For Lin Hsin-pei, flaws in her appearance do not mean she is not normal, just as a nearsighted person is not abnormal for wearing glasses. Paralyzed from the waist down, she needs only a wheelchair and accessible spaces to live the life of an ordinary person. Lin has filmed a commercial for an around-the-world tour and has competed on the TV show I Am a Speaker. She has delivered more than 450 lectures, and lent moral support to countless people in trouble.
“Buen Camino!” (“Good Path!”) is a phrase you are sure to hear on the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) in Spain, as pilgrims from around the world wish each other a safe journey.
In 2009 Peggy Liao, in her role as an International Youth Ambassador, visited Taiwan’s diplomatic ally Nauru for the first time. Many youth ambassadors visit this place once, then never go back, but thus far Liao has made four return journeys to Nauru.
Sun Ten Pharmaceutical’s Chinese patent medicines are famous, but few people know that the company’s founder, Hsu Hong-yen (1917-1991), was a dedicated collector of Taiwanese art. Believing that “medicine heals our bodies, and culture heals our souls,” he left behind an invaluable collection of cultural assets. Having taken care of these treasures for more than two decades, Hsu’s descendants in the United States at last decided to send them back to Taiwan.
Born in 1995, Hu Chun-yuan, now 26, was a studious child who before entering university “didn’t pay attention to anything outside the classroom window.” “When I was in high school, the ‘Arab Spring’ broke out in the Middle East and North Africa.” But for high-school students, major international events were just text that scrolled by on the TV news.
Now in its 28th year, the Taiwan-based Women Make Waves International Film Festival—Asia’s first all-female international film festival—has been introducing films by Taiwanese and foreign women since its inception in 1993. By exploring topics such as gender diversity, the festival gives audiences a chance to view the world through women’s eyes.
Under the bright lights at center stage, the actor’s every movement is seductive as he gracefully performs a dan role (a female role in Peking Opera). Later, he sits offstage at a long table, back straight, neatly dressed, calligraphy brush in hand, writing with complete focus. This is the many-talented Dano Pan, appearing some years ago at an overseas venue in his capacity as an International Youth Ambassador for Taiwan.
For island nations like Taiwan or those of the South Pacific, food security is a critical issue. Taiwan’s economy was founded on agriculture and the island brings forth an abundance of farm produce. Accordingly, it has long pursued research into factors that affect agriculture, yielding impressive results.
In recent years, more and more young people are serving humanity by volunteering overseas, demonstrating that they too can lend a helping hand. Yet few also diligently consider the true meaning of volunteering. Having once had doubts about the need for volunteering, Dr. Chiang Cho-hung now aims to support sustainability and create solutions with his research as he moves beyond “cooperation” to “collaboration,” marching with others toward a collective future of global sustainability.
Professor Thierry Burnouf, a French-born therapeutic blood product expert and vice dean of the College of Biomedical Engineering at Taipei Medical University, is promoting international cooperation among academic researchers, helping research teams raise their global profile via research breakthroughs and the sharing of discoveries. Burnouf, who has lived in Taiwan for more than a decade and is now a naturalized citizen, says, “I’m so happy to have chosen to stay in Taiwan long term!”
