The Hualien County Veterans Service Office said it plans to publish a collection of writings by 96-year-old Lee Chi-sen (李基森), who has been keeping a journal on the back of flimsy calendar sheets since his arrival in Taiwan from China 68 years ago.
Lee, born in China’s Sichuan Province, joined the Nationalist army at age 18. He was 28 when he arrived in Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
He continued to serve in the military and was posted in Taichung and Kinmen before settling in Hualien’s Fengbin Township (豐濱) in 1994.
Photo: Courtesy of the Hualien County Veterans Service Office
“I have devoted my whole life to Taiwan, which is already my homeland,” said Lee, who considers himself “a true Taiwanese.”
Over the years, Lee cultivated a habit of collecting discarded calendar sheets and binding them with hemp string into small booklets, in which he has recorded by hand his recollections about war, travel and daily life.
During a regular visit last month, the center’s social workers found his work, the penmanship of which they described as “amazingly neat.”
Lee married a Chinese woman, but they filed for divorce years ago and their divorce lawsuit is still pending, social worker Kuo Hsu-fen (郭旭芬) said.
Lee practices calligraphy every day and has produced dozens of autobiographies, war memoirs and travel journals in the booklets made of calendar sheets, Kuo said.
“I am old and cannot remember things, so I have to write them down to avoid oblivion,” she quoted him as saying.
The office is to organize Lee’s writings and publish them soon, Kuo said.
There are about 8,000 registered veterans in Hualien, and the office’s social workers make regular visits to the homes of those in more remote townships such as Fengbin, Yuli (玉里), Fuli (富里) and Jhuosi (卓溪), Kuo said, adding that older veterans with special needs receive visits every three days.
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS