Female immigrants and migrant workers incessantly become reported objects in news coverage of late. Even so, under the dominant mass media like newspapers and televisions, immigration in Taiwan is often represented as a silent figure running after its shadow, flat but immense. In the meanwhile, taking up the heavy responsibility, Vietnamese monthly Bao Bon Phuong provides various correspondence columns and strives to hold the position to ―speak for the minority.‖ By textual analysis, participant observation, and in-depth interview, this paper probes into the challenges and the reformation of public sphere in alternative media, so as to discover 1.) the idealized motives interlacing within the convergence of advocacy and grassroots discourses; 2.) dilemmas which both immigrants and migrant workers are faced with when being dubious about making self-disclosure or not.
Vietnamese female immigrants take on multiple roles as the author, the reader, and the preacher. They not merely confront their introspective embarrassments, but are also mired by concerns of social expectations beneath hegemony when accessing the media. Accordingly, the paper concludes that 1.) by strategies such as selective translation or re-politicizing everyday life, Bao Bon Phuong makes a detour for diaspora to resist; 2.) through reading by turns, storytelling, or giving authors a phone call, the public sphere attains its modern significance. This allows the texts and the audiences to become more meaningful in their social context.
中文關鍵詞
四方報、另類媒體、新移民女性、閱\聽人研究、離散認同
英文關鍵詞
Bao Bon Phuong, alternative media, female immigration, audience research, diaspora identity