This Netflix Show Sparked Taiwan’s #MeToo Movement

In late May, only a little over a month after the premiere of a fictional Netflix drama about sexual harassment in Taiwanese politics called Wave Makers, the show started making waves in the real world. The show sparked the island’s first #MeToo-style movement as more and more people come forward with accusations against political and other public figures.

The series, which follows a team of campaign staffers in the run-up to a presidential election in Taiwan, has garnered widespread attention for an iconic scene in which a young female aide decides to confide in her mentor — a party spokeswoman — about having been groped by a male colleague, and the latter promises to seek redress.

“Let’s just not let this go, OK,” the mentor says in what has been credited as a rallying central point to the #MeToo movement sweeping Taiwan. “We can’t just let things go this easily. Otherwise we’ll wither away and die.”

Nearly six years since #MeToo took the world by storm, over 140 allegations have reportedly been made in Taiwan in the last few weeks, against not only politicians, but also doctors, professors, and celebrities.

One of the most viral cases so far started as a Facebook post, where a former staffer in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which casts itself as the party of equality, alleged that her supervisor had dismissed her workplace sexual harassment complaints and discouraged her from making a formal report about the incident. Her account sparked an outpouring of online support and an apology from the party’s chairman, and presidential candidate, William Lai. The former supervisor had reportedly risen to become a senior party official and was suspended after Lai’s apology and later resigned, according to CNN World.

The wave of allegations also sparked apologies from incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female leader and former DPP chairman, who also vowed reform.

"As the president and former chairman of the DPP, I would like to express my apology to society once again," President Tsai Ing-wen wrote in a Facebook post on June 6. "The recent events are not about politics or elections, but remind us that apart from apologizing, we must work together to shape a safer and friendlier society."

Taiwan’s #MeToo movement is taking place as the island gears up for a presidential election in January. Local and international media have pointed out the potential ramifications of accusations involving political figures during a time of geopolitical tensions between Taipei and Beijing — tensions experts say are running at their highest in decades.

But for many Taiwanese activists, the #MeToo wave sparked by Wave Makers is a long time coming. Christina Chen, the managing director of the Awakening Foundation, told the FBomb that she feels “positive” witnessing how “strongly inspired” the younger Taiwanese generations are by the storyline in Wave Makers. “The Taiwan #MeToo movement is a little bit later — while never too late, from my perspective,” she said. This movement, she added, “is a process of self-empowering … a process of restoring justice, a process of communication and mutual learning, and, most importantly, the process of better legal or social mechanisms for harm prevention.”

Chen noted that Taiwan has “legal mechanisms” to both prevent and respond to sexual assault. She referred to these mechanisms as the “three-pillar gender equality laws,” which include the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act, the Gender Equality Educational Law, and the Act for Gender Equality in Employment. These regulations encourage whistleblowers and protect victims while also offering mental health consultations.

But in reality, Chen pointed out, “a lot of times, victims did not receive sufficient support to speak out for themselves or to access the mechanisms in the first place, or know that they do have their rights by law.”

She also noted the lack of gender sensitivity when brave victims do decide to file a report or seek protection, adding that her organization, the Awakening Foundation, is working with other groups and lawmakers to improve the existing laws. The foundation also promotes consent in Taiwanese society as, like many other countries, the island still suffers from a widespread victim-blaming culture.

Still, Chen believes that the current #MeToo wave in Taiwan could spark lasting change in the country. “The function of #MeToo can never be downgraded while it allows the victims to speak out, each, their true stories,” she said. “The silver lining is, we get to show the world that sexual harassment can take place, or is taking place, in each of the corners in almost every moment. And now we are in the process of self-empowering, promoting representation, restoring justice, and mutual learning.”