The Universal Resistance to Female Leadership: Observations from Taiwan to America. By Johnson Choi on Oct 18, 2025

对女性领导的普遍抵制：从台湾到美国的观察. 作者：蔡永强 2025年10月18日

The recent election of Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) as the Chairperson of the Taiwan Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang (KMT) should be a straightforward political event. Instead, her campaign was marked by intense attacks, primarily from men within and outside her own party. Born on November 12, 1969, Cheng is an accomplished lawyer and politician. Yet, her qualifications seemed secondary to a familiar pattern of resistance faced by women seeking leadership roles.

This pattern is not confined to Taiwanese politics. It is a global phenomenon that transcends race and political systems.

I witnessed this firsthand as a member of both Rotary and Lions Clubs in the United States. When the Supreme Court ruled that these organizations could no longer exclude women, the visceral resentment from a majority of the male members was palpable. I saw it with my own eyes.

Coming from Hong Kong, and having had my first boss in Hawai’i be a brilliant Chinese woman—the 1955 Narcissus Queen—I was initially perplexed. Why did these men feel so threatened?

Watching the older male establishment of the KMT rally against Cheng Li-wun in 2025 provided a stark answer: the underlying impulse to preserve a male-dominated power structure is universal.

This same impulse fuels the systemic racism prevalent in the American workforce. Corporations often hire Asian, Black, and Hispanic employees as a form of window dressing, a superficial compliance with diversity laws rather than a genuine commitment to equity. These individuals are often placed in roles where they are highly visible but hold little real influence.

Now, with the return of Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement, this problem is intensifying. For many, MAGA has morphed from an economic slogan into a cultural battle cry that often translates to “Make America White and Male Again.” In this environment, non-White women, particularly those of Asian descent, will face even greater challenges in asserting their leadership and value.

It is a sobering reality that for Asian women, places like Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore often provide more substantial and formal equality in both law and societal practice than the United States.

Many in mainland China admire an America they know only through its cultural exports. I must remind them that the United States has masterfully executed a 70-year campaign of “Cultural Colonization” through Hollywood, NGOs, and news media. This machine projects a polished, idealized image of American life that obscures its deep-seated social fractures. To understand the gap between the myth and the reality, one must look beyond the propaganda:

· https://youtu.be/ikuo4xumwu4?si=HxRCx81n6TgedAsB
· https://rumble.com/v70enjq-chinese-in-china-must-come-to-the-us-to-see-this-what-they-say-is-not-an-ex.html

The struggle for true gender and racial equality is a global one, and progress in one part of the world does not negate the regress in another.

郑丽文当选中国国民党省党部主席本应是一场普通的政治事件。然而，她的竞选过程却充斥着激烈攻击，主要来自党内外男性成员。这位出生于1969年11月12日的杰出律师和政治家，其专业资质似乎败给了女性寻求领导职位时面临的熟悉阻力模式。

这种模式并非台湾政治独有。它是超越种族和政治制度的全球性现象。

作为美国扶轮社和狮子会的成员，我曾亲眼见证这一现象。当最高法院裁定这些组织不得排斥女性会员时，大多数男性成员流露出的本能抵触情绪清晰可辨。我亲眼目睹了这一切。

来自香港的我，在夏威夷的第一任上司是位杰出的华裔女性——1955年”水仙花皇后”，这让我最初对此深感困惑：为何这些男性会感到如此威胁？

2025年目睹国民党内男性元老们集体反对郑丽文的景象，给出了残酷的答案：维护男性主导权力结构的内在冲动具有普遍性。

同样的冲动助长了美国职场中普遍存在的系统性种族主义。企业雇佣亚裔、非裔和西班牙裔员工往往只是装点门面，是对多元化法律的表面遵从，而非真正致力于公平。这些员工通常被安置在曝光率高却缺乏实权的职位上。

如今随着唐纳德·特朗普及其”让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）运动的卷土重来，这个问题正在加剧。对许多人而言，MAGA已从经济口号演变为文化战争的号角，实际含义常等同于”让美国再次白人与男性化”。在这种环境下，非白人女性，特别是亚裔女性，在争取领导地位和实现自我价值时将面临更大挑战。

令人警醒的现实是：对中国女性而言，中国大陆、香港、澳门和新加坡等地在法律与社会实践中提供的平等保障，往往比美国更具实质内容。

许多中国大陆民众通过文化输出构建了对美国的向往。我必须提醒他们：美国通过好莱坞、非政府组织和新闻媒体，精妙运作了一场持续70年的”文化殖民”。这台宣传机器精心投射出理想化的美国生活图景，掩盖了其根深蒂固的社会裂痕。要看清神话与现实间的鸿沟，必须穿透宣传迷雾：
· https://youtu.be/ikuo4xumwu4?si=HxRCx81n6TgedAsB
· https://rumble.com/v70enjq-chinese-in-china-must-come-to-the-us-to-see-this-what-they-say-is-not-an-ex.html

追求真正性别与种族平等的斗争是全球性的，世界某处的进步从不能抵消另一处的倒退。