Anatta Salon, a Taipei-based hair salon established in May, keeps Sung Chin-yi (宋晉儀) busy these days, but that does not stop her from pursuing her other passion — social activism.
Aside from participating in the Sunflower movement last year, Sung has also been involved in various social issues, including standing up for the rights of laid-off freeway toll collectors demanding appropriate compensation for job losses.
The salon’s decor reflects the owner’s ideals, with posters and banners bearing social causes she believes are worth fighting for.
Photo: Yeh Kuan-yu, Taipei Times
Sung said she often asks clients about their thoughts on various issues, such as animal rights protection, nuclear power and marriage equality.
“Some of my clients are obviously not interested and would give noncommittal replies, but some can be very enthusiastic,” she said.
Asked why she named the salon Anatta, Sung said she was inspired by the book Wu Wo Kang Zheng (無我抗爭) by Hong Kong academic Zhou Huashan (周華山).
The book talks about resistance — or standing for what one believes in — and how concept of the “self” can stir conflict and block communication, she said.
Only by putting the “self” aside and focusing on the issue can debate continue, she said.
Sung said she was greatly attracted to the idea and hoped that by naming the store after it, it would encourage others to focus on vital issues and not on personal views.
Sung used to work at an upscale hair salon in Taipei’s Daan District (大安). Now that she has her own salon, she hopes to make it a base where meaningful ideas can be exchanged and bring about change in the neighborhood.
Aside from being a site for theoretical and ideological debate, Sung said she hoped it could also be a place for conducting social experiments, as she has done on the first Tuesday of every month.
On that day, clients can bring any object worth NT$600 to the salon or offer a service in exchange for the cost of a haircut.
Some customers who are cat lovers have brought furniture for the store’s cats, while others have offered paper-cutting art, Sung said.
The assorted items brought in by customers for exchange on Tuesdays, including coffee machines, thermal jugs and laptops, are placed on Facebook for public auction or exchanged for other items, Sung said, adding that all proceeds go to non-governmental organizations.
Sung said she used to believe in the concept of “small happiness,” but since becoming involved in social activism, she can no longer ignore what is happening in the world and will continue to push for social reform.
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:
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