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Since the implementation of compulsory education in Taiwan in 1943, the literacy rate has exceeded 99%. However, a minority of illiterate female workers, constituting less than one percent of the population, find themselves in a disadvantaged position due to gender bias and lack of cultural capital. Following Taiwan's industrialization, these illiterate women face various challenges. Persecuted by the collusion of capitalism and patriarchal norms, they still strive to assert their subjectivity and agency.
This ethnographic study portrays the plight of a group of illiterate female workers born between the 1930s and 1950s, who reside along the ocean way in Taichung under the Dadu Mountain. They have confronted numerous difficulties stemming from illiteracy, and my ethnographic narrative explores how they navigate these challenges while grappling with hidden emotions and self-deprecation.
Taiwan's industrialization during the 1960s and 1970s brought economic prosperity, with which histocial process countless women become integral to the capitalist structure. Among this vast workforce, some of the illiterate women remained understudied as they are characterized as speechlessness and without clear identities, whose stories remain absent from academic research. The ethnography also addresses the labor experiences of these illiterate women who entered textile factories, manufacturing plants, and canned fruit factories after experiencing childhood educational gaps. Against the backdrop of the 1980s’ trend of "Living Room as Factories," these illiterate women have traversed the realms of work and family, being present in both spheres.
The final chapter of the ethnography returns to the town by the Dadu Mountains in the year 2023, discussing how illiterate female workers take us into a meandering journey of being in this place. The concept of "movement" serves as a lens to understanding the paths and perspectives of these women. Titled " A Red Scooter at 20 km/h under the Mountain Dadu:An Ethnography of Illiterate Female Factory Workers on the Marine way in Taichung " the imagery depicts illiterate female workers, operating scooter on narrow pathways by the Dadu Mountains at a modest pace, providing the reader a vivid symbol accounting for their agency.
Research on Taiwanese female workers is limited, and even scarcer for the more vulnerable illiterate female workers. Amidst discourses predominantly centered on males, the author aspires for this study to give voice to the silenced illiterate female workers. Through a circuitous trajectory of text and the axis of time, the aim is to guide readers in clearly envisioning the life portraits of illiterate female workers that have disappeared from the annals of written history.
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