Wu Hsin-wei (吳欣瑋), a deaf first year student at Yenping Junior High School in Tainan, sweeps streets every morning -- a job he's held since he was tall enough to handle a broom.
Even after taking his 48 days of annual leave into account, he has swept clean more than 3,000km of the historic southern city's streets over the past four years.
Wu's grandparents are employed by the city as street cleaners.
At 4am, when most people are still in bed, Wu is wearing a reflective safety jacket and waiting quietly for his grandparents.
By 4:30am, he has already unloaded the family scooter with a practiced hand and is busy helping his grandmother with the wheelbarrow they use to load trash in the cold, empty streets. If his grandmother misses a spot, the conscientious Hsin-wei makes sure every last piece of garbage has been swept up.
Wu lost his hearing when he was two months old as a result of a fever.
His parents separated when he was in kindergarten. His father supports him and his older brother, but as his father is too busy working, his grandmother has looked after him since he was a child.
Wu's grandmother, 53-year-old Chang Li-yun (張麗雲), sweeps the area around Tainan's Minsheng, Jinhua and Linan roads.
Li-yun has to leave the house by 4:30am every day. Afraid of leaving Hsin-wei home alone, she started taking him with her after he started elementary school.
He works with her until a little after 7am, whereupon his grandfather, Wu Ta-shu (
Wu Hsin-wei started offering to help when he was in third grade after realizing how hard his grandparents were working. His grandmother said that at first the broom was as tall as he was, but he never complained.
She and Wu Ta-shu would make him wear his reflective vest and kept him between them. They worried that he would not hear scooters coming up behind him.
Now that Hsin-wei is older, he ranges out ahead as soon as they start work, picking up the heavier garbage for his grandparents. Although the couple can only communicate with him using a few simple signs, they are proud of their grandson.
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