“We all get old, but the infirmities of old age are less important to me because the puppies and swallows I create travel the world on my behalf,” said 87-year-old Huang Tu Yu-yan (黃杜玉燕), who was hospitalized at Ditmansion Medical Foundation Chia-yi Christian Hospital a decade ago when she exhibited complications due to diabetes that made it difficult for her to walk.
Six years ago doctors amputated her left leg.
Despite the physical difficulties Huang has had to endure as a result of her illness, she also discovered the art of Chinese knotting while at the hospital.
Photo: Yu Hsueh-lan, Taipei Times
Having always been handy with a needle and having started her own sewing shop, Huang quickly mastered the art and soon started producing works in the form of puppies, bunnies and dolls.
Chinese knotting is the art of creating shapes, using one piece of string, that are identical whether viewed from the front or back. Traditionally, they are believed to ward off evil spirits and serve as lucky charms for a happy marriage.
Among the pieces she has created, the most popular have been doll-shaped and puppy-shaped knots, Huang said.
She has even named them using characters from her own name, calling the puppies “Hsiao Yu” (小玉) and the dolls “Hsiao Yan” (小燕).
Huang’s ornamental pieces are one of the most common gifts given by the Chiayi Presbyterian Church to members in South Korea, the US, Japan and the Philippines.
Recently, a church member from Myanmar asked Huang for nearly 100 of her dolls as gifts for the poor in that country.
Huang was delighted to learn that her works bring joy to others.
Huang says she spends at least two hours a day creating Chinese knotting works and over the past decade estimates she has made about 10,000 pieces that she has given away.
“I like to learn, to travel and share,” Huang said, adding that when she was young she paid for her college tuition with the money she made from weaving.
“By the time I graduated from the English department at college, I had already visited 17 countries,” she said.
Maintaining her positive outlook despite her health problems, Huang found herself teaching more than 40 students at Chia Hwa Senior-High School last week. She hoped they would learn not only the art of Chinese knotting, but that some of her tireless optimism would rub off.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard