t h i t s 5 4 y e a r s o f e x p e r i ence in this field, 3M now offers the cutting-edge anti-corrosion treatment technology “Dual Layer FBE,” which incorporates epoxy in powder form into the surface of metal pipelines by means of a thermal method. The result is a longlasting and robust anti-corrosion layer on the pipelines, capable of pr e ve nting c or r os ion e ve n in a highly humid setting. The management of Taiwan’s underground pipelines, including regular inspection and maintenance/ repair, has been a chronic problem, posing a serious threat to the safety of petrochemical operations
and nearby communities. In some cases, even basic information on the location of the pipeline installation has been lacking. The enactment of relevant legislation in line with international norms is urgently needed to provide guidance to the petrochemical industry and create a safe industrial and living environment.
Thirty years ago, the 3M parent company in the United States rolled out “3M Dynatel,” an electronic marking system for underground pipelines. The attachment of lowfrequency chips to pipelines enables users to key in relevant information – such as the owner, date of installation, depth, diameter, and contents – for convenient retrieval later on. Such information can facilitate quick determination of the pipeline’s position, greatly enhancing efficiency and accuracy in pipeline excavation. The system has been extensively applied in the United States and worldwide, and some European nations have even enacted laws mandating installation of similar positioning devices for underground pipelines. The explosion incident in Kaohsiung also exposes the problem of underground pipeline corrosion,
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Women in TaiWan: Raising The BaR 台灣女性跨越性別藩籬 撐起一片天
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women in taiwan
In business, education, government, and throughout society, Taiwanese women are making an increasingly important contribution. Progressive legislation promoting gender equality has been enacted, though enforcement sometimes is lagging. And even under the best of circumstances, juggling career and family responsibilities is never easy.
台灣近年來致力降低颱風等天災 帶來的災情，成績相當不錯。不 過最近的高雄氣爆事件顯示，台 灣須更加留意重大工安事故等災 難。究竟台灣該怎麼做，未來才 能更妥善因應災害管理挑戰？
BY JANE RICKARDS
撰文 / 李可珍
Can Taiwanese women have it all? It’s a question many professional Taiwanese women are asking. Flourishing careers coupled with marriage and family are easily enjoyed by successful men but remain an elusive goal for many Taiwanese women, who face agonizing sacrifices in protecting one element at the expense of the other. In the bigger picture, Taiwanese women have more equality in the workplace and enjoy better legal protection than their Northeast Asian peers. In some areas, such as maternity leave, Taiwan even surpasses the United States. The problem is that while the laws themselves are relatively equitable, they are not always adequately enforced. And a deeper obstacle to equality lies in entrenched cultural attitudes, such as the notion that women do not make good leaders or that they should be solely responsible for family and household matters, even if they are pursuing a career. “I think the mindset has not kept up with the changes in legal concepts,” says Seraphim Mar, a senior partner with law firm Baker & McKenzie. In 2010, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) proposed
台灣女性能否樣樣兼顧? 許多職業婦女都會自問，我能否樣樣兼顧？對於 事業成功的男人來說，想要事業、婚姻與家庭三者 兼顧往往並非難事，但對於許多台灣女性而言，三 者兼顧卻仍是遙不可及的理想，因為女性總是面臨 在事業、婚姻與家庭三者之間顧此失彼、顧了這個 就得犧牲另一個的痛苦。 整體而言，台灣女性在職場上已經比東北亞各國 的女性享受更多的男女平權，並且比東南亞各國的 女性擁有更好的法律保障。在某些方面，例如在產 假上，台灣婦女所享受的福利甚至超越美國婦女。 然而問題在於，雖然法律的條文本身還算符合 男女平等，法律的執行情況卻不夠確實，而男女不 平等背後最深層的原因，乃在於台灣根深蒂固的文 化，認為女性無法勝任管理職，或是女性只要把家 庭或家務打理好就可以了，即使是職業婦女也是如 此。國際通商法律事務所的資深合夥律師馬靜如指 出，「我認為大家的觀念還跟不上法律觀念的改 變。」
a Gender Inequality Index measuring conditions in the areas of reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market. When Taiwan’s Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) plugged relevant Taiwanese data into the index, Taiwan’s ranking came out as an excellent 0.053 (the lower the number, the less inequality). By comparison, Japan’s score is 0.131, Korea’s 1.153, and the United States’ 0.256. While Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe currently is promoting policies to bring more women into the workforce to help solve the labor shortage caused by Japan’s ageing population, Taiwan has long embraced the idea that both members of a married couple should be in the workplace. June Su, a member of the California Bar and senior legal director at Air Liquide Far Eastern, notes that in societies such as Japan and Korea, unlike Taiwan, it is generally expected that women – regardless of their qualifications or career achievements – should leave the workforce and become fulltime mothers once they have children. On the other hand, notes Yao Shu-wen, director of Soochow University’s Office of Student Affairs, Health and Counseling and a former director of the feminist Modern Women’s Foundation, Singapore
聯合國開發計畫署(U N D P)在2010年，綜合生育 健康、女性自主權、還有勞力市場等數值，提出了 「性別不平等指數」的概念。行政院主計處將台 灣的相關數據代入該公式後得到的結果顯示，台 灣的男女平等程度名列前茅，性別不平等指數只有 0.053(數字愈小代表不平等的程度愈輕)。相比之 下，日本的不平等指數是0.131、韓國是1.153，而 美國則是0.256。 相較於日本近來才由首相安倍晉三提出相關政 策，鼓勵更多女性投入職場解決日本人口老化所造 成的勞力不足問題，在台灣，大家早有夫妻雙方都 投入職場才是常態的共識。具有加州律師執照的亞 東工業氣體資深法務協理蘇瑛珣指出，日本與韓國 跟台灣不同的是，日韓社會普遍期待女性在生兒育 女後應該離開職場當全職母親，不論她們的專業能 力或事業成就如何。另一方面，東吳大學學生事務 處處長、同時也是前任現代婦女基金會會長的姚淑 文則指出，新加坡在某些國際女性平權指標上的表 現比台灣好的原因很簡單，就是因為當地的性別平 權法律更能得到真正的落實。
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is rated more highly than Taiwan in some international women’s rights indexes simply because law enforcement there is more thorough. The government first began promoting women’s rights in the late 1990s. In 1997, the Executive Yuan created the watershed Committee of Women’s Rights Promotion to incorporate the views of scholars and women’s rights groups into the highest levels of government decision-making. The following year, the government further established the Foundation for Women’s Rights, Promotion and Development, funded by the Ministry of Interior,
which served to expand the channels of communication between the government and the private sector on women’s issues. The Committee of Women’s Rights Promotion, presided over by the premier, pushed for enactment of the landmark Act of Gender Equality in Employment in 2002 and the Gender Equity Education Act in 2004. It also required each ministry to set up a gender equality task force. As part of government restructuring, the Committee was replaced early in 2012 by the first formal government unit devoted to equality between the sexes, the Department of Gender Equal-
台灣政府自1990年代末期首度開始提倡女性平 權。在1997年，行政院成立了具有劃時代意義的 「婦女權益促進委員會」，將學者及女權團體的觀 點納入政府決策之中。隔年，政府進一步由內政部 撥款成立了「婦女權益促進發展基金會」，旨在擴 充公部門和私人企業針對女權議題的交流管道。 「婦女權益促進委員會」(簡稱婦權會)乃由行 政院院長召集，並於2002年推動具有指標意義的 《兩性工作平等法》、2004年通過《性別平等教育 法》，並要求各部會設立性別平等專案小組。因應 政府組織改造，首間專門職掌兩性平權業務的正式 政府單位、也就是「行政院性別平等處」 (DGE)， 在2012年取代了婦權會。此外，婦權會更名為「性 別平等會」，進一步負責擬訂政策方向，並交由性 別平等處執行。 雖然不具簽署聯合國公約的資格，台灣仍於2007 年選擇自主遵守《消除對婦女一切形式歧視公約》 (CEDAW)，該公約乃由聯合國大會在1979年採用， 一般稱之為《國際婦女人權法典》。台灣自2011年 起將CEDAW規範納入國內立法。行政院性別平等處 黃碧霞處長指出，相關法律修正案預計將於今年底 20
ity (DGE) under the Executive Yuan. In addition, the Foundation was renamed the Gender Equality Committee, and its role enlarged to set policy directions for the DGE to implement. Although Taiwan is prevented from signing United Nations treaties, in 2007 Taiwan committed itself to abiding by the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979 and is often described as an international bill of rights for women. In 2011, Taiwan started the process of turning the CEDAW provisions into domestic law. DGE Director General Huang Pi-hsia says the relevant legal amendments are due to be finalized by the end of this year. One change already accomplished is raising the legal age at which women may marry from 16 to 18.
On the job Women in Taiwan in recent years have made enormous strides in the workplace. The labor force participation rate for women aged 15 to 64 jumped from 51.2% in 2001 to 58% in 2013, a figure roughly the same as in the United States and significantly higher than Japan’s
之前完成。其中一項已經落實的改變，就是將女性 合法結婚年齡由16歲提高至18歲。
職場上 近年來，台灣的女性已在職場上往前邁進一大 步。15至64歲的女性勞動參與率，從2001年的 51.2%上升到2013年的58%，此數值與美國大致相 同，且明顯高於日本的49.4%以及韓國的49.2%。 如同大部分已開發國家一樣，台灣的女性大多選 讀文組而非理工科，並偏好在服務業工作，而非工 業界。2013年，全體台灣女性有25.8%在工業界工 作(超過OECD經濟合作發展組織國家平均值兩倍之 多)、71%投身服務業、3.1%從事農業。相較之下， 台灣男性員工有44.3%在工業界工作、49.3%在服務 業、6.4%從事農業。 就薪資而言，台灣的女性員工整體薪資長期低於 男性。性別平等處所提供的資料顯示，2013年全體 台灣人的平均薪資是新台幣45,595元，其中男性平 均薪資為50,269元、女性平均薪資為40,903，約為 男性的84%。不過性別平等處補充道，這個情況已
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49.4% or Korea’s 49.2%. In Taiwan, as in most developed countries, women tend to prefer to study the humanities rather than science, and prefer to work in services rather than industry. In 2013, 25.8% of all Taiwanese women employees worked in industry (more than double the percentage in OECD countries on average), 71% in services, and 3.1% in agriculture. In contrast, 44.3% of all Taiwanese male employees work in industry, 49.3% in services, and 6.4% in agriculture. In terms of remuneration, Taiwanese women as a whole remain chronically underpaid next to their male counterparts. According to information provided by the DGE, the average monthly salary for all Taiwanese in 2013 was NT$45,595. The figure for men was NT$50,269, while for women it was only NT$40,903, roughly 84% of what men earn. But the DGE adds that the situation has been improving, as the discrepancy stood at 81.4% in 2008. The disparity is not necessarily all due to outright discrimination. For example, more women than men tend to be employed in parttime, temporary, or dispatched jobs, because they may need to simultaneously take care of their families. Nearly 8% of the female workforce, compared with 6.2% for the men, are engaged in this kind of work, which offers less security. In addition, regardless of occupation, the
經有所改善，因為女性平均薪資在2008 年只有男性的81.%。 男女薪資差異不見得是由於性別歧 視所直接造成的影響。例如，相較於男 性，更多女性傾向從事兼職性、暫時性 或是派遣類的工作，因為她們必須同時 照顧家庭。幾乎有8%的女性勞動力是從 事這類較沒有保障的暫時性工作，相比 之下，從事暫時工作的男性為6.2%。 此外，不分職業類別，在職場上愈高 階的管理職女性就愈少。性別平等處就 指出，在台灣的立案公司當中，女性主 管占了29.28%，這個數據跟日本的10% 相比已經十分優秀，但相比美國的43% 還是遙遙落後，相比新加坡的31%則是 旗鼓相當。2011年的數據同時顯示，在 公部門當中的女性首長占了全體首長的 23.1%。 在台灣政壇，女性明顯仍是少數，卻 比許多國家的女性更加活躍。公職人員 選罷法在2007年進行修法，規定政黨提
Best Places to Work
W
hat industry provides the best working environment for professional women? The unlikely winner is financial services In contrast to the stereotype of bankers and stockbrokers constituting an old boys’ club, financial services is one of the most stable and welcoming sectors for Taiwanese women, says Christine Jih, chairman and CEO of BNP Paribas Investment Partners. Traditionally in Taiwan, wives tended to be the one to manage the family’s money. This cultural influence makes Taiwanese women especially suited to this industry, she says. In addition, Jih notes, “The financial services industry doesn’t really require physical strength, but rather patience, persistence, and carefulness, and all these are female characteristics.” Liu Mei-chun, a professor at National Chengchi University’s Institute for Labor Research, agrees. She notes that 30 years ago men dominated Taiwan’s financial services industry since women lacked equal access to education. Now that women are excelling academically, it has become a field where Taiwanese women are flourishing. She reports that the average salary gap between men and women in the financial sector is especially narrow when compared to other industries. Further, Jih says, there is relatively little evening socializing in this industry, enabling women to have a family life. When meetings over a meal are required, it is usually a business lunch without alcohol, she notes. More broadly, Western multinational corporations provide some of the best professional environments for women in Taiwan. According to Taiwanese feminist academics as well as AmCham members, multinationals tend to worry more about their corporate image than their local counterparts. They are likely to strictly abide by regulations governing maternity leave, even if it is inconvenient for them or causes financial losses. It also means they support gender equality and seek to avoid sexual harassment cases with the subsequent negative publicity, experts said. Experts cited the Taiwan’s public service sector as another field where provisions for maternity leave and other legal protections afforded to women are usually observed. June Su, a lawyer with Air Liquide Far Eastern, says multinationals generally have a greater awareness of women’s rights and give women more chances to climb the professional ladder. High-level female executives working for multinationals and interviewed for this story all said they had never encountered glass ceilings. “It really depends on your talent,” says Midee Chen, general manager for Pepsico Foods Taiwan, who previously worked for Unilever. “There are great opportunities for female executives to attain higher positions in the China region or Asia Pacific.” — Jane Rickards
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Cover story higher one looks on the professional ladder, the fewer the women. According to the DGE, females comprise 29.48% of the managers in Taiwanese registered companies – impressive next to Japan’s 10% and comparable to Singapore’s 31%, but well behind the 43% in the United States. 2011 figures show that women account for 23.1% of all directors of Taiwanese civic organizations. In politics, Taiwanese women remain a distinct minority but are still more active than their peers in many other countries. The Civil Servants Election and Recall Act was amended in 2007 to stipulate that at least half of political parties’ nominees for legislator-atlarge seats must be women. Currently around 34% of Taiwan’s national legislators are women, an increase of around 12 percentage points since 2002. Comparable 2012 figures were 17% for the United States, 23.5% for Singapore, and 13.4% for Japan. Women also excel in exams to enter Taiwan’s public service but rather rarely are promoted to top-ranking positions. According to the National Development Council (NDC), the majority of Taiwan’s public servants (55%) are women. But at each progressively higher civil service grade, the number of women becomes
thinner. Among the current 104 ministers and vice ministers, only 14 are women (13.5%). At the cabinet level, there are five women among the 32 ministers: Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai, Minister Without Portfolio Jaclyn Tsai, National Palace Museum director Fung Ming-chu, and DGBAS Minister Shih Su-mei. Within the legal profession, female lawyers now slightly outnumber their male colleagues, but Su of Air Liquide says that should not be taken as evidence of equality. Women excel in passing the strict qualifying exams, she says, but men more frequently attain partnerships in the big law firms, while the women remain associate attorneys. “Another way of interpreting this is that society encourages men to be entrepreneurs,” she says. Su adds that many judges are insufficiently sensitive to gender issues. A few years ago, the Taiwan High Court stirred outrage by overturning a sexual harassment conviction with a ruling that touching a woman’s shoulders or midriff did not violate sexual harassment laws, which should only cover touching hips, breasts, or other “private” body parts. “We are not just talking about male judges,” Su says. “There are also female judges who are very archaic in their thinking.”
名不分區立委時，至少須有半數是女性。台灣女性 立委人數自2002年以來已成長12個百分點，目前約 占34%。相較下，美國國會議員在2012年僅17%是 女性，新加坡為23.5%，日本則是13.4%。 台灣女性在高普考的表現也相當傑出，卻很少被 拔擢擔任高層。根據國發會統計，台灣公務員多數 為女性（55%），但每升等一次，女性人數就會減 少。現任的104位部長和副部長中，僅14人是女性 （13.5%）；32位部長中更只有5位女性，分別是 法務部長羅瑩雪、文化部長龍應台、政務委員蔡玉 玲、故宮博物院院長馮明珠，以及主計長石素梅。 至於法律界，目前女性律師略多於男性，但亞東 工業氣體公司的蘇瑛珣認為，不應將此視為兩性平 權的證據。她表示，通過嚴格資格鑑定考試的女性 人數多於男性，但在大型法律事務所取得合夥人地 位的卻以男性居多，女性則停留在受雇律師階級。 她說：「從其它角度解讀這個現象，就是社會鼓勵 男性創業。」 蘇瑛珣接著指出，許多法官對兩性議題的認知不 足。數年前，台灣高等法院推翻一起性騷擾官司的 原判，改為裁定碰觸女性肩膀或腰部並未觸犯性騷 22
Even in public relations, women can have it tough, says Pauline Leong, CEO of Compass PR, whose clients have included HP, Qualcomm, Mercedes-Benz, and the Macau Tourist Office. Some clients tend to take male public relations advisers more seriously, she says, making it necessary for women to behave in a tough, businesslike and almost masculine way to get business. About 84% of her employees are women, and on occasion the firm has lost business because clients expect to be taken for evening entertainment that female staff members are uncomfortable with.
Double pressures In general, the primary reason why women lag in gaining promotions is thought to be their traditional role of caring for the home and family, which in this society means looking after parents and in-laws in addition to children. In some cases, it is true that the woman in question is genuinely preoccupied with family matters, but in others her superior may never even consider her for promotion due to the ingrained supposition that women will be too distracted by family concerns to concentrate sufficiently on their work. Yao estimates that for women
擾防治法，性騷擾應只限於碰觸臀、胸或其它「私 密」身體部位，結果引發群情激憤。蘇瑛珣說： 「有些女法官的思維也非常古板。」 達豐公關顧問公司總裁梁吳蓓琳表示，即使在公 關界，女性升遷也困難重重。達豐的客戶包括惠普 （HP）、高通（Qualcomm）、賓士汽車（MercedesBenz）和澳門旅遊局。梁吳蓓琳發現，客戶往往比 較重視男性公關顧問，因此女顧問必須展現強硬、 高效率和近乎陽剛的特質，才能拿下生意。她公司 的員工有84%是女性，有時客戶希望安排晚間娛樂 活動，卻因為女員工覺得不自在而丟掉生意。
雙重壓力 一般說來，女性升遷機會不如男性，主要是受 限於社會認為女性須扮演照顧家庭和家人的傳統角 色，負起照顧親生父母、公婆和小孩的責任。部分 女性確實忙於家庭事務；但有些個案是上司可能基 於刻板印象，認定女性會分心照顧家庭事務而無法 全心投入工作，因此從未考慮拔擢女性。姚淑文估 計，45歲左右女性的月薪平均比男性少1萬台幣，
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aged around 45, monthly salaries average about NT$10,000 less than for men, as males in this age group more often have reached at least middle management. Su notes that a male boss may “look at a female employee and think ‘why does she have to leave at 6 p.m. and pick up her kids instead of working overtime?’ When it is time for a performance review, he may not understand the extra pressure a working woman is facing.” Leong of Compass, who is originally from Hong Kong, says Taiwanese career women shoulder more responsibilities than their Hong Kong counterparts, as there are fewer societal expectations in Hong Kong that career women should do such things as cook and care for their in-laws. Leong notes that her Taiwanese secretary requires days off whenever her children, parents, husband, or in-laws are sick. “Here, you have to be a good wife, good daughter, good daughter-in-law, everything,” Leong says. Another aspect of gender stereotyping affecting women’s chances for professional advancement, says Yao, is the common perception among top managers that women are not as good as men at projecting power or managing large organizations. They are also excluded from evening drinking sessions where men
Progress in Legal Protection
I
n terms of family law, Taiwan has made great strides in promoting gender equality. As recently as 20 years ago, notes June Su, a lawyer with Air Liquide Far Eastern, many young girls were sold into prostitution by their parents. “Taiwan was virtually a pedophile’s paradise, but now it has really advanced,” she says. A milestone was passage of the Child Youth Sexual Transaction Act in 1995, and now enforcement and prosecution of these cases is excellent, says Su. In 1998, Taiwan went on to enact the Domestic Violence Prevention Act. Since then, reported cases of domestic violence have increased significantly over the years. In 2012, the number of cases stood at 98,399, an increase of 43.8% from 2007. Of the victims, 70.7% were women. Battered women can now apply to the courts for an injunction to keep their husband away from them. Changes have also been introduced to make family law more even-handed. For example, around two decades ago Taiwan revised laws stipulating that in the event of a divorce, the father would automatically receive custody of the children. Now it is up to the couple to determine who has custody through a written agreement. If the two cannot agree, a judge will make the decision based on a determination of the children’s best interest. In 2012, a new law was enacted allowing the courts to appoint a lawyer to protect the rights of the children of a broken marriage. Still, unlike Western countries, even now fathers are the ones who most often receive custody. Last year, fathers were granted custody in 44.5% of the cases and mothers in 38.3%. Joint custody cases amounted to 17.2%. The law was also amended decades ago to ensure that a couple’s assets are evenly distributed between the husband and wife when a marriage dissolves, whereas previously everything went to the husband. In 2002, the law was further amended to provide for the distribution of assets according to each spouse’s contribution to the marriage, with housework having the same weight as a salaried job.
因為這個年齡層的男性通常至少已升遷到中階管理 職位。 蘇瑛珣表示，男主管可能「看著某位女部屬，心 想：『她為何得在六點下班接小孩，無法留下來加 班？』打考績時，男主管可能無法理解職業婦女面 臨的額外壓力。」 來自香港的梁吳蓓琳認為，台灣職業婦女肩負 的責任比香港女性還多，因為香港社會通常不會期 待職業婦女煮飯或照顧公婆。梁吳蓓琳指出，她的 台灣秘書只要碰上小孩、父母、丈夫或公婆生病， 就須請假，「在台灣，女性必須當個好老婆、好女 兒、好媳婦，扮演好一切角色」。 姚淑文表示，影響女性工作升遷機會的另一個性 別刻板印象，就是高層主管普遍認為女性的企劃或 管理大型組織能力不如男性。男性晚上結伴喝酒進 行重要交際時，也都不會邀請女性參加。 此外蘇瑛珣指出，女性在職場經常受到次等待 遇。例如一群男女在會議室開會，通常會期待女職 員端茶水或咖啡。儘管蘇瑛珣和客戶開會時，她可 能是在場的最高層公司主管，但她經常發現「客戶 在等待最後決定時，往往盯著和我坐在同側的男
性，並未意識到我才是有權在部分議題上做出最後 決定的人」。 擁有美國哥倫比亞大學（Columbia University）政 治碩士學位的民進黨立委蕭美琴表示，台灣政壇通 常認定，女性較適合處理教育、社福等領域事務， 男性則因為傳統上被認為較剛強、積極，可能更適 合處理軍事、兩岸關係和外交政策議題。 國際通商法律事務所的馬靜如指出，從另一個角 度來看，台灣女性本身通常不夠果決，許多人從小 被灌輸傳統儒家思想。她表示：「台灣相當多女性 被灌輸要順從丈夫、上司，永遠逆來順受。」「這 些美德深植在許多台灣女性心中。」 嘉柏國際公司總經理黃坤瑛表示：「台灣許多女 性都很被動、文靜。」她還指出，女性應明智抉擇 戰場，這點也很重要。不過她和接受本刊採訪的其 他高層女主管都呼籲女性，若覺得受到不平待遇或 貢獻被抹煞，應勇敢表達出來。
參與董事會比例 台灣政府已通過一些措施，提高女性在企業和公
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Cover story engage in crucial networking. In addition, notes Su, women are often treated in an inferior way in business settings. At a meeting, for example, it is usually the women who are expected to fetch the water or coffee. Although Su may be the most senior company executive present during negotiations with a client, she often finds that the “customer tends to look at the male on my side of the table for a final decision, not realizing I’m the one who will make the final call on some issues.” Hsiao Bi-khim, a Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker with a gradua t e d e g r e e f r o m C o l u m b i a U n i v e rsity in political science, says that politicians often assume that women are more suited to handling fields such as education and social welfare, while men – traditionally seen as tougher and more aggressive – may be better at issues involving the military, cross-Strait relations, and foreign policy. On the other hand, women themselves are often insufficiently assertive, notes Mar of Baker &McKenzie, who says many women in Taiwan are highly imbued with Confucian tradition. “Quite a lot of Taiwanese women are educated to follow their husband’s orders, follow their boss’s orders, and always be obedi-
ent,” she says. “These kinds of virtues are deep inside the hearts of many Taiwanese women.” “A lot of ladies here are passive and quiet,” says Queenie Huang, general manager of Crown Worldwide (Taiwan), who adds that it is also important that women choose their battles wisely. But she and other female CEOs interviewed for this report urge women to speak up if they feel they are being treated unfairly or their contributions are going unrecognized.
Board representation The government has adopted some measures to raise the number of women in positions of authority in companies and civic organizations. When evaluating whether a company qualifies for certain subsidies or awards, for example, the Ministry of Economic Affairs includes the criterion that women hold at least one-third of the seats on the board. And in considering a bank’s application to open a new branch, since 2012 the Financial Supervisory Commission checks on the institution’s performance in granting loans to small and medium-sized enterprises owned by women. Under study are revisions to the laws governing civic orga-
民組織擔任權力職務的機會。例如經濟部審查企業 是否有資格申請某些補助或獎項時，會要求董事會 至少須有三分之一成員為女性。金管會自2012年起 審核銀行開設新分行的申請案時，會查核該銀行貸 款給女性所創辦中小企業的表現。另外政府也研議 修改規範公民組織的法規，要求各組織的董事會須 有一定比例的女性成員。 產假規定是女性爭取職場平權不可或缺的一環。 台灣在2002年制定堪稱性別平權里程碑的兩性工作 平等法時，首度提出產假規定，允許女性享有兩個 月產假和兩年育嬰假。男性亦可申請育嬰假。 女性在產假期間，還可獲得兩個月的勞保生育 給付，金額多寡視其投保薪資而定，單月在新台幣 19,273到43,900元之間。兩年育嬰假期間還可請 領最長6個月的津貼，每月給付金額為投保月薪的 60%。法律並未要求企業必須給予女性有薪產假， 不過部分雇主會主動提供。 前述法規乍看之下相當進步。政大勞工研究所教 授劉梅君指出，美國聯邦法律只給予員工12週的 無薪家務假和病假（各州可能另有法律規定）。不 過台灣實際上對違反產假規定雇主的開罰金額相當 24
nizations to require a certain proportion of women on the organizations’ board of directors. Critical for women’s equality in the workplace is the provision of maternity leave, first outlined in the landmark Act of Gender Equality in Employment in 2002. Under the law, women may take two months’ childbirth leave and later a maximum of two years’ parental leave (men may apply for parental leave, too). Women on childbirth leave receive monthly payments from their labor insurance ranging from NT$19,273 to NT$43,900, depending on their contributions into the system. For six months of the two years of parental leave, they can also receive 60% of these monthly stipends. There is no legal requirement for companies to pay women’s salaries during maternity leave, although some companies choose to do so. At first glance, the provisions seem quite progressive. Liu Mei-chun, a professor with the Institute for Labor Research at National Chengchi University (NCCU), notes that under U.S. federal law employees are only entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family and medical reasons (though individual states may have their own legislation). But in practice, fines in Taiwan
低，通常不會超過3萬台幣。蘇瑛珣指出，跨國企 業比較願意遵守台灣政府規定（請見補充報導）， 本土中小企業則可能會以身試法。她說：「企業繳 交的罰款可能遠低於守法的代價。」 女性在育嬰假期滿後，理論上應能重返工作崗 位，不過雇主可以輕易裁撤其職位，儘管還是得比 照裁員方式，支付她遣散費。劉梅君表示，企業通 常不願提供育嬰假，因此每當有女性員工提出申 請，雇主就會暗地放話，表示當她們想要銷假回來 上班時，可能已經沒有職位可以安插。 蘇瑛珣表示，民營企業的高階職務特別容易出現 這種狀況，公司很難讓負有重責大任的職位懸缺兩 年，而且這類職務也幾乎不可能找臨時人員填補。 蘇瑛珣說：「在公司裡爬得越高，就越難找到可以 代理的人選；所以女性主管若想請假兩年，公司就 會乾脆另行找人取而代之。」 姚淑文表示，台灣政府對生育率下滑問題憂心忡 忡，幸好社會已逐漸體認到生育下一代的重要性。 她發現跡象顯示，雇主越來越能包容女性請產假。 遏阻性騷擾的執法行動也是一大問題。遭遇性騷 擾的女性或男性可以口頭或書面方式，向勞動部或
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for employers who violate maternityleave provisions are rather low – usually no more than NT$30,000. Su notes that while multinationals are more likely to stick to the rules (see sidebar), small SMEs may be tempted to violate them. “It’s probably cheaper for companies to pay the fine than comply with the law,” she says. Although in theory a woman should be able to return to her job when the two-year parental leave is over, it is relatively easy for companies to make her position disappear, though she would still be entitled to redundancy payments, the same as any laid-off worker. Liu of NCCU says companies are often reluctant to grant parental leave, and when women apply for it there is often a covert message that their job may not be available when they wish to return. Especially for higher-level positions in the private sector, Su explains, it is difficult for companies to leave a position involving major responsibilities open for two years, and almost impossible to find temps to fill such posts. “The higher up you are on the corporate ladder, the harder it is to find someone to fill your position, so if you leave for two years, they will find someone else to take that slot,” says Su.
The good news, says Yao, is that the government’s concern over the dwindling birthrate has increased societal awareness of the importance of having children, and she sees signs that employers are becoming increasingly tolerant of women taking maternity leave. With sexual harassment, enforcement is also a problem. Women (or men) who are sexually harassed can report the offence to the Ministry of Labor or local labor bureaus, either orally or in writing. (The civil service and the military have
地方政府的勞工局舉報（公家機關和軍方另有一套 檢舉管道）。若後續調查發現罪證確鑿，雇主最高 會被罰處50萬台幣。性騷擾案件被視為行政爭議， 因此處以行政處罰，而非交由法院審理。 姚淑文表示，事實上這意味騷擾者若是上司，女 性受害人就面臨是否該舉報的棘手抉擇；雇主若遭 到政府罰款，就可能會設法懲罰舉報的受害員工。 馬靜如也指出，和美國相比，台灣的性騷擾案判 刑往往很輕。她以2012年的美國案例為例，一名加 州女子控告沙加緬度（Sacramento）一家醫院性騷 擾，結果獲判贏得近1.68億美元的賠償。馬靜如表 示：「這類賠償金額在台灣根本是不可思議。」她 指出美國對性騷擾問題的處理比台灣先進，完全是 因為美國女性的權益意識較高，比較願意挺身捍衛 權益。
教育領域 年頒布的性別平等教育法。劉梅君表示，該法 有助於保護學生免於遭受教師或其他同學性騷擾； 若有可靠的證據顯示教授騷擾學生，教育部就會不
their own channels.) If the consequent investigation shows sufficient evidence, companies are fined up to NT$500,000. The case is treated as an administrative dispute with an administrative penalty, rather than going through the courts. What this means in practice, says Yao, is that if the harasser is a superior, women face a tough decision on whether to pursue the case. She says employers may find ways to punish the employee if the government slaps a fine on them. M a r a l s o n o t e s t h a t i n Ta i w a n -
准該教授繼續從事教育。性別平等處黃碧霞處長指 出，性別平等教育法最近經過修法，將針對他人性 別或性取向的「霸凌」行為也納入，以涵蓋無法被 歸類為性侵或性騷掃的案件。 從數項標準來衡量，台灣女性的教育表現優異。 年齡在25到29歲的女性中，有88.3%至少曾接受高 中或技職教育，男性則只有83.4%。不過姚淑文指 出，儘管大學畢業生有半數以上是女性，但碩士或 博士班學生仍以男性居多，博士班男性人數比女性 多3倍。她將此現象歸因於女性因為婚姻和照顧家 庭壓力而須背負較多責任，女性會擔心一旦離婚就 須負責照顧小孩，因此希望在財務上擁有安全感。 到國外念書或繼續其它深造，對女性來說是太過奢 侈的夢想。 基於前述原因，台灣女性在大學教職員所占比例 極低。儘管中、小學教師大多是女性，但在大專院 校約僅占三分之一。此外台灣目前162所大專院校 的校長中，女性比例不到10%。素享聲望的國立交 通大學校長吳妍華，是突破男性優勢趨勢的知名女 性之一，其專長領域為分子生物學。 大專院校也出現類似職場的模式，衛生、福利和
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Powering to Gold at the Asian Games
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rom weightlifting to tennis to martial arts, Taiwanese women shone in the 2014 Asian Games, earning eight of Taiwan’s 10 gold medals, not only crushing the competition but setting a few world records as well. Taiwan’s powerful weightlifters started off the gold medal tally, with Hsu Shuching in the under 53-kg category and Lin Tzu-chi in the under 63-kg category breaking world records. Hsu earned the first gold medal for a Taiwanese woman weightlifter at an international event, setting a new combined lift record of 233 kilograms. For her part, Lin Tzu-chi broke the under 63-kilogram world record with a combined lift of 261 kilograms, and set a new world record of 145 kilograms in clean and jerk. GOLDEN GIRL — 21-year-old Wen Hsiao Mei-yu won the multi-event Tzu-yun, who won the under 55-kg category women’s karate event, track cycling omnium. Taiwan also domiwas one of eight woman Taiwanese nated the women’s team tennis event, gold medalists at the recently conwith the gold-medal-winning team consistcluded Asian Games. photo : cna ing of sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan, plus Chan Chin-wei and Hsieh Su-wei. Chou Chia-chen followed up these victories with a gold-medal winning 1,291 points in women’s bowling. Huang Yun-wen then took gold in the women’s 53-kg division tae kwon do event. Two more golds were won by Taiwanese female martial artists: Wen Tzu-yun in the under 55-kg class karate event, followed by Ku Tsui-ping in the under 50-kg class karate final.
教育等學科的學生大多是女性。選擇工程、製造和 電腦相關領域的女性少之又少。 台灣政府正設法鼓勵女性多多從事自然科學研 究。例如政府在2012年推出一項計畫，邀請獲獎女 性科學家到女子高中訪問，講授理化課程，並主持 相關實驗。此外，高中推出兩性平權課程，政府也 自2004年起鼓勵大專院校提供相關課程。 目前在中國仍相當普遍的重男輕女觀念，如今在 台灣已成歷史。台灣在2007年開始實施人工生殖 法，禁止對新生兒進行性別篩選。每百名女嬰所當 男嬰數（性比例）在2013年降至107.4人，不但是 17年來新低，也接近105到106人的自然比例。醫院 若出現新生兒性別比例不正常的跡象，衛福部就會 展開嚴格調查。 現在的台灣女性即使結婚，也都選擇晚婚。國 發會人力發展處專門委員謝佳宜表示：「我認為這 是因為女性的教育水準已經提高，個人主義意識也 26
ese sexual harassment cases, the penalties tend to be lenient compared with the United States. She points to a U.S. case in 2012 in which a California woman won close to US$168 million in a sexual harassment suit against a Sacramento Hospital. “That kind of amount is unthinkable in Taiwan,” Mar says. Su suggests that America is more advanced than Taiwan in the area of sexual harassment only because American women have a more heightened awareness of their rights and are more willing to stand up for them.
The educational sphere Another legal milestone was the Gender Equity Education Act of 2004, which Liu says has helped protect students from harassment by teachers or other students. If there is sound evidence that a Taiwanese professor has harassed a student, she notes, the Ministry of Education will put an end to his or her teaching career. Huang of the DGE says the legislation was recently amended to include the category of “bullying” people regarding their gender or sexual orientation, so as to cover cases that cannot be categorized as either sexual assault or harassment. In the educational arena, women in Taiwan have done well by several measures. Among women aged 25-29, 88.3% have at least senior high school or vocational school education, whereas the
越來越強。」「現在的女性認為家庭不是唯一的出 路，因此若沒有遇到合適對象，就會選擇繼續單 身。」 國發會的統計數據顯示，台灣20到24歲女性的 已婚比例，在1982年為37.8%，2012年時大幅降至 4.6%；30到34歲女性擁有配偶的比例，在1982年為 88.7%，2012年則降至53.2%。換言之，台灣三十歲 初頭的女性，每兩人中只有一人可能已婚。在此同 時，台灣的離婚率上升，從1972年每千人中有0.36 人離婚，到2013年已增至2.3人。 此外，婆婆總是盛氣凌人的刻板印象也逐漸消 失。姚淑文表示，現在五十歲初頭的女性是遭受跋 扈婆婆虐待最多的一群，因為五十歲世代是經歷女 性解放的第一代，但她們的婆婆仍是傳統世代。她 還指出，新婚夫婦和公婆同住的大家庭制度也逐漸 消失；即使現在還有大家庭，通常也純粹是經濟考 量使然。
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corresponding figure for men is 83.4%. But while over half of university graduates are women, notes Yao, there are more male candidates for master’s and doctoral degrees – three times more in the case of doctorates. She attributes this fact to the extra responsibilities women carry due to the pressure of marriage and looking after family. Women, says Yao, worry that if they divorce, they will be responsible for their children, and so want to be financially secure. Extra study, including stints at a foreign university, is too much of a luxury. For this reason, women are underrepresented on university faculties. While women dominate primary and secondary school teaching, only around onethird of university or college teachers are women, and currently less than 10% of the presidents at Taiwan’s 162 colleges and universities are female. One notable woman who has bucked this trend is Wu Lee Yan-hwa, president of prestigious National Chiao Tung University, who has a background in molecular biology. Similar to patterns in the workplace, female college students are overrepresented in disciplines related to health, welfare, and education, while few choose to study fields related to engineering, manufacturing, and computing. The government is encouraging more women to study the natural sciences. For example, in 2012, it launched a program inviting prize-winning female scientists to
visit girls’ senior high schools to deliver lectures and preside over experiments in chemistry and physics. In addition, principles of sexual equality have been introduced into high school curriculums, and since 2004 the government has encouraged colleges and universities to offer courses relating to gender equality. A preference for male babies, still common in China, is now also a thing of the past in Taiwan. In 2007, the government implemented the Artificial Reproduction Act, which prohibits gender selection for newborns. The gender ratio for newborns fell to 107.4 in 2013, a 17-year-low and close to the natural rate of 105-106 newborn boys for every 100 girls. The Ministry of Health and Welfare conducts strict checks of hospitals for signs of abnormal gender ratios among newborns. Women are now choosing to marry later in life – if they marry at all. “I think this is because there have been improvements in education for women and their sense of individualism has increased,” says Hsieh Chia-yi, a senior specialist with the NDC’s Department of Human Resource Development. “Women now think that a family is not their only choice. So if they don’t meet a suitable person, they choose to remain single.” In 1982, NDC figures show, 37.8% of all women aged 20-24 were married. By 2012, the figure had dropped dramatically to 4.6%. Meanwhile, 88.7% of
部分受訪者表示，對於心態較傳統的台灣男性來 說，成功的職業婦女通常顯得太獨立，導致這些女 性的相親機會較少，是造成台灣生育率驟降的一大 原因。所謂生育率是指生育年齡婦女所生孩子的平 均數，台灣在1951年達到7.040的高峰，1984年變成 2.06，2010年則降至僅0.9，是全球生育率最低的地 區之一，後來在2013年反彈至1.07。國發會的謝佳宜 認為，生育率之所以反彈，主要是迷信所致，而非政 府政策成功，因為2010年是虎年，被視為是不祥之 年。 不過造成台灣生育率低的主要原因顯然還是經濟， 而非找不到合適男人。國發會引述2006年的一項研究 報告指出，女性表示不打算生孩子的主要原因是撫養 家庭的經濟負擔沉重。台灣政府為了挽救生育率，設 法宣導家庭價值，並鼓勵民眾結婚，甚至還扮演紅娘 替公務員湊對，為單身者舉辦相親和觀光旅遊。 蘇瑛珣表示，對女性來說，若要「魚與熊掌兼
all 30-34 year-old women had a spouse in 1982, but in 2012 the figure had dropped to 53.2%. In other words, only one in two Taiwanese women in their early thirties is likely to be married. Meanwhile, the divorce rate has risen, from 0.36 per thousand population in 1971 to 2.30 in 2013. In addition, the stereotype of the domineering mother-in-law is fading away. Yao says women now in their early fifties suffered the most from a bossy mother-in-law, as they were the first to experience women’s liberation, while their mothers-in-law were still from a traditional generation. She also notes that the custom of a large extended family, with newlyweds living with the husband’s parents, is also disappearing. When it occurs now, it is usually due purely to economic factors. Some interviewees say that successful career women often seem too independent for more traditionally minded Taiwanese men, giving these women fewer opportunities in the dating market. That is one reason for Taiwan’s plunging fertility rate – the average number of children women have during their childbearing years. The fertility rate reached a high of 7.040 in 1951. It stood at a replacement rate of 2.06 in 1984, before dropping to just 0.9 in 2010, one of the world’s lowest figures. Since then, the rate has edged up to 1.07 in 2013. Hsieh of the NDC attributes the improvement
得」，就須獲得更多奧援，尤其是經濟負擔範圍內的 高品質托兒服務，讓她們可以放心發展事業生涯，無 須擔心小孩。在台北，民營的小孩課後照顧服務每月 約需2萬台幣，聘請到府照顧小孩的保母每月約需4萬 元。政府雖設有公立托兒所，但候補者大排長龍，顯 示需求遠大於供給。 要同時應付工作和家庭並不容易，但法銀巴黎投顧 （BNP Paribas Investment Partners）公司董事長兼總經 理季崇慧表示，只要營造適當環境，就可兩者兼顧。 季崇慧已婚，且孩子都已成年。她表示，重要關鍵就 是首先要了解丈夫分攤家務的意願。她敦促女性，遇 到男性要「睜大眼睛」觀察，從中挑選合適的伴侶。 第二個重要關鍵則是要有通情達理的老闆。季崇慧表 示，她在職場努力往上爬的過程中，和老闆達成讓她 晚上七點就可下班的協議，不過她在下班前會把所有 工作做完。她的結論是：「若要家庭事業兼顧，就得 迅速又有效率」，「做事必須非常有條不紊」
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Cover story more to superstition – 2010, a Year of the Tiger, was an inauspicious year – than to government policy. The main cause of the low birthrate, however, appears to economic rather than a lack of eligible men. A 2006 study cited by the NDC found that among woman who did not plan to have children, the financial burden of raising a family was the major reason cited. In response to the low birthrate, the government has sought to promote family values and encourage more marriages. It has even played matchmaker for civil servants, organizing mixers and sightseeing tours for singles.
For women to “have it all,” says Su, they will need to receive greater support – especially the availability of affordable and quality daycare to enable them to pursue careers without worrying about their children. It now costs about NT$20,000 a month in Taipei for private after-school child-minding services, and around NT$40,000 for an in-house nanny. The government does provide public daycare centers, but the lengthy waiting lists testify that the demand is much greater than the supply. Though juggling career and family is not easy, Christine Jih, chairman and CEO of BNP Paribas Investment Part-
ners, says it can be done under the right circumstances. Jih, who is married with grown-up children, says the first key ingredient is an understanding husband willing to share the workload at home. She urges women to “open their eyes” to the men they meet and pick a suitable mate. The second key element, she says, is an understanding boss. As she worked her way up the corporate ladder, Jih says, she reached arrangements with her bosses that she would always leave at 7 p.m. but all the work would be done. “If you want to have it all, you must do things quickly and efficiently,” she concludes. “You have to be extremely well organized.”
SomE of ThE TRAILBLAzERS Chang Po-ya Chang Po-ya recently was named head of the Control Yuan, the branch of government charged with monitoring the other four yuans. She is the first woman ever to lead a yuan. A medical doctor with degrees from Kaohsiung Medical College, National Taiwan University, Johns Hopkins, and Kyorin University of Japan, Chang began her political career as mayor of her hometown of Chiayi city – a post which she held three times, first succeeding her mother, the second time succeeding her sister. As head of the Department of Health in the early 1990s, Chang led the effort to institute the National Health Insurance system. She served as Minister of Interior in 2000-2003 and was chairman of the Central Election Commission 2010-2013. photo : cna
Chen Chu Chen Chu, the mayor of Kaohsiung and longtime opposition activist, served six years in prison during the martial law period for involvement in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, a clash between opposition demonstrators and the police. With a master’s degree in public affairs management from National Sun YatSen University, she was chief of the Social Affairs Bureau in the Taipei and Kaohsiung city governments in the 1990s before serving as head of the Council of Labor Affairs from 2000-2005 in the DPP government. She has been mayor of Kaohsiung since 2006, the first woman to head a major municipal government in Taiwan, and is currently running for another term in the elections to be held in late November. She also served as acting chairman of the DPP in 2012. photo : wikipedia/s eeonekh
photo : cna
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Shirley Wang-jung Kuo Shirley Wang-jung Kuo, Finance Minister from 1988 to 1990, was the first woman in Taiwan to hold a Cabinet position. The holder of a master’s degree from MIT and a Ph.D. from Japan’s Kobe University, both in economics, she was a professor at National Taiwan University when President Chiang Chingkuo tapped her to serve as vice chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development. She later served as deputy governor of Taiwan’s Central Bank of China before becoming Finance Minister. While in that post, in 1989 she led Taiwan’s first high-level delegation to China, to attend an Asian Development Bank meeting in Beijing. She also chaired the CEPD and served as a Minister Without Portfolio before returning to academia. Her daughter, Christina Liu, later served as CEPD chair and Finance Minister under President Ma Ying-jeou.
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Annette Lu Annette Lu, a leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), served as Taiwan’s first female and first non-Kuomintang vice president from 2000 to 2008 under the presidency of Chen Shuibian. After studying law at the University of Illinois and Harvard, she returned to Taiwan in the 1970s and became one of the first and most outspoken members of the feminist movement in Taiwan. The difficulties she faced as a feminist leader led her to become active in politics. She was imprisoned for five and a half years for her part in the watershed Kaohsiung Incident of 1979. She later served as magistrate of Taoyuan County and a member of the Legislative Yuan before her election as Vice President. photo : cna
Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen, the incumbent chairperson of the DPP and the party’s unsuccessful candidate for president in 2012, is one of Taiwan’s most prominent political figures. A lawyer with degrees from National Taiwan University (LL.B), Cornell (LL.M) and the London School of Economics (Ph.D.), Tsai was chief negotiator during the talks in the 1990s that resulted in Taiwan’s ascension to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and served as Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council from 2000 to 2004 and Vice Premier 2006-2007 during the Chen Shui-bian administration. Tsai is on everyone’s shortlist of possible 2016 presidential candidates. photo : cna
Cher Wang Cher Wang founded two major Taiwan-based technology companies: Via Technologies, the world’s largest producer of motherboard chipsets, and mobile phone manufacturer HTC, one of the few Taiwan companies to successfully develop a global brand. The daughter of Formosa Plastics Group founder Wang Yung-ching, she was ranked number 54 on the Forbes 2014 list of the world’s most powerful women. Also known for her philanthropy, she has donated large sums of money to charitable causes, helping the world’s needy as well as promoting academic achievement, including support for UC Berkley’s prestigious American Physical Society's Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize. photo : wikipedia/robert scoble
Wu Lee Yan-hwa Wu Lee Yan-hwa, president of prestigious National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Hsinchu, is a world-renowned biochemist. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Tennessee, is the author or coauthor of 80 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and in 2010 was named Taiwan Outstanding Woman in Science. After serving as research chair and president of National Yang Ming University, Wu now serves both as president of NCTU as well as acting chancellor for the University System of Taiwan. In recognition of her scientific achievement, she was elected as an academician in 2000 of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s highest institution of scholarly activity. photo : cna
Vivian Wu Yen Vivian Wu Yen (1913-2008) was one of Taiwan’s most successful businesswomen. Educated at St. John’s University in Shanghai and later earning an M.A. in international relations from Columbia University, she came to Taiwan in 1948 with her husband T.L. Yen. Wu established and led the Taiyuen Textile Co., long one of the major manufacturers in the textile industry, while her husband founded the Yulon Motor Co., Taiwan’s first automotive company. After T.L. Yen’s death in 1981, she succeeded him as chairman of the Yulon Group, which also included China Motor Co., and oversaw its continued growth. At her death, she was one of Taiwan’s wealthiest people. Her son, Kenneth Yen, continues as chairman of Yulon. photo : cna
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advertorial
Mountain and Sea House Authentic Taiwanese fine dining delivered farm to table
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ountain and Sea House is more than just a fine dining restaurant offering authentic classical Taiwanese cuisine in a classy setting. It is also a platform for Taiwan’s dedicated organic farmers, a channel for them to sell their most valuable and costly products directly from the farm to the dining table. And it’s the culmination of years of intense research and experimentation on the part of founder Ho Yi-chia and her team. Two years in the planning, Mountain and Sea evokes 1920s Taiwan, an era when Japanese colonial administrators rubbed shoulders with Western tea magnates and local camphor traders in ornate banquet halls while savoring steaming plates of fresh seafood, locally grown vegetables, and elaborately prepared meat delicacies. Ho a nd h er tea m s p en t m o n th s researching recipes in the Foundation for Chinese Dietary Culture http:// www.fcdc.org.tw/english/default.aspx, the world’s largest library dedicated to Chinese cuisine, as well as consulting with elderly cooks and the people who employed them from the era of the 1920s-1940s. The team ended up rediscovering classical Taiwanese fare that differs as much from Chinese food as it does from today’s “traditional” Taiwanese dishes found in night markets and
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mom-and-pop restaurants. “ Ta i w a n e s e c u i s i n e i s r e a l l y a mixture of Fukienese cuisine and Cantonese cuisine, with Japanese influences,” explains Ho. She notes that the Dutch influence can be seen in some vegetables that are still widely consumed in Taiwan today, such as green tomatoes, but also in the spices that Dutch traders brought from Southeast Asia. “A lot of spices were brought in by the Dutch, who would pass through Taiwan before going back to Europe,” she says. The wealthy of Taiwan would buy these spices and use them in their cuisine. To maintain this authenticity, Ho says that Mountain and Sea continues to source its spices from traditional firms in Southeast Asia. “These spices would taste different if we didn’t buy from a very traditional company in Malaysia,” she explains. But while Mountain and Sea treats traditional cuisine with reverence, the restaurant is no exercise in nostalgia, as it also represents some of the newest and best ideas in food consciousness – featuring non-GMO, organic, Green produce raised by local farmers. Ho is CEO of Yuen Foong Yu Biotech Co., which started out as an experimental organic farm that eventually evolved into a major network of organic
producers and consumers under the Green and Safe brand. Green and Safe ties together a network of hundreds of small organics farmers, along with meat and dairy farmers (who can’t be certified organic due to administrative issues, but are pledged to be chemical free). The brand serves more than 20,000 consumers, most of whom subscribe to one of its weekly delivery services of fresh organic produce, meat, and dairy products. According to Ho, the impetus for starting Mountain and Sea came from the farmers who were already in her network of suppliers. “Whenever they wanted to do a special project, such as slow-fermenting teas or heritage breed livestock, they told me they lacked a platform to showcase themselves,” she recalls. Because these specialty projects entailed greater investment, the farmers were leery of proceeding without assurance of a solid distribution channel. “So my first idea was to create a place to showcase that there’s really good agriculture products from Taiwan,” Ho says. But the products that the farmers offered were too high-end for night-market fare and unsuitable for Taiwan’s fine-dining scene, which is dominated by foreign cuisines. “We asked, ‘doesn’t Taiwanese cuisine have a fine dining element?’” Ho recalls.
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advertorial
This question led them on the journey into Taiwan’s culinary past to rediscover the high mark in Taiwan’s cuisine – the 1920s. “Only during that time did we have fine dining,” says Ho.
Quality and Authenticity She notes that this obsession with authenticity and quality led, for example, to the recreation of a traditional wedding recipe for pig’s knuckle. “We have to take out the meat and the bones from the knuckle and rub it with spice for a long time, using spices similar to what the Dutch brought,” she says. “Then we marinate the meat with a different spice, sew it up, and marinate it further for three days.” Another noteworthy dish is called the Supper Soup Medley. The dish originated from soups prepared by chefs at banquets from leftovers, intended as a gesture of thanks for the banquet workers. In that regard, the ingredients for each soup medley would change depending on the feast served. Mountain and Sea has formalized the soup while retaining its extravagant mix of ingredients, including thick chunks of pork, strips of cabbage, bamboo shoots, and many others, all simmered for hours before serving. Mountain and Sea also innovates a number of recipes that fuse both modern and traditional elements. For instance, following the example of many Taiwan-
ese banquets in which a U.S. beef steak is offered in the middle of the meal, they instead bake a steak of Taiwan beef inside a crust made from herbs used by the Taya tribe in southern Taiwan. The addition of salads also reflects modern sentiments. Although salads are not part of traditional Taiwanese cuisine, Ho notes that diners often complain about the lack of fresh vegetables in a traditional Taiwanese banquet menu. But even here, Mountain and Sea adds a unique twist. The green mango salad uses a lot of wild greens, while the smoked duck in the smoked duck salad is traditional, and the sauce is made from locally grown herbs. “The ingredients are very Taiwanese, so it’s still traditional,” she observes. Ho says that the key to managing an organic food brand is being aware that “we are managing a lifestyle, not just a product.” In this regard, high quality food is just the price for entrance into the market, and what keeps customers coming back is service. For this reason, Green and Safe’s customer relations staff members are some of the most important employees. Ho explains that organic food consumers are “picky people” with strong interests in food, and Green and Safe’s
TEL: (02) 2581-5760
customer relations staff needs to know all about organic food in general and the specific ingredients delivered, which vary seasonally. Ho notes that many people start adopting an organic diet after they have children, but these new mothers often lack much cooking experience. As a result, many customers call the customer service lines to get advice on how to prepare the ingredients, including any one of the 180 species of fish that the service might deliver. According to Ho, one new mother is known to call customer service every night during dinner time and will put the customer service rep on speaker phone to guide her while she cooks. “She tells me she will never go anywhere else because she couldn’t survive,” says Ho. “It’s like a free cooking class.” Mountain and Sea leverages Green and Safe’s network of organics farmers for the best organic fare, and its commitment to quality and service ensures a truly exceptional dining experience. Mountain and Sea House is located at ZhongShan North Road, Section 2, Lane 11, No. 6. The restaurant features downstairs booth seating for 42 diners and three second-floor private rooms with seating for 8, 16, and 22.
Mountain and Sea House https://www.facebook.com/vintagetaiwancuisine
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books
Taiwan Industry’s Past, Present, and Future
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Technology Transfer Between the U.S., China and Taiwan: Moving Knowledge Edited by Douglas B. Fuller and Murray A. Rubinstein Routledge, London and New York, 2013. 181 pages. ISBN: 978-0-415-64220-0
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multidisciplinary approach, this volume is a collection of seven papers from contributors in such fields as history, geography, urban planning, sociology, political science, and electrical engineering. Given the dense writing and profusion of scholarly jargon in much of the book, the target readership clearly is fellow academics. But the patient general reader will also be able to glean some valuable information and insights. The more historical opening chapters – by J. Megan Greene of the University of Kansas on “The KMT and Science and Technology, 19271980” and Columbia University’s Murray A. Rubinstein on “The Evolution of Taiwan’s Economic Miracle of 1945-2000” – may be of special interest to members of the American business community, as they relate the important part that the United States, at first through the government and later by the private sector, played in helping to kick-start Taiwan’s economic development in the 1950s and 1960s. The U.S. government role is evident most directly in the large economic aid package that Washington provided to Taiwan, averaging some US$100 million a year between 1951 and 1965. The real value of the assistance was more than monetary, however. U.S. advisers brought constructive know-how to bear on challenges
Taiwan was facing in such areas as agriculture, education, public administration, and public health. In setting agricultural policy, American commissioners appointed by the U.S. president served together with Taiwan counterparts in running the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, the precursor to today’s Council of Agriculture. In the 1960s, the U.S. government effort was supplemented by the arrival of American-invested manufacturing enterprises, especially in electronics assembly as U.S. companies sought ways to compete at home against Japanese imports. Rubinstein tells the story of the first such key investment, by General Instrument, in some detail. He also notes that when U.S. companies started moving into Taiwan, “their presence was not immediately welcomed by Taiwanese industries, which were accustomed to having a fair amount of protection.” As the main example he cites the “vehement protests” that greeted Singer, the sewing machine company, when it first set up operations in Taiwan in 1963. Surprisingly, he neglects the rest of the story. Singer was later applauded, even by local competitors, when the standardized components it introduced helped lift the quality of the entire domestic industry, enabling it to gain a major foothold in export markets. A decade later when Taiwan was
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preparing to leapfrog into higher-tech sectors, support from U.S. business was again crucial. Prominent American executives served on the Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG) established in 1979, and basic technology that enabled Taiwan to enter the semiconductor field – leading eventually to today’s dominating global role by such foundries as TSMC and UMC – was licensed from RCA. Besides licensing and investment, another major means of acquiring technology, notes a chapter by Douglas B. Fuller, was the “wave of returning engineers and technicians from abroad, principally the U.S.,” to become the bulk of the senior management of most Taiwanese high-technology firms. Fuller, a senior lecturer in comparative management and international business at King’s College of the University of London, observes that “the technology embedded in returning human capital was critical because the returnees were trained at the best U.S. research universities. They also brought back practical skills learned on the job in U.S. centers of innovation.” The prime example, but just one of a multitude, was TSMC founder Morris Chang, an MIT-trained engineer who rose to senior executive ranks at Texas Instruments and General
A 3D scanning device developed by ITRI being demonstrated earlier this year, using a garden gnome as the subject. photo : cna
Instrument before bringing his expertise to Taiwan. One of Fuller’s chapters is also devoted to describing Taiwan’s “techno-hybrid” development model for the high-tech sector. He places that model somewhere in between the explicitly nationalistic strategies of Korea and Japan, designed to promote the growth of companies as national champions, and the wide-open approach of Singapore, which sought mainly to make itself an attractive base for multinational companies. “Taiwanese policy occupies an intermediate position,” he writes. The government has taken an active role in creating a favorable environment for industry – witness the establishment of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and science parks, as well as its nurturing of the early semiconductor and computer-manufacturing initiatives – but at the same time it has consistently shown its
“willingness to accept a level of international participation in its strategic technology sectors,” he says. “Simply put, the Taiwanese have been concerned about bringing valueadded activities to Taiwan, but have been relatively unconcerned about national ownership compared to their Northeast Asian neighbors, Korea and Japan,” Fuller notes. “On the other hand, Taiwan has been reluctant to give foreign MNCs Singapore-style sweetheart deals in order to lure them to Taiwan.” Fuller adds, however, that Taiwan’s industrial policy has occasionally fallen prey to what he terms “full-setism” – defined as “the idea that a nation should engage in every key activity in a given sector.” The author regards that way of thinking as a dangerous trap, and notes that Taiwan has more than once succumbed to the temptation, most notably in its approach to the
After a successful career in the United States, TSMC’s Morris Chang was the chief architect of Taiwan’s climb to global prominence in semiconductors.
photo : cna
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DRAM sector, which became severely over-extended and eventually imploded several years ago. A final chapter, also by Fuller, makes the case that the cross-Strait economic relationship that has grown so rapidly in recent years has been highly beneficial for both sides. “Taiwan has adjusted remarkably well to the increasing trade with and investment in China,” he concludes. The level of manufacturing output and industrial employment has actually held up quite well, he finds, suggesting that “fears of hollowing out of Taiwan’s industry and employment have been highly exaggerated.” The movement of production overseas has enabled Taiwanese companies to continue to
compete, though it has not improved what are still razor-thin margins. In addition, pay scales have inevitably been held down, Fuller says, “as should be expected when an economy with higher wages integrates with another with generally lower wages.” In the other direction, Taiwan has “made an overwhelming positive contribution to China’s development, especially in the area of technological development,” for example by training technicians and carrying out R&D for IT products. With MNCs wary of China’s inferior IPR protection, “the Taiwanese have played a relatively outsized role in bringing technology to China,” Fuller says.
Still, he views Taiwan as succeeding in avoiding “many of the adverse consequences of manufacturing moving offshore because it has been able to create new competitive advantages in certain segments of electronics and maintain existing competitiveness in one key component, semiconductors.” And he ends with the optimistic forecast that given “ITRI’s track record in cultivating new activities, Taiwan’s high level of entrepreneurship, and sound educational system,” Taiwan should be able to “sidestep China’s competition through development of new and/or niche activities that China does not possess.” — By Don Shapiro
Looking Backward
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Taiwan’s Struggle: Voices of the Taiwanese Edited by Shyu-Tu Lee and Jack F. Williams Rowman & Littlefield, Lanhan MD, 2014. 304 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4422-2142-0
he prolonged hardships of the Ma Ying-jeou administration, prompting speculation that the 2016 presidential election could be a toss-up, has stirred renewed interest in the positions and personalities of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). A monograph that helps explain where the opposition movement may now be headed would undoubtedly find a welcome reception. Unfortunately, this is not that book. In fairness, Taiwan’s Struggle makes no specific claim to speak for the DPP – although counted among the contributors to the 22 essays are at least four prominent officials from the Chen Shui-bian administration, including Vice President Annette Lu, as well as the first DPP candidate for president, Peng Ming-min. But the volume does profess to represent the “voices of the Taiwanese,” which the authors would equate with the principals upheld by the DPP. The book mainly restates evidence of the plight of the Taiwanese over the centuries – domination of the island by successive outside forces without the local population having an opportunity to express its opinion. That argument may be entirely valid, but it has already been fully documented by other sources – and more importantly has scant relevance to realistically assessing the challenges facing Taiwan in the years ahead. However true it may be that the Allies’ 1951 San Francisco peace treaty with Japan left sovereignty over Taiwan undefined, no world power would champion the idea that the issue now be reexamined. And despite all the evidence marshalled of Taiwan’s differences from China – historically, culturally, politically, and even genetically – none of it would induce Beijing to let up on its pressure for unification. Where the book sails into new territory, in addition, it risks getting mired in a world of fantasy. Based wholly on the theories of a Chinese exile in Australia, one chapter posits that the near-miss 2004 assassination attempt on Chen Shui-bian, the Red Shirt demonstrations led by Shih Ming-the, and the “unjustifiable judicial persecution” of exPresident Chen were all masterminded by Chinese Communist political operatives to undermine public confidence in the political system. Nevertheless, many of the essays in this volume are worthwhile in tracing the evolution of Taiwan’s democracy, and could be helpful background for newcomers to the subject. — By Don Shapiro
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12-Year Compulsory Educational System Off to a Bumpy Start In response to dissatisfaction with the process, revisions in the exam and application system are expected next year.
BY PHILIP LIU
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total score of 30. Based on n August 14, those score, further grades senior high schools of A++ and A+, as well as throughout B++ and B+, were given to Taiwan published the third better performers in the A list of new students to be and B groups, to better disadmitted for the coming acatinguish levels of ability. demic year, ending a threeCompositions were evalumonth ordeal that juniorated separately, divided into high graduates faced this six levels. In all, the evalyear due to the launching of uation system was quite the nation’s 12-year tuitiondifferent from the joint free, compulsory education entrance examinations of program. the past, which gave specific The ordeal started numerical scores for the test i n m i d - M a y, w h e n o v e r results in every subject. 270,000 ninth graders took In addition, the test part in a joint exam designed REGISTRATION — Students arrive at a testing center in Kaoscores were not the only to test the results of their hsiung to take the senior high school entrance examination criteria considered in the junior-high education in the under the new 12-year compulsory system. photo : cna application process. Also five subjects of Chinese, Engcontributing to the final lish, mathematics, social rankings were students’ studies, and the natural sciinvolvement during junior ences – plus a supplementary high in “balanced learning” by engaging on June 20, when the students received test of composition skills. Although in athletic, cultural, and other extra-cura report card grading their performance every junior-high graduate was guaranricular activities (worth a maximum of in the five subjects. The three categories teed a place in a senior high school, the 18 points) and in public service (a maxof “proficient,” “basic level,” and “in exam was part of a process determining imum 12 points). need of further improvement” transwhether applicants would be admitted The students then applied for admislated into six, four, and two points to the schools of their choice. sion to senior highs. In the Taipei-New respectively, adding up to a maximum The exam results were made public
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Taipei-Keelung region, for instance, each student was allowed to apply to up to 30 schools in order of preference. The process turned out to be a major headache for students and their parents as they tried to gauge, on the basis of the test scores, the likelihood of admission to specific schools so as to determine the order in which to list the schools being applied to. On June 20, the first list of admitted students was released, containing a total of 211,171 names. Some 63,000 of them, however, failed to confirm their acceptance due to dissatisfaction with the schools they were assigned to. The next step in the process was what was called the “joint special examination,” held on July 12 and 13, mainly for applicants to a number of “star” senior highs in the Taipei-New Taipei-Keelung area and featuring tests in Chinese, mathematics, and English. This round was more similar to Taiwan’s traditional joint-entrance examinations, with a maximum of 50 points for each subject. The aim was to enable the elite high schools to continue to recruit students of high academic potential. Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School and Taipei First Girls High School, the nation’s two most prestigious senior highs, for instance, reserved 75% of their freshmanclass vacancies (1,100 and 920 places respectively) for participants in the special examination. A number of other star schools in Taipei and elsewhere around the island also set aside a high percentage of their openings for students taking the special exam. A total of 21,393 students took part, and release of the results on August 2 showed that 14,763 students had gained admission. Those who made the list happily enrolled at the star schools, giving up their places in the schools previously assigned to them after the first joint exam in May – and leaving those firstround schools with a large number of vacancies. A second round of applications then took place for those who either failed the special examination or were dissatisfied with the outcome of the regular first round. The outcome of 36
the process, made public on August 14, granted admission to another 26,144 students. But for some students in greater Taipei, the ordeal did not come to an end until one week later, when some public senior highs in the region completed recruiting students to fill the 500-some vacancies that remained.
Good-bye vacation Many parents and students complained about the protracted and tortuous admission process, which took up almost the entirety of students’ summer vacation. Many also objected that the design of the system was unfair, forcing many students to study at schools with lower rankings despite their good performance on the joint exam in May, often as a result of negligence or misjudgment in prioritizing the order of schools being applied to. Many students applied to study at schools with lower rankings, only to later discover with regret that their scores were sufficient for enrollment at more prestigious institutions. Another problem is that the determination of admission to a given school often came down to the grade on the composition, which is inevitably somewhat subjective, as there were too many contestants with similar test scores for the five main subjects. In the highly competitive region of Taipei-New Taipei-Keelung, for instance, many students gaining the highest A++ scores in all five subjects failed to be admitted to Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School or Taipei First Girls High School, only because their grade on the composition was at the second highest rather than the top level. Critics also objected that the exam system for the 12-year compulsory educational program aggravates the already heavy pressure on students, at odds with the government’s repeated pledge to lessen such pressure. In response to the extensive complaints, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Li-lun Chu announced on August 14 that the special exam for senior highs in his city would not be held next year. Instead, he proposed completing the
review of admission applications in one round, ideally before early July, so that students can still enjoy their summer vacation. He also suggested other revisions in the process, such as lessening the importance of the order of preference of schools being applied to, as well as decreasing the weight of the composition portion of the exam. Many other municipalities, such as Kaohsiung, echoed Chu’s proposal, pledging to also forego the special exam next year. In Taipei, Mayor Hau Long-bin insisted on retaining the right of Taipei’s star schools to conduct a separate recruitment system next year, but pledged that those schools would reduce the proportion of openings filled through that channel to less than 50%. Further, he urged the Ministry of Education to simplify the system by allowing the star schools to use the results of the regular joint exam to screen applications for admission. If those results could be announced early, it would eliminate the need for a special entrance exam and for a second round of screening to fill the vacancies left by students who give up their first-round places to attend elite schools. Under this arrangement, the entire process could be completed by early July. “The essence of our proposal is fairness and simplicity,” said Mayor Hau in response to local media inquiries in mid-August. It appears that only two districts, Taichung-Nantou and Tainan, will retain the separate recruitment system for star schools next year. Supporting the Taipei city gove r n m e n t p r o p o s a l , Ya n g S h i h - j u i , principal of the Taiwan First Girls High School, says “it can enable students to know much earlier where they will be enrolling, eliminating the uncertainty and turmoil caused by repeated rounds of recruitment as schools seek to fill vacancies.” For its part, the Ministry of Education has also pledged to greatly simplify and shorten the entire process next year. Wu Se-hwa, the newly appointed minister of education, points out that next year the special exam will take place in mid-June, following the joint exam in
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mid-May and publication of the results in early June. The students will then have to fill out just one admission application, based on both the joint exam and special exam. The processing for both regular and elite schools will be conducted at the same time, with the results announced together in mid-July. The relatively few students who still have not been placed will be able to take part in additional entrance exams held by schools with remaining vacancies, with the final outcome to be made public by the end of July.
Varying proposals Rather than following Mayor Hau’s suggestion, however, Wu stresses that the results of the joint exam can only be used as a threshold for determining who may participate in the special exam, which must involve one to three additional tests. Chen Ta-kuei, director of the ministry’s special office for 12-year compulsory education, explains that the basic joint exam is designed to test the effectiveness of a student’s junior-high education, and therefore is not suitable for use by the star schools to identify those with high academic potential. In addition, next year only schools with special features in their curricula will be allowed to hold the special exam, and recruitment through that channel will be limited to no more than 50% of the freshman class. Further elucidating Mayor Hau’s proposal, Lin Yi-hua, commissioner of the Taipei city government’s Department of Education, says that using the results of the first joint exam to screen applications to the star schools would be just a transitional practice, in effect for two years or so until the city government can develop tests specifically for use in the special exam. This year, tests for the joint exam and the special exam were both developed by National Taiwan Normal University’s Research Center for Psychological and Education Testing, which has announced that it will no longer be involved in the process next year. Regions still wishing to hold the special exam will have to formulate the test questions themselves.
UPSET — Several parents’ groups joined together last summer to protest the need for their children to take multiple entrance exams over several months.
photo : cna
While acknowledging the confusion this year surrounding the launch of the 12-year compulsory educational program, Vice Minister of Education Lin Shu-chen says the program should not be regarded as a failure, since it is very difficult to complete such a major reform in one fell swoop. She expressed hope that adjustments to the admissions process can be carried out as soon as possible, so that attention can be directed to the essence of the project – namely the cultivation of talent according to students’ individual needs, the provision of multiple forms of learning, and improvement of the overall quality of senior highs and vocational senior highs. One critical question still unanswered is how the star schools should be positioned within the new 12-year compulsory education system. Critics blame much of this year’s turmoil on the elite schools’ continued domination of high-school education, forcing the authorities to design such a complicated entrance-exam system. Further, the critics see concentration on the star schools as an obstacle to achieving broad-based educational reforms
designed to nurture innovation and help students at all levels of ability to reach their potential. At the same time, many educators and parents view the star schools as critical for fostering Taiwan’s national development and competitiveness, and worry about the survival of the special character of those schools under the new environment. Despite the difficulties in bringing the 12-year education system to reality, even after years of preparation, government officials and most educators are confident that the change is the right direction for Taiwan. The Ministry of Education notes that when Taiwan extended its compulsory education to nine years about four decades ago, it was one of only some nine countries in the world with such a system. But since then, the Ministry says on its website, Taiwan “has fallen behind” when compared with other advanced nations. The three major visions set by the government for the 12-year program remain as valid as ever: “enhancing the educational quality” of Taiwan’s schools, “enabling every child to fulfill him/herself,” and “consolidating national competitiveness.”
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advertorial
Super Dragon Reshapes Recycling in Taiwan
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he newest recycling facility of the Super Dragon Technology Corp. (SDTI) soars 12 stories above Taoyuan’s spectacular seacoast amidst an array of towering, power-generating windmills. The area is surrounded by lush, fallow fields and the low-rise industrial complexes of the Taoyuan Environmental Science and Technology Park in Guanyin. With 45,368.27 square meters of interior space, the compound consists of two huge buildings connected underground by a cavernous basement complex and overhead by walkways suspended four stories above a courtyard of green lawns and a low-rise, fengshui-necessitated mound that resembles a nomad’s tomb. A canopy of translucent, recycled fiberglass and BIPV (built-in photovoltaic) solar panels both generates power and regulates heat loss, minimizing power needs. At the same time, as the panels stretch across the complex, climbing 12 stories to the top, they conjure up the image of a dragon’s sinuous, scaly body. It’s a dramatic sight, but only as grand as the hopes and dreams of its builder, Ken Wu, general manager of SDTI, who aims to change fundamental notions of pollution and environmental protection. “The whole idea of environmental protection from pollution is not correct,” he says. “It’s not pollution, but just resources in the wrong position, using the wrong processes.” Accordingly, SDTI’s business is extracting value from garbage, or more specifically, precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from the electronic waste – e-waste – that Taiwan’s gargantuan IT industry produces in such abundance. Precious metals are excellent conductors of electricity and are vital to the precise operations of many electronics products. While a PC or cellphone might contain only miniscule amounts of precious metals, SDTI’s two existing plants every month are able to extract up to 450kgs of gold and even greater amounts of silver and copper, enough to sustain the 150-person enterprise. Wu calls his business “urban mining,” and sells his products – bales of copper weighing 200kgs each and gleaming bricks of gold – on the Hong Kong precious metals market. But just extracting precious metals isn’t enough for Wu, who laments that most of the content of e-waste has little value, and so is not recycled effectively, such as fiberglass, Styrofoam packing material, and wood pallets used in shipping. Instead, Wu has carried on the tradition established by his father, SDTI founder Wu Yao-hsun, of turning these waste materials into a medium for sculptures, similar to pottery. SDTI’s Guanyin plant employs a master artist and several artisans who create works of startling beauty based on traditional and modern motifs. Part of the impetus behind the new plant, which is scheduled to become operational in early 2015, is to expand the range of products derived from these less easily recycled materials.
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Super Dragon’s newest recycling facility incorporates the latest in energy-efficient technology, such as this canopy of recycled fiberglass and BIPV panels that both generates power and regulates heat loss.
E-waste recycling Ken Wu grew up in the recycling business and before taking over as general manager, spent two years working on the disassembly line and another two years in sales. He says that this experience allows him to understand the business from the ground up, giving him the ability to know what is feasible and what is not in an increasingly complex market. “I’m like a bridge between my company and my customers,” he says. “I know what my customers need and what my company can provide.” Meanwhile, SDTI is using its waste fiberglass and Styrofoam to make an array of new products ranging from iPhone covers and sunglasses to window shades, storm grates, and even construction-quality bricks. The window shades and bricks are actually being used in the construction of SDTI’s new plant. Wu is optimistic that on the strength of the bold new plant in Taoyuan, SDTI will succeed in promoting a new business model and raising consciousness in Taiwan’s manufacturing sector. “We have the technology to send space ships to the moon, so why can’t we preserve our beautiful environment?” he asks. “The concept and attitude need to change. If you don’t use it, then garbage is just waste, but if you use it, it’s a resource. We just have the wrong attitude.” Super Dragon Technology Co., Ltd. 1 Yuanyuan St., Guanyin Industry Park, Taoyuan, Taiwan 32849 Tel: 03-438-9099 Fax: 03-438-9090
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A Report on the Environmental Sector
New Technologies, International Cooperation BY KAThERINE MooN
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Blind to Borders: U.S.-Taiwan Cooperation in Fighting Pollution After 20 years of collaboration on environment protection, the partnership is increasingly being extended to other countries.
IN THIS SURVEY • Blind to Borders: U.S.-Taiwan Cooperation in Fighting Pollution p40
• Urban Mining: Treating Waste as a Resource
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• Slow but Steady Progress in Soil and Groundwater Remediation p46
• Getting People to Care
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hen Administrator Gina McCarthy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency visited Taiwan in April, it made political news as the first trip by an American Cabinet-level official since the year 2000. But the visit also made many people aware for the first time of the extensive, long-term cooperation between the two countries in the area of environmental protection. Through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and Taiwan’s counterpart organization in the United States, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), a bilateral Agreement for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Environment Protection was signed in 1993 and has been renewed every five years since then – in 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013. The agreement designates the Environmental Protection Administration in Taiwan (EPAT) as TECRO’s cooperating agency, providing the groundwork to enable the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration to collaborate directly with the EPAT.
Over the past two decades, EPAT and the U.S. EPA have executed more than 190 projects on environmental issues ranging from combating climate change to managing electronic waste. Their cooperation has covered many different types of environmental challenges, including air and water pollution, soil and radioactive contamination, and thermal pollution. According to Fred Brust, AIT’s Environment, Science, Technology & Health Officer, Taiwan-U.S. collaboration in this field has been “a real success story in U.S.-Taiwan relations.” The fact that the agreement has been extended not just once or twice, but four times since its establishment is a good indicator of its success, Brust says, and he predicts that the environmental cooperation between the two sides will continue to grow. As Administrator McCarthy stated while in Taiwan, international collaboration on environmental matters is necessary because “pollution is blind to borders.” Justin Harris, an
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A Report on the Environmental Sector
official in the U.S. EPA’s Office of International and Tribal Affairs, emphasized the importance of such unity during a visit to Taiwan this June. “The work we do internationally is based on the idea that we as environmental agencies are much stronger when we work together,” he explained, noting that environmental issues that were once identified as “local” or “national” have now turned into global challenges. When President Ma Ying-Jeou met with McCarthy in April, he thanked the United States for the assistance it has provided to Taiwan over the past 20 years in improving the environment. During that period, according to EPAT, Taiwan’s achievements have included: • A sharp reduction in poor airquality days (down 73% just since 2007). • A decrease in CO2 emissions from 2.76 million tons annually to 2.65 million tons. • A drop in Taiwan’s ranking from 18th to 23rd place among the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases on a per capita basis. Although these statistics focus on improvements in air quality and carbon emissions, EPAT and the U.S. EPA have collaborated on a number of other issues such as expanding access to clean water, managing contaminated sites, and improving policy approaches to environmental topics. “U.S. EPA and EPAT work together to identify shared priorities that are also relevant to our common interests in the region,” Harris explained. A key part of Taiwan’s environmental success has been its willingness to accept foreign expertise. Whereas some of U.S. EPA’s other partners often are reluctant to accept unfamiliar strategies, Harris lauded Taiwan for always “being open to U.S. EPA’s suggestions.” He said “EPA Taiwan has a track record for innovation and willingness to try new approaches.” In addition, “Our partners in Taiwan value transparency and understand the important of sharing environmental information with the public,” Harris said. The collaboration has brought benefits to both sides. According to Harris, working with Taiwan has been very helpful to the U.S. EPA. “Although the
United States has invested billions of dollars into cleaning up our air, water, and generally improving the environment, we do not have all of the answers,” said Harris. “By working with Taiwan, our experts are able to try new approaches to solving old problems. This gives Taiwan the opportunity to leap ahead of us in certain fields. For example, Taiwan has one the world’s highest recycling rates in the world. Many countries, including the United States, are learning from Taiwan’s experience in this area.” Due to the efficiency of Taiwan’s environmental protection teams, he noted, the U.S. EPA is able to get quick results from joint experiments and bring the lessons back to America.
Becoming a global trendsetter Taiwan’s openness to new ideas and its ability to put them into action have given it an opportunity to serve as a role model in the global spectrum of environment protection. During McCarthy’s trip, she praised EPAT for being not just a willing partner but “an emerging leader” in the Asia-Pacific region when it comes to sustainability. The partnership with Taiwan, says Harris, has also provided a channel enabling the U.S. EPA to work more effectively internationally. Time and again, technologies new to the region were introduced first in Taiwan – and then the success in Taiwan could be used to encourage other countries to follow suit. Recently, for instance, U.S. experts introduced phytoremediation – a technique that uses plants to clean up contaminated soil – to EPAT. Taiwan’s receptivity to adopting the technology and its success in using it to deal with domestic sites set an example for other places in the Asia Pacific. Besides environmental solutions originating in the United States, other countries have also paid attention to innovative approaches that Taiwan itself has developed, for example in the area of electronic waste (e-waste) recycling. Taiwan’s influence as a front-runner in green technologies already extends beyond the Asian-Pacific region, Harris said. In July 2013, for example, EPAT
and the U.S. EPA co-hosted the third annual meeting of the International E-Waste Management Network (IEMN) to stimulate information exchange different countries ranging from Vietnam and Malaysia to Nigeria and Colombia. At the meeting, Taiwan shared its successful practices regarding e-waste managing and recycling. According to Harris, Taiwan’s approach in this area “is affecting environmental agencies as far as the Caribbean and Africa.” Just as pollution is blind to borders, the U.S. EPA and EPAT are showing that environmental solutions should not stop at borders either. It’s crucial to keep the flow of information on environmental protection circulating around the globe, said Harris, since “none of us has all the answers and there is plenty of work left to do.” Education is considered the key to ensuring that information is transformed into innovative and implementable solutions. The National Wildlife Federation, the largest conservation education organization in the United States, has collaborated with the U.S. EPA and EPAT on the international Eco-Schools program, and more specifically on the U.S.–Taiwan Sustainable Schools Partnership. The partnership matches a K-12 school in Taiwan with a sustainable school in the United States. A success story is the partnership between Jian An Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District, and the Ben Franklin Elementary School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The relationship began when Chris Turnbull, the Ben Franklin School’s principal, visited Taiwan and was deeply impressed by Jian An’s approach to sustainability and the students’ environmental awareness. Apart from having multiple low-carbon emission classrooms, Jian An had eco-ponds and solar photovoltaic systems. According to Harris, Turnbull became the “champion of sustainable schools” after seeing the students turn compost into soap and sell it to the community. Since then, students from Jian An and Ben Franklin school have engaged in regular online video chats to exchange ideas on how to increase environmentally friendly programs on their campuses. During Administrator McCarthy’s
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Some Fruits of U.S.-Taiwan Cooperation • The U.S.-Taiwan Sustainable Schools partnership launched this year will link thousands of students and hundreds of communities across the United States and Taiwan. • As a result of a regional network led by the U.S.EPA and EPAT, wet deposition mercury monitoring has recently begun in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. • Taiwan and Thailand have implemented a Central Data Exchange framework to consolidate environmental information and make it more available to the public and decision makers. • The Cities Clean Air Partnership established under the International Environmental Partnership will provide technical assistance to two dozen cities across the Asia-Pacific region over the next few years. • A U.S.-Taiwan joint experts mission assisted the Indonesian Ministry of Environment to clean up contaminated sites affected by petroleum and heavy metal. • Taiwan joined the AirNow International program in 2014 to demonstrate best practices on environmental public information and transparency in the AsiaPacific region.
While on her visit to Taiwan, Gina McCarthy, head of the U.S. EPA, spoke to students in New Taipei City, and via video conference, in New Jersey, to recognize their efforts to protect the environment.
visit to Taiwan, she hosted a videoconference with the two elementary schools and awarded them both a Green Flag – the highest form of accolade awarded by the International Eco-Schools program. In addition, at a ceremony at the Jian An School that McCarthy attended, 10 new partnerships were formed between schools in New Jersey and Taiwan following the Jian An / Ben Franklin model. Another instance of how EPAT is integrating local schools into environmental protection efforts is an upcoming project in which students will be given remote sensors that measure air quality. As they walk to and from school, they will take measurements of Taiwan’s air, with the data then uploaded onto EPAT’s Air Quality Index Visual Map online. Through the initiative, students will not only feel more connected to the environment, but will also be able to make active contributions. Harris sees the project as an effective way to raise public awareness and encourage communities to become more involved and take ownership of the environment. “The most important aspect of our work as environmental agencies is how we affect communities,” he explains. With the international eco-schools program and the air-monitoring initiative, EPAT and the U.S. EPA are entrusting the community with an opportunity to directly protect the environment. The U.S. officials that have worked with Taiwan praise the Taiwanese public’s sense of responsibility in caring for the environment, and note that this sense of environmental responsibility is often inculcated through policies adopted by government authorities. When the Ta i w a n e s e g o v e r n m e n t p r o h i b i t e d smoking in public areas two years ago, for instance, people began to perceive smoking not just as dangerous to health but as harmful to the environment. By placing an emphasis on establishing global partnerships and raising environmental literacy in the younger generation, the U.S. EPA and EPAT are making the statement that environmental issues need to be addressed immediately and collectively.
photo :cna
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A Report on the Environmental Sector
Urban Mining: Treating Waste as a Resource Several Taiwan companies are succeeding in unleashing the economic potential of electronic and lighting waste.
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If you label something as waste, then it will forever be treated as waste.” That is Ken Wu’s philosophy when it comes to recycling electronics at his company, Super Dragon Technology Co., Ltd (SDTI). As the general manager of SDTI, Wu is one of Taiwan’s pioneers in the electronic and lighting waste recycling industry. While most people consider used electronics to be trash, SDTI recognizes the value in the metals within electronics – including gold, silver, and copper – and has created a successful business model that focuses on preserving the value of these extracted metals and reusing them in the creation of other products. SDTI, along with other local companies like MINIWIZ and Chung Tai Resource Technology Corp., are executing a vision that, in the electronic and lighting waste industry, everything has a second life. Over the past decade, recycling has become a burgeoning industry in Taiwan. According to the website of Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the inspected and certified volume of recyclable waste has increased from 288,000 to 943,000 tons a year between 1988 and 2012. In the same period of time, the recycling indicator known as the national resource collection rate has skyrocketed from 5.87% to 41.88%. The increase can be attributed to the growing public awareness of the need for environmental safeguards, coupled with the Taiwan EPA’s policy of steadily expanding the scope of regulated recy-
clable waste. For example, tablet PCs and external hard drives were just added to the list in March this year). Yeh Chunhsien, president of Chung Tai, explains that 20 years ago “trash was everywhere – people could see trash as soon as they opened their doors.” Because Taiwan’s residents have “suffered this pain,” Yeh says, they have learned the lesson the hard way and are now more proactive in recycling their waste. Home to such prominent technology companies such as Asustek, HTC, and Acer, Taiwan leads the world in the production of electronics per capita. As a result, some have concluded that Taiwan must also aim to lead the world in electronic waste recycling. “E-waste is only going to increase,” warns Arthur Huang, co-founder of MINIWIZ. “Just look at cloud computing and how quickly that’s increasing to keep our world running. Phones are getting bigger, so the infrastructure behind them is also getting bigger.” According to Huang, few companies are engaged in recycling because most people do not recognize the environmental footprint of their products. “But we have to take on the mission of finding a solution, even if the mission isn’t visible to consumers,” he argues, since the substances released during these “invisible” processes are extremely toxic and can be carcinogenic. Chung Tai’s Yeh says his company decided to focus on recycling lighting waste because of the large amount of
mercury that enters the environment when such waste is not properly managed. Although mercury has many beneficial uses – for example in fluorescent lamps, thermometers, and dental amalgam – it is highly toxic if it enters the human body, and differs from most heavy metals in its resistance to being broken down by environmental processes, Yeh explains. In addition, fish and shellfish have a natural tendency to concentrate mercury in their bodies, and in a process called biomagnifications, the concentration increases progressively as it moves up the food chain.
Recycling Fund When Justin Harris, an official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Office of International and Tribal Affairs, visited Taiwan recently, he lauded Taiwan for its “very high recycling rate” and especially for being a global frontrunner in electronic and lighting waste management. “Many countries do not have the right approach when it comes to e-waste recycling,” he says, “but Taiwan does, with the local EPA setting up the Recycling Fund.” The fund, based on fees collected from Taiwanese manufacturers and importers of products that become regulated recyclable waste (RRW), was established when Taiwan created a comprehensive “4-in-1 Recycling System” in 1997. (The “4-in-1” refers to the involvement of four types of participants: community resi-
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A worker at SDTI shows the target of their efforts in e-waste recycling: precious metals affixed to computer components. photos: t im Ferry
dents, recycling industries, the central government’s Recycling Fund, and local authorities.) According to Lee Zhi-yi, an environmental specialist with the Taiwan EPA’s Recycling Fund Management Board, the money collected is “used to subsidize the management of 33 publicly announced recyclable waste items ranging from plastic containers and lead batteries to aluminum cans and tires.” In the recycling of electronic and lighting waste, SDTI and Chung Tai have been among the industry leaders supported by the 4-in-1 Recycling System. As SDTI’s Ken Wu explains, the company specializes in extracting valuable metals from used computers and printers, and works closely with Taiwan’s EPA to ensure the maintenance of high standards for e-waste recycling. “Instead of using the conventional method of incinerating the waste, SDTI uses a grinding method to retain the value in these metals,” he notes. Apart from recycling the metals, SDTI also ensures that non-metallic substances like glass and fiberglass are reused as building materials or as a medium for sculptures. SDTI’s pursuit of the goal of reusing as much electronic waste as possible can be seen in the waste recycling plant it is currently constructing in Taoyuan in collaboration with MINIWIZ, a designoriented company that builds products using sustainable technology. MINIWIZ
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is using the IT waste produced by existing SDTI recycling plants – in other words the leftovers of the leftovers – as the major building material for the facility. “If you have on-site waste, then why not use that waste to build the new factory?” asks Johann Boedecker, communications director at MINIWIZ. When Arthur Huang and Jarvis Liu, the co-founders of MINIWIZ, set up the company, Boedecker notes, their aim was to create second lives for trash. “In today’s world, there’s so much ‘greenwashing’ – pretending to be environmentally friendly by using sustainable phrases to market a product – but that’s not what MINIWIZ is about,” he says. In building the SDTI waste recycling facility, he continues, the objective is not necessarily to use as much recyclable material as possible, because “making something with recyclable materials does not mean it’s more sustainable if the quality is poor and additional materials are required.” Instead, Boedecker says, the mission for the project is to “use e-waste to functionally enhance the facility’s structure.” Boedecker cites such examples as using “post-consumer” ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) from SDTI’s e-waste to build a shading system to eliminate the need for air-conditioning, and using polycarbonate to construct a canopy system that creates a microclimate unaffected
by temperatures outside the factory. By ensuring that every type of e-waste selected to construct the facility serves a functional purpose, MINIWIZ reduces the need for virgin materials – decreasing the amount of money that has to be spent in purchasing those virgin materials. “I call it throwing one bird at another and, in the process, killing both of them,” Boedecker jokes. “You don’t even need the stone.” The end result is to reduce environmental and economic costs by using no more resources than necessary.
Reusing everything Another eco-friendly and profitable business, Chung Tai Resource Technology Corp., collects lighting waste from its mother company, the China Electric Manufacturing Corp., and processes the metal, glass, and fluorescent powder to enable the production of new lighting equipment from the same materials. The Green Light Regeneration Lamp the company has invented is composed of 100% recycled mercury, 60% recycled fluorescent powder, and 30% recycled glass (glass cannot be recycled 100%). According to Chung Tai, the product is energy-saving and “perfectly accomplishes the ideal of sustainable development in the waste-lighting recycling business.”
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A Report on the Environmental Sector Although Taiwan has been praised internationally for the progress it has made in the electronic and lighting waste recycling industry, Taiwanese companies are not satisfied. Looking at the process holistically, “you’ll see that e-waste recycling is not even worthy of the word ‘recycling,’” says MINIWIZ’s Boedecker, since it mainly deals with the metals, while e-waste in general – think computers, phones, and televisions – is largely composed of plastics. When the metals are extracted but the plastic components are incinerated, a number of toxic compounds are still released into the air. “What you’re left with is an incredible amount of pollution and a small amount of valuable metals,” Boedecker explains. SDTI’s Wu agrees that every part of an electronic appliance, and not just the metals, deserves to have a second life. “Imagine that you have a creation built from Lego pieces,” Wu says, “After you break apart the creation, you should be able to re-assemble something new using every single piece.” In Wu’s analogy, no Lego piece would be tossed aside –which is the current fate of many e-waste components. Wu suggests that even before designers start to construct items, they should consider how every part is going to be reused. “This is not just a mindset restricted to recycling electronic waste,” he insists. “It should be applied to everything that humans use.” In Wu’s eyes, another obstacle holding back progress in electronic waste recycling is the isolated nature of Taiwan’s recycling industry. Taiwan’s companies tend to be very “traditional” in their thinking, often rejecting the idea of interacting with other industries, he
Left, SDTI’s “urban mining” yields bales of copper, each weighing 200 kilograms. Right, fiberglass e-waste is ground up, sorted and processed into material that SDTI casts into works of art. photos: t im Ferry
says. “That’s why SDTI was very determined to establish a partnership with MINIWIZ, and take advantage of MINIWIZ’s architectural expertise,” Wu explains. By collaborating with the architecture sector, Wu believes that SDTI can showcase recycled materials by means of a new channel – buildings. As seen by MINIWIZ’s construction of the ninestory tall ECOArk Pavilion for the Taipei International Flora Exposition back in 2010, large-scale architecture grabs the attention of the public and the press if properly publicized. In MINIWIZ’s case, the fact that the structure was “built out of 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles” was heavily promoted, leading to the ECOArk Pavilion being featured in major publications including The New York Times and Businessweek. Asked what other industries SDTI might intersect with, Wu says the possi-
bilities are endless. “The creative sector is definitely very attractive because we’d like to create artwork from what people have thrown away,” Wu explains, “However, because every sector plays an indispensable role in shaping our society, it would be ideal for us to collaborate with as many industries as possible.” SDTI has, in fact, already taken steps into the creative sector by launching the Green Art series of sculptures completely formed by recycled e-waste materials. Being innovative with trash is crucial if his company wants to engage the public with something that is usually viewed with disdain,” says Wu. Since humans are “visual creatures,” he wishes to create aesthetically pleasing artwork that will present electronic waste in a new light. Similar to SDTI, Chung Tai has also used recycled waste to create artistic products. Its glass vases are especially noteworthy, having been made completely from recycled glass and yet beautiful enough to be showcased at the 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition. Says MINIWIZ’s Boedecker speaking of the recycling industry, “You will only be as successful as you are innovative.”
SDTI’s artists transform fiberglass e-waste into an array of traditional and modern sculptures. photo : tim Ferry
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Slow but Steady Progress in Soil and Groundwater Remediation The Taiwan approach has relied heavily on the American model, and Taiwan may be in a good position to help introduce it to additional countries.
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aiwan has made huge strides in ameliorating the impact of industrial pollution on its environment and society. Long an industrial powerhouse, the island bore the mark of its economic development with a legacy of hazardous waste sites that contaminated soil and groundwater, affecting agriculture, drinking water, and ultimately human health. But the passage in January 2000 of the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act (SGRA) provided the mechanism for Taiwan to remediate – clean up – many of its most dangerous sites. Between 2000 and 2014, a total of 2,636 sites where levels of soil or groundwater pollution exceed Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) standards were identified, and as of this June, 2,150 of these sites had been delisted: an 80% success rate. Hung Hao-chun, a senior specialist with the Taiwan EPA’s Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund Management Board, attributes this success to the systematic approach provided by the SGPRA towards soil and groundwater remediation. Taiwan’s SGPRA is modeled after the U.S. EPA’s Superfund program, which was established in 1980 following the discovery of several hazardous waste sites, such as the infamous Love Canal in New York State in the 1970s. Taiwan’s SGPRA has allowed Taiwan to tackle the problems of soil and groundwater pollution consistently and effectively for 14 years. Hung says that the Taiwan EPA was attracted to the U.S.’s decision to compel responsible parties in soil and ground-
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A model industrial wastewater recycling machine in the Nanzih Export Processing Zone in Kaohsiung. photo :cna
water cases to reimburse the cost of the remediation. Therefore, when the government passed the SGPRA, it required polluters guilty of creating “remediation sites” – sites where pollution levels exceed control standards and pose a threat to public health – to form a remediation plan and execute the plan once it’s approved. Just the approval process alone is complicated, Hung says, because the plans are submitted directly by the polluter to the local governments without need for prior EPA approval, and are then reviewed by a panel of remediation
experts gathered by local Environmental Protection Bureaus, which are part of county or city administrations. Apart from requiring the responsible parties to perform cleanups, Taiwan’s approach towards site remediation has another major similarity with that of the United States – a fund subsidized by the manufacturing industry, called the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund, for the purpose of investigating remediation sites. Since the Taiwan EPA doesn’t carry out the actual remediation work, the fund is used to contract consulting firms to investigate and identify the exact locations of contaminated sites in Taiwan. After it thoroughly understands the scope of contamination for a given site, the Taiwan EPA is able to perform its main job of “publishing technical guidance” for use by the responsible parties. To those living in the Taipei area, soil and groundwater pollution may seem like a distant issue. But Wu Shian-chee, professor at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, argues that site remediation is not distant because soil and groundwater pollution directly impacts multiple aspects of the residents’ lives. “We rely on groundwater for about 40% of our drinking water supply,” Wu says. In terms of soil pollution, it’s also closely linked to residents in Taiwan because one-third of Taiwan’s land is farmland. “Because agriculture is such a big industry in Taiwan, we rely heavily on clean soil to produce agricultural products that can support farmers and their families,” Wu explains. Once
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A Report on the Environmental Sector
the soil is judged to be contaminated according to the EPA’s standards, the land is not usable anymore. Therefore, not only do contaminants in soil pose a threat to public health, but they also lower output in the agriculture sector. Before pollutants are cleaned up, they must first be identified. NTU’s Wu says that a range of channels are relied on to identify sites to be controlled. “The first way is for the Taiwan EPA to perform soil quality surveys to identify the contaminants,” Wu explains, “and the same could be done for water quality with regular groundwater sample analysis.” In addition, the authorities may learn of contaminated sites from reports by the public. “If residents smell bad things from their groundwater, then something is wrong,” Wu says, “Also, when people find that soils are not good for plants to grow, they report the problems to local governments.” Even though these methods of site identification have been successful in the past, Wu admits that surveys for contaminants will always be difficult because contamination is usually very heterogeneous and not composed of a single toxin. As a result, the investigation will “never be thorough, and especially for groundwater.” And since groundwater by definition is underground, any pollutants cannot easily be viewed.
how remediation works Once sites are identified as having exceeded the control standards for soil and groundwater pollution, the responsible parties must create and execute a remediation plan that seeks to reduce the level of pollutants to allowable concentrations. A case involving groundwater pollution involving the Dutch technology company Philips illustrates how the process works. At its factory in Hsinchu, Philips unknowingly contaminated the groundwater with chlorinated hydrocarbons – a group of chemicals that can harm the nervous and reproductive systems in animals and humans. To reduce the levels of these chlorinated hydrocarbons, Philips tried different strategies ranging from excavating the aquifer materials to injecting chemicals into the
groundwater. Although the process took a number of years, Wu reports, eventually the amount of pollution returned to allowable levels and the site was eventually delisted. Wu notes that many gas station sites that were once contaminated have also been cleaned up. According to the Taiwan EPA’s website, the agency has paid special attention to gas station pollution because oil leakages occurring in underground storage tank systems present hazards for the surrounding environment and for public health. Because environmental protection authorities now mandate that Taiwan’s gas stations install pollution monitoring and prevention equipment, Wu expresses confidence that most of the nation’s polluted gas station cases have been resolved. T h r o u g h o u t h i s c a r e e r, Wu h a s attended a number of international conferences targeting soil and groundwater pollution and observes that Taiwan’s approach to site remediation is “quite successful” by compared with most other countries, primarily because the remediation techniques were mostly borrowed from the United States. “Our approach is just like the Superfund program that began in 1981,” he says. Compared to remediation systems in South Korea, for example, Wu says that Taiwan is around “5-10 years ahead of the game.” As for China’s approaches, Wu explains that although China’s policy towards soil and groundwater pollution is similar to Taiwan’s, the country has yet to pass any legislation governing the issue. Wu contends that Taiwan can be a global frontrunner in terms of soil and groundwater remediation. From his perspective, what currently sets Taiwan’s policies in this area apart – and what many other government agencies could learn – is consistency of implementation. Because the regulatory approach does not change place by place or instance by instance, every party found responsible for pollution can expect to face the same consequences. The consistency creates public trust that a well-established regulatory system is in place. Another reason for Wu’s confidence that Taiwan can become a model for successful site remediation is the young
generation of talented environmentalists that universities such as NTU are cultivating. “We are starting to have very knowledgeable engineers in this field,” Wu observes. “So there is a lot of talent and plenty of manpower.” With this promising new generation of environmental engineers, he sees Taiwan as having the capability of spreading its site remediation approach to other parts of the world. The EPA’s Hung notes that the Taiwan EPA is investigating new approaches towards remediation, broadly dubbed “Green and Sustainable Remediation.” He explains that the EPA is working towards developing new tools and strategies to introduce to polluters so that “later on, when these polluters design their remediation plans, they can incorporate this concept into their design.” As an example of how Green and Sustainable remediation might differ from current approaches, Hung notes that during the cleanup of an underground pollution site, air or water pollution might inadvertently be generated. The holistic Green and Sustainable approach is designed to anticipate all aspects of the problem, including the impact on social and business activity, to minimize any adverse side effects. In some instances, the conclusion might be that taking no action is actually more beneficial, or less harmful, than attempting a remediation. Hung says that the concept of Green and Sustainable remediation is very novel and still under development, and that the EPA is discussing with experts how best to implement it in Taiwan. NTU’s Wu concurs that sometimes it’s impossible to “clean up the soils entirely, because we can’t afford the cost.” Instead, he says, “the best way is to keep all sites clean enough so that contaminants don’t spread and harm the public.” Wu argues that often too much effort is expended in cleaning up groundwater and farmlands – effort that could better be put towards other forms of environmental protection. He therefore urges environmental engineers and policy makers to undertake a cost-benefit analysis whenever trying to determine how to distribute resources across different remediation cases.
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Getting People to Care
U.S. EPA head Gina McCarthy sees education as key to changing perceptions about environmental protection. photo :cna
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t’s no secret that when the topic of the discussion is the environment, it’s difficult to keep people’s interest. According to the Pew Research Center, the American public routinely ranks dealing with global warming low on its list of priorities, and when asked to rank 20 policy issues that President Obama and Congress should tackle first in 2014, respondents placed global warming below such issues as “reducing the influence of lobbyists” and “improving roads, bridges, public transit.” Government agencies and others involved with environmental protection have therefore given some serious thought to how to spark public interest in the subject. When Administrator Gina
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McCarthy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) visited Taiwan recently, she expressed her conviction that education is the key to motivating the young generation to care for the environment. Through education, she maintains, students will become gain more understanding about environmental concerns and consequently transform that information into implementable solutions. Ta i w a n ’ s C h u n g Ta i Resource Technology Corp. adopts a similar approach with the “Environmental Education Hallway” located in the company’s lighting waste recycling plant. Yeh Chunhsien, Chung Tai’s president, is particularly eager to share the harmful effects of mercury (a major component
of lighting waste) with the public. “If we know there’s a problem, then why don’t we let everyone know what the problem is?” Yeh asks. Design firm MINIWIZ, on the other hand, has a different perspective on the effectiveness of environmental education. Communications Director Johann Boedecker s a y s t h a t i t ’s n o t e n o u g h for the public to know the problem, because it is really financial benefit that people respond to. He gives the example of how, if someone returns a used phone at 7-Eleven these days, he gets a sweet potato as a reward. “That’s what incentivizes consumers,” Boedecker says. “Economic rewards.” Arthur Huang, co-founder of MINIWIZ, agrees with Boedecker on the futility of
conventional environmental education and instead suggests using the “underground culture to drive sustainability.” If it is possible to get the “cool people” – Huang cites the example of Kobe Bryant – to care about issues such as electronic waste, then that will have a real impact. But how to get the cool people to care? One step taken by MINIWIZ has been to partner with “hot brands” like Nike to emphasize the importance of sustainability. The Feather Pavilion it created for Nike in China, for instance, underscores the lightweight and innovative qualities of the company’s Flyknit Collective footwear, while simultaneously impressing viewers with what can be done with recycled materials. Rather than concentrating on the immediate effects, General Manager K e n Wu o f S u p e r D r a g o n Technology regards environmental education in terms of its long-term results. He views it as especially effective if used to inculcate positive habits in people. Wu notes that when traffic lights were first installed many decades ago, “people ignored them and kept driving even if the light was red, but today most people know that running a red light is wrong.” By the same token, Wu says that people can learn that it is wrong to abuse the environment. “If we teach our children at a very young age that they have to recycle,” he continues, “then 30 or 40 years later, the habit will be well ingrained throughout the society.”
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Fall is Full of Fun
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n many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, October is when scarfs and thick jackets come out of storage and the tourist season begins to wind down. Not so in Taiwan, and the island’s climate is the major reason. The final quarter of each year is an exceptionally comfortable time to visit Taiwan. In Taipei, daytime temperatures average 24.5 degrees Celsius (76 degrees Fahrenheit) in October and 17.9 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit) in December. In much of the country, November and December are the driest months of the year, so it is an ideal season for enjoying the great outdoors, or watching the rites and processions that are a core feature of Taiwanese folk religion. Just as important as the welcoming weather are the events that enliven October, November, and December. During this season, there is no let-up in the roster of traditional festivals, cultural celebrations, and sporting activities that are highlights for many tourists. One distinctly Taiwanese event is the International Yunlin Puppet Theater Festival, which this year will be held from October 3 to 12. As in previous
years, the festival will center around the Yunlin Hand Puppet Museum in Huwei in the central Taiwan county of Yunlin. Some distance from any major cities, it seems an odd choice of location, but in fact there is no better place for this extravaganza. Huwei is where puppet maestro and innovator Huang Hai-tai (19012007) was born, and where in 1931 he founded the troupe now known as PiLi International Multimedia. As its name suggests PiLi – which has produced immensely popular TV shows as well as full-length movies – has a high-tech approach to the art form. Performances are spectacles enhanced by dry ice, pyrotechnics, and sound effects. Despite the advent of TV and computer games, the art form known
as budaixi (Chinese for “hand puppet drama”) remains extremely popular in Taiwan. Often seen during temple celebrations, puppetry shows are colorful, comedic, and exuberant. The festival celebrates not only budaixi but also shadow puppetry and related genres. In recent years, American, Dutch, Japanese, Israeli, Spanish, French, and Czech troupes have added an intercontinental dimension to the event, contributing to making it a resounding success. Kicking off on October 4 and continuing until March 31, the Purple Butterfly Valley Two-Year Butterfly Viewing Event showcases one of Taiwan’s most remarkable natural phenomena, the annual 250-kilometer migration of hundreds of thousands of butterflies from Taiwan’s south to the northwest. During the cooler months, Taiwan’s four purple-crow butterfly species gather in exceptional numbers in a handful of southern locations, where they thrive in perfect conditions. The best-known and most accessible “purple butterfly valleys” are in Kaohsiung City’s Maolin District, a mountainous area inhabited by members of the aboriginal Rukai tribe. At times, a single tree in Maolin may host well over 1,000 butterflies. Their wingspans range from 60mm to 75mm, and all bear eye-catching patches of blue and purple. In all, Taiwan has more than 400 butterfly species, of which 56 are found nowhere else on Earth. Taiwan’s northwest is a stronghold of the Hakka ethnic minority, and the 2014 edition of the Hsinchu County International Flower-Drum Festival is an excellent opportunity to experience Hakka culture. The festival, which
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highlights aspects of traditional rural life as well as many different kinds of drum performances, will run from October 18 to 26. For details of other Hakka cultural events, as well as background information about Taiwan’s three million-plus Hakka people, see the website of the central government’s Hakka Affairs Council (www.hakka. gov.tw).
pantheon of gods and goddesses. Folk rites can be seen at houses of worship throughout Taiwan, but perhaps the best place to witness these extraordinary demonstrations of piety and fervor is Nankunshen Daitian Temple in a coastal section of Tainan City. On the weekend of October 25 and 26, the temple will host Kunshen Wangye’s Salt for Peace Festival. The festival brings together two facets of life in the area. The Wangye are a category of spirits much revered in Taiwan for their ability to defeat plagues, expel demons, and bring good fortune; among them are the five principal deities worshiped at Nankunshen Daitian Temple. Until about a decade ago, salt was a major local commodity, produced by evaporating seawater under the hot southern sun. In addition to solemn rituals, the festival will include drum performances, games, and competitions. Weather-wise, November is an ideal time to explore Taiwan by bike, so it is no surprise that the Taiwan Cycling Festival will kick off on the eighth of the month. The multi-day festival comprises events ranging in difficulty from short
rides suitable for families to challenges designed to satisfy hardcore cyclists. If physical exertion holds no appeal for you, the Taiwan Hot Spring FineCuisine Carnival may come close to your idea of a perfect vacation. Lasting from October 28 to January 20 next year, the carnival will be celebrated at springs from Taipei in the north to Sichongxi in the far south. Participating hotels will offer special packages that include access to bathing facilities, a top-notch dinner, and one night’s accommodation with breakfast. Details will appear on the carnival’s official website (www.taiwanhotspring.net) and in pamphlets available at visitor information centers throughout Taiwan. To make Taiwan’s astonishingly diverse festival culture better known overseas, the Tourism Bureau has created a dedicated website outlining events in English and Japanese as well as Chinese (www.eventaiwan. tw). For general travel information about Taiwan, visit the bureau’s main website (www.taiwan.net.tw), or call the 24-hour tourist information hotline 0800-011-765 (toll free within Taiwan).
While technically a trade show, Art Taipei 2014 (http://art-taipei.com) is sure to appeal to anyone with a passion for Chinese and Asian art. The event, to take place October 31 to November 3 in zones B, C, and D of the Taipei World Trade Center (very near Taipei 101), has been held each fall since 1992, making it the longest-running art fair in Asia. In addition to seeing what galleries from throughout East Asia have to offer, and rubbing shoulders with collectors from around the world, attendees have a good chance of meeting some up-andcoming young artists. Southwestern Taiwan is a hotbed of traditional folk-religion, which blends B uddhi sm an d Ta o ism in to a va s t 50
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