The Kaohsiung City Government Transportation Bureau is trying to spruce up some of the municipality’s old-style bus shelters that have no rear advertising panels. The bus stop on the westbound lane next to the Sinyi Elementary School Metro Station is the chosen setting for an art installation in the form of an outsized abacus. Alongside the abacus is a set of revolving colored cubes with arithmetic problems written on them, so that passengers can apply their minds to doing sums while waiting for a bus and re-experience the fun of using an abacus.
Chang Wen-chiang, chairman of the Kaohsiung Abacus and Mathematics Institute, gives the project the thumbs-up. Chang says that older people all learned abacus calculation back in the old days. He says that medical research has proved that using one’s brain can alleviate senility, and for children it can develop the right brain’s pictorial thinking, so it is very helpful for boosting their intelligence.
Children are drawn to the giant abacus, and their first reaction is one of surprise as they shriek, “What a big abacus!” It is a novel experience for them to push the abacus beads up and down, and they find that adding and subtracting is great fun. If a bus comes along just as they are engrossed in playing with the abacus they might not even want to get on, and sometimes they squabble about whether they have got the right answer. Their teachers also think that the abacus bus shelter is a very creative idea and looks attractive as well as being fun to use.
Photo: Hung Chen-hung, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者洪臣宏
Transportation Bureau Director-General Chen Ching-fu says that, with the arrival of an aging society, buses are an important means of transport for many older people. He says that the bureau has picked certain old-style bus shelters to be given a makeover so that passengers can play with the abacus, use their brains and keep healthy while waiting for the bus. The hope is that it will save people from getting bored while they wait. The bureau will go on redesigning bus stops in various ways, and people are welcome to go and try them out, Chen says.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG)
高雄市交通局為使部分舊式無廣告背板的候車亭增添新氣象，挑選捷運信義國小站西向候車亭，以大算盤當作裝置藝術，搭配彩色旋轉方塊命題，乘客候車時可動動腦玩算盤，重溫珠算樂趣。
高雄市珠算數學學會理事長張文強豎起大拇指稱讚。他說，老一輩的人早期都學過珠算，醫學也證實動動腦可以減緩老年失智現象；至於小朋友可以開發右腦有圖象的概念，對小朋友未來智能發展有很大幫助。
小朋友被大算盤吸引，乍看時驚呼「很大的算盤」，撥動大算盤覺得很新鮮，「加加減減很好玩」，車子來了玩得正起勁還捨不得上車，也會彼此爭論正確與否，老師們也認為珠算候車亭創意十足，美觀又好玩，一定要按個「讚」。
交通局長陳勁甫表示，隨著高齡化社會來臨，公車是許多年長者搭乘的重要交通工具，交通局特地挑選舊式候車亭進行改造，讓乘客候車時還可玩珠算動動腦、身體好，希望能讓大家等車「麥無聊」，後續會做不同嘗試的改造，歡迎民眾來試玩。
(自由時報記者洪臣宏)
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