A former elementary-school teacher in Changhua who left a stable job in teaching to pursue her passion for writing about local artisans and engaging in ecological preservation has published a book on the subject.
Two years ago, Yang Yu-ju (楊玉如) left her teaching job of 20 years to begin compiling 10 years of notes and photographs about artisans in the county into the book, which she published using her own savings.
“If I do not do it today, I will regret it tomorrow,” Yang said on Sunday, describing her feelings at the moment she decided to quit her job.
Photo: Liu Hsiao-hsin, Taipei Times
Yang said being a teacher was something she dreamed about since she was young and was something she enjoyed doing, adding that she would often find ways to combine it with her other interests.
She said she is particularly interested in the preservation of frog species and would take her pictures into the classroom.
“But there was too much I wanted to do, I could not wait any longer,” she said.
Her colleagues attempted to convince her to stay, encouraging her to put a few more years into teaching so that she would be eligible for a pension, but she felt the urge to pursue her passions was too strong to put off, Yang said.
The stories she has collected over the past 10 years of various artisans are moving, Yang said, adding that regardless of whether each artisan is a master in their field, all are an inspiration for persisting with their craft.
Huang Yu-hsin (黃有信), for example, has made copper scoops for taro ice cream for the past 70 years, she said, adding that she was relieved to have recorded his story before he retired a couple of years ago.
“Every scoop he made was like a finely crafted piece of art,” she said.
Yang quoted Chen Chung-lu (陳忠露) of Changhua’s Putan Township (埔鹽), saying that persistence is crucial to success in his craft, citing the low profitability of the chicken feather dusters he makes.
Yang said her income has halved since she quit teaching and devoted herself to other pursuits.
“Many people are worried I will starve, but I am 100 percent happy devoting myself fully to my dreams. I am happy being a foolish person,” she said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods