Homesick foreign spouses cheered up during Moon Festival

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

      Taiwan Church News

      3056 Edition

      September 20~26, 2010

       

       

      Homesick foreign spouses cheered up during Moon Festival

       

      Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong

      Written by Lydia Ma

       

       



      Pearl Buck Foundation hosted a surprise Moon Festival party on 
September 18, 2010, for 

      foreign spouses in Taiwan. According to the foundation’s CEO Yu 
Ying-fu, this surprise party 

      inspired many people to start researching new recipes and dance 
routines as early as one 

      month a head of the event.

       



      In the end, the party included Vietnamese rice, Burmese dance, 
and Indonesian karaoke. As 

      foreign spouses enjoyed food and music from their home country 
and other people’s 

      countries, they were also invited to visit booths providing 
various services such as free 

      overseas calls, free photo shoots, fun games, bazaars, cultural 
exhibits, etc. The party 

      culminated with nominations for “best parenting, “finest kid”, 
“best employee”, “best 

      homemaker”, and “outstanding personal growth” awards.

       



      The venue also featured booths displaying products made by new 
immigrant women still 

      struggling to adjust to their new lives. The foundation hoped 
this event would help them 

      connect with others in similar circumstances so that they could 
encourage one another in their 

      native language, become more self-confident, and comfort one 
another in their homesickness.

       



      According to the foundation’s recent findings, it seems as 
though Taiwanese society’s 

      perception of foreign brides, especially those from Southeast 
Asian countries, has mellowed 

      and improved over the past decade.

       



      But biases against brides from China still prevail in Taiwan 
and it may be partly because 

      Southeast Asian wives tend to be gentler in the way they 
interact with their in-laws, whereas 

      Chinese women are more straightforward and headstrong and 
cannot blend in as easily, 

      reported the foundation.

       


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