Over the past half-century hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese, be they high-ranking and influential government employees or modest high school and college students, have been inspired by Doris Brougham and her Studio classroom.
Now a sprightly 78 years old, Brougham is still tremendously active. Regardless of one's religious leanings it is impossible not to be inspired by the Christian missionary who witnessed the closing days of China's Civil War and who chose to come to Taiwan in 1951 to live alongside some of the nation's poorest peoples.
She plays the trumpet and French horn, on which she can spontaneously knock out a mean jazz number or a more sedate classical tune, she took up scuba-diving in her late 50s and still travels to places such as Malaysia to swim with the fishes. And she still plays an integral part in the day-to-day running of her Studio Classroom English-language learning empire that now spans five continents.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I'm hanging in there and still have as much energy today as I did [years] ago. I do think about retiring but there are still things to be done, and every time I mention it someone always asks me to do something or I realize myself that something else needs to be done," Brougham said.
It's not only those who have learned or are currently learning English from one of her publications or from her daily television and radio shows who hold Brougham in high regard. Over the years her work has not gone unnoticed by the powers that be and she has enjoyed audiences with presidents, premiers and politicos.
For her half century of service to Taiwan, Brougham was awarded the Order of the Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon -- the nation's highest non-military decoration -- and was made an honorary civil servant of the highest level by President Chen Shui-bian (
Not that the current tenant of the Presidential Office was the first head of state to grant Brougham an audience. She met with Chiang Kai-shek (
Soong was such a fan of Brougham's television program, The Voice of Heavenly Melodies, in fact, that when the network decided to cancel the show, she used her considerable power to have it put back on air.
"The program was the first Christian television show to be broadcast in Taiwan, and there was a bit of a backlash from [certain parties]. Pressure was put on the station to cancel the show," said Brougham. "Madame Chiang intervened personally and asked why her favorite program had been cancelled. We were back on television shortly after this."
Born in Seattle, Brougham's first encounter with things Chinese took place at a summer camp when she was 11 years old. After hearing a lecture by a well-known evangelical minister from China, Brougham decided then and there that she wanted to become a missionary and work in Asia.
At age 21, having declined a scholarship from the Eastman School of Music in New York, Brougham boarded a ship and made the six-week journey to China. Arriving in Shanghai at the tail end of the Civil War in 1948, she was forced to leave the bustling metropolis in late 1948 and along with thousands of others made the long trek to Lanzhou and then Chongqing.
"There were a lot of missionaries traveling to China and the Far East at that time to do all sorts of work. They didn't only come for religious purposes but also came to help educate and help others," she said. "There were lots of missionaries from all denominations doing many different kinds of work, but I wanted to help out in any way I could and chose education."
Although raised Christian, Brougham today chooses to classify herself as an interdenominational missionary. Still deeply religious, she doesn't fit the stereotypical image many have of a missionary. When the US military was based in Taiwan, she frequented the servicemen's bars; she was, and still is for that matter, an avid jazz fan and knew the late great Charles Mingus; and she readily admits that she was never going to become a high-ranking member of the clergy.
"I just wanted to help people. I didn't want to be pastor," she said with a grin. "I knew that I'd never make that one!"
Arriving in Taiwan in 1951, Brougham decided to forgo life in Taipei for a more rural existence in Hualien, where educational facilities were sparse and the number of foreign nationals even fewer. Along with teaching music at a theological college in the Hualien County township of Meilun, Brougham set about establishing the town's first Sunday school.
"I thought that I could do better work with the tribes on the east coast than in Taipei, where there were already missionaries off all denominations," said Brougham. "It wasn't easy to get access to the areas, as permits were very difficult to obtain. I was granted access, but there were still occasions when the army or police would stop me and ask what I was doing there. It was very different from today."
After three years in the Hualien, word of Brougham's tireless educational efforts spread, and she was invited by the Far East Broadcasting Company to produce a radio show for children. Featuring a mix of gospel music, Bible teachings and English lessons, the show was a huge hit and after a brief stint in Taichung, Brougham relocated to Taipei.
There she rented a studio on Zhongshan North Road and began producing radio shows that were broadcast weekly on nine radio stations nationwide.
It wasn't long, however, before the weekly shows became daily shows, and within a couple of years Brougham's once localized show went national with the broadcasting of the first radio edition of her Studio Classroom on Aug. 1, 1962.
The show's success led to other opportunities, the most prestigious of which, according to Brougham, was when she was asked to develop English-language teaching programs for cabinet officials and various government agencies.
"The [KMT] needed English to meet with the US military and whenever its officials went abroad. We helped with government speeches, designed a program for 60,000 policemen from the National Police Association and advised city governments," she said.
Having proven a huge hit on the radio, the first print edition of Brougham's English classes, which was a single sheet of paper costing NT$1, appeared shortly thereafter. The first full magazine edition of Studio Classroom hit bookstore shelves in 1974 and like its predecessor proved an overnight success. In 1977 Brougham made the move to television when her show World English TV broadcast on CTS.
As one of the only English-language teaching programs to stand the test of time in Taiwan, Brougham's Studio Classroom series of magazines now has a subscription rate of 600,000 issues per month, and her radio and television shows are broadcast throughout the day on half-a-dozen radio stations and an equal number of television networks.
What was a once solely a Taiwan institution has gone on to become a global phenomenon. Studio Classroom is now broadcast on television in Canada, Europe, Korea, China and Kazakhstan, and her radio show is listened to by thousands of avid students of the English language in the US, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and China.
"When we began we had no idea that the show would go all over the world. I get letters from all over the world today from people who watch the show. We got a lovely letter from a girl in Iran recently," said Brougham.
Always looking for new challenges and new ways in which to meet the ever-increasing demand for English language learning, Brougham's energy and lust for life has seen her venturing into areas that few 70-years-olds would dare to tread.
She has met modern technological breakthroughs with the same enthusiasm she showed when teaching in sleepy Hualien. Her Studio Classroom moved into cyberspace in 2000 and, in a joint venture with Sony, the company's television studios recently installed a state-of-the-art virtual-reality blue-screen system.
In the coming months, Brougham's calming intonation, which was first heard on transistor radio over 40 years ago, will be available anywhere and at anytime of the day when Studio Classroom makes its way onto cellular phones.
"It's a public service. When you get such positive responses from so many people whose lives you've touched, you just feel like doing more and more," she said. "It's certainly more than money -- after all, you can't take that with you, can you?"
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