中山高速公路泰安休息站,廁所旁邊有一間哺乳室。門上貼著標示,裡面有沙發、洗手台、尿布台。我路過時從來沒想過這是什麼了不起的事——直到聽說泰國議員Sasinan來台灣,在捷運站、百貨公司、高速公路休息站裡反覆看到同一個標誌,驚訝到決定回國推動修法。
Sasinan帶回去的不是什麼國際合作備忘錄,是台灣《公共場所母乳哺育條例》的法條文本。這條2010年通過的法律規定:婦女在任何公共場所哺乳,受法律保護。任何人禁止或驅趕哺乳婦女,可處六千到三萬元罰鍰。法律還要求特定場所設置哺乳室——不是建議,是強制。
一個議員看見什麼
泰國國會女性議員比例是20%。台灣是40%。
這個數字差距不只是統計學意義。當一個國家的立法機構裡,有足夠多曾經或正在哺乳、懷孕、照顧小孩的人,法律就會長出不一樣的細節。台灣不只有《公共場所母乳哺育條例》,還有《性別工作平等法》保障育嬰假與防止職場性別歧視,有《性別平等教育法》要求學校落實性別教育。2019年台灣成為亞洲第一個同性婚姻合法化的地區。這些不是一夕之間冒出來的——是一條一條法律、一次一次修法、一個一個具體的罰則累積起來的。
Sasinan在台灣看到的不是政策白皮書,是她走進捷運站就能用的哺乳室。她不需要讀報告就能理解這套法律在現實中如何運作:公共空間把母職需求當成基礎建設的一部分,而不是特殊照顧。
軟實力不在文宣裡
台灣的軟實力輸出,常常被放在珍珠奶茶、台北101、或是半導體產業的脈絡裡討論。但Sasinan帶走的不是這些。她帶走的是一個低成本、可複製、直接改善生活品質的法律範本。
這種軟實力沒有外交部的新聞稿,沒有文化交流計畫,沒有預算編列。就是一個外國議員來台灣,在日常移動中反覆撞見同一個公共設施,然後回家說:我們也可以這樣做。
對比起來,泰國目前沒有全國性的哺乳室設置標準,也沒有法律明文保障婦女在公共場所哺乳的權利。Sasinan推動的修法,直接參考台灣的條文結構——這不是抄襲,是看見一個可行的解決方案之後的理性選擇。
一間哺乳室能做什麼
Freedom House把台灣列為「自由」等級,性別平等指數在亞洲名列前茅。但這些評比不會告訴你,改變是怎麼發生的。
改變有時候不是從國際論壇開始,是從一個泰國議員走進台北捷運站的那一刻開始。她看見哺乳室的標示,推開門,看見裡面的設備,然後意識到:這可以複製。法律可以要求這件事。公共空間可以為母親騰出位置。
一間哺乳室佔地不到五坪。但Sasinan帶著它回泰國,試圖改寫那個國家的法律。我在泰安休息站路過那間哺乳室時,從來沒想過它的存在本身就是一種論述——關於性別、關於公共資源分配、關於一個社會如何對待母職。
軟實力有時候就是這樣:不在文宣裡,在廁所旁邊那間你從來不覺得特別的小房間裡。
— 詹爍茹
延伸閱讀
How a Highway Rest Stop Changed Thai Law
There’s a nursing room at Tai’an Rest Stop on National Highway 1. Door marked with a sign, inside there’s a sofa, sink, changing table. I used to walk past without a second thought—until I heard about Sasinan, a Thai MP who visited Taiwan and kept seeing the same symbol in MRT stations, shopping malls, highway rest stops. She was so surprised she decided to push for legislative reform back home.
What Sasinan brought back wasn’t some international cooperation MOU. It was the legal text of Taiwan’s Public Breastfeeding Act. This law, passed in 2010, states clearly: women have the legal right to breastfeed in any public space. Anyone who prohibits or expels a breastfeeding mother faces fines between NT$6,000 and NT$30,000. The law also mandates—not suggests—that certain venues install nursing rooms.
What One Legislator Saw
Female legislators make up 20% of Thailand’s parliament. In Taiwan, it’s 40%.
This numerical gap isn’t just statistics. When enough people in a legislature have breastfed, been pregnant, or cared for children, laws grow different details. Taiwan has not only the Public Breastfeeding Act but also the Gender Equality in Employment Act protecting parental leave and preventing workplace discrimination, plus the Gender Equity Education Act requiring schools to implement gender education. In 2019, Taiwan became the first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. These didn’t appear overnight—they’re built from law after law, amendment after amendment, penalty clause after penalty clause.
What Sasinan saw in Taiwan wasn’t a policy white paper. It was a nursing room she could actually use when she walked into an MRT station. She didn’t need to read reports to understand how this legal framework functions in reality: public space treats maternal needs as infrastructure, not special accommodation.
Soft Power Isn’t in the Brochures
Taiwan’s soft power export is often discussed in the context of bubble tea, Taipei 101, or semiconductors. But that’s not what Sasinan took home. She took a low-cost, replicable legal template that directly improves quality of life.
This kind of soft power has no Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, no cultural exchange program, no budget allocation. Just a foreign legislator visiting Taiwan, repeatedly encountering the same public facility during daily movement, then going home and saying: we can do this too.
By contrast, Thailand currently has no nationwide nursing room standards and no law explicitly protecting women’s right to breastfeed in public. The reform Sasinan is pushing directly references Taiwan’s legal structure—not plagiarism, but rational choice after seeing a working solution.
What One Nursing Room Can Do
Freedom House rates Taiwan as “Free,” with gender equality indices among Asia’s highest. But these ratings won’t tell you how change actually happens.
Change sometimes doesn’t start at international forums. It starts the moment a Thai MP walks into a Taipei MRT station. She sees the nursing room sign, opens the door, sees the facilities inside, and realizes: this is replicable. Law can require this. Public space can make room for mothers.
One nursing room occupies less than 50 square feet. But Sasinan carried it back to Thailand, attempting to rewrite her country’s laws. When I passed that nursing room at Tai’an Rest Stop, I never imagined its mere existence was itself an argument—about gender, about public resource allocation, about how a society treats motherhood.
— 詹爍茹