Over a hundred elementary school students yesterday joined together to celebrate national Children's Day through reading and sharing each other's dreams.
Children with different ethnic backgrounds from 16 countries, including Taiwan, England, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa and the US, participated in the "Reading good books: Celebrating children around the world" event held yesterday by the Taipei City Education Department in celebration of Children's Day on April 4.
Attending the event was Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"We are now living in a global village. Different ethnic backgrounds or languages spoken should not be barriers for us to understand each other. I invite all of you [children] to broaden your vision and embrace the world through reading and sharing ideas with each other," remarked Ma at the opening ceremony of the event yesterday.
Yesterday's activity kicked off a series of reading, exercise and art events designed by the Taipei City Education Department to mark a healthy and informative Children's Day.
At the indoor observatory on the 89th floor of Taipei 101, Ma sat on a sofa and read a storybook called "If the world were a village of 100 people" to the children surrounding him.
Quilts with words and paintings made by elementary school students about sharing their dreams, and several big books with themes including the importance of water resources decorated another corner.
Students who made the quilts and big books stood beside their works and talked about becoming photographers, news anchors, pizza shop owners, or pilots in the future.
Michelle Santana Hsu, a sixth-grader from Taipei Municipal Tianmu Elementary School, said that the event was "joyful and inspiring."
"I particularly enjoyed listening to other students talking about their dreams and what goals they are striving toward. As for myself, I hope I can become a good housewife in the future," Hsu told the Taipei Times.
Coming to Taiwan at the age of seven from El Salvador, Hsu said that with a rich array of resources and better learning environment, she felt that kids in Taiwan are much luckier than those in El Salvador.
Tinie Tol, a second-grader from Tianmu Elementary School, also enjoyed the dream-sharing time with all the kids at the event.
"I love ballet and my dream is to become a professional ballet dancer when I grow up," said Tol, who is from the Netherlands.
Calling children "the hope for the country's future," Ma pledged to establish a more diverse and safer environment for all the kids in Taipei City.
"In providing our kids with a better living environment, I hope they can grow up with world views, and to be thoughtful about children who suffer from poverty, illiteracy and insufficient resources," said Ma.
Taipei City's celebration activities for the upcoming Children's Day include the "Hans Christian Andersen Reading Festival" today and tomorrow at the Taipei Municipal Library.
There will also be several fine arts and performing arts events at the Taipei Children's Creation Center and Da'An Park which runs through April 9.
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