Chiu Chun-sheng (邱俊升), 22, a special education administrative assistant at Kaohsiung’s Chungshan Industrial and Commercial School, who was diagnosed with autism and general learning disability as a child, has a talent for recall, school officials said.
Like Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man, Chiu can instantly and unfailingly recall the day of the week of any calendar date from his 10,000-year perpetual calendar, the name and student identification number of his special education students as well as the classes they attend, and recite the Chinese translation of Prajnaparamita Sutras from memory.
When a reporter quizzed Chiu about his abilities, he answered all questions “flawlessly” and wrote the sutras from memory with an impeccable hand.
Photo: Hong Cheng-hong, Taipei Times
His work colleagues said that Chiu’s perfect recall of faculty meeting dates, names and identification numbers of the school’s 126 special education students from grades one to three, make him the perfect administrative staffer.
Chiu is also a fast typist and has taken charge of filing student information, school officials said.
An unnamed colleague at the school said that Chiu “had never forgotten anything he laid his hands on” at work.
Chiu is an alumnus of Chungshan Industrial and Commercial who was enrolled in its special education program in 2008. The school employed him immediately upon graduation because of “his outstanding marks,” school officials said.
When asked about his childhood, Chiu said he learned to identify Chinese characters from a very young age, but had trouble understanding their meaning.
Chiu said he was “super bad” at arithmetic, adding, “I don’t care to remember things I dislike.”
Chiu was popular at school because he was able to match names to faces effortlessly and remembered the names of every teacher.
Chiu characterized himself as “a bit of an otaku,” preferring to stay at home with his mother, playing video games and watching television. He also he helps out at home with cleaning, washing the car and remembering the warranty dates of every electronic item.
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