Academics

Marc L. Moskowitz
The Haunting Fetus: Abortion, Sexuality, and the Spirit World in Taiwan
University of Hawai'i Press, 2001

Abstract

This book focuses on the belief in Taiwan that the spirit of an aborted fetus can return to haunt its family.  This topic lies at the intersection of two areas of academic interest: gender studies and religious studies.  From the perspective of the former, it is reasonable to ask what cultural understandings people bring to abortion, not only to the decision to have abortions, but to the meaning that such a decision has on one’s qualities as a human being.  From the perspective of religious studies, one can ask whether and how religious understandings, linked as they are to tradition and traditionalism, are brought to bear on an event so private, so invasive, so psychodynamically potent, and so in need of moral interpretation as abortion.

Critics of fetus-ghost appeasement argue that images of fetus ghosts are
used to manipulate women, either through fear or guilt, into paying
exorbitant sums of money for the appeasement process.  The following pages include many accounts that support this argument.  But I argue that it also provides important psychological comfort to those who have had abortions, and those involved in the decision making to have abortions, as well as a much needed means to project personal and familial feelings of
transgression onto a safely displaced object.

In this way those appeasing fetus ghosts can bring underlying tensions
within a family to the surface and can provide a means of working out those problems.  Like other dealings with ghosts and gods in Chinese religions, this phenomenon evinces what might be called a commodification of sin in which one can atone for one’s wrongdoings through economic avenues – essentially paying a fee to make up for one’s perceived immoral behavior.  The paradox in which fetus-ghost appeasement simultaneously exploits and assists, evinces the true complexity of the issue, and of religious and gender studies as a whole.

David K. Jordan , Andrew D. Morris, and Marc L. Moskowitz, Editors
The Minor Arts of Daily Life: Popular Culture in Modern Taiwan 
The University of Hawai'i Press, 2004

Abstract

The Republic of China on Taiwan is the last nation in the world to be
excluded from the United Nations. The world's seventeenth largest economy and Asia's most vibrant democracy, Taiwan has continually to convince the world of its historical independence from the People's Republic of China while remaining intimately tied culturally and economically to the mainland. Yet somehow under these singular conditions, the people of the island go about their daily affairs, making themselves a remarkable font of creativity and cultural innovation. The Minor Arts of Daily Life is an account of the many ways contemporary Taiwanese approach their ordinary existence and activities. It presents a wide range of aspects of day-to-day living to convey something of the world as experienced by the Taiwanese themselves. What does it mean to be Taiwanese? In what way does life in Taiwan impart a different view of Chinese culture? How do Taiwanese envision and participate in global culture in the twenty-first century? What issues (cultural, social, political, economic) seem to matter most? What does China mean to them today.

Focusing on such broadly appealing topics as baseball, movies, gay and
lesbian identity, television shows, and night markets, the contributors
seek to introduce Taiwanese culture to a broad readership.  In lively,
non-technical prose, they approach their topics from a variety of
disciplines in ways that will not only give students a comprehensive view
of Taiwanese life, but also provide them with a range of theoretical
perspectives with which to explore this fascinating nation.