A clothing store owner in Changhua County has caused a stir after he took a sarcastic approach to the problem of people littering near his shop.
The entrepreneur, surnamed Chang (張), became frustrated after seeing cans, plastic drink containers and other waste discarded in the walkway in front of his shop for three days in a row.
However, rather than clean up the mess, he turned it into an art installation.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
Over the litter, he hung a printed sign that read: “Special Taiwanese culture exhibition. Theme: Taiwanese Civic Spirit.”
The “exhibit” received praise after Chang posted pictures online.
“This is Taiwan’s most creative exhibit,” one comment read.
Chang said that he appreciated the compliments, but that he really just hoped that people would stop littering.
Chang opened his shop on Lugang Township’s (鹿港) busy Zhongshan Road only last week, and said he was surprised to see the waste pile up in the few days after the launch.
Aside from beverage containers and cans, people also threw used lipstick dispensers and face wipes onto the sidewalk, he said.
Seeing the waste made him lose confidence in people, but he felt that humor was the best way to deal with that disappointment, he said.
He posted the pictures to Facebook and invited people to see the exhibit at 350 Zhongshan Rd, listing the time of the exhibit as “from today until the day when Taiwanese change.”
Netizens responded with sarcasm, with one user writing: “It still needs chewed up betel nut, cigarette butts and empty cigarette packs.”
Chang said that despite his initial frustration, he feels that people can change their behavior, as no more garbage was discarded at the spot after he stuck the sign to the wall.
“That at least is something I can be happy about,” he said.
Chang said he now realizes that shopkeepers across Taiwan must all be struggling with littering.
He said he hopes the attention would make the public more conscious of their effect on the environment.
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