The Chiayi County Government on Saturday signed a pledge to create a friendlier environment for people with facial burns, birthmarks or disfigurement.
Chiayi County Commissioner Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁) signed the pledge on behalf of the county government.
At the event hosted by the Sunshine Foundation, Lu Yi-ju (呂易儒), a 16-year-old born with a nevus of Ota, and her mother, Hu Hui-chi (胡惠琪), talked about their experiences.
Photo: Lin Yi-chang, Taipei Times
Lu was born with dark pigmentation around her temples, said Hu, who lives in Chiayi’s Shueishang Township (水上).
She thought at first that the dark areas would fade, but instead, they spread to cover the entire upper half of her daughter’s face, Hu said, adding that even the whites of Lu’s eyes turned gray.
Hu said that she felt helpless after her daughter’s diagnosis, but that she resolved to be strong, to treat her daughter like everyone else and not to intentionally highlight her appearance.
As a third-grader, Lu was shoved and teased by classmates because of her appearance, Hu said, but an upper-grade student stood up for her.
Hu said that she only found out about the bullying later on, as Lu kept it to herself.
In junior-high school, Lu was again bullied by classmates, who called her “ugly” and “alien,” Hu said.
Hu said that she comforted her daughter when she cried at home over the name-calling — encouraging her not to let herself be affected by what other people say — and that she asked the school to address the problem.
Lu later received laser treatments to lighten the pigmentation, Hu added.
Lu said that since junior high, she has become friends with the classmates who bullied her.
Even today, people often ask her about the pigmentation, Lu said, adding that she takes the time to explain her condition.
“If they tease me, I ignore them,” she said.
As a volunteer at the Taipei-based Sunshine Foundation, Lu said that many of these questions come from younger children attending the foundation’s events.
Lu said that when children ask her, she tells them that the pigmentation is a “beautiful butterfly.”
Now a first-year student at Kaohsiung’s Shu-Zen Junior College of Medicine and Management, Lu said that she is studying to become a nurse.
At the event, Hu thanked the foundation for supporting and guiding families of children with birthmarks or disfigurement.
Last year, the foundation launched the Island Tour project to promote “facial equality.”
In addition to the county government, 15 schools in the county have pledged to support the movement.
The county government said that it would put up posters in public spaces to raise awareness about facial equality, incorporate the topic into the school curriculum and work to eliminate employment discrimination based on physical appearance.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS