ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the situation of Taiwanese women artists returning to their “homeland” after a period of study overseas, and the influence this had on the work they produced and in turn how they stimulated ideas in Taiwan. Education abroad became a rite of passage for Taiwanese artists during the 1980s and 1990s, yet between the recognition of legitimacy they receive at the site of return—or “re-entry”—and their interconnectedness with the space and time of the site itself is a tension that is sometimes overlooked. The idea of binding, restricted movement, powerlessness, and silence Hou conjures in the work could also have complex associations to the Taiwanese political context of the period. Cho Yeou-jui, a woman artist who left Taiwan to study abroad in the 1970s, went to New York and never returned to settle in Taiwan, as the freedom she had in New York kept her there, along with her then-husband, who was also an artist.
