英文摘要:The voiceless age of Taiwan’s “adopted daughters” have gradually vanished with the changing of the times. However, nowadays, there are still quite a few outstanding adopted daughters from all walks of life displaying their extraordinary achievements. This thesis discusses the social roles of adopted daughters, their identity background and their various ways of adaptation to the changing society. The division of the chapters in the thesis is based on the historical sequence of dynasties, which include the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese rule, and the period after Taiwan restoration. The literary works of each era have their own time significance, and the works in each particular era also have their respective features. First, the origin and the cause of Taiwan’s adopted daughters are discussed. Adopted daughters of a homogenous type in the literary works will be classified in the same category, and then the subtle distinctions of adopted daughters of the same type will be further studied. From novels, ballads, proverbs, poetries, and so on, adopted daughters’ life styles, social statuses, sexual differences as well as the etiquette restrictions to females are examined. In addition, from folklores, adopted daughters’ social role, the time significance, and the society’s enlightened function are discussed. Both the interviews of today’s adopted daughters and the reference to correlative data from Taiwan report literature provide the basis for this thesis. By analyzing multiple images of adopted daughters by means of both theory and real examples, we come to know the historical importance of literary works. Then, after introspection, equal rights for two genders could be promoted and the ideal of harmonious society could also be reached.