While Alex McGregor may have trouble understanding concepts, reading between the lines or socializing with people, he can tell you exactly what day of the week you were born a mere second after learning your birthdate.
Alex, 18, has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder that is on the high functioning end. But he doesn’t let the condition limit him. He has a full-time job at a restaurant, lives in his own apartment and is a budding artist.
Half Taiwanese and half Australian, Alex moved back to Taiwan in April to pursue his art career and independence after spending junior high and high school in Sydney.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
STRUGGLING TO FIT IN
Alex, who was diagnosed at 18 months, didn’t start speaking until he was four, says his father Michael, whom he calls “Mr Mike.” In school, Alex enrolled in special education classes. He had trouble learning concepts and ideas, but he is brilliant at math — in part because of his photographic memory.
Higher-functioning autistic people are usually aware of their differences — often painfully. But that awareness also propels them to try and change to be more integrated into society.
Photo courtesy of Alexander McGregor
While Alex is now calmer and has a better idea of what behavior is socially unacceptable, he still has problems socializing.
“He wants to be like everyone else,” Michael says. “He doesn’t have friends. He finds it hard.”
“I’d like to get rid of it,” Alex says. “I hate being lonely.”
Photo courtesy of Alexander McGregor
Like many autistic people, Alex has narrow but intense interests. For example, he knows every Sydney train station and their timetables. But he also understands that talking too much about them would prevent himself from making friends.
Michael said he’s been encouraging Alex to read, write, watch TV and listen to radio.
“To make new friends he has to expand his interests,” he says.
NEW LIFE IN TAIWAN
Michael says Alex came to Taiwan because there are more opportunities to practice being independent.
“In Australia, they get a disability pension but every time you want to do something you have to go through disability services,” he says. “He didn’t like that.”
Early this year, Alex’s autism teacher, who has been working with him since he was a small child, arranged for Alex to do a trial run working at a restaurant in Taipei. He washed dishes, counted dumplings, took out the garbage and set boxes.
“He passed,” Michael says. “He was accepted for a paid job without volunteering or going through disability services. The boss was patient, and the people were patient. In Australia, he couldn’t ever have an opportunity like that.”
Michael said at first Alex had problems calming down, often talking or daydreaming too much. But now he’s improved.
Esther Liu (劉曉玟), who also works at the restaurant, is a friend of Alex’s teacher and has known him since he was in third grade.
“He’s improved a lot at work, step by step,” she says, adding that his overall social skills have gotten much better since he was a child.
“When he was little, he would keep asking the same questions,” she says. “Now he won’t focus so much on one point. He knows how to turn.”
The next hurdle is seeing if Alex can attend college.
“In Australia, he couldn’t do a proper schooling and didn’t take exams,” Michael said. “He can’t do them except for math. So he graduated, but he has no scores so he couldn’t go to college.”
Alex will start adult education summer classes in National Taiwan Normal University (國立師範大學) this summer to “see if he can do it.”
COLORFUL ARTWORK
Alex’s apartment is exceptionally clean. He likes things neat and ordered, and doesn’t like his things being touched or moved. On his desk, next to a box of color pencils, is his latest creation.
It’s a colorful scene with a group of people, all with the same faces, all smiles. They seem to be enjoying their time, drinking a variety of labeled juices. Alex’s work is cartoonish, and operates on a flat, two-dimensional basis. But, that doesn’t mean they lack depth. Some of his paintings have layers and layers of patterns, text and objects — all brought to life with a his brilliant palette, unique compositions and a subtle yet meticulous attention to detail.
His subjects are often people he knows, and are often set in places he’s been, but everything has been reconstructed through his eyes. The pieces are mostly named after people, places and events. He has a book of paintings that chronicle a road trip from Sydney to Perth. There are whimsical elements, though — the way a subjects’ legs curve, people depicted on garments people are wearing and the existence of a 1,000,000,000,000-channel future news.
While he is currently working in color pencil, he also paints in acrylic. Having started painting at age 15, Alex has entered a variety of competitions in Australia and won a number of awards, most recently the Hornsby Art Prize and Waverly Art Prize, all claimed last year.
Some of his posters are on display at Dv8, a bar in Taipei.
In 2013, he participated in The Sight Project, a workshop for artists with disabilities, culminating in an exhibition.
Alex is also an avid blogger and sells T-shirts with his paintings on them online.
Many people with Aspergers have trouble settling down and often suffer from anxiety. Art is calming for Alex, who says it makes him happy. He hopes to develop his craft, gain exposure and make a living off his art one day.
“I want to open my own business and go worldwide,” he says.
For more information, visit Alex’s T-shirt site at www.postatee.com/00000850 and his blog at funnylittledetails.blogspot.tw. His Facebook is www.facebook.com/ampdym.
Last week saw a momentary spark in the election season, when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) attempted to form a joint ticket, ostensibly to defeat the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德). This mating of massive egos was arranged by longtime KMT stalwart and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The deal predictably fell apart, though as of this writing — Thursday — there was still a chance for an 11th hour recovery. (Editor’s note: it didn’t happen.) Many people
For decades in the 20th century, trains running on narrow-gauge track ran up and down the plains of rural Taiwan, taking one of the most important cash crops, sugarcane, to factories for processing. Schoolchildren in many places relied on these trains to get to and from school. This separate rail network grew to nearly 3,000km in length, and even came to include regular passenger service serving much of western Taiwan, with over 40 different lines. With the changing global market, however, Taiwanese sugar production has now nearly ceased. The tracks that haven’t already been ripped out sit rusting or half-buried
Australia doesn’t exist. That’s at least according to Bing search results for some users on Wednesday when the Microsoft search engine cited long-running Internet conspiracy theories denying the existence of the country. Several very real Australian users on Bluesky and Mastodon reported that when they searched for “does Australia exist” on Bing, it would come back with an emphatic “No” written in a text box before the link results. “Bing is denying the existence of Australia,” the technology reporter Stilgherrian posted on Bluesky on Wednesday. One user replied: “It’s buying into conspiracy theories.” Another asked: “Does that mean I don’t have to pay
Lesley Hughes says most climate change scientists are good at partitioning off bits of their brain. “You put all the negative stuff in a little box and you put a wall around it and you try to keep going,” she says. But in the record-breaking year that 2023 has become, some of the dread and grief has broken out of Hughes’s mental box and vaulted the wall. There have been sleepless nights, where she’s pondered the future for her family, the natural places she loves and for the species being lost. “I do grieve,” the ecologist says at her home on Sydney’s lower north
RSS