Chuang, "A comparative study of the realm of meaning of four child prostitutes in Taiwan: A hermeneutic approach," 1998

Wei-chen Chuang, Ph.D

Abstract (Summary)

This is a hermeneutic, qualitative research on four Taiwanese young women who were trafficked into child prostitution. Two of the informants are Chinese Taiwanese. The other two have cultural heritages of the native tribe people in Taiwan--the Taiwanese aborigines. One of the two informants was adopted by a family composed of two disadvantage groups in Taiwan--the aborigines (in this case, Ataya) and the veterans who emigrated from China after 1949, and the other is a pure Atayan woman. (Ataya is one of the native tribes of Taiwan.)

The focus of the study was the self-interpretation of each informant of her life as such. The findings show that within different, individual life-story contexts, the meanings of the common themes of their narrative--the selling incident, the love affair and marriage, their relationships with the social workers and counselors and the expectations of education of the four informants differ.

The social implication of dwelling in the different social worlds of the four informants was discussed. The narrative process as a process of "meaning coming into being" in a hermeneutic sense was reconfirmed in the conclusion. How did the four women and that of the investigator as "Being-in-the-world" move forward in the narrative process under the influence of each other was also specified in the conclusion.

Advisor: Lee, William