Independent Changhua County Councilor Chang Hsue-ju (張雪如) is undertaking volunteer work for the deceased on behalf of lower-income families.
Chang has made a name for herself over the years not only as a county spokeswoman, but as an occasional mortician and funeral officiant.
She frequently assists financially disadvantaged families meet funeral expenses for their deceased relatives, and she even performs washing rituals — washing an average of 80 bodies per year.
One Yuanlin Township (員林) resident said whenever someone in the area says they are unable to afford funeral expenses, Chang immediately comes to mind, adding that everyone in her office is a certified funeral officiant and they have all conducted washing rites.
Chang said that she has seen countless families struggle with funeral expenses and has embraced the task of helping those families for 20 years.
Recalling the first time she performed funeral rites, Chang said she had seven families to help, but was unable to raise sufficient funds in time. Rather than raise cash for each family, she resolved to conduct the rites herself, combing the hair and cleaning the bodies of each departed relative, she said.
“To say I was not afraid would be lying,” Chang said, adding that she calmed herself by speaking to the bodies, telling them: “I am here to serve you, to make you beautiful so you can go live happily in paradise.”
Chang said that after working with so many bodies, she is no longer frightened by them, adding that she has a sense of “resolve” in her when she performs the funeral work with her assistants.
Chang said that the work she does is not meant to take away business from industry professionals, adding that she only helps disadvantaged families.
She said that the professionals who take on work for her worth NT$70,000 to NT$80,000 are sacrificing their time and income to do so.
“When I see those poor departed people in their final state, it is not me helping them, but rather them teaching me,” Chang said.
Chang is now in her fourth term as county councilor. Her father, Chang Hsun-chang (張順昌), was also a county councilor.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,