PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 6 –Grounding belonging in leisure spaceand cohesion as well as safeguard the lawful rights and interests of its members. Ultimately,we take it upon ourselves to contribute to the prosperity of Taiwanese enterprises andTaiwanese people‘s well-being, as well as Shanghai‘s economic development. 48In some cases, the Taiwanese business associations or business people‘s gatherings aregender-specific. For instance, there are some associations targeting only at femaleexpatriates or set up for female professionals, business women and businessmen‘s wivesto socialise and interact, such as a variety of tai tai clubs. In addition to providing aplatform for its members to interact, such female-oriented gatherings are also moreoutward-looking and invest more time and labour in community participation, usually inthe form of community works, such as ―elder and child care, money-raising activities orvoluntary work, etc‖, according to Ivy, a housewife who has been living in a local gatedcommunity (Shanghai) for three years. Through taking part in this kind of activity, someof my female respondents told me that they have an opportunity to not only developfriendships, but to feel more fulfilled. Ivy further stated:As a cadre member, there are always piles of work and tasks to do. For this reason‘, I haveto spend a lot time with other members and in the office. Of course, it makes my life verybusy here, but I still enjoy it. [Because] [a]t least, I have made many good friends here. ... Ididn‘t realise how busy other [businessmen‘s] tai tais are; they are not just staying at homecounting money and doing nothing as we thought [laugh]/In addition to benefits such as ‗meeting people, seeking resources and building quanxi‘that Clarke, in his late 30s who has been living in Shanghai with his family for one year,48 This statement is extracted from the website of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai,http://www.hongxi.com/WebSite/company5/Default.asp?ID=236157, [in Chinese, my translation], lastaccessed on 13 Feb 2010230