游擊文化

Eledst Daughter Syndrome
長女病：我們不是天生愛扛責任，台灣跨世代女兒的故事

Author:   Chang Hui-Tzu 張慧慈
ISBN: 9786269917488
Date:4/2025
Pages:320
Length: 86382 characters (approx.  56,100 words in English)

Rights sold: Korean (Gimm-Young), Vietnamese (Asbooks)

• Over 16000 copies sold
• Winner of the 2025 Readmoo Chinese Annual Awards – Nonfiction Category
• Books.com.tw 2025 Annual Top 100 – Humanities & Social Sciences: Top 4
• Readmoo 2025 Annual Bestseller List – Social Sciences: Top 1
• Kobo 2025 Annual Top 100 – Humanities & Social Sciences: Top 8
• Selected for Books From Taiwan 2025 full translation grant
• 2025 Eslite Booksellers’ Choice Award – Most Recommended by Staff

The eldest daughter often bears a wide range of expectations. She is expected to understand how hard her parents work and help maintain the cleanliness of the household. She must also take care of her younger siblings—and ideally, be a role model for them.

Even though she is just one of the children, the eldest daughter is expected to excel, show empathy toward her parents, and help manage family affairs.

The author of this book is an eldest daughter, as is her mother. She discovered that they share a similar fate of constant toil. Whether at home or in the workplace, they are often entrusted with heavy responsibilities, yet are frequently excluded from benefits like inheritance or promotions.

To explore how the role of the “eldest daughter” is shaped and what challenges they face, the author conducted interviews and observations, documenting the life stories of more than a dozen eldest daughters from different generations and social classes.

These stories reveal the roles that “daughters” and “women” play in contemporary Taiwanese families. They expose the seemingly natural expectations that give rise to the “eldest daughter syndrome,” where these women consistently become the ones who overextend themselves—both at home and at work.

CHANG HUI TZU 張慧慈
Chang Hui-Tzu earned her bachelor’s from National Tsing Hua University’s Interdisciplinary Program of Humanities and Social Sciences and graduate degree from National Taiwan University’s College of Social Sciences. Her work experience includes a stint on the Presidential Office’s speechwriting team and work in Taiwan’s traditional industries sector and arts community. Chang’s breadth of experiences facilitates her empathetic yet sharp perspective on society and societal norms. Her published literary works include Taking a Bite from Marx’s Steamed Bun and We Shall Overcome!?