CRISIS OF FAMILY REALITIES IN TAIWAN: CHIARA LUBICH’S CONCEPT OF ‘UNITY’ AS THE POSSIBLE CORE PATH OF RECONCILIATION

Abstract

From the Past to the Present, Taiwan, as part of the Chinese cultural circle, has experienced distinct changes in family reality. Politics, economy, migration, and globalization have been or are the crucial factors influencing families. Polygamy, extended family, nuclear family, transnational family, same-sex marriage and diversified family construct the contexts of families in Taiwan. These multi-family forms seem to ingratiate themselves with the popular concept of ‘diversity’, which has been articulated since the 21st century. Many people think that ‘diversity’ could eliminate conflicts, because not any part will be ignored; ‘diversity’ shows tolerance and social progress. In fact, there are at the same time, increasing conflicts and problems occurring because of diversity. What would be the potential causes of problems? And how could these problems and conflicts in the families be dealt with? The core solutions seem not easy to find. Since the 1960s, Chiara Lubich’s concepts: ‘unity’, ‘mutual love’, and ‘the model of the new family’ have spread into Taiwan. Her concepts have influenced many families to live in a new way. In this paper, several historical and current family models in Taiwan as well as the relationship between Chiara Lubich’s concept of ‘unity’ and families will be explored to see whether her concepts could be a possible path to reconcile the conflicts of families, and how it could be possibly put into practice.

Keywords

• new family
• chiara lubich
• unity
• diversity
• same-sex marriage