After spending 48 years in a wheelchair, writer and national policy advisor Liu Hsia (劉俠), celebrated her 60th birthday yesterday.
Liu, who took the post in the Presidential Office last May, is better known by her pen name Xing Lin Tzu (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
During her birthday celebration, amongst many of her life-long friends, she called herself a "walking quadriplegic fossil," since she has been suffering from a rare disease for almost five decades.
Though enjoying a high-profile and well-paid position as a national policy advisor for President Chen Shui-bian (
"I think it is a sign that our country is in good shape," Liu quipped.
This is vintage Liu -- permenantly ill and physically suffering -- but with a strong sense of humor and an inspirational attitude toward life.
"She never stops brainstorming," said Lin Chi-ping (林治平), a professor from the Chung Yuan Christian University (中原大學).
"I have known her for more than 30 years. While her bizarre disease may trap her, it seems to me that it never became an obstacle for her and never hindered her from writing beautiful articles and caring about people in need."
The Reverend Maurice Alwyn Sween III, an American missionary who has been residing in Taiwan for the past 15 years, said that Liu often inspires him with fresh ideas toward life.
"Reading her articles helped me calm down, think deeply and remain clear minded toward the challenges in my life," said Sween.
"She has a unique way of looking at things which causes people to see that there can always be hope if you never give up."
Liu's younger brother Liu Kan (劉侃), president of the Home of Victory (
Liu has a rare disease called atrophic arthritis which is related to rheumatoid arthritis. The disease made her a quadriplegic when she was 12 years old, a condition that limited her formal education. Her schooling ended after graduation from the Peitou Elementary School (北投國小) in 1954.
The disease hinders her from being able move around physically, but not from thinking and creating. She has written more than 1,000 short stories and articles.
The malady has destroyed the functioning of nearly 90 percent of her joints and forces her to lie down most of the time and utilize a wheelchair to get around.
The disease remains incurable. She controls the worst symptoms with prescription medication.
Most of Liu's articles are inspirational. She won a National Literature and Art Award with a book in 1982. In addition, her articles have been utilized in elementary and junior high school Mandarin-language textbooks.
Liu's writing also earned her a commendation as one of Taiwan's 10 most outstanding women in 1980. Two years later, she used the award's monetary prize of NT$200,000 to establish the Eden Social Welfare Foundation (伊甸殘障福利基金會) to care for the needs of people who suffer from disabilities.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS