Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Nora Chiang (2008) tells another sad tale of family division following male
loss of face in a Taiwanese business family in Toronto:
My ex-husband wanted to immigrate because he wanted a change of environ-
ment. After one year, he could not find work in Canada, and lost his self-
esteem. A few times I found him locking himself up in his room and he often
scolded his children. He did not like my health food store, partly because he
could not 'bend low' and be a sales person like me.
Not surprisingly it is invariably the husband who raises the question of
return either as an astronaut, or more permanently, and 80-90 percent
of trans-Pacific commuters are men. Shortly after one interview was com-
pleted, a woman with a pastoral job she enjoyed felt obligated to leave her
profession and return to Hong Kong in the classic position of the dutiful
'trailing wife'. Her husband's Vancouver venture had failed and he led the
family back to his father's business in Hong Kong.
For a businessman enduring economic inactivity, downward mobility and
loss of face, the temptation to move back to East Asia and put his human
and social capital back to work is hard to resist. I met Amos in his expensive
downtown condominium. An attractive and demure younger woman opened
the door. She served us tea in an elegant Chinese tea set but spoke no
English and was otherwise silent and absent during our two-hour conversa-
tion. Amos had moved to Canada from Hong Kong with his first wife, a
professional, who had found enough to interest her in Vancouver. But he
was under-stimulated after an active business life in Asia.
After living here with my wife for six months, I was invited to join a new busi-
ness partnership opening two factories in China, and employing over 2000
people. I travelled back and forth, coming to Vancouver four times a year for
2-3 weeks. At first you try not to remember her [his wife] but then the inti-
mate feeling is lost. Living apart is very difficult and divorce is obvious. I really
regret it and advise others against being an astronaut family.
The loneliness and temptations of single life in Guangzhou province had
precipitated the collapse of his first marriage and the launching of his
second. In abandoning the astronaut life, Amos felt keenly the emotional
cost of separation it demanded.
The Resilient Woman
There is a tendency to see immigrant women in transnational relationships
primarily as victims of male patriarchy. The model of 'the trailing wife'
presents the woman's role as subordinate and dependent in the decision to
