Across Time and Beyond Skin: Self and Transgression in the Everyday Socialization of Shame among Taiwanese Preschool Children

Authors: FUNG, Heidi; CHEN, Eva Chian-Hui

Source: Social Development, Volume 10, Number 3, August 2001 , pp. 419-437(19)

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Abstract:

This study examines the construction of the culture-specific self through a form of seemingly harmful socializing practices among young Taiwanese children. Spontaneous daily family interactions have been systematically and longitudinally videotaped in seven families and events of shame are found to occur regularly at all datapoints. One third of these events occur in chains, involving multiple episodes about the child's transgressions committed at different times, mostly in the here-and-now, followed by reenactments of the past and expectations for a better self in the future. While in nearly half of the episodes, some authority is explicitly invoked to judge the child's behaviors, family members are always co-present with the child and ready to share his/her transgression and shame. Findings of analyses on spatiotemporal and relational markers in these situated events suggest a dynamic and fluid view of the self and a holistic treatment of multi-leveled contexts.

Keywords: shame; moral socialization; discursive practices; self and culture

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00173

Affiliations: 1: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Publication date: 2001-08-01