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My Fight for a New Taiwan: One Woman's Journey from Prison to Power
Lu Hsiu-lien's journey is the story of Taiwan. Through her successive drives for gender equality, human rights, political reform, Taiwan independence, and, currently, environmental protection, Lu has played a key role in Taiwan's evolution from dictatorship to democracy. The election in 2000 of Democratic Progressive Party leader Chen Shui-bian to the presidency, with Lu as his vice president, ended more than fifty years of rule by the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party).
Taiwan's painful struggle for democratization is dramatized here in the life of Lu, a feminist leader and pro-democracy advocate who was imprisoned for more than five years in the 1980s. Unlike such famous Asian women politicians as Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, India's Indira Gandhi, and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, Lu Hsiu-lien grew up in a family without political connections. Her impoverished parents twice attempted to give her away for adoption, and as an adult she survived cancer and imprisonment, later achieving success as an elected politician―the first self-made woman to serve with such prominence in Asia.
My Fight for a New Taiwan's rich narrative gives readers an insider's perspective on Taiwan's unique blend of Chinese and indigenous culture and recent social transformation.
Taiwan's painful struggle for democratization is dramatized here in the life of Lu, a feminist leader and pro-democracy advocate who was imprisoned for more than five years in the 1980s. Unlike such famous Asian women politicians as Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, India's Indira Gandhi, and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, Lu Hsiu-lien grew up in a family without political connections. Her impoverished parents twice attempted to give her away for adoption, and as an adult she survived cancer and imprisonment, later achieving success as an elected politician―the first self-made woman to serve with such prominence in Asia.
My Fight for a New Taiwan's rich narrative gives readers an insider's perspective on Taiwan's unique blend of Chinese and indigenous culture and recent social transformation.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2014
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August 24, 2020
This autobiography by Lu Hsiu-Lien (Annette Lu) with Ashely Esarey tells of her life from a childhood, born June 6/7, 1944, to the culmination of her successful run to become Vice President of Taiwan in 2000, on the first non-National Party (Kuomingtang, KMT) ticket since the end of Japanese administration in 1945.
Her story is an amazing. She faced challenges growing up as Taiwanese in the KMT rule, thus being treated as a second class citizen compared to the mainlanders that came after the departure of the Japanese, and later when numbers of Chinese retreated to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek. She also had to overcome the Confucian society’s traditional role of women who stayed at home. However, her father’s encouragement to learn, and with support of an older brother, she succeeded in school, attended National Taiwan University’s Law School, achieved admission to the University of Illinois’s master’s program and won a scholarship to support her studies. Upon return she worked at a government agency. Influenced by her time in the US, she began writing about women’s issues. A diagnosis of thyroid cancer and its successful operation gave her a renewed focus to accomplish goals.
Later, she wanted to do research on woman’s issues overseas and had gotten internship support, but was not able to get a visa. Her boss suggested that without membership in the Nationalist’s party getting a visa would be difficult. Over the objection of her brother, she applied to the party, and within days a visa arrived. She ultimately got another masters at Harvard, and then decided in 1978 to return to Taiwan, convinced of an opportunity to contribute to Taiwan’s future by running for election in the “election holiday” where free speech was more tolerated. In discussion with her advisor Jerome Cohen, he basically said “Why not? You are nobody here but you could be somebody at home. Why not go home and work for your people?” (p76). That pushed her onto a challenging path.
Upon returning to Taiwan she encountered challenges when negotiating a possible candidacy with the loose opposition (dangwai) to the KMT, many of whom saw here as a possible spy (since she had been a KMT member). She continued to be involved, experienced significant events, from participating in the “Kaohsiung Incident” of December 10, 1979, apprehension and interrogation by the police, convicted of sedition (her brother defended her at a trial), and her jail ordeal (1,933 days). After emerging from jail, she reacclimated to life, was elected chief executive in Taoyuan and fought corruption, and ultimately successfully ran for election in 2000 with presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian, one of the defense lawyers at the Kaohsiung incident trial.
In addition to repeatedly demonstrating her resilience as an individual, her commitment and ability to mobilize Taiwanese on issues she was committed to, and her strategic thinking in local and global politics, her story provides an interesting insight into life in Taiwan from the period of birth up until the 2000 election. Her perspective is that of a Taiwanese (i.e., someone who had lived in Taiwan from multiple generations prior to 1945.)
It was also very inspiring to see how, at least at that time in in the geopolitical situation at the (US moving to recognize the People’s Republic of China as “the” China) that Amnesty International’s efforts, and those of Jerome Cohen and many others, helped Lu obtain release from prison, earlier than some of her colleagues.
She also seems to have been a prolific writer, even when in prison she used writing as a way to escape and to organize her thoughts. Before returning to Taiwan in 1978, she wrote a book Taiwan: Past and Future, “the first book ever to examine Taiwan’s history from a Taiwanese perspective, representing a pathbreaking departure from the China-centric texts printed under martial law” (p76). She also authored several books on feminism (page 54, i.e., New Feminism) and published books about women’s experience in Taiwan.
Interestingly, she is still active and even launched an unsuccessful Presidential campaign in 2019. See
Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Race: Who is Annette Lu and Why is She Running for Taiwan’s President? The New Lens. 2019.09.19. Paul Huang.
https://international.thenewslens.com...
FB: This book follows the life of a Taiwanese activist, Lu Hsiu-lien (Annette), her struggles against traditional roles and the Nationalist party and for women’s rights and democracy, overcoming health problems, distrust of others, and more than five years in jail because of her political actions for democracy. The book also offers an interesting look at life between her birth (1944) and the election as Taiwan’s first female, first non-National party vice president.
Her story is an amazing. She faced challenges growing up as Taiwanese in the KMT rule, thus being treated as a second class citizen compared to the mainlanders that came after the departure of the Japanese, and later when numbers of Chinese retreated to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek. She also had to overcome the Confucian society’s traditional role of women who stayed at home. However, her father’s encouragement to learn, and with support of an older brother, she succeeded in school, attended National Taiwan University’s Law School, achieved admission to the University of Illinois’s master’s program and won a scholarship to support her studies. Upon return she worked at a government agency. Influenced by her time in the US, she began writing about women’s issues. A diagnosis of thyroid cancer and its successful operation gave her a renewed focus to accomplish goals.
Later, she wanted to do research on woman’s issues overseas and had gotten internship support, but was not able to get a visa. Her boss suggested that without membership in the Nationalist’s party getting a visa would be difficult. Over the objection of her brother, she applied to the party, and within days a visa arrived. She ultimately got another masters at Harvard, and then decided in 1978 to return to Taiwan, convinced of an opportunity to contribute to Taiwan’s future by running for election in the “election holiday” where free speech was more tolerated. In discussion with her advisor Jerome Cohen, he basically said “Why not? You are nobody here but you could be somebody at home. Why not go home and work for your people?” (p76). That pushed her onto a challenging path.
Upon returning to Taiwan she encountered challenges when negotiating a possible candidacy with the loose opposition (dangwai) to the KMT, many of whom saw here as a possible spy (since she had been a KMT member). She continued to be involved, experienced significant events, from participating in the “Kaohsiung Incident” of December 10, 1979, apprehension and interrogation by the police, convicted of sedition (her brother defended her at a trial), and her jail ordeal (1,933 days). After emerging from jail, she reacclimated to life, was elected chief executive in Taoyuan and fought corruption, and ultimately successfully ran for election in 2000 with presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian, one of the defense lawyers at the Kaohsiung incident trial.
In addition to repeatedly demonstrating her resilience as an individual, her commitment and ability to mobilize Taiwanese on issues she was committed to, and her strategic thinking in local and global politics, her story provides an interesting insight into life in Taiwan from the period of birth up until the 2000 election. Her perspective is that of a Taiwanese (i.e., someone who had lived in Taiwan from multiple generations prior to 1945.)
It was also very inspiring to see how, at least at that time in in the geopolitical situation at the (US moving to recognize the People’s Republic of China as “the” China) that Amnesty International’s efforts, and those of Jerome Cohen and many others, helped Lu obtain release from prison, earlier than some of her colleagues.
She also seems to have been a prolific writer, even when in prison she used writing as a way to escape and to organize her thoughts. Before returning to Taiwan in 1978, she wrote a book Taiwan: Past and Future, “the first book ever to examine Taiwan’s history from a Taiwanese perspective, representing a pathbreaking departure from the China-centric texts printed under martial law” (p76). She also authored several books on feminism (page 54, i.e., New Feminism) and published books about women’s experience in Taiwan.
Interestingly, she is still active and even launched an unsuccessful Presidential campaign in 2019. See
Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Race: Who is Annette Lu and Why is She Running for Taiwan’s President? The New Lens. 2019.09.19. Paul Huang.
https://international.thenewslens.com...
FB: This book follows the life of a Taiwanese activist, Lu Hsiu-lien (Annette), her struggles against traditional roles and the Nationalist party and for women’s rights and democracy, overcoming health problems, distrust of others, and more than five years in jail because of her political actions for democracy. The book also offers an interesting look at life between her birth (1944) and the election as Taiwan’s first female, first non-National party vice president.
March 13, 2024
Overall, it's a pretty interesting book uncovering certain historical particularities many people have zero idea about. That being said, I am not sure what this book wants to be and whether the editors involved had any distinct vision.
November 23, 2025
Lu Hsiu-lien was a leader of Taiwan's democracy and women's movements, and she describes her upbringing and involvement in activism, up until her election as vice-president of Taiwan in 2000, in this engrossing memoir. As an introduction to Taiwanese politics or civil society under dictatorship, this book is excellent and Lu's story speaks for itself. The narrative lavishes its greatest attention on the 1970s and 80s, where Lu excelled academically despite her lack of political connections, attended university in the US, and became a well-known public intellectual advocating for feminism and political liberalization, frequently clashing with the secret police apparatus; Lu was eventually arrested and served years in prison as one of the "Kaohsiung Eight" political prisoners. Easy to read, balanced, and interesting, particularly as Lu describes the struggles of organizing for democracy and women's rights under authoritarianism.
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