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UN International Day of Families 2015
International Day of Families Observed in Taiwan
Written by Mai Hsien Chai, secretary general, UPF-Taiwan
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Taipei, Taiwan—UPF-Taiwan held a seminar in observance of the UN International Day of Families at the Taipei College of Maritime Technology on May 20, 2015.
UPF-Taiwan collaborated with the Department of Health Care and Social Work at Taipei College of Maritime Technology and the Professors World Peace Academy-Taiwan to organize the event. The president of the college, Dr. Yen-Po Tang, who is also vice president of UPF-Taiwan, provided the venue to hold the seminar. The purpose of the seminar, whose theme was “The Impacts of the Differences between Sexual Equality and Gender Equality,” was to encourage college students to understand the concept of the traditional role of sexuality.
Twenty-one Ambassadors for Peace from Taipei, UPF guests, and more than 100 students and faculty members from the department participated in the seminar.
Mr. Tuo-Huan Chen, president of UPF-Taiwan, gave an introduction to the purpose of the International Day of Families and spoke about the importance of clarifying confusion about the meaning of “sexual” and “gender” in Taiwan. Dr. Chia-Hui Hou, assistant professor and chairperson of the Department of Health Care and Social Work, conveyed the need for college students to understand this issue, which relates to their curriculum and future work in the field.
The first speaker, Dr. Hsueh-Yin Ting, an associate professor of the Department of Early Childhood Education at Taipei College, and director of the Research Center of Gender Education at the Education Department at the National Hsinchu University, spoke about the development of Taiwan’s Committee of Women's Rights Promotion (CWRP). Established in 1997, the Committee was later renamed to the Gender Equality Committee (GEC) and was reorganized by the Executive Yuan, ROC. Dr. Ting elaborated on the consequences of the change, in particular, its impact on sexual education curriculum in the country, which has shifted from focusing on the biological sex of a man and woman to multi-gender education. While Taiwanese young people who have received gender education have more respect towards people regardless of their biological sex than young people in the past, they are now engaged in sexual activities at a younger age. Dr. Ting also spoke about a book written by Dr. Miriam Grossman called “You’re Teaching My Child WHAT?”. In the book, Dr. Grossman provides a medical perspective on why sex should be delayed until after marriage. Dr. Ting concluded by saying that gender education should be based on life education and character education.
The second speaker, Mr. Andrew Shou–I Chang, secretary general of the Taiwan Interreligious Coalition for Cherishing Family, gave a good presentation on the differences between sexual and gender from a philosophical approach. He explained that the issue of gender is based on a misconception of sexual orientation, which has been developed into meaning multiple genders, rather than the fundamental fact that there are only two biological sexes.
A panel discussion on the topic of the role, responsibility, and differences between the sexes concluded the seminar.
The entire program provided a good learning opportunity for the students.
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