Popular Taiwanese author Giddens Ko (柯景騰) yesterday fulfilled a pledge to donate 700 boxed meals to those in need after it was reported that a Filipino had been denied service at a Taipei cafeteria, an incident which was later proved untrue.
Ko, one of the nation’s best-selling authors better known by his pseudonym Jiu Ba-dao (九把刀), paid for 700 boxed meals at a boxed lunch shop in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Jhonghe District (中和). The meals are being held under a model that allows people to pay in advance for food that is later claimed by those in need.
The author specified that the meals should be distributed from yesterday to June 8, in the form of 25 meal boxes over 14 days.
Ko made the pledge to buy 700 reserved meals after a 38-year-old woman surnamed Tung (董) said in a May 15 Facebook post that she had bought lunch for a Filipino worker who had been denied service at a cafeteria.
At the time, Ko questioned the accuracy of the information and said he would buy 700 boxed meals for the homeless and the less well-off if Tung’s post proved to be a true story.
Earlier this week, Tung confessed that she had only heard of the situation, but wrote the story as if she had witnessed it personally.
Although the rumor proved to be untrue, Ko said, he wanted to donate the meals anyway to “give the incident a heartwarming ending.”
The first person in line, a man from New Taipei City’s Nanshijiao area (南勢角), said he had been waiting since 9:30am and thanked Ko for his kindness.
Ko rose to fame after his semi-autobiographical novel and a subsequent movie You are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們一起追的女孩) scored big successes.
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