A 95-year-old veteran has donated a property in Taoyuan worth NT$7 million (US$244,738) to build a facility to help elderly people, the Taoyuan City Government said on Monday.
Veteran Liu Yung-chung (劉永中), who lives in Pingjhen District (平鎮), said that volunteers in his Sanan (三安) community have for years provided a lot of assistance to him and his wife.
In January, he donated a townhouse to the city, saying he hoped that it would be used it to assist elderly people by “helping those in rehabilitation, and those who need personal care and meals.”
Photo: Hsu Cho-hsun, Taipei Times
Liu, who was born in 1926 in China’s Jiangxi Province, joined the military in 1947 when he was 21 and fought in the Chinese Civil War.
He fled to Taiwan in 1949 with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces.
Liu also fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, and in 1979 was discharged from the military with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Photo: Yang Chin-cheng, Taipei Times
After that, he worked for 20 years as a security guard at an elementary school.
During that time he lived frugally, often eating only rice, he said.
Joking about his time in the military, Liu said that he was “not strong and his aim was terrible,” but his handwriting was “not bad.”
“I have even dabbled a bit in calligraphy. I used to write things for my commanding officer, including when he had to contact his superiors,” Liu said.
As he and his wife are living in a care facility, and they do not have any children, they felt it would be best to donate their property rather than leaving it vacant.
A few years ago, he had a fall that has limited his movement, and volunteers from the community helped care for him and his wife, he said, adding that this kindness was what motivated him to donate the property.
“I urged Liu Yung-chung to seriously think about the decision to donate his house, but he insisted, saying he wanted to do something for the country,” Sanan Community Development Association director Liu Yi-ti said.
The townhouse has been renovated for use as a community center, the city government said, adding that it would hold a ceremony on April 9 to formally thank Liu Yung-chung for the donation.
Separately, 92-year-old amateur artist Yao Min-sheng (姚民生) on Friday donated 32 drawings and calligraphy works to a charity sale to raise funds for a Taiwan Fund for Children and Families branch in Tainan.
“I wish to help others while I still can,” Yao said.
Born in China’s Zhejiang Province in 1919, Yao said he has been interested in painting since he was a child, but the tumultuous situation in China in the late 1920s, as well as his family background, prevented him from learning it properly.
Having joined the KMT army when he was 19 and retiring after 30 years of military life, Yao said that he found spare time to learn how to paint after taking a job as a civil servant.
His donation was in part due to the suggestion of Church of Living Springs priest Ting Ning-en (丁濘恩), but also because he wanted to help others, Yao said.
The sale would be at the church in Tainan’s Sinying District (新營) and run through the end of April, he said, adding that all of the works are priced from NT$800 to NT$12,000.
Yao’s wife, who started learning how to paint three years ago, has also donated three painting.
All proceeds would go towards a fund established to help children from disadvantaged families to focus on their education.
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