Tanners of Taiwan: Life Strategies and National Culture by Scott Simon

Author:Scott Simon [Simon, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Political Science, World, Anthropology, Asian, General
ISBN: 9780429976629
Google: JUhaDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 40140814
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

ASSERTING FEMALE AGENCY

Life histories of the thau-ke-niu in Taiwan’s tanneries illustrate that the nation’s tanneries were often built with women’s skills, knowledge, and capital. Women commonly described their family firms as partnerships between husband and wife. It was common, in fact, for the husband to supply technical expertise and the wife to provide business experience and financial acumen.

An example was Iam-sui Tannery run by Lim Ken-seng and his wife Kho Le-koat in Tainan County. Their small pigskin tannery had provided them a comfortable lifestyle, including two Mercedes-Benz automobiles and a large home. They lived on the factory premises, separate from the tanning facilities, but in the same building as the office. Outside the building was a small traditional garden—a pond, a large stone symbolizing a mountain, and an artificial waterfall. The interior was tastefully decorated with Chinese antiques.

Mr. Lim was born in 1953 to a family of fish farmers in rural Tainan County. He had four elder brothers, one younger brother, and three older sisters, all of whom still raised fish for a living. After graduating from high school and completing military service, he went to work in a leather tannery in Kaohsiung, planning to open up a factory of his own when he learned enough about tanning.

His elder brother introduced him to Kho Le-koat while he was still working in Kaohsiung. Her family, in Lukang, ran a food-processing factory, so she learned some business skills from her parents. After graduating from high school, she went to work in the merchandising section of a Christian hospital in Changhua. “That was business,” she insisted. “The hospital even sent me back to school to study accounting and business administration.”

In 1978, they got married. That same year they opened up a tannery with capital given to them by Mr. Lim’s father. I asked them how they divided up their tasks in the tannery. In a family tannery, explained Mr. Lim, they didn’t use formal titles, and they weren’t very systematic about job assignments. They shared management duties, and both of them did sales. He was in charge of the technical aspects, and sometimes worked in the labor process when they were short of workers. She answered the phone, took care of the company’s finances, supervised incoming raw materials, shipped the finished leather, and managed labor.

An even more obvious example of women’s power in the industry was the Tiong-ing Tannery of Pingtung County. I interviewed the owner’s daughter, a recent graduate from a Canadian university, in the reception area on the second floor of the tannery. The office was plushly decorated, with leather furniture, wood walls, and a large window overlooking the tannery operations. A stereo was set up next to the sofa, along with a large collection of American CDs and an illuminated crystal statue of Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy.

She told me the history of how her parents set up a joint venture in Ping-tung. Her father was from Taichung, and her mother from Pingtung. They both studied chemistry in college and met while working in the sales division of a Taichung chemical company.

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