Media Representation of Taiwan’s New Female Immigrants in Documentaries

Abstract

Today the new female immigrants mainly from China and ASEAN countries have become large ethnic groups in Taiwan, accompanied by the negative labels and stereotypes of “money marriage”, “commoditized female” and “mercenary marriage” reproduced by the media. Above all, the rhetoric of “foreign bride” hinted that the underprivileged “Others” are hard to integrate into the Taiwan society. To explore the image of these immigrants, this article aims to discuss about the meaning of the media representation of Taiwan’s new female immigrants in documentaries. It takes two documentaries as the main texts to be discussed and by interpretation of shots, language and political/social implications used in these documentaries to produce representation and reflection on these immigrants, it analyzes how these documentaries present the various issues of Taiwan’s new female immigrants and the implication for multiculturalism and the transforming process of these new female immigrants’ position from “outsiders” to “insiders” in the Taiwan society.

Keywords

• media representation
• Taiwan’s new female immigrants
• documentaries
• community empowerment