Statues of a toad and a black bird at the entrance of a Taoyuan elementary school in Taitung’s Yanping Township (延平) have raised questions from curious visitors.
“No toads will be eating bird meat here,” school principal Cheng Han-wen (鄭漢文) said, a reference to a Chinese saying describing a person dating or marrying someone out of their league.
Fifth-grade student Langus said the toad is symbolic of tamahudas, or ancestors, in Bunun.
Photo: CNA
The red-mouthed black bulbul symbolizes perseverance, she said, adding that it is a reminder to students not to give up on their studies.
Local legend tells how Bunun people were trapped on Yushan Mountain by flooding, and they became cold and hungry. The community was saved by a toad and a bulbul who volunteered to swim to an opposite peak to get torches, fifth-grade student Savi said.
The once white bulbul was blackened by the smoke and its beak was reddened by the heat of the torches. The bird sacrificed its own interests for the community, Savi said.
Cheng recently hosted an exhibition showcasing the work of local artisans.
“I bared myself in the most sincere way; hosting the event barefoot,” Cheng said.
Cheng is often seen walking around school without shoes, students said, adding that he is unconventional like the bulbul and toad.
“Except for on very formal occasions, I don’t wear shoes. It lets me feel the warmth of the ground and be more in touch with nature,” he said.
People place too much importance on appearances, Cheng said, adding that what is most important is what a person says and their intentions.
The school, built in the Japanese colonial era, has about 100 students and is the latest in the nation to join the national education system. The school’s curricula have been modified to fit the unique needs of the Bunun community, Cheng said, adding that it combines a system inspired by the Knowledge is Power Program with Bunun culture.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater