Hoping to remind the public that their loved ones should always be more important than their work, a 39-year-old man recently acquired a rickshaw, in the style of an ancient Chinese wedding carriage, and with his wife embarked on a 20-day journey around the nation on Jan. 6.
Kuo Chin-chuan (郭錦駩) said the exquisitely detailed rickshaw, which he ordered from an experienced craftsman in Hsinchu County’s Jhunan Township (竹南), features classic patterns depicting plums, orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums carved onto wooden frames.
Kuo said the rickshaw weighs 158kg empty, and 280kg once he and his wife are seated in the vehicle. A plaque hanging from the rear of the rickshaw reads: “The Love Your Wife Movement” (愛老婆運動).
Photo: Hua Meng-ching. Taipei Times
An avid cyclist in his spare time, Kuo said he has been able to achiever speeds of up to 10kph pulling the rickshaw. Having started from Taipei, the plan is to circle the nation through the west, to the south and then up the east coast.
Due to the rickshaw’s decorations, as well as his chosen method of transport, Kuo said the couple has received many a stare along their ride around Taiwan. Upon their arrival in Hualien on Sunday, many bystanders cheered him on, and people in cars rolled down their windows to cheer him on.
Commenting on his relationship with his wife, You Chia-ling (游佳鈴), Kuo said they met in college. After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering, Kuo said he worked at HTC Corp for six years before he realized — after seeing the same problem in his colleagues — that he was neglecting his wife.
Currently the head of his own consulting company, Kuo said that, while it is necessary for the man of the house to make money and ensure his wife lives a comfortable life, they should not forget the reason for their hard work.
“Everything I have done was an attempt to tell her that I love her,” Kuo said.
“My love and concern are what my wife wants,” Kuo said, adding that it is easy for a marriage to go sour if people are not adept at conveying their feelings.
Living up to his words, Kuo said that no matter how busy he is, he always takes time off to call his wife; for example, when commuting to and from work.
In order to propagate the concept and his ideals, Kuo said he also commissioned the creation of jerseys with “The Love Your Wife Movement” printed on them to distribute among his friends, adding that he also established a Facebook page to encourage others to take a carpe diem approach when expressing their love to their wives.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching