The Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF) held its annual award ceremony in Taipei yesterday to confer its Golden Support Awards on individuals for making donations to help children from low-income families — support they themselves received in their childhoods.
Much of the focus was on baseball star Lin Chih-sheng (林智勝), one of the award recipients, who was overcome by emotions and teared up when the TFCF arranged a surprise for him by allowing him to see his childhood benefactor, doctor Huang Cheng-hsun (黃正勳), via a pre-recorded videotape.
Huang sponsored Lin through the TFCF program for six years from middle to high school.
Lin said he was brought up by his paternal grandparents because his parents divorced when he was very young.
“I grew up in very poor conditions and my grandparents made a living by growing vegetables,” he said.
“I was an active kid and had to eat all the time. They often had difficulties feeding me,” Lin added, adding that at elementary school, when his classmate were eating their lunches, he would often asked them whether they could save some for him.
Lin is now a star shortstop for the Lamigo Monkeys in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. The Monkeys team rewarded Lin’s standout performance with a five-year contract worth NT$30 million (US$1 million) in 2011.
Lin has not forgotten TFCF’s support during his childhood and is himself now sponsoring a number of children on a long term basis.
Lin had tried to find his benefactor, but had been unsuccessful, until yesterday’s event.
In the video, Huang, who could not attend in person because he was giving free medical diagnoses at a temple in Greater Taichung, told Lin: “The support I gave you in the past was just a small help. I hope you can pass on this love to other people.”
“I shall pass the love I received on to others. I will strive to play ball the best I can and to repay the goodwill back to society,” a teary-eyed Lin said.

The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of

Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading

‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to