“Modern” Daughters-In-Law in Colonial Taiwanese Families

Abstract

What were the experiences of daughters-in-law in the patriarchal household? Did they ever resist? By analyzing the life stories of twenty-two “modern” women living in complex households of colonial Taiwan, this article suggests that experiences of daughters-in-law differed a great deal from each other, according to family structures, family life cycles, and life cycles of the individual. It also argues that most of the daughters-in-law did rebel. Whether their resistance could be successful, however, depended a great deal on the rising of modern discourses, employment opportunities outside the home, and the possessed economic resources of the daughter-in-law and her natal family.