Tidying expert and Chinese immigrant shares insights on homekeeping

2024-04-02

Now we meet a tidying up guru who helps clients turn their “little houses” into “mansions.” Fang Li moved to Taiwan from China 15 years ago. After bringing up two kids as a single mother, she found her calling: tidying up. She now has a small business of her own and is excited about extending her housekeeping insights to more clients.

This professional tidying expert is Fang Li, who hails from China and has lived in Taiwan for 15 years.

She clears out the clothes closet, and separates items by category into large storage bags. She skillfully places the sofa in a new position and re-places the items according to their user’s habits, turning what was a messy bedroom into a spacious nest, spick and span.

Fang Li
Tidying expert and Chinese immigrant
We’ve tidied and organized the objects and then divided the room into zones. There’s the sleeping zone, the working zone, the cosmetics zone, and a little living room zone. Once your items are sorted and tidied, it’s easy and frictionless to use them.

Fang paid for her own education in the tidying profession. She has recognized professional qualifications from Taiwan and Japan, and has founded a small working group as she grows her business.

Fang Li
Tidying expert and Chinese immigrant
Often when we finish a job, the client will say, “I didn’t realize our house could feel so big! Yeah, we often say our home is very small.” But you can really turn a “small” home into a mansion through a tidying service.

When she first arrived in Taiwan, Fang worked part-time at a fruit and vegetable market. Later she worked as a cleaner, and in recent years transitioned to her work as a tidying guru. After a divorce, she raised her two children alone, which was a financial strain. But she got through the difficult years and was able to turn her focus to home organization, where she found her vocation.

Fang Li
Tidying expert and Chinese immigrant
The harvest I have now is that I brought up these two children, and I find my value in them. I bought my own house, thanks to the work I’ve done for the last decade or more. I think if you just work hard, and live sincerely, then you will have a beautiful life.

A 22-year-old woman went through marriage and migration to grow into a woman with strength and softness. Qipao dance, her favorite hobby, is a lot like her own life story: it may look simple, but behind the elegant movements is a surprising story. Fang hopes her small business will continue to put down roots, and one day she can become a big name in the world of tidying up.

This story was provided by the program "We Are Family"
Funded by New Immigrant Development Fund

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

新住民變收納整理達人　單親媽媽成功創業

2024-04-02

中國新住民方麗四年前轉型收納整理師，用系統化方式，幫客戶把空間從「好窄」變「豪宅」。為了跨足整理師這個行業，方麗自費學習，投資自己，已經獲得臺灣和日本的專業資格認，她希望攻頂專業講師，成立工作室繼續衝事業。

說話的是來自中國的方麗，來臺定居十五年，現在她是專業的收納整理師。

清出衣物，用大型收納袋把各種物品分門別類，方麗巧妙地移動了沙發位置，依據使用者習慣，把物品重新定位，原本雜亂的臥室變成一個井然有序的小套房。

[[中國新住民方麗]]
"經過收納整理之後，我們做了區域分隔，我們把它分成睡覺的區域、工作的區域、化妝的區域，還有一個小客廳的感覺。物品做了分類整理之後，平常使用時也會很順手。"

為了跨足整理師這個行業，方麗自費學習，投資自己，已經獲得臺灣及日本的專業資格認可，她成立了小型工作團隊，慢慢創業。

[[中國新住民方麗]]
"我們常常在服務完之後，客人就會講說，原來我們家可以變得這麼大喔！對啊，我們常常在講說，我們家真的是好窄，其實真的就是可以透過收納整理服務，真的讓家從好窄變成豪宅。"

來臺初期，方麗在果菜市場打零工，後來從事清潔工作，這幾年成功轉型收納整理師。雖然婚姻觸礁，獨自撫養兩個小孩，經濟壓力比較大，一轉眼，苦日子撐過去了，她在居家收納領域看到了自己的專業。

[[中國新住民方麗]]
"現在的收穫就是，我養育了兩個小孩長大，我在他們身上找到我的價值，我有買自己的房子，也是這十幾年工作累積來的，我覺得只要你認真工作，認真過生活，你就會擁有一個很美好的人生。"

一個22歲的少女，因為遇見愛情，經歷婚姻，蛻變成一位溫柔堅強的女性。方麗的豐富人生，就像她最愛的旗袍舞一樣，看似簡單，但如何成就每個柔軟，只有自己知道。她希望，已經有小小雛形的事業繼續茁壯，有朝一日要成為一位高階的收納整理講師。

以上內容由《我們一家人》節目提供內政部移民署監製

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2024-04-02

Lawmakers call for more flexible leave to help new parents work well and parent well

With Taiwan’s aging population crisis worsening, matters like inflexible parental leave seem to only be making matters worse. A press conference featuring DPP lawmakers and civic groups called on the government to allow parents to be able to take leave in customizable chunks of time. They say this can help them better meet the demands of their family and their workplaces.

Taiwan’s unpaid parental leave laws are known for being rigid, with current regulations stating that leave “shall not be, in principle, less than six months each time.” Today, DPP lawmakers and civic groups got together to hold a press conference where the speakers called on the government to provide more time-related flexibility for parental leave.

Fan Yun
DPP lawmaker
Once gender equality is achieved, women will also start to pursue the dream careers they originally had. When you add that together with financial pressure you get a dwindling birthrate. And if you can’t fix this issue, then you’ll get a social structure problem. We hope that the Ministry of Labor can give a real world response to public demand by implementing an important political viewpoint of President-elect Lai Ching-te, which is parental leave reform.

Lin Shu-fen
DPP lawmaker
The current system for parental leave without pay is if you as the parent choose to keep your job, then your job is protected if you want to take a longer-term parental leave without pay. If you want something more flexible, then the period of time for work leave can be altered to meet your workplace’s requirements. This second track is flexible leave for parents. We want both parental leave tracks to run alongside each other.

Another lawmaker said that if the law isn’t changed then the aging population crisis will only get worse over time.

Hung Sun-han
DPP lawmaker
When time isn’t flexible or ample enough to help a mother cope with all sorts of potential family situations, then she’ll have to face a difficult choice. When time allotment for parental leave time is so set in stone, then labor shortages will only get worse. Are worsening labor shortages good for industries? And so the way to bridge these labor gaps is by doing what industries seem to be doing effortlessly right now, which is hiring migrant workers from other countries? I don’t think that’s the way we should be doing things.

Taiwan’s potential demographic collapse concerns all political parties. Pan-green lawmakers have pitched the issue of fixing inflexible parental leave, and so they hope lawmakers nationwide will step up to the plate and, together, revise the law.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

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17 DPP lawmakers rated ‘outstanding’ in Citizen Congress Watch ranking

2024-04-02

New findings on mosaic embryo fertility

Good news for couples with fertility problems: a team of scientists has found that children born out of implanted mosaic embryos are just as healthy as children born from normal embryos. Mosaicism is a condition that means embryos have a mixture of normal and abnormal cells, as determined by a chromosome analysis. The findings open up new doors for mothers who may only have mosaic embryos available for implantation.

These two mothers successfully gave birth to children after being implanted with mosaic embryos. They and their kids have come back to visit the hospital, where they previously underwent treatment, to celebrate Children’s Day.

Mother
Technology is getting more and more advanced. I was looking online and I saw that this hospital offered the latest procedures.

Mother
I got the opportunity and went through the entire procedure and had my baby.

Lee Maw-sheng from the Lee Women’s Hospital, had previously co-authored a paper that found that the birth weight, length of gestation and incidence of birth defects in infants born from mosaic embryos were not statistically different from euploid embryos. Late last year, the paper was announced as a first-place winner of the 2023 Prize Paper Award by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Lee Maw-sheng
Lee Women’s Hospital superintendent
They only do one awards event every year. It’s like the Nobel Prize. Doctors from 152 countries take part, and there is only one prize to win.

The findings are a boost of confidence for mothers who only have mosaic embryos left to implant.

Lee Maw-sheng
Lee Women’s Hospital superintendent
It doesn’t affect the likelihood of pregnancy much. And most importantly, the babies that are born are healthy. They are born without any health concerns.

Amid Taiwan’s falling birthrates, the doctor says he hopes the findings will inspire more people to not give up on their dreams to grow their families.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-04-02

Mask manufacturers embrace recycling to stay afloat

Since the COVID-19 pandemic receded, demand for face masks has plummeted. At the same time, cut-price Chinese masks have flooded the market. Mask manufacturers in Taiwan are looking for ways to stay afloat in the competitive industry. Many are turning to recycling, either reusing old masks in new ways, or highlighting how their masks are more “green” than competitors.

A production line whirrs with activity as mask after mask rolls by. Mask demand has plummeted since the pandemic ended, and the members of the “National Mask Squad” are transitioning to new ways of working.

Chen Yung-chih
Face mask manufacturer
The cleaning bag you see here uses material recycled from the nose bridges of our masks, remade into refuse bags. They’re very strong and difficult to perforate.

Refuse bags, clothes hangers, and other items are all made of recycled masks. When COVID-19 exploded in 2020, the government invited manufacturers to form a “National Mask Squad” to stabilize the production of public health equipment. At their height, they were producing 20 million face masks a day. But these disposable masks can also become environmental pollution.

Chen Yung-chih
Face mask manufacturer
We have always needed to deal with masks using landfill or incineration. That means that masks might defame, or pollute the air or the ocean in the future. So, how can we make masks sustainable, eco-friendly, circular and reusable?

With these green goals, Taiwanese mask manufacturers are working with the Taiwan Nonwoven Fabrics Industry Association. They’re recycling masks, and launching a new recycling logo. They want to protect the Earth while also making inroads into overseas markets, including Europe and America.

Chen Yung-chih
Face mask manufacturer
During the pandemic, Taiwan had a mask shortage. So all the Taiwanese manufacturers’ masks were requisitioned. That meant foreign clients couldn’t buy our masks. They also had some assessments and considerations to bear in mind concerning risk, so many of those contracts went to other countries or to China. That led us to lose an awful lot of contracts.

Huang Chih-ping
Taiwan Nonwoven Fabrics Industry Association
Our masks still cost between NT$3.5 and NT$5, but the ones imported from China are 0.8 yuan, or even less. Facing this competition from China’s cut-price masks, we want to call on the public to contribute to the environment as they protect their own health. Get a mask that’s all one material, that we can recycle, that we can turn into another product.

Before the pandemic, Taiwan boasted about 30 mask manufacturers. At the height of COVID-19, there were more than 400. Now, there are fewer than 100. They face a decline in demand and cheap competition from China, as well as undercutting rivals within Taiwan. But these manufacturers are working to reinvent themselves. They’re not throwing in the towel yet.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-04-02

TSMC American depositary receipts pick up 4% after April Fools’ hoax report

Hoax reports on April Fools’ Day had a major impact on TSMC American depositary receipts on Monday and Taiwan shares on Tuesday. A false report had emerged that Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway was buying back his TSMC stake. The news boosted TSMC American depositary receipts by 4%, which in turn lifted TSMC shares by NT$20 on Tuesday. Taiwan shares overall picked up 1.21% to close at a record-breaking 20,466 points. The biggest winners were tech shares and AI concept stocks.

Wall Street saw a mixed trading day on April Fools’ Day on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 240 points, in contrast with gains in the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index. The rise comes after an online hoax emerged claiming that Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway was buying back his TSMC stake. The news boosted TSMC American depositary receipts, which rose by 4%. That in turn boosted TSMC shares on Tuesday in Taiwan, picking up NT$20 to close at NT$790.

Weng Wei-jie
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When bullish or bearish news break out, they trigger an immediate reaction in financial markets, which causes fluctuations. Currently, global markets are at historic highs, and so any impact from news will be even bigger. Determining the veracity of news stories has become something investors absolutely must be able to do.

Taiwan shares opened high and closed even higher at a new record high of 20,466 points, an increase of 1.21%. Tuesday was gains across the board for electronics and AI shares. MediaTek picked up 0.43%, and Quanta and Hon Hai skyrocketed by more than 5% each.

Weng Wei-jie
Analyst
The rise of TSMC’s American depositary receipts has had an effect. Shares of companies in TSMC’s supply chain and shares related to future AI stocks were on a clear rebound on Tuesday. And the scope of the rebound wasn’t cut down significantly after it was found the reports were false.

With the Tomb Sweeping Festival break just around the corner, and many variables at play, the analyst urges investors to exercise caution.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-04-02

South Korean and Japanese musicians coming to perform in Taiwan this year

Singers and performers from around the world are coming to Taiwan this year. Among them is South Korean singer-songwriter IU, who will be holding two concerts over the Tomb Sweeping Festival break. Also this week CNBLUE from South Korea will be rocking up Kaoshiung. And if you’re a fan of Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada, here’s some good news, as the artist will be coming to Taipei on Aug. 10.

Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada’s 1999 song “First Love” is also the name of the new hit Japanese TV series, which portrays a love story so unforgettable that the show has earned Netflix Top 10 honors in countries around the world.

Utada, who debuted 25 years ago, announced that she’s coming to Taiwan. The Japanese-American singer hasn’t gone on tour in six years. One of her stops on her international tour is Taipei.

Utada surprised her fans when she announced that she’ll be performing in Taipei Arena on Aug. 10. But music lovers will need to train their reaction time if they want to get their hands on concert tickets.

South Korea’s IU is the next major musical artist coming to Taiwan, with concerts scheduled for the Tomb-Sweeping Festival break. The singer-songwriter’s two shows in Taiwan were sold out within seconds.

IU’s shows in South Korea have featured K-Pop groups such as New Jeans and Le Sserafim as opening acts. So fans are quite excited to see if IU has any surprises in store for her shows in Taiwan.

IU isn’t the only South Korean musician coming to Taiwan. CNBLUE is coming too. The band’s members have been active since 2009, and during this time the group has created many well-known hits. The group is now back together after seven years of doing solo acts. It’s the group’s first time coming to Southern Taiwan, where they’ll be poised to get music fans at Kaohsiung Music Center hyped up.

With Asian pop music singers and bands coming to Taiwan one after another, Taiwanese fans will be able to see and hear their favorite musicians without even having to get on a plane.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

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Taoyuan to hold rice noodle festival as scheduled on April 20

2024-04-02

Italian immigrant brings his mother’s authentic family recipes to Tainan

An Italian immigrant has brought his authentic family recipes to Taiwan’s market. Nicola Fornasa met his wife in Shanghai, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to settle down in Tainan. After giving up a business career, Fornasa has become a professional baker. He uses the tried and tested sweet recipes created by his mom! Although they’re unusual in Taiwan, they go down a storm in a town that appreciates authentic food traditions as much as Tainan. Fornasa hopes that one day he can bring his mom over to see how far her recipes have come.

Nicola Fornasa touts his products at a lively market.

The Italian immigrant is here to sell his homemade cakes, the most distinctive of which is this sweet salame. It’s rare in Taiwan but Fornasa has been enjoying it his whole life.

Fornasa imports ingredients from his home region of Italy to make the salame, which is 85% chocolate. The chocolate is melted and mixed with other ingredients to form a sausage shape, then bound with string and set in a freezer.

Salame is a word most of us associate with cold meats or pork sausage. But don’t let it fool you! This cake, originating in Italy and Portugal, has nothing to do with meat.

Nicola Fornasa
Baker and Italian immigrant
You can find a charcuterie shop, the shop for salami, prosciutto, ham. But this one is only chocolate without any meat or other ingredient.

Before coming to Taiwan, Fornasa worked for a synthetic leather company. In his spare time, he liked to cook with his mother’s recipes to care for his homesickness. He never expected that one day he’d be a professional baker. His mother, who still lives in Italy, is astonished that her son has made a career out of her recipes. She still regularly handwrites a new recipe out and sends it to him, to bring novelty to his menu.

Nicola Fornasa
Baker and Italian immigrant
I’m lucky because I transform one passion in one business, and not so many people are so lucky in the world. So, for me, it’s just my passion.

Fornasa hopes that one day, he can bring his mother to Taiwan, so she can see how the sweetness of her ideas has won the hearts of Taiwanese markets.

This story was provided by the program "We Are Family"
Funded by New Immigrant Development Fund

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-04-02

Tidying expert and Chinese immigrant shares insights on homekeeping