Four Life Stories of the Cultural Adaption and Negotiation of New Immigrant Women at Maternity in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Tsai,Sz-I, 蔡思怡
• Other Authors: Liu,Cheng-Yuan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/26975s

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 臺灣歷史文化及語言研究所 === 104 === Abstract The research object is “married new immigrant women” in this paper. The author considers the new immigrant women from Southeast Asia to be the mainstream in Taiwan, because they definitely account for the majority, no matter in the number of population or in the percentage of papers discussed. The research object for this paper is the women who emigrate from Non-Southeast Asian area. For example, the research object for this paper consists of the ones who come from four different countries: Canada, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. This study adopts the qualitative research methods: participant observation and interview for life narrative. The study purpose and question aims to investigate the life experience and perception of the four married new immigrant women in Taiwan, including their self-perception in the Taiwanese culture and their living adaption, the cultural shock experienced during their pregnancy and around the time of childbirth, and the process and result of their cultural negotiation. In this research, their life narratives are abstracted from their cumbersome but frivolous living episodes yet with the representativeness and integrity of their life. Through the semi-structured questioning, each research participant is able to better frame their life narration in a more focused way. This research is oriented from the premise postulated by the medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman that culture helps the diagnosis and healing of illness. It also includes the claim by Margaret Mead that culture wields critical influence in the shaping of human nature and personality. The author categorizes three outcomes of cultural negotiation from the cultural shock experienced by the informants during the maternity: acceptance, adjustment, and rejection. The author then examines the factors from which the respective participants result into the certain outcomes of cultural negotiation. There are three stages for this research process. First, the interview information are collected, organized and classified into five facets as the discussion themes: doctor-patient relationship during the pregnancy, culture of pregnancy, zuo-yue-zi (one-month ceremonial observation by the newly mother), nurturing customs, and breastfeeding. From the above themes are 8 sub-themes ramified for the analysis of cultural negotiation. Thus, four types of cultural negotiation are defined and concluded by the author: Type of rejection, type of adjustment, type of superficial acceptance, and type of acceptance. Next, if compared with the result of cultural adaption and negotiation by the new immigrant women from the Southeast Asian area, among the four informants of this research, on the behavior of seeking medical advice or treatment during the pregnancy and childbirth, the ones from Canada and the United States are more likely to timely propel or replace the medical staff when needed; while the ones from Japan and South Korea, with the attitude similar to that of the new immigrant women from Vietnam, are more likely to trust in the professional expertise of the doctors and to follow the instruction of the medical staff. The last, the four informants of this research positively confirm the convenience of the medical environment of Taiwan, but raise the concern that “the medical staff is overly regularized.” They agree that the medical staffs in Taiwan are very professional but give a sense of alienation by being very busy so that it is difficult for them to ask for help. Due to the overemphasis on the standard of procedure, the medical staffs neglect the different needs of the women at maternity in accordance with their various cultural backgrounds. This is a problem that needs the effort made by the government to resolve at present. Keywords: New immigrant women, cultural negotiation, doctor-patient interaction, life narrative, pregnancy and childbirth.