Modernising gender,civilising sex: perverse imaginary in the state feminist politics of Liu Yu‐hsiu

Abstract

The gender sexual politics of Liu Yu‐hsiu has been pivotal in the hegemonic ascendancy of Taiwan state feminism in recent years. Through an examination of Liu’s psychoanalytically mediated essays of cultural criticism, this article traces the contour of Liu’s sexual imaginary within the context of 1990s feminist and queer politics. Liu’s modernising project of gender equality, I argue, upholds heterosexual monogamy as a feminist ideal that seeks to purge all the masculine ills, including perversion and promiscuity. Meanwhile, queers and prostitutes come to be figured as the very negativity that must be repressed. Yet, like the Lacanian Real, they impinge on the symbolic order that Liu ordains as they thwart her desire to civilise sex.     

Unbraced cables

For long span cables, either with or without concentrated load, the usual methods of design are found to be inaccurate because they omit the elastic stretch of the cable and they assume an inaccurate shape of the resulting curve. Equations are derived to cover all possible cases, loaded and unloaded cable, based upon assumptions of elastic flexible cables with fixed supports. Equations are also derived showing the variation in several quantities with changes in temperature and movement of supports. Conditions of possible loads and elastic properties of cables are discussed. A bibliography covering major references to the subject is included.     

Political bias in the news coverage of Taiwan's first presidential election: A comparative analysis of broadcast TV and cable TV news

This research examines how TV reported the campaign and the candidates during Taiwan's first‐ever presidential election in 1996.

A content analysis of evening news coverage of six TV stations indicated that the state‐owned broadcast TV stations were far more likely than the privately owned cable TV stations to give a greater amount of coverage and soundbites to the ruling party presidential and vice presidential candidates, using the ruling party officials as principal news sources. The TV Stations’ coverage also contained more news favourable to the ruling party candidates than to other candidates.

The future may well see a turning point in TV election coverage as well as in general news coverage in Taiwan. The three state‐owned broadcast TV stations face competition from privately owned cable TV stations and may soon be confronted with the loss of public trust and audience, unless they can provide fair and balanced news free from government control.