Sat, Jul 03, 2010 page2

• Class gets creative with breakups

  'POSITIVE PERSPECTIVE' An art design and marketing professor’s idea came about as a way to avoid or ease the awkwardness of a pending breakup following graduation

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
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  Giving a creative gift to a soon-to-be ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend might help ease the awkwardness of a pending breakup, according to a group of Taiwanese college students.

  With the departure of new graduates from school campuses at the end of the semester, a number of breakups can be expected, one student said.

  “June is usually a time when many student couples break up because new graduates take different paths in life,” National Taiwan University student Weng Shih-han, (翁詩涵) said.

  

  National Taiwan University students from an artistic design and marketing course display their work on June 18.

  PHOTO: CHEN YI-CHING, TAIPEI TIMES

  As a result, one of Weng’s teachers, Jerry Hsia (夏學理), came up with the idea of asking Weng and her colleagues in the artistic design and marketing class to use their creativity to come up with “breakup gifts.”

  “My idea caught them by surprise as they were probably thinking ‘Who would give a gift to someone they’re about to break up with?’” Hsia said.

  Initially, the students proposed gifts that would help people to vent anger — items such as darts to be thrown at photos, Hsia said.

  However, the professor asked the students to consider the idea of a positive ending to a relationship.

  “Breakups are often negative and unpleasant and sometimes they can be violent, but we can actually deal with our negative feelings from a positive perspective,” he said.

  He asked his students to examine why couples should exchange gifts only when the relationship is very good.

  “Why can’t you give a gift as a form of comfort when you are breaking up with each other?” he asked the students.

  One group of students later designed black-and-white T-shirts bearing slogans such as “Now available,” “I’m a good man” and other such messages to boost the image of the wearer.

  “Giving this kind of T-shirt as a breakup gift is a way of telling your boyfriend or girlfriend that you do not feel awkward in the relationship and you hope they don’t either,” said Phil Hu, one of the students.

  Another group of students came up with “breakup chocolates” of different flavors, each of which represents a different emotion at different stages of a breakup.

  “The first is a pepper chocolate that represents the pain of a breakup,” said one of the students, Wu Pan (吳潘). “The second is a bitter coffee chocolate and the third is a wine chocolate that symbolizes the stage of being relaxed and comfortable with the breakup.”

  According to Wu, the other flavors are fruit, which is sweet and acidic at the same time and means being single is enjoyable, while popping candy chocolate signals excitement over a new start.

  Some of the other students designed special face tissue wipes bearing slogans such as “You cry, I die.”

  The students are now working to commercialize their gift designs, their professor said.

  “A company that is producing a Chinese-language movie about breakups has contacted the students and will allow them to sell their products at the film’s premiere,” he said.

  People have also placed online orders for dozens of T-shirts on a blog site created by the students, Hsia added.

  Meanwhile, a noted tissue paper manufacturer in Taiwan has asked the students to submit a proposal for future collaboration, he said.

  “I think these opportunities show that there is actually demand for such products,” he said. “This also suggests that the idea of an amicable breakup might be acceptable to the public.”
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