Talk in Other Country and the World: Women on both sides of the Taiwan Strait talk about what kind of women’s community we want (text version) (Part 1)

I was very happy to be invited to visit other countries and talk with the world. I felt very warm that night. Everyone told their stories and difficulties in their own development. At that moment, I could deeply feel the existence of the "female community". Everyone was the same Concerned about the current situation of women and the future destiny of this ethnic group.

The following is the transcript of that night’s AMA:

@leftsayshe ｜ @Juan

@WomenOverseas her hometown forum ｜ @春堂风_simona

@世界walkseh seh ｜ @智志Gillian , @Chiao-Ting Chung

Juan: There are many other women’s communities on Matters. From the beginning, I really wanted to interact with other communities, and then I felt that there must be something that everyone can talk about and do. This time I am very honored to invite friends from other places and around the world to come and chat with us.

Simona: I used to work for a global Internet company. I was laid off in November last year. After the layoff, I didn’t want to go to work. I started to live in a foreign country while exploring myself and the world. She Xiang is a global community launched on October 3, 2020. It is about to celebrate its third anniversary. We are a community for Chinese women and non-binary friends around the world. From our launch in 2020 to now, there are approximately 20,000 people around the world. users around. Our purpose has never changed. We hope to explore a wider world and become a better version of ourselves. So how to explore? On the one hand, it is our own exploration. On the other hand, we can also see it through the sharing of fellow countrymen from other places. In this world, besides where we are, there are so many fun, interesting and new things to do, learn and explore. At present, there are about 5 or 6 members of the management team distributed around the world. They are basically generating electricity for love. All our financial income will be reinvested into the operation of the forum. This is also one of the challenges and difficulties. This community is based on a forum. This form was chosen because there were too many messages in the communication software and it was not easy to accumulate information, so we chose a form like BBS. Our forum is currently closed and only registered users can view the content. Our WeChat official account is aimed at mainland users, sharing some of the better content in the forum, hoping that more friends can read this content. We also have a podcast called "Her Country Radio" where we interview friends from some forums.

Yingzhi: World Walk is an online media whose core content is to discuss gender issues. Our special reporters or writers will write stories about many interesting female characters, and we will also invite scholars or critics to help us analyze and discuss current social events. We will officially launch various gender phenomena in August 2021. Social media and e-newsletters are our most important channels to reach readers. There are probably more than 10,000 to 20,000 active users of these two channels. Our team initially had 2.5 people. The two main producers were me and Qiao Ting, and there was a consultant. Later, a full-time editor was added, and the team was three people in its heyday. In fact, a paid subscription system was tried in 2022. Later, when it was not very successful, the paywall was lifted and opened to all readers again. However, the World Walk platform has been undergoing temporary repairs recently.

Qiao Ting: The slogan of World Walk is "International News for You" . You, the female member, mainly produce content related to international news from a gender perspective. Later, our slogan became "Her story goes with you." She and you are both women's departments. We hope that through various women's stories, female readers can see the various aspects of life in the world. . What is different from other places is that although World Travel reaches Chinese people all over the world through matters or e-newsletters, about 80 to 90% of them are still readers in Taiwan.

Juan: I would like to know how Taixiang and World Travel started building your platform. Are there any interesting stories in the process of starting?

Simona: The initial concept was proposed by one of our two founders, Sophie. A long time ago, I was an active user of Douban. She sent me a private message on Douban, saying that she liked the content I usually shared and wanted to be friends. I was a little hesitant at the time because I was an introvert and didn't quite understand her intentions. We exchanged WeChat messages, but after that, we didn't interact. At that time, I was still working in the Bay Area of ​​the United States, and once I held a small movie viewing party to play "One Child Nation," a documentary about family planning. I invited Douban netizens to participate, and Sophie came at that time. Later, the epidemic became serious in October 2020, and everyone stayed at home and social interaction was restricted. Sophie asked for a platform. Why do we create a platform like this? We have seen that there are already many organizations on Douban targeting women, such as those in the scientific and technological fields or academia, which are developing well. But we hope to create a more diverse and inclusive platform that is not limited to careers. We decided to create a community ourselves. Why choose the forum format? Because we like this way, no one has a higher say than anyone else. We want an equal environment. So far, we don’t want our speech to be affected by our different identities. So we think there's a need for that. In recent years, a large amount of content about women has emerged in the Chinese-speaking world, and this trend is relevant to our needs. We believe women should support each other and our registration code includes the slogan "women support women". On the forum, every account is equal and there is no concept of fans following. We like this and that's what we want to provide. We see the need and hope to connect more people. In recent years, many books and podcasts related to women’s issues have appeared in the Chinese-speaking world. This rise in content about women makes us believe that women need a platform. These books and content bring awareness to the challenges women face in different fields and that we need to talk about these topics and help each other. I believe that many girls in mainland China will say that their awakening of gender consciousness is related to Chizuru Ueno's "Misogyny" and "Beginning at the Limit". Teacher Chizuru Ueno repeatedly analyzes the structures that women are subjected to in the book. After seeing the unfair treatment, everyone realized that such a thing happened and that they were involved in it. We very much need women to unite. You need to discuss it with people who understand you. For example, it turns out that women have various limitations and challenges in the workplace and in life. After I recently returned to China, I held offline events in more than a dozen cities. When I asked people to speak at events, one word they would often mention was loneliness. It seems that you can see some gender-related content when you turn on your computer or mobile phone. , but will feel very lonely in real life. Maybe the female friends around me who are of the same age still discuss more traditional things, such as getting married and having children, and everyone’s focus is still on some more traditional things. I’m not saying that these things are bad, but they will feel I hope more people can discuss topics like the situation of women. For them, a foreign land may be an existence where there is a group of people who have a certain baseline in terms of gender consciousness, and everyone can discuss topics about women relatively freely. We hope that there will be no restrictions on the forum. We will give everyone a freer platform to discuss, so we will indeed see that there will be some hotly discussed topics on social media, but everyone in the forum can Discuss some topics in a more peaceful manner. Our English domain name is actually called Women Overseas. At that time, because several of us were overseas, we felt that women overseas had such needs. However, in the past three years of operation, we also saw that in fact, no matter Let’s talk about whether you have lived overseas and whether you have any experience of studying and working overseas. In fact, the situation of women is very similar. For example, many people will discuss the issue of old-age care, or the issue of parents' old-age care, so if we do this, I will quote a sentence later, which is Virginia Woolf's saying, "Women have no country." In fact, every one of us women has been born in another country, so we welcome everyone to come to the forum to chat and help each other, no matter where your coordinates are, or whether you have had so-called overseas experience or not. .

Juan: Thank you very much Simona for sharing this paragraph just now, because I must be an early hometown friend myself, and I often see some in the forum. For example, everyone is talking about their own problems, and then some girls will give her advice and comfort. Seeing a really good support network of women, a little community happening. Next, I would also like to ask Yingzhi and Qiaoting who are walking around the world, because the media is a different aspect, and the ecology of the community is also different, but I know that there are actually very powerful women behind you. author community, including actually you have also tried to hold some offline activities or meet users in other ways, so I would also like to ask you two to share about your time in the operating world, Something interesting happened. Including how you invited these female authors when you founded this platform in the early days.

Yingzhi: Actually, I also want to respond to what SIMONA just said. No matter which country or region we are in, we find that women’s stories and experiences have something in common. This also leads to the concept of feeling like you are living in a foreign country even if you are living in a familiar place. Most of our authors are in Taiwan, but they share the same belief that women, no matter where they come from in the world, have common experiences and stories. That's why we named it "World Walk" because we hope to establish connections in different places around the world. Although we are scattered in different places, Taiwan is our base and we hope to establish connections with people outside. Back to why we established "World Walk", we are first of all a media company, originally part of a Taiwanese media group, Feng Media. We want to try different business models, especially as niche markets emerge. With the rise of niche markets, our company wants to try out more unique groups. We discussed many factors, and Qiao Ting and I took over the task and established "World Walk". We hope to provide reports on gender issues that transcend geographical restrictions and resonate with women around the world who can read Chinese. Female-centered media is not common in the Chinese-speaking world, and we think this is a good direction for development. The slogan of World Walk is "International News for You".

Qiao Ting: Before we founded World Travel, Yingzhi and I were both editors of international news, and we were also young women. When producing traditional international news, we rarely see content about ourselves. Usually when people think of international news, they think of large categories such as politics, economics, and military, focusing mainly on the actions of countries or large companies. These contents occupy a dominant position in Chinese media, but it is difficult for us to find topics related to ourselves. International news often fails to touch personal emotions, but gender issues are an exception. Gender issues are an issue that crosses national boundaries, languages, and cultures. For example, women's education rights in Afghanistan, violence against women in South Korea, and the MeToo movement in Hollywood. Although these issues occur in different places, they resonate with all female readers. Therefore, we founded World Walk, which publishes a weekly current affairs report every day, using topics of interest to young women as the screening criteria. We hope to find resonant content in the vast sea of ​​news, not only focusing on mainstream international news, but also covering issues such as gender, body, reproduction and intimacy. Our gender identity makes headlines around the world, and while those topics may not be as widely reported as international news in the general media, they are more important to us. We extracted the perspectives relevant to young women and interpreted these news contents. We also want to share the idea that when we read international news or articles about global culture, we see cultures in different regions and different social forms. We have thought that some elements of these cultural and social formations might provide reference for women in other places, especially when we ourselves encounter difficulties. We hope that by understanding how other women live in different places, we can transcend cultural constraints and find solutions to problems.

Juan: As a reader, I feel that different columns cover different topics. Whether it is the stories of women in war, women’s perspectives, or what happened in Taiwan some time ago, you will have articles out soon. This sense of responsibility makes me I think it brings comfort to many people. This is really in line with the news we want to see, rather than what the mainstream media generally presents. I also noticed that World Walk hopes to present the life experiences of women from all over the world, enrich them, and encourage others. This is a very important thing to me. Such presentation is very important to inspire people to pursue the tone of their own lives. Her hometown and zouzai have also shared the journey of this journey before. Although zouzai is currently undergoing temporary repairs, we still hope to hear the future plans of her hometown and zouzai team, and whether there are any plans that have been planned before but have not yet been realized. plate.

Simona: One of the main challenges in the future is maintaining sustainability. Most of the main creative members have full-time jobs, so everyone will feel a little tired after three years of working in other places in their spare time. We plan to explore how to create a sustainable revenue stream so that we can get paid, both in terms of time invested and people brought in to participate. Such a model can support long-term community existence. Another challenge is that we have so many ideas and so few people. There are many potential projects, but the current model may not support multiple projects simultaneously. The users in other places are really very good, and everyone has developed very well in their respective industries, and they are very willing to help each other, so there are a lot of things that can be done. One of the interesting ideas is that the four girls we created turned 30 at the same time last year. At first, we didn’t talk about each other’s ages. Later, we expanded the topic and thought about opening a nursing home in other places, so that we could invite Many fellow villagers come to take care of themselves. Because I think many girls now live longer, whether they decide to get married or not, and women may live alone in the end. So we thought we could start building a nursing home when our friends are about the same age. I am now in Guizhou, and I am actually trying this. We found a B&B in Guizhou with about ten rooms, and invited women to live together during this month. Coming here is not a trip, and everyone will spend more money. Spend more time together, organize activities or share your own stories. This experiment is coming to an end. If you ask me how I feel, I will feel that there are more than 20 women around me every day when I wake up. There are many public areas in the B&B. No matter where you go, you can meet many people. Everyone works there. Or chat, or you can watch a movie or play sports together. No matter what you do, there is someone with you. This experience is quite special. I also need time to settle my feelings this month, and I may share them with you in articles or podcasts later.

Qiaoting: Zuozou is also facing the problem of insufficient manpower. Although we have the support of our former boss, we also hope to do more. We had hoped to create a podcast to transcend the limitations of geographical space and visit women from all over the world. Share their stories. However, this plan has not been realized due to lack of manpower.

Yingzhi: Qiaoting really wants to work on the issue of diverse families, and I myself want to work on the issue of single women. They can be married but have no children, or they can be divorced or single. I want to know who this group of people is. What will life be like in the next year? It is rare to see a middle-aged woman living a happy life in our media. She may be outside the traditional family we imagine, but she can still live a happy and enjoyable life. I think this image is very important. It’s rare to see this in the media, and I’d love to discover this group. We nicknamed them Cool Aunts, and they were supposed to be women who would live in a nursing home in their hometown.

Juan: There was an article in People magazine this year about auntie, which is similar to auntie, mother’s sister. Aunts are a special group. When you were a child, when you saw them, you would think they were cool, full of personality and have their own ideas. Aunts are a representative of women who pursue themselves. In this context, everyone thinks the same. Simona talked about diverse families in her own podcast "Oh! Mom" ​​this year. The source of this is "Life in a Group". She liked the book after reading it, so she started to explore such combinations in her hometown community. I think these are breaking everyone's traditional ideas about family and middle-aged women's life status.

Simona: When I read this book, I was very touched. I felt that I would have that kind of idea. I don’t necessarily have to pursue a single partner. Whether I am gay, straight or otherwise, I still need a sexual partner. You can do it. Break through this limitation and start a family. This book made me realize that two people who are not sexually related can also live together. The authors are two Korean women. When they were 40 years old, they decided to buy a house together and then move in together. In this book In the book, they explain why they decided to move in together, and they are actually two people with very different living habits. One is a bit of a hoarder, and the other is a minimalist, so when they first moved together, many problems occurred. and conflicts, including how housework is shared. Later, I made a series about diverse families, and I just felt that I wanted to explore it. Because it was always a book, it seemed a bit far away, and it was a Korean woman, and then I wanted to know if it was possible for Chinese women to be like this. I started my own practice, so I interviewed two Chinese women living in Canada, and a family of eight people and three cats living together in New York. Because the title of this issue is "The Life of Eight People and Three Cats in New York", I saw in some comments that some people thought how could there be so many people living together, but then I also saw a friend saying that after listening to the show, it seemed like eight people Humans and cats are also an acceptable model. It is not as scary as they think. Maybe for I (introvert) people, it is a bit scary to live with so many people every day. I also interviewed two women living in Shandong, China. I went to their homes and lived and ate with them for four or five days, just to conduct this interview and observe their living conditions. I interviewed the authors of "Life in a Group" through friends from their hometown. They are now close to 50 years old. It was ten years ago that they bought a house and lived together. Although we are geographically and time apart, we can still feel the same. There was a strong connection and a lot of empathy. When we discuss these topics about gender and the situation of women, the language barrier, age gap, and nationality are not important. I immediately understand what they want to express and feel that I can empathize with them. What’s very funny during the interview is that when they chatted with some of their better-educated female friends, they would ask each other, “Who do you envy the most?” Then many women would reply, “I don’t envy them.” The boss of a company, or someone from a famous family, what they envy is their husband, their significant other. Because they will feel that even though they and their husbands are studying in the same university, working in the same company, and receiving similar salaries, as long as they get married, men don't seem to have to do housework. Korean men think that housework is women's business, so women have to work one job at work and another job after get off work. But for men, they only have to work part-time, and it is very relaxing after get off work. When I heard them say this, I felt very sympathetic. During the interview at that time, they said that China, Japan and South Korea were not doing particularly well on gender issues, but they heard that Chinese men can cook. I said at the time that this was a misjudgment. There may be some men who can cook, but from my personal life experience and what everyone shared on the Internet, this ratio is extremely low, so everyone's situation is really very similar. A friend has just shared in the comment area that she lives with three single female friends in an old community and often eats and drinks together. I think this state may be a state that more and more women want to pursue. I even saw a girl telling her story in Xiaohongshu before. She was divorced and had a child, and she wanted to find a woman who was also divorced and had a child to live with. I thought this was very good. Because another divorced mother with children will definitely be much more useful than a husband, so I feel that making this series also hopes to see such a living situation, and I think the point that touches me the most is that when we break this When looking at the traditional definition of relationship between people, there are actually many, many infinite possibilities between people, because traditionally speaking, the relationship between me and another person may be a teacher-student relationship, a father-daughter relationship, or a friend. Or lovers, but many times these are actually fixed frameworks. We don’t necessarily have to fit our relationship with another person into that framework. We can have various relationships, like my interview in Weihai, Shandong These two girls, the title of that issue was "Our relationship is simple, until you want to define it." This may be the pinnacle of title creation in my life. Because for the two of them, the relationship between us is very simple. It is difficult to have a very appropriate word to define their relationship, but they live happily together like this. , so my biggest feeling may be that when we throw away these definitions and do not necessarily pursue the relationship between you and me, there are actually unlimited possibilities. Then I also think that in the future, more and more women will want to pursue relationships other than traditional relationships. We can create the type of relationship we want between people.

Audio version: