Chunghwa Post over the past year delivered 850 million fewer letters than a decade earlier, the postal service’s most recent annual report revealed.
The post office delivered 2.7 billion letters in the country in 2013, and has delivered fewer letters annually since then, the report showed.
In 2021, the number of delivered letters dropped to 1.84 billion, and last year there were 35 fewer letters delivered per person than in 2013, it showed.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
Digital communications and online billing have drastically reduced the number of items that need to be physically delivered, Chunghwa Post’s deputy chief of mail business and operations Lin Li-fu (林立富) said on Friday.
“Most of what we deliver now are those few remaining bills that are still in paper form, as well as advertisements,” he said. “Few people still send handwritten letters, as they take time to write and receive. Digital messages can be sent anywhere in the world instantly.”
Postal Museum deputy director Chen Shu-fen (陳淑芬) lamented the decline of handwritten letters, saying that such letters can show more emotion than digital communications do.
Chen said that the museum promotes handwriting among children.
The experience also helps them learn about postal codes, she said.
“It just feels different when you receive something in the mail that was written by hand. That is why many older people tend to keep letters and postcards, and occasionally reread them,” she said. “That is something you cannot get with e-mails. So, I really encourage young people to write more letters and create those memories.”
Warren Wang (王聖哲), a violin and bow maker who is also well-known for his calligraphy, said that handwriting can convey a person’s feelings.
“There’s an emotional aspect to handwriting that can never be replaced. That is why I fell in love with writing letters as a child,” he said.
A graduate of the mechanical engineering department at National Cheng Kung University, studied English and calligraphy in the US to pursue his passion, Wang said.
Today he teaches Chinese and English calligraphy to more than 200 students.
Researcher and writer Chang Liang-tse (張良澤), 85, has resisted the transition to digital platforms for writing and communicating by writing everything by hand.
Chang last year finished a handwritten manuscript for his latest novel, titled Love in White (白衣戀).
“The manual works of musicians, painters and other creators are all attached with so much value, so why have writers switched to computers to type out their works?” he said.
Chang said he hopes that in addition to emphasizing the development of new technologies, Taiwan’s schools could also continue to teach human-focused studies, like calligraphy.
Additional reporting by Liu Wan-chun
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese