Taiwan is presently home to 390,000 immigrant spouses. The Cathay Charity Foundation and Taiwan Public Television Service have cooperated in producing a television drama series that focuses on this community. This initiative comes after the previous production of a series of music videos aimed at shedding light on the plight of immigrant spouses in Taiwan. Over the past half year, public television and the foundation have worked with a number of immigrant spouses from Vietnam in filming a television series entitled, "Stop Calling Me a Foreign Bride."

The first segment in the series is slated to be aired on public television at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday evening. The producers of the show hope to provide some insight to the people of Taiwan on the optimistic attitude of these individuals. The series is enhanced by the natural acting abilities of the people in the show.

Chien Fu, the chairman of the Cathay Charity Foundation, said that starting in 2005, public television began producing series that touched on the topic of immigrants to Taiwan. He said that his foundation in 2005 also held a series of activities to express concern for immigrants to the island. These activities included courses in which parents and their children would study together, courses in which parents and their children would learn basic knowledge, tutoring after school and services in which volunteers would pay visits to the households of such individuals. The classes were mainly designed for the immigrants as well as the children they gave birth to here. The courses would in some cases also involve the husbands of the bridges as well as the mother-in-law and father-in-law of the spouse. Foundation members would also make visits to underprivileged households to provide what assistance they could.

The chairman of Taiwan Public Television Service, Chen Chun-shan, said that many immigrant spouses speak Vietnamese and Chinese fluently. Chen said many of them were delighted to take part in the series, which was directed by Liang Hsiu-shen. Chen said that the series portrays the immigrant spouses in a totally different light than in the past. For a long time, many looked down on these people. However, the television series will enable people to have a new understanding of them, showing how happy they are and fortunate to be immigrants to Taiwan, Chen said.

Chen Huang-feng, who presently works as a lecturer at National Chengchi Universitys College of Foreign Languages and Literature, said that she both serves as a counselor to foreign spouses and also teaches Vietnamese. Chen said she also hopes to spread Vietnamese culture. She said she has observed that whether an immigrant is happy in her marriage depends on the level of tolerance and love in the family. She said that many Vietnamese women who have married Taiwanese men come from closed families and their families have not supported them in their decision. She said that it is important to help these immigrants to Taiwan to blend into Taiwanese society. Chen said that their deserve support, tolerance and love. She added that neighbors should also stop in and visit with them. Gradually, these immigrants will naturally enjoy the support of society at large, she said.

A number of immigrants said that the derogatory names "foreign bride" or "mainland Chinese sister" are rude ways to address female immigrants. They said that if everyone would refer to these women who have come from faraway places as "new immigrants" or "sister" and welcome them into their families, they would feel much better.

One Vietnamese woman with a surname of Nguyen said that they previously got quite angry one time when she was in a taxi with her husband and her child. The taxi driver asked her husband, "Where is she from? Do you have to send money back?" The Vietnamese woman said that the remarks of the driver were not only impolite, but also showed his prejudice. Fortunately, she said, her husband loves her. Otherwise there would have been quite a confrontation.