Three men who have been friends since childhood are asking people to help create a record of a part of their childhood memories by tracking down school playground slides built in the shape of an elephant.
The project began two years ago when 39-year-old Lin Chien-lung (林建龍) and Chiu Hsiang-hui (邱祥惠) launched a Web site dedicated to elephant-shaped slides.
Chuang Chao-sheng (莊昭盛), an avid photographer, heard about the project and joined up.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
The trio have taken photographs of more than 50 elephant slides, mostly in the Greater Tainan area.
Lin said he came up with the idea three years ago when his son transferred to Zih Lung Elementary School in Greater Tainan’s Jiali District (佳里).
“It is the school I attended. When I returned to look around, the environment inside the school had changed quite a lot. The only thing that had remained the same was the elephant slide, standing in the same spot on the playground near the school wall,” Lin said.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
“On the elephant’s body, there is still an old school slogan and inscription of its construction date of 1968. Many fond childhood memories came flooding back right there. I remembered our teacher taking our class to that corner for an outdoor painting class,” he said.
Lin said he decided to create a record of the remaining elephant slides around the nation by putting together a photographic archive.
“When the pictures are posted, many of my classmates [say they] immediately remember our younger days, when we had so much fun playing together in school,” he said.
Back then, when there were few places for recreational activities, “the school playground was heaven to us kids,” Lin added.
He said nearly all elementary schools once had concrete slides, many of them featuring an elephant base, but now they are being replaced by plastic slides.
“We want to document all existing elephant playground slides, so we can help people to recall happy childhood memories,” he said.
Chuang rides his motorcycle around Greater Tainan on weekends and holidays looking for school slides. He said that he had ridden more than 60km the weekend before last, but only found three slides to photograph.
“I pushed myself to go, and visited 10 elementary schools this past Sunday, but only saw two elephant playground slides. This has prompted me to quicken the pace to capture images for posterity,” he said. “Every time I see one of them, there is always this urge in my heart to play again … to climb up and slide down.”
Through the Web site, Lin said he hopes more people can join in the effort to locate the remaining elephant slides around the country and by doing so, relive their own childhood memories.
“Once we have visited all the schools in Greater Tainan and upload our pictures of the slides, we will organize a photography exhibit,” Lin said.
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