The 9th Tainan Pink Dot “開桌：粉墨出席” is held and opened to all ethnic groups with multiple issues-國立成功大學永續發展SDGs

The 9th Tainan Pink Dot "開桌：粉墨出席",  a market held under the concept of "Flowing Feast" by the "TO Lesbians and Queers" club under the direction of NCKU Gender Equity Education Committee, was held on May 21, 2023 on NCKU Kuang-Fu campus. The event invited Youtuber Tyla, Taiwan's best transgender stand-up comedian Nini Kang, and Kiwebaby, a transgender female artist from Taiwan, to participate in the event, presenting a variety of gender-related issues and performances, and inviting NCKU students to attend the event to taste each dish and experience the "hundred flavors of gender equality" contained therein. 

The chief leader of this year's Tainan Pink Dot, Yan-Ling Shih of National University of Tainan's Department of Chinese Language and Literature, said that Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize homosexual marriage in 2019, but many people are very unfamiliar with LGBT issues.This year's event is intended to reach out to more groups, invite partners who have worked together in the past, and meet more new friends to "粉墨出席". 2023 Tainan Pink Spot is a local food culture flowing feast with the concept of roadside banquet, transforming a dish of different flavors in the banquet into an issue of concern to different sides and groups in the field of sexuality, so that the activities of Pink Spot will not only be fermented in the LGBT community, but also through activities such as stalls and short talks, so that more people can participate in this " feast" to explore more deeply the issues of interest and learn more about unfamiliar issues, and digest and absorb these "dishes" as nutrients to influence young people's thoughts and perspectives.

"The issue of gender equality is a common life experience shared by all human beings, regardless of gender," said Yi-Jing Wu, Commissioner of the NCKU Gender Equity Education Committee. She mentioned that the Tainan Pink Dot is entering its ninth year and has once been held at the Far Eastern in the past and has held various lectures. Besides the partners from NCKU, she also hopes to involve people outside the campus area. 41 vendors have joined the event today, and in addition to the usual partners of the Rainbow Parade, many local Tainan stores have been invited to the event, and even the old Tainan brand Klintainan has joined the list of sponsors and produced products with the words "開桌、台南粉紅點" by cleverly integrating the local characteristics with the surrounding products. 

Annie Cheng, a third-year business administration student at NCKU from Malaysia, said that gender issues are rarely discussed in Malaysia, but after attending a similar event, she learned that there was a Tainan Pink Dot event and attended the lecture delivered by Dr. Liu: "There's a female surgeon on campus! " and generated many thoughts about gender issues. Many Asian children are asked to behave like the kind of gender he or she is. It is very special to be able to openly discuss the topic of gender in Taiwan, and she hopes that everyone can participate in the Tainan Pink Spot activities with a freer mind and more openness.

It was the second time that Rou-Yi Lin, a sophomore in the Department of Political Science at NCKU, participated in the Tainan Pink Dot event. She said that through this event, she hopes to make "gender equality" more visible to more people, and to reflect on the education and environment they received since childhood. For instance, she studied in a girl's school in junior high and in a co-educational school in senior high, she obviously felt that many topics were forbidden, such as not talking about menstruation and not taking out sanitary pads in public, and as a woman, she had to pay special attention to her words and behavior. The Pink Dot covers topics such as transgender rights, gender binary, masculinity under the patriarchal system, and even gender issues in folk beliefs, as well as gender dilemmas in medical practice. She thought it was interesting to bring the gender issue to the table like a dish.

"It's already 2023, how come there are still people bullying homosexuals? In 2023, we don't want to be ourselves, we want to be our own queens!", said Youtuber Tyla, who was warmly welcomed by the audience as soon as he took the stage. He said that, in fact, like many homosexuals, people have grown up with many ups and downs, and despite the rough road, they still do not doubt themselves, choose to believe and identify themselves, and create their own exit in life. He encouraged students to face the salty words and ignore them with a smile, and not to live in the mouth of others.

The 9th Pink Dot event "開桌：粉墨出席" not only moved the flowing feast into the Kuang-Fu campus, but also attracted the attention of the participants to the large red table echoing the theme of "開桌" as soon as they entered the venue, and the exhibition was also the "big dish" among the feast dishes. The organized team used the vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes of physiological women to design the exhibition area, telling short stories of physiological experience and introducing related physiological products such as moon cups, tampons and other products. Also, they invited stand-up comedian Nini Kang, independent music creator Misi Ke, NCKU Music Club, Youtuber Tyla and transgender female artist Kiwebaby to gather at the Pink Dot Stage to highlight the event, hoping to make a deep impression on every participant. 

The Pink Dot initiative originally originated in Singapore, where the founders wanted love to be built on trust and honesty, not fear or shame. Tainan Pink Dot follows this spirit, accompanying sexual minorities with activities and trying to create more opportunities for dialogue on sexuality in the community. Since 2015, the Tainan Pink Dot has been organized by NCKU "TO Lesbians and Queers" club under NCKU Gender Equity Education Committee. They host the event in May every year to respond to the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia on May 17. Starting this year, the Ministry of Education has designated April 20 as "Gender Equality Education Day" and Pink Dot has planned a series of exciting "Gender Equality Education Day Advocacy Series".