ABSTRACT

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, one of the most significant but controversial phenomena in Taiwan was the unprecedented increase in popularity of betel nut consumption among Han Taiwanese men.1 Paralleling this rising habit, however, has also been increasingly vocal objections to betel nut consumption by members of the educated middle class, city dwellers, and women. They see this new trend, at worst, as a revival of the “primitive,” and, at best, as a national embarrassment. For many Taiwanese people, the rise of betel nut consumption since the end of the 1970s is a modern paradox-how could it be that just as society was becoming more civilized, consumption habits that are conceived of as “primitive” have become so exceedingly popular. A Taiwanese middle-class-oriented magazine captures this puzzle well through their cover story titled-“Betel Nut Culture: The Contradiction between Civilization and the Primitive” (Yang 1992).