RECOVERY THROUGH RECONNECTION: A CULTURAL DESIGN FOR FAMILY BEREAVEMENT IN TAIWAN

Abstract

Using reanalyzed data from ethnographic research performed in Taiwan during the 1990s, the authors inspect Taiwanese cultural patterns as they affect adaptation to loss in the form of death. The data include participant observations and the narratives of 52 widows and 30 of their children. An analysis of interview transcripts suggests that the most common form of return to a harmony house among the participants was achieving a sense of reconnection with the deceased. According to the narratives, the Taiwanese concept of reconnection entails (a) maintaining the status quo, (b) restoring images of the deceased in family affairs, and (c) communicating with the dead. Each theme represents the efforts of bereaved families to retain a sense of wholeness (a central Chinese goal) and to preserve symbolic images of fathers and husbands. The authors suggest that reconnection is a culturally specific and accepted means of resolving grief among Taiwanese.