Abstract
Liao, Hui-Ying is a Taiwanese female author with a great number of books. Known for the style of social realism, Liao shows people's struggles, blind spots, and growth in their lives. Liao, Hui-Ying's novels not only show delicate and vivid gender politics, but depict strong anxiety of having a child through the characters, regardless of gender or age, believing that only men are qualified to have a son to carry on the family name. However, strong anxiety of having a child may not only cause family disharmony, self-doubt of the people suffering from infertility, and the preference for sons over daughters. The excessive expectations from the family society also cause a lot of pressure on men, so that men must compete constantly to prove masculinity, and are not allowed to show their weakness and failure, causing men to fall into the miserable masculine dilemma. This thesis focuses on eight novels of Liao, Hui-Ying. Firstly, the differences between characters’ mentalities about anxiety of having a child are sorted, and the cultural traditions of caring for offspring and derived taboo rituals are introduced. The thesis analyzes and empathizes the situation and pressure of male characters in the literatures as well. Under Paternalism, both male and female genders are often constrained differently, and men are more difficult to express their opinions because of impressions from society and incorrect emotional education. Therefore, only when men and women are liberated at the same time, true gender equality can be achieved. At that time, people can be truly free.