Category：Features

How plants are bringing healing to care patients

We shall now turn to the power of plants. For many people, a forest hike or spending time in the garden is a surefire way to relax. At medical and care institutions across Taiwan, the power of plants is well known, and is being used to improve the lives of patients. Today we visit a care home in New Taipei, where horticultural therapy helps residents cast their troubles away. We also see how virtual forest hikes bring joy to hospice patients at the end of their lives. Our Sunday special report.

Students try to tell what seeds are inside the shakers. This is the weekly horticultural therapy session at the Bali Ai-Hsin Home for Persons with Disabilities in New Taipei.

Today, the therapist is taking residents to experience spices and herbs through the five senses. They look at them, touch them, smell them and even have a taste.

The horticultural therapy program started in 2008 and has been running for more than 15 years. The past five years, the program has been led by Chang Po-jan.

Chang Po-jan
Horticultural therapist
They all have severe and extremely severe disabilities, or have multiple disabilities. Some of them can only communicate through facial expressions or by making sounds. Sometimes they move their eyes and that’s how you know whether they like something or not, if they are feeling happy or if something’s up.

Hsieh Hsin-ming
Bali Ai-Hsin Home for Persons with Disabilities
Our residents are interested in taking part in courses like this. They get very invested in them. So I think there should be more courses like this.

She opens the door to the garden and everyone rushes out to bask in the sunshine and be one with nature. Discarded hospital beds have been converted into planters, allowing wheelchair users to get up close with the greens.

Specially designed spades and gardening tools let residents with limited mobility have a go at turning over the soil and planting seeds.

Chang Po-jan
Horticultural therapist
They can put the seeds in this slide to slide them into the holes. That makes it easier to plant the seeds.

Watering the plants is a fun activity that is actually part of rehabilitation. This is what horticultural therapy is all about. Getting close to plants and tending them helps participants relax and relieve stress. This form of therapy has been popular internationally for many years. Therapists act as a bridge between humans and plants.

Chang Po-jan
Horticultural therapist
People often think that horticultural therapists do our jobs to heal others. But after being in this profession for a long time, we realize that we ourselves are being healed.

She maneuvers her wheelchair all around the garden, inspecting every plant. This is Lin Li-hsueh’s routine.

She’s lived in the home for 30 years, and she pours her heart into gardening.

Lin Li-hsueh
Bali Ai-Hsin Home for Persons with Disabilities resident
It’s kind of like taking care of a baby. You have to care for them, cherish them and tend to them patiently. I’m very happy. You realize that all your troubles aren’t actually troubles when you are immersed in gardening. I like being with my plants.

With muddy hands, Weng Yen-ju is having fun playing with the soil.

Weng Yen-ju
Bali Ai-Hsin Home for Persons with Disabilities resident
You can see how seeds become shoots and eventually bear fruit. To me, it is quite encouraging. No matter what you look like, or whether you can walk or not, you have your own life and a place to showcase your strengths. It reminds me not to give up.

Sunlight trickles through the thick foliage of towering trees.

Yu Chia-pin
NTU School of Forestry and Resource Conservation
At the beginning, I was feeling symptoms of depression after certain life events. When I got in touch with nature, it improved my physical and mental wellbeing.

Nature can soothe the soul, and that is something that NTU forestry professor Yu Chia-pin has experienced firsthand. Over the years, he has become an advocate and pioneer of forest therapy in Taiwan.

Yu Chia-pin
NTU School of Forestry and Resource Conservation
To a certain extent it’s about how the natural environment and leisure activities can boost health. When that’s taken into the forest, we refer to it as forest therapy.

Today, Yu has brought filming equipment up Yangmingshan to capture the landscape at Lengshuikeng.

On the tripod is a 360-degree spherical camera with six lenses to film the tranquility of the forest.

Yu Chia-pin
NTU School of Forestry and Resource Conservation
Nowadays we have advanced technology. You can watch the footage of this 360-degree camera live on your phone to check whether you like the scene or whether it suits your purposes. See? These are the images captured by the cameras from different angles. Of course, the better the image quality, the higher the resolution, and therefore the more immersive it feels. I take videos in 360 degrees, and record the sounds to get the full effect.

The healing power of forests has been proven by science.

Chen Chun-lin
Far Eastern Memorial Hospital psychiatrist
A medical study from 1984 found that patients who had undergone surgery recovered faster when they were put in hospital beds outside with greenery and trees. This has been known since the ’80s.

This class led by Yu isn’t just about virtual reality. It’s also about social responsibility, and how to use technology to bring the power of nature to more people.

Yu Chia-pin
NTU School of Forestry and Resource Conservation
The VR productions made by previous class participants have been used in many different places, for example the hospice ward at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital.

Most patients in hospice care have little physical strength, making a trip into nature a luxury they can’t afford. NTU’s forestry department brought VR into the ward to make their wishes come true.

Lin Hsin-i
Far Eastern Memorial Hospital counselor
After the patient put on the goggles, we created a breeze and used essential oils to give him the feeling that he was really in the forest. It’s 360 degrees, so it’s very immersive. It’s not like watching a video. You perceive the environment very directly.

Yu Chia-pin
NTU School of Forestry and Resource Conservation
The short escape from the hospital cheered him up a lot. It can really help with people’s physical and mental wellbeing. That’s what moved me the most.

At Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, the hospice ward has a secret garden, with more than 50 kinds of plants spread over 300 pings. This green oasis is where patients, their families and medical staff can take a breather. As long as the patient’s condition permits it, they can leave the ward and enjoy the bliss of nature without leaving the hospital.

Lin Hsin-i
Far Eastern Memorial Hospital counselor
Patients can be taken to the garden to spend time with people, with their families, and to reconnect with nature. That way they don’t feel like they are cooped up in their wards all the time.

The scent of flowers, the gentle breeze and the warm sun are a natural feast for the senses. For one cancer patient in particular, the garden was a major mood boost, especially paired with blowing bubbles into the air.

Some patients in hospice care are able to be discharged. But for others, the hospital is where they’ll spend their final days.

Lin Hsin-i
Far Eastern Memorial Hospital counselor
The patient’s condition had been deteriorating for some days. His daughter asked us whether we could let him pass away in the garden. That posed a big challenge for us, especially when it came to timing, as we didn’t know when he would pass. It so happened that the weather was good, so I told her we’d go out at noon. I brought him out and we pushed his bed outside. He appeared to be at peace, looking at the blue sky dotted with white clouds. I looked at his eyes. For me, seeing the reflection of the sky in his eyes is a precious moment I cherish.

Chen Chun-lin
Far Eastern Memorial Hospital
I advise everyone to have about 10 potted plants at home. Every day, before you go to work and after you come back home, you can spend 10 minutes checking on them. Just calm down and connect with the plants and the trees. It’s something that can help you wind down, and forget about all the rest.

Be it small potted plants at home or lush forests outside, nature is proven to bring peace of mind. So step outside, slow down and take it all in, to set aside the troubles of daily life.

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

2024-04-07

Communal living model provides care for autistic adults after parents grow old

About 19,000 people in Taiwan have been diagnosed with autism, a developmental disability that is not widely understood by the general public. People with moderate to severe symptoms are sometimes fully dependent on others for care, be it by institutions or their families. For parents with autistic children, a major worry is their children’s well-being after their own death. In Northern Taiwan, a group of parents has come together to find a communal living solution that’s based in a social housing unit. They hope the arrangement will allow their children to become a part of society and to live happy, fulfilling lives. Our Sunday special report.

Cheng Chiao starts off the day brushing his teeth and combing his hair. But, unlike most people his age, his father has to check that the teeth are clean.

Cheng is 42 years old and 183 centimeters tall. He is autistic, and over the past 10 years, his father has been his main caregiver.

In Taiwan, about 19,000 people have been diagnosed with autism, a condition that is not well understood by the general public. The education system provides care for autistic people until they turn 18. After that age, 90% end up living at home, where someone must take care of them round the clock.

Chien Chih-chen is also autistic.

Chien loves going on bike rides. His mother, Lin Chuan-yu, often goes out with him to exercise.

Autism is a developmental disability that can lead to a spectrum of symptoms. For example, Cheng is minimally verbal, whereas Chien can communicate with words. Chien also has Tourette syndrome, which causes him to make sudden movements he can’t control. Because of this, Chien’s mother is always close at hand.

These autistic men get all the care they need from their parents. But their parents won’t be there forever.

Cheng’s father is already in his 70s and his health has begun to deteriorate.

Cheng Wen-cheng
Cheng Chiao’s father
A few weeks ago we were doing CPR training. Perhaps I overexerted myself, because two minutes into it, I felt short on oxygen. Also, doctors have found a small tumor in my lungs.

For many parents with autistic children, a major concern is what will happen to their children when they’re gone.

Tsang Cheng-che is also autistic. He communicates by typing out messages.

Tsang Hao-wei
Tsang Cheng-che’s father
He wrote, “Good morning and thank you for your hard work. We are hard to capture on camera.”

Tsung Ching-yi
Educator
He doesn’t speak, but he has very clear ideas in his mind. When there is something he wants to let out, he communicates by typing on the keyboard.

Tsang Hao-wei
Tsang Cheng-che’s father
He might look like a young child, but inside he is an old soul. The words he uses are very sophisticated. His vocabulary is very rich.

Cheng also expresses his inner thoughts through typing.

Cheng Wen-cheng
Cheng Chiao’s father
He has a sorrow inside. From what he’s written in the past, he does know he is autistic. All of our children are self-aware, they are aware that they have autism. Perhaps part of this sorrow is a kind of worry. They might be afraid that they’ll be sent to a care home after we are gone.

Currently, most autistic adults who lose their parents are sent to institutional care. Though autistic people often have trouble expressing themselves, their writing provides a peek into their minds.

Tsang Hao-wei
Tsang Cheng-che’s father
He wrote an essay thanking me, his father. In it, he said he wished he could just be held in my arms and that we would lie down together forever, the way we did when he was 2 years old. He said he wished he could spend his whole life like that. I think… it’s something that really brings tears to my eyes. We work really hard in hopes of creating an environment where they can live their life happily. That’s our goal in life. It’s all for them.

In 2017, Cheng’s father founded an association with parents of other children with autism. Their goal is to create a safe space where their adult children can live. Toward the end of 2019, the association secured several social housing units in New Taipei’s Linkou District. That’s how a new communal living model came to be.

The parents in the association decided to become neighbors in order to care for each other’s children. They hope this communal arrangement will allow parents and their autistic children to grow old together.

Yang Chen-tsai
Autism rights association
I’d like to thank the government for giving us this space, for making everything more convenient for us.

Back in 2006, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. One of its core principles is that disabled people are full and equal members of society.

Lin Chuan-yu
Chien Chih-chen’s mother
The CRPD stressed that they are people too, and they should enjoy the same rights as everyone else. We are part of society, so they should be part of society as well. We work during the day and go home at night. They should be able to do that too, and not just spend the entire day living inside an institution.

Since the association acquired the social housing units in 2019, the number of households in the project has increased from five to 18. The association has also received subsidies from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and New Taipei’s Social Welfare Department to hire social workers and educators for a day school of its own. It’s also set up a coffee workshop that provides employment opportunities.

The coffee workshop is located in the social housing rental itself. Here, Tsang, Cheng and Chu Po-ying are assembling drip bag coffee packs with the help of parents and educators.

Lying on the floor to one side, Chien is feeling distressed. After his mother comforts him, he gets back up and is ready to work.

People with autism often have a hard time regulating their emotions. This makes it difficult for them to find jobs even at sheltered workshops, which tend to be more understanding toward special needs.

Lin Chuan-yu
Chien Chih-chen’s mother
People with autism are actually very capable of doing things. The problem is that they can’t find jobs outside. It’s not easy for them to ever get a sense of accomplishment from work. So, we provide them with these kinds of atypical employment opportunities. The work isn’t as time-sensitive as in other jobs, so they can just come here and work whenever they feel good both physically and mentally.

Compared with neurotypical people, it’s much harder for people with autism to achieve self-actualization. But the flexible employment provided by the association has given Chu a sense of accomplishment.

Chu Po-ying
Adult with autism
Enjoying a delicious meal can bring all the pains of life to a delightful end. With NT$200 I can make my body, mind and soul the happiest they can be.

During the day, they can attend classes and go to work. But after their parents pass away, who will take care of them at night?

Chiang Hsien-hung has brought his son Chiang Chiao-lung from Taipei to Linkou, to get him used to living here.

Up to six people with autism can live in this space. At night, a carer looks after them.

Chiang Hsien-hung
Chiang Chiao-lung’s father
He needs to be reminded about everything all the time. As far as life skills go, he can take the bus. He can remember bus routes and he knows how to get around.

The association’s rentals in Linkou are a second home that can eventually become their main living quarters.

Lin Chuan-yu
Chien Chih-chen’s mother
Right now what we have to do is to gradually get them used to living alone at night, and develop the corresponding skills. It can be gradual, perhaps starting with one or two nights a week. They can be with their parents in the beginning.

The autistic adults gradually learn the skills they need to live well, even without their parents. While other older adults spend their days playing with their grandkids, the parents of autistic adults spend their time ensuring that their children can survive without them.

Chiang Hsien-hung
Chiang Chiao-lung’s father
Our ultimate goal is that, after we are gone, our children can live here, in a familiar environment with familiar people. We hope they won’t become orphans wandering the streets after their parents pass away.

Cheng Wen-cheng
Cheng Chiao’s father
Everything I do, I do for him. We will all die in our 70s or 80s, or even in our 90s. But we have to take responsibility for what will happen 20 to 30 years after that. That’s 20 or 30 years during which we’re no longer in this world, but our children are. So we have to be responsible for that time too.

The association has also rented out a plot of farmland in Linkou so that members can relax on weekends and holidays. Today, parents and children make lunch, set up trellises from discarded scaffolding, and plant vegetables.

Lin Chuan-yu
Chien Chih-chen’s mother
Being in nature is also a form of care. The founder of our association, Cheng Wen-cheng, once took his son to a small farm in Hualien. He found that his son’s mood was much more stable. So we decided to provide that kind of experience here as well.

Four years after moving into social housing, the association provides for adults with autism thanks to donations from parents, fundraisers and government help. With love and dedication, parents have found ways to keep their autistic children in good hands in their absence. They hope that more families around Taiwan can take inspiration from their model, and come up with solutions so that nobody is left behind.

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

2024-03-31

Fitness professionals help seniors turn the tide on aging

As Taiwan’s demographic changes, older adults have become a major driving force of the fitness industry. But senior clients have unique physical limitations, and their progress may be slower compared to younger adults. To meet the needs of this group, fitness trainers need specialized training. Today in our Sunday special report, we meet certified professionals who guide seniors toward healthier and more vibrant lives.

Despite the rain, these students have gathered right on time for their 10 a.m. muscle conditioning class.

Look close and you’ll see they’re not your usual gym buffs. Many are silver-haired retirees. The average age of the class is 75.

Seniors today are more eager than ever before to take classes to stay fit. But effective instruction requires specialized knowledge.

Wan Tzu
Fitness instructor
I studied physical education in school, but I wasn’t an athlete myself. I focused on the theoretical side. In Taiwan, there are quite a few courses for senior fitness trainers, but they don’t all provide certification.

By law, fitness trainers for the elderly aren’t required to hold certification. But certification is still the main way of assessing a trainer’s abilities.

Cheng Ching-chieh
Fitness center owner
When we’re looking to hire a trainer, we look for three things. The first is at least three years of coaching experience. The second is certification as a senior fitness specialist. The third is actual experience teaching seniors.

In Taiwan, there are two types of certification for senior fitness specialists: national and private. National certification is issued by the Sports Administration. It’s been available since 2013, but is notoriously hard to pass. To date, fewer than 1,500 people have obtained it. In comparison, private certifications are more accessible and varied, with at least 10 organizations offering them.

One of them is the Health & Exercise Association ROC. It runs a two-day certification workshop for senior fitness specialists.

The final exam is two hours long, covering both theoretical and practical components. Today one of the proctors is Ruby, a trainer herself. She says the test doesn’t just assess professional expertise. It also factors in interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively.

Ruby
Senior fitness trainer
First off, how you address the students is very important. Never ever call them Uncle or Aunty. Call them Brother or Sister. After that, you’ve got your small talk: “Have you eaten?” and “How’d you sleep last night?” You have to engage with them. After that, you’ve got to play music, music that old people like. That’s a handy trick of the trade.

As more seniors take up exercise, courses for trainers are on the rise. Certified trainers enjoy a strong career outlook.

She wraps up warm and grabs her microphone. Then she’s off on her scooter, zipping through the streets and alleys.

Thirty-four-year-old Wang Ting-yuan is a traveling fitness instructor for the Taipei City government. She mainly leads aerobics classes for seniors, focusing on overall physical form.

Wang has been a fitness trainer for 15 years. In order to teach seniors, she obtained multiple qualifications, including one in senior health and wellness. She’s also certified in physical conditioning for special populations.

Wang Ting-yuan
Senior fitness trainer
I think it’s important to understand special populations and the physical conditions they might have. For example, some might have diabetes, and some might have osteoporosis or arthritis. Their bodies might be limited by these real conditions, and trainers need to understand that to a certain degree. Only then can trainers know that their students can’t do certain things. For instance, most people can lift their arms to this height, why can’t they do it? With that understanding, we can provide safer training exercises that fall within their restricted range of movement.

Even with her string of certifications, Wang says that what’s key to teaching seniors is communication and establishing trust.

Wang Ting-yuan
Senior fitness trainer
When I first started out, I was someone who could not speak Taiwanese. Ten years ago when I arrived at the first service location for seniors, I discovered that they would sometimes speak to me in Taiwanese. So when I went home I memorized the Taiwanese terms for various joints in the body. They would correct me, and I found that to be great fun. I said, “I’ll teach you how to exercise, and you can teach me Taiwanese.”

Over the years, Wang has earned trust and won hearts in her senior classes. She’s taken her students on adventures to try standup paddleboarding. To them, she’s like a beloved family member.

Student
Learning with her is great. Teacher Yuan-yuan is just go-go-go throughout the entire class. And she gets along with us so well.

Student
We’ve known Yuan-yuan for about eight years now. She’s like our own child. And she keeps us in good shape. I’m already in my 80s but I’m fit as a fiddle.

But as older adults develop chronic diseases or other medical issues, they become prone to feeling sore after exercise. That soreness can create a reluctance to keep exercising. Instead, students might seek out medication from a doctor.

Wang Ting-yuan
Senior fitness trainer
What we really want to do is create a three-part care pathway, from doctor to physiotherapist to fitness trainer. After injured seniors complete rehabilitation, they will need to start restorative training. At that point the responsibility can then fall on the fitness trainer, who works with the seniors to strengthen muscles and improve physical movements, to help adjust their fitness. I think that this is the way to provide comprehensive care.

Tseng Wen-chih
Chronic disease specialist
Taiwan’s health care system is unique. It makes medication very cheap and accessible, and so many chronic diseases are routinely treated with medication. At first one pill is prescribed, and if it’s not effective, another pill is added. You’ll find that many older adults leave the hospital like they had just gone to the supermarket. There’s a bag of medication in one hand and another bag in the other, altogether containing a dozen types of medication.

Sports medicine physician Tseng Wen-chih specializes in treating chronic diseases. Besides providing the usual clinical care, Tseng can also write “exercise prescriptions” for his patients. He believes that drugs can target diseases, but that only exercise can heal the person.

Tseng Wen-chih
Chronic disease specialist
From conducting these studies, I have found that exercise is effective, that exercise can really be a form of medication. Doctors before us have long known that medications interact with each other. If exercise is a form of medication, then it will also interact with the actual medication. Doctors have to understand the interaction of the two. They can increase the amount of exercise on the one hand, and on the other, reduce the amount of actual medication.

Tseng first asks the patient about his daily routine and medication intake. Then he writes a prescription for exercise, which the patient can take to a partner fitness center.

Leo
Trainer at partner gym
Basically, we follow the exercise prescription. Once it’s done, the data is recorded, and Dr. Tseng is consulted about whether adjustments should be made.

Through the power of exercise, seniors can not only improve their health but lighten Taiwan’s medical burden. Senior-focused trainers play a pivotal role in making that happen.

Wang Ting-yuan
Senior fitness trainer
I do feel that this job is quite hard, but through my job I can also help a lot of people. All of us trainers have a sports background. Since we have this specialty, this expertise, why not use it for good in more places, to be a ray of light for more communities in society?

As the senior fitness culture grows, more professional trainers are joining the ranks, providing a way to be active and thrive even in old age.

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

2024-03-24

School for migrant workers sharpens skills and changes lives

Taiwan is home to more than 750,000 foreign workers, who are indispensable to the fishing, manufacturing, and caregiving industries. But many workers face frequent conflicts with their employers due to cultural and language barriers. To address this challenge, an NGO called One-Forty has launched a school for migrant workers. The school offers Chinese lessons and on-the-job training, to help workers adapt to a life in Taiwan. It also teaches secondary skills like entrepreneurship, to make the workers even more employable. Our Sunday special report.

Weaving through the market, this shopper picks out ingredients for lunch, stopping every so often for a chat.

This is Tiny [Read: Teeny], who hails from Indonesia. She arrived in Taiwan in 2009 and now works as a caregiver in New Taipei.

Tiny is close with her employer Tsai Mao-yueh, whom she calls Dad. Besides managing his everyday needs, she loves to cook up a storm.

She can whip up everything from Taiwanese and Thai cuisines to authentic Indonesian delicacies. But when she first arrived in Taiwan, the language barrier made it hard just to buy groceries.

Tiny
Indonesian worker
One time I went with Grandma to the vegetable market. I saw a box of tomatoes and wanted to ask the boss how much it was. The boss completely ignored me because my pronunciation was off. Grandma sat in her wheelchair and she couldn’t speak any Chinese, only Taiwanese. So I had no way of communicating with Grandma. So in the end I just put the tomatoes down and left.

For migrant workers in Taiwan, language and cultural barriers are common challenges. Indonesian workers arrive with 600 hours of language and professional training under their belt. But that training doesn’t always prepare them for everyday conversations in Chinese.

Chen Cheng-fen
Professor of long-term care studies
It’s like how Taiwanese people take the TOEFL before going to the U.S. Even if you’ve made very thorough preparations, when you’re living in a foreign place, you do still discover a gap between what you learned and the language you need for everyday life.

Kimyung Keng
Politics professor
I think that in Taiwan today, there are several NGOs that are doing great work. We have many social organizations that encourage Indonesian workers to continue classes after they arrive in Taiwan, to continue learning. For example, there’s the 1095 workshop in Taichung, and the One-Forty organization in Taipei. There’s also the Global Workers’ Organization, Taiwan. These groups hold a great deal of classes that enable Indonesian workers to continue their education on weekends, after they arrive in Taiwan.

In 2019, Tiny saw a YouTube ad for a school for migrant workers, run by the One-Forty non-profit. She was intrigued by the prospect of free tuition and lessons taught entirely in Indonesian. She told her employer that she wanted to enroll.

Tiny
Indonesian worker
I told Dad, “I want to go to class. I want to go to One-Forty.” He asked when registration opened. I said Sunday. Then Dad took me to One-Forty to register for Chinese class.

Tsai Mao-yueh
Employer
They are a disadvantaged group. It is because they are disadvantaged that they left their hometowns to work In Taiwan. She is a very motivated person, and of course I fully support her. I consider her part of the family, and I want her to make advances in life.

Tiny’s school serves migrant workers, and it works around their holiday schedule. Classes are held just once a month near Taipei Main Station. The lessons are tailored to the needs of students. Today’s lesson, for instance, is on how to order bubble tea.

Nana
Indonesian worker
Before I couldn’t speak at all. Now I’m taking classes regularly. What they taught me today, later I will go and try it out.

Endang
Indonesian worker
I can communicate with my boss and I can talk to friends, to other Taiwanese people. My speech has become more clear and more correct.

Practical language lessons help foreign workers adapt more quickly to life in Taiwan. Tiny has attended class for four years now. She says she’s become a veritable shopping expert.

Tiny
Indonesian worker
I’m really great at shopping now. Hitting the vegetable markets is a cinch. When there’s a buy-one-get-one free promotion, I’m on it right away. I know it’s buy-one-get-one free, and that I’ve got to hurry and buy.

Taiwan opened to migrant labor 30 years ago, and is currently home to more than 750,000 workers. According to a 2022 labor ministry survey, more than 40% of employers have experienced conflict with employees due to language barriers.

Kevin Chen
One-Forty founder
Every migrant worker I’ve interviewed has told me that they faced a huge language barrier after arriving in Taiwan. Some couldn’t speak Chinese well, and others couldn’t use Taiwanese to communicate with older grandparents they looked after. A school for migrant workers helps every migrant worker improve their life in Taiwan, to improve their language and communication skills. At the same time, they improve their work performance, too.

Besides teaching Chinese, One-Forty launched a new skills course for caregivers in 2023, to provide on-the-job training. On this Sunday afternoon, dementia care is the focus. All the students are caregivers who work firsthand with dementia patients.

Chen Cheng-fen
Professor of long-term care studies
For both Taiwanese caregivers and social workers, professional education is divided into pre-job and on-the-job training. Unfortunately, foreign caregivers in the family setting don’t get to have on-the-job training. So after they enter a family, they have no one to turn to if they have problems. There’s no team that they can consult.

Huang Yu-ting
Dementia workshop director
What results from this is that, for Taiwanese families, the quality of dementia care perhaps isn’t so good. Migrant workers might feel frustrated, as they feel they can’t do a good job. So we partnered with a professional medical team – Taipei City Hospital’s dementia care center – to provide basic training in dementia care.

Language and skills training can ease the friction between migrant workers and their employers. But only a minority of workers can get permission from employers to attend class, either alone or with their charges.

Kevin Chen
One-Forty founder
Lots of migrant workers message us and ask, “When will you have classrooms across Taiwan?” They want to come to class, because they really want to learn, but they live too far away. Some caregivers say they only get one day off every month, and they can’t go to class in Taipei but they really want to. So later on we thought, if they can’t make it to our classrooms, we can take our class materials to them. So we started sending out lessons in the mail.

One-Forty sends course materials directly to homes. It also provides online lessons. In 2022, more than 1,200 migrant workers signed up for distance learning. Even without signing up, workers can still access more than 300 online videos and learn right at home. In April 2022, the labor ministry launched a talent retention program for migrant workers. Drawing on the experience of non-profits, the ministry now offers its own online courses.

Su Yu-kuo
Labor ministry’s Workforce Development Agency official
Actually these migrant workers are quite young. They are extremely tech savvy and good at the internet. Due to the nature of their work, they very much welcome online learning, which isn’t restricted to a given time or location.

Through continuing education, the Ministry of Labor hopes to retain migrant workers to stem the national labor shortage. But for the One-Forty non-profit, another goal is to equip migrant workers with secondary skills, which they can use should they choose to go home. The NGO recently launched courses in computer skills and entrepreneurship, to make students more employable in their home countries.

Kevin Chen
One-Forty founder
Every year, more than 100,000 migrant workers go back to Southeast Asia after working in Taiwan. When they go back, they tell people: “Taiwan is a fantastic place” and “When I was in Taiwan, people really helped me out.” They encourage more people to come to Taiwan. That’s the way to make Taiwan a more attractive destination for workers as our society continues to age and industries start to need more labor.

Amid the global race for talent, Taiwan must make itself a great place to live and work. Only then is there a chance at retaining foreign labor, to power industrial growth and to keep Taiwan’s old-age care system afloat.

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

2024-03-10

Music disappearing from public spaces amid fear of copyright disputes

Just over 20 years ago, Taiwan passed an amendment to the Copyright Act in a bid to help artists and musical creators obtain royalties from their works. At the time, it was hailed as a milestone that would protect musicians and promote cultural development. But over the years, it’s become clear that the act has side effects harmful to Taiwan’s music scene. Overzealous copyright holders have found ways to abuse the system and collect extortionate licensing fees from small businesses and individuals. Those who do try to follow the law find themselves grappling with paperwork and hefty fees. All in all, critics say the act has forced music out of Taiwan’s public spaces. Our Sunday special report.

Colorful lights and an enticing beat get dancers on the floor. The dance hall at this club is where people can let go of their stress, by singing to their heart’s content. But the once carefree gatherings have changed over the past decade. Every now and then, a stranger will burst in and accuse the revelers of copyright infringement.

Mr. Chen
Singing club head
One time they came in saying that their company had a copyright on the music and that we hadn’t obtained a license. They asked us what we would do about it. So I told them that from that we would purchase a license from them. We also paid them NT$60,000 in compensation for the song that we were playing.

It may seem that music can be listened to and played freely, but that is not the case. In the year 2000, an amendment to the Copyright Act gave music creators, record labels and copyright management groups the right to collect licensing fees. The revision was aimed at protecting the intellectual property of creators. But it’s inadvertently caused big headaches for music lovers.

Ms. Lin
Former karaoke operator
They came in and asked me to lend them the book with the list of songs. I handed it over. Then, they said, “Oh, this song.” I asked them what was wrong with the song. At the time, they said it was nothing. Later, they called other people over and they asked to see the owner. Only then did they say that we were not allowed to use the song, and that we had to pay a fine.

Mr. Chen
Singing club head
A similar thing happened to a seafood restaurant near here. Reps from a copyright company went to the restaurant and requested a song. I remember it perfectly, the title was “Xiao Wei”. They owned the rights to the song, so the company took the restaurant to court and demanded a settlement of NT$600,000.

A fine of NT$600,000 could bring a small business to an end. The copyright rules have also affected the livelihoods of singing teachers.

Mr. Huang
Singing teacher
A teacher in this line of work was caught by a copyright owner and had to stop teaching. The fine was more than NT$300,000.

Being unaware of the law does not exempt violators from fines. But some copyright owners have turned to abusing the protections by “fishing” for victims to claim compensation.

Chang Po-wei
Street Arts and Culture Development Association
Street performers singing outside have been targeted before, as well as small businesses like beauty salons or even clothing shops. People show up at the door and say you have to pay to play the music. They’ll say it’s NT$5,000 per month or whatever, and that if you don’t cough up, they’ll sue you and you’ll end up paying thousands of dollars.

Hung Sheng-i
Intellectual Property Office
That kind of fishing strategy you mentioned was very useful early on. To collect evidence for a case, people could just request a copyrighted song, and take a video and photos, so that the violator would have no way to escape.

Such copyright disputes aren’t just limited to individuals and small businesses. Media outlets and online platforms have also been caught up in the storm. In 2022, a variety program called the “Bing Bing Show” was asked to pay NT$60 million in licensing fees.

Users should pay, but just how much is a reasonable fee?

Gary Kuo
Intellectual property lawyer
Songs are actually two kinds of copyrighted works. One is the musical work – that is the composition and lyrics. The other is the sound recording. It’s usually not too difficult to obtain a license for sound recordings, because all the rights are concentrated in a few entities. You can often do it via the record label or the distributor. So platforms and users can reach out to the record label or the distributor to obtain a license and negotiate the relevant fees.

Chang Chung-hsin
Soochow University School of Law
If you want to use other people’s works, you have to ask for permission or obtain a license. That is, you have to pay. But different kinds of uses may incur different kinds of fees. Public broadcasts, public transmissions and public performances are three different kinds of uses. Reproduction is yet another kind of use.

Obtaining licenses for a song and paying the relevant fees can be a complicated process. Several copyright associations have formed in Taiwan, to defend the rights and interests of music creators.

Hung Sheng-i
Intellectual Property Office
There are five such associations in Taiwan. So if you want to get a license to broadcast, transmit and perform the work in public, both for the musical work and the sound recording, you need to discuss the matter with all five associations. Every year, radio and television stations sign blanket license agreements with the associations. If you upload the program to YouTube, you’d have to also obtain reproduction rights. But the associations do not deal with reproduction rights.

Although television and radio stations pay high fees every year, they still sometimes encounter legal troubles. Several programs, including the “Bing Bing Show,” have been forced to shut down over the years due to exorbitant licensing fees.

The variety show “The Golden Age” faced the same fate, as did a popular radio music show hosted by Mickey Huang. Copyright disputes have dealt a big blow to major media outlets, as well as private users.

Mr. Huang
Singing teacher
There are so many fees that it has all become a big burden for music teachers. It creates concerns, making them less willing to take on students. Of all the countries in the world, Taiwan likes singing the most.

Although it’s neither unreasonable nor illegal to ask users to pay for music licenses, complicated application procedures and the risk of pricy disputes have slowly forced music out of public spaces.

Mr. Chen
Singing club head
Huanzhong East Road had a dozen singing parlors in its golden age. There was also lots of places along Huaxun Street, Xinzhong North Road, and Zhongshan East Road. But now almost all of them have shut down, because they can’t pay the licensing fees.

Copyright issues don’t just cause headaches in Taiwan. In the era of online streaming, licensing has become a major legal issue in countries all around the world. In 2018, the U.S. passed the Music Modernization Act. The bill aimed to lower the cost of licensing songs and expand upon the rights of music creators, to benefit both copyright owners and users.

Gary Kuo
Intellectual property lawyer
If you wanted to compile all the music onto one platform, you’d have to obtain licenses one by one from each of the copyright holders. That came with high administrative costs. The Copyright Act of the past wasn’t able to meet those needs, and that’s why the U.S. introduced the new Music Modernization Act. The main effect was that it made the licensing process less difficult and it lowered costs, so that people or platforms that want to use the music can do so fully.

Article 1 of Taiwan’s Copyright Act states that the bill was enacted for the purpose of “promoting the development of national culture.” But the reality is that acquiring licenses to use any song requires engaging in many negotiations and paying multiple fees. Critics say this cumbersome and expensive process is detrimental for cultural development, but the government says it all comes down to market mechanisms. Meanwhile, the number of music programs is on the decline, and music is no longer played at department stores, cafes or public spaces such as train stations. Even street performers are afraid of singing in public.

Chang Po-wei
Street Arts and Culture Development Association
I know a lot of music creators, including people who are just starting out and people creating music online. What they want is for the songs they are writing to be heard everywhere. Imagine if you were strolling around the pedestrian area in Xinyi District, or walking along the Calligraphy Greenway in Taichung, and everything was silent. No music playing. It’s detrimental to the growth of the music industry and the development of urban art in cities.

Taiwan’s Copyright Act has been in effect for more than 20 years now. Though well intentioned, it has given rise to an endless string of licensing disputes. Critics say the bill has driven music away from society.

Chang Po-wei
Street Arts and Culture Development Association
When I was still a student, I often went to the Chunghwa Market in Taipei. I could walk along the street from the first block to the last while hearing the entirety of Chyi Chin’s “Yuanlai de Wo”. On the way back, I could listen to Dave Wong’s “Forget About You / Forget About Me.” Music was our companion during our student days. I hope these copyright associations can think about this. If tomorrow the works by all these artists were to disappear from the streets of Taiwan, would their music continue to be passed down?

As music players shut off and street performers go quiet on the streets, is Taiwan destined to become a society living in silence? Only time will tell.

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

2024-03-03

Taiwan gets creative in battle against ‘green cancer’

Taiwan is fighting an ecological menace known as the Mikania vine, or the bitter vine. Native to Central and South America, it’s a fast-growing plant that can overtake agricultural crops, killing them along the way. Today the weed has already spread extensively across the country. Tonight in our Sunday special report, we meet the people who are battling the vine, and see how they’re turning it from a threat to an economic opportunity.

The banana trees are covered in a mass of green, as if shrouded by a blanket. They’ve been invaded by a weed known as the bitter vine. Once the vine covers a crop, it can pose a deadly threat. That’s why it’s known as the “green cancer.”

Bitter vine is native to Central and South America, and it thrives under strong sun. It’s a rapidly growing plant that climbs toward light. If left unmanaged, it can kill the crops that it invades. But removing the vine is labor intensive, and volunteers are often needed to help.

Liu Jung-chuan
Volunteer
We’re out in the country. Here in the country, this problem is very common. People are older here, and farming for a living is hard on them. All the young people have gone away.

Chuang Hsin-hsien
Volunteer
Banana trees, orange trees, and other plants. For instance, lychee orchards have it too. Wherever this vine can climb and find water and nutrients, it will grow.

Bitter vine has pointed leaves and small white flowers that bloom in the summer. It can grow an astonishing 24 centimeters a day. Besides being known as “green cancer,” it’s also nicknamed the “forest killer” due to its harmful impact on reforestation. It causes tree death after invading, altering the ecology. When its shallow roots replace the deep roots of trees, it can make mountain slopes unstable.

Lin Hsiang-li
Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency official
It likes high humidity and high temperatures – it does well in warm areas. Taiwan just happens to check all the boxes. In our surveys of the plant’s distribution, we’ve seen it spread from altitudes below 1,500 meters to areas above 2,000 meters.

In its native Central and South America, the bitter vine is kept in check by local insects and pathogens. But it has no such enemies in Taiwan. Tasked with fighting the weed, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency has explored a variety of ways.

Lin Hsiang-li
Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency official
The main removal methods are mechanical, biological, and chemical. Chemical methods entail spraying herbicides, and we haven’t considered it. Biological methods deploy the natural enemies of the bitter vine. Initially our experts studied the rust fungi as an option, but they were concerned about the risks, that is, the unintended harm that the fungi might have on other species.

Over the years, the government has found it hard to keep the vine in check.

Today, Hsu Kuang-yuan and his team are on a mission to kill weeds, here at a plot of public land in Taoyuan City. They use their hands and small sickles, as manual removal is the most effective strategy against the bitter vine.

Hsu monitors the progress, reminding the team not to let broken stems fall to the ground.

Hsu Kuang-yuan
Weed removal provider
This is a root that’s been pulled up. Look at this node over here. Just like the cathedral bells plant, the bitter vine can resprout from a broken stem.

The bitter vine is tenacious, and can multiply through broken stems. Fighting the plant is a year-round job for the Taoyuan City government.

The plant also has highly efficient seed dispersal. After flowering season each summer, the dispersal is even more astonishing.

Lee Chao-ching
Volunteer
Like this flower here. It’s already flowered and fruited and seeds have already formed. If you touch it, the seeds will fly. See here, I’ll show you, here they go. The seeds are so tiny it’s hard to see where they’re going. So after the vine blooms, it’s best not to touch it.

The plant can produce up to 170,000 seeds per square meter of vine. With a gust of wind, the tiny seeds are spread far and wide.

For some 40 years now, officials have had limited success in eradicating the weed. One reason is its prolific reproduction. Another issue lies in land ownership. When private landowners don’t want to manage the weed, there’s nothing public authorities can do.

Liu Hsiu-ching
Taoyuan Department of Agriculture official
Currently, all the government can do is try to persuade them. If we receive a public complaint, we seek out the landowner through the government system. We do our best to notify the landowner about their rights and responsibilities. We might even go to the community-level authorities and seek intervention or mediation.

In addition, there are places simply too dense and dangerous for weed control workers to reach.

Liu Hsiu-ching
Taoyuan Department of Agriculture official
For instance, Longtan District has many hilly areas. We can only work in areas that our people can reach, places that aren’t dangerous. Some hillsides aren’t steep but are actually quite dangerous. We can only do our best.

The challenge is too great for one agency alone. Working with local governments, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency offers cash to the public for pulling up vines.

Lin Hsiang-li
Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency official
In the past few years we’ve had this initiative. We buy uprooted bitter vines year-round. The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency offers NT$5 per kilogram of uprooted vine, and some local governments add on a bit more.

The uprooted vines must be handled with care, to ensure they don’t come back from the dead.

Hsu Kuang-yuan
Weed removal provider
You can bury them. Pack them up and find a suitable place and bury them. After a while, they will die. They don’t grow back. The other way is to take them to the incineration plant and burn them.

Every year, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency buys hundreds of tons of bitter vine. Burying the weeds requires lots of land, but incineration increases carbon emissions. Could there be a better solution?

Huang Ying-pin is a researcher at the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s Central Region Campus. He’s developed a novel way to use the bitter vine. He takes dried and chopped-up vine, placing the pieces into a carbonization furnace.

Huang Ying-pin
ITRI Central Region Campus researcher
In this space, we can put stainless steel containers like this, which we fill with vine pieces. Then we heat it to 600 to 700 degrees Celsius.

The vine is treated at high temperature for a week. The smoke and vapor are condensed into an amber-colored vinegar. The vine’s high nitrogen content gives the vinegar unique properties.

Huang Ying-pin
ITRI Central Region Campus researcher
Regular vinegar, whether it’s wood or bamboo vinegar, has a smell to it that repels mosquitoes such as the yellow fever mosquito or the southern house mosquito. But the unique thing about the bitter vine is that its nitrogen content produces a different odor, one that can effectively repel the biting midge.

After processing, bitter vine vinegar can be sprayed to curb biting midge populations. It can be made into agricultural pest control or a repellent. What’s left of the vine after treatment can also be used as biochar, an excellent soil conditioner.

Here at his factory in Changhua, Tai Mu-tsun is busy making incense. Tai is an expert in medicinal plants, and he works with ITRI to make his products. Bitter vine is used instead of the traditional Chinese mugwort, to make incense that repels the biting midge.

Tai Mu-tsun
Incense factory owner
It just so happened that we ran into Dr. Huang and his team again. They found bitter vine to be effective against the biting midge, and they wondered if we wanted to try it. So we added it in and discovered that it’s even more effective than Chinese mugwort.

With a turn of the machine, a coil of incense is formed. The product takes just a few seconds to make, but it belies years of research and development.

Huang Ying-pin
ITRI Central Region Campus researcher
For researchers like us, if we develop a product or a technology and are able to transfer it to manufacturers and see it hit the market, that’s immensely gratifying.

Tai Mu-tsun
Incense factory owner
Before you launch a product on the market, it has to go through years of testing. We had to ensure this product really can repel the biting midge and doesn’t harm humans before we released it.

Meanwhile, others are exploring applications for the vine beyond insect control.

Lin Hsiang-li
Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency official
In Nantou, they’ve used it to make indigo dye. They’ve also used it in soaps.

Huang Ying-pin
ITRI Central Region Campus researcher
We’ve also tried combining it with construction materials to create what we call permeable bricks, or combining it with red brick clay. Our tests showed good permeability, water retention, and soil preservation properties.

The bitter vine came from far away, arriving as seeds before growing into an ecological crisis. But the plant has also inspired creativity and perseverance in those who live with it. Even as complete eradication remains elusive, Taiwan is finding ways to turn its “green cancer” into gold.

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

2024-02-18

Taiwan Bar Studio unveils new project

Taiwan Bar Studio is a multimedia platform that produces content about Taiwan. Since 2014, it has produced over 500 animated films and thousands of articles about Taiwan’s history and culture. Now entering its 10th year, the team is starting a new project, inviting scholars both local and foreign to tell the stories of Taiwan. FTV reporter Stephany Yang spoke to the platform’s founders to find out more about their project.

Since 2014, Taiwan Bar Studio has produced over 500 films related to Taiwan. Its content explores over 100 in-depth topics including history, philosophy, law, education, economics, culture, and experimental science.

Tu Feng-en
Story Studio CEO
In 2014, we launched this website and invited a lot of young scholars to write about their own research. Including myself. Since then, we have been devoted to this public history project. This time, I think we are continuing our mission, but we want to upgrade to different level to tell not just Taiwan’s people, but the world.

A group of four Taiwanese launched Taiwan Bar Studio in 2014 to educate people about Taiwanese history. By creating informative and engaging animation, they hope to reach a broader audience.

Tu Feng-en
Story Studio CEO
We would like to produce an online platform telling a new Taiwan history. We hope we can combine Taiwan’s history with the world history and tell the world the past well thousands of years of Taiwan’s past and let the world know more about Taiwan because we can see that a lot of people right now are very interested in Taiwan. The current situation of Taiwan but they may not know that much about Taiwan’s past.

Buchi Lin
Taiwan Bar co-founder
From a team of only four people 10 years ago to now, I am very moved. I think it’s really important to combine these fragments of knowledge into a platform where it all can be edited together. Here we tell our own stories.

Entering its 10th year, Taiwan Bar Studio is launching a new project, telling new stories about Taiwan from an international perspective. The project will invite top historians from Taiwan, Germany, the U.S., the Netherlands, Japan, and other countries to share stories and produce content, which will be translated into several languages.

Buchi Lin
Taiwan Bar co-founder
By using 10 languages that are widely spoken around the world, such as English, Spanish, and Japanese, we can spread this information abroad. Our content can reach about 90% of the world’s population.

Tu Feng-en
Story Studio CEO
It will be a multimedia platform. We will have text, images, short and long videos. We also plan to make a long documentary. We hope we can play those videos on a different platform as well; not just on our platform but also on different channels. Taiwan’s history is very, very interesting because it is very complex. We have a lot of interactions with the world from the Dutch period to the Qing Dynasty period to the Japanese colonial period. We think Taiwan’s history can be in conversation with the history of other parts of the world.

The team’s members hope to continue to tell the stories of Taiwan. They plan to launch the first stage of their project in September.

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

2024-02-04

Exploring home-cooked Taiwanese food with chef Chelsea Tsai

Today we take you to meet the founder of a cooking school, Chelsea Tsai. In 2018, she created a school that teaches people how to make local Taiwanese dishes from scratch. She hopes to educate people about Taiwanese delicacies, along with the stories behind each dish. FTV reporter Stephany Yang joined Tsai in her studio to find out more.

The first dish is three-cup mushrooms. First, slice the mushrooms, ginger, garlic and chili.

Then, add black sesame oil, ginger, mushrooms, garlic, scallions, basil and chili into the pan and fry them. Last, season it with some sugar.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
The original version is like three-cup chicken but the three-cup mushroom is for everyone. It is also vegetarian-friendly. The three-cup dish. The key is the three-cup sauce. You need to definitely use the black sesame oil from Taiwan. So, one cup or use one tablespoon of black sesame oil. And then, one cup of soy sauce and one cup of the rice wine, and a little bit of sugar to balance the saltiness. The three-cup sauce is a special sauce in Taiwan. It is not in other Chinese dishes or not in other regions because we have a very nice produce of black sesame in Taiwan. It is common to use black sesame oil with ginger to make the dishes like sesame oil chicken and three-cup chicken. When we talk about the stir-fried dishes in Taiwan we always talk about three-cup chicken.

Next up are sesame glutinous rice balls. First, prepare some sticky rice flour and mix it with hot water. Next, it is time to flatten the dough. Cut it into small pieces, and then add a bit of sesame and butter and wrap it up. Lastly, give them a good shake and then boil it in hot water. This is a typical class with the founder of this cooking studio, Chelsea Tsai.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
Tangyuan we usually have it especially for winter time because it can warm up your body. To make the dough, it is very important to use the sticky rice flour. You can also mix some tapioca starch to make it chewier. Traditionally, people use cold water to mix it, mix the dough and cook part of it, and boil it to make it a cooked dough. Then, mix them together to make the dough chewier. Our version, our secret is that we use hot water to make the dough. Basically, we just mix the hot water with all the starch.

Tsai first became interested in gastronomy at a young age. She then earned a diploma in French cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu Tokyo.

In 2018, she decided to open up a cooking studio to teach foreigners and locals how to cook Taiwanese dishes. Her classes don’t only teach people how to cook: she also shares the history and other interesting stories about the food. The length of each class varies from 2 to 3 hours. So far, her team has taught 15,000 food enthusiasts from over 52 countries.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
I have been teaching cuisine for over eight years. Since 2018, I started this business. It is a cooking school. We show people how to make Taiwanese dishes, especially international visitors. Since then, we have been hosting over 15,000 people from over 52 countries from the world. We show how to make xiaolongbao, beef noodle soup, gua bao, braised pork rice, and all the best Taiwanese dishes. We teach them not only how to cook those dishes. We also show them and share with them all the history, all the stories. I think that is what makes us unique because we are not only teaching techniques. We share the uniqueness of Taiwan.

Last December, Tsai published her first English cookbook. The cookbook features 67 recipes ranging from Taiwanese stir-fries and street food to braised dishes, breakfast food and festival food.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
We tried to promote Taiwanese dishes, we found out that I think the most beautiful part of Taiwanese dishes is at home. Like, when I was a child, my mom always cooked three to four dishes for our dinner. We can share. We sit down around the table. We share with family to enjoy whole fish, stir-fried, the braised pork. We want to share the beautiful moments with more people. We want to make it happen again and again. We talk about bento culture like the buffet and we also talk about street food culture -- why we have so much street food in Taiwan. It is about the temple. It is about the religion. We also talk about Taiwanese breakfast.

Tsai also collaborates with government agencies, like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tourism Administration. The team has traveled to many countries around the world to promote Taiwan’s food and culture.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
We are trying to extend our influence to a larger audience. So now, we also work with many public sectors like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, like the Taiwan Tourism Administration. And also, we are trying to do some collaboration with the bilingual education projects to empower more people and more individuals can share food culture about Taiwan. Not just us, but everyone can do that. I think that is the goal we want to do.

Through her cooking studio and book, Tsai hopes to empower more people to share Taiwanese food culture to the world.

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

2024-02-04

Pingxi bands together to create safe community for dementia patients

New Taipei’s Pingxi District is famous for its sky lantern festival. Less well-known is the crisis of its aging community. A third of Pingxi’s residents is 65 and older, and dozens of them struggle with dementia. In response, local health authorities spent nearly a year providing comprehensive dementia screening, to get residents the help they need. Not only that, the town has responded with health initiatives and workshops, to create a safe and happy environment for the cognitive impaired. We visit this model community in our Sunday special report.

It’s bright and early, and most shops here at Pingxi’s Jingtong Old Street have yet to open. But at this store near the entrance, you can already hear the rhythmic sounds of work getting done.

Pingxi does not have a traditional market. Shopkeeper Lee Wen-chuan gets up at 3 a.m. to visit Taipei, to buy goods for his neighbors and ingredients for restaurants.

Now 64, Lee Wen-chuan has been running the family business for more than 30 years. He inherited the shop from his mother, making him the fourth-generation owner. Lee has witnessed the rise and fall of Pingxi. He’s also seen his mother go from a powerful business woman to a basement shut-in.

Lee’s mother, Lee Lin-chuan, is 91 years old. When her family isn’t minding the shop upstairs, you’ll often find them keeping her company down below.

The family business sells groceries, vegetables, fruit, and even gas for cooking. The Lees say the business was built on their matriarch’s hard work.

Lee Yu-tsung
Shopkeeper
Grandma used to be a very well-known figure. She was the head of the women’s association for 20 years. Back then, the women’s association was one of the three biggest associations in Pingxi. When Chiang Ching-kuo came, few could approach him. But grandma was one of the ones who could.

Before her 70s, Lee Lin-chuan was the queen of commerce. But after she hit 73, her energy began wane.

Lee Wen-chuan
Shopkeeper
She would help with sales and ring customers up. But then I realized she was having trouble giving change. When we discovered that, we also couldn’t just tell her she was doing it wrong. She wouldn’t admit it. She would say, “A slip-up every now and then is normal, everyone makes mistakes!”

At the beginning, Lee Wen-chuan thought his mother’s behavior was simply a sign of old age. He only realized something was up when she nearly set the house on fire.

Lee Wen-chuan
Shopkeeper
She was cooking something and she had turned down the fire to low heat. She forgot about it and went to sleep. We were all sleeping, and then at 11, there was smoke everywhere. We went to look and it turned out she’d forgotten to turn off the stove.

Similar incidents happened three times within just a few months, forcing her family to realize that the problem was beyond old age. Her grandson tried to take her to see a psychiatrist, but she refused.

Lee Yu-tsung
Shopkeeper
She had a negative impression of psychiatrists. She’d say, “That’s where crazy people go! Do you think I’ve gone mad? I’m the head of the women’s association, I’m as good as can be.”

After much persuasion, Lee Lin-chuan finally gave in and went to see a doctor, who diagnosed her with mild dementia and prescribed medication to slow down its symptoms. But she wouldn’t have it. She took the medicine only a few times before stopping altogether. Despite best efforts, her family was unable to change her mind.

Lee Yu-tsung
Shopkeeper
Dementia is not just about forgetting things here and there. It also has an impact on your emotional management. Forgetting things would put her in a bad mood. For example, you’d ask her where she put something, and she’d say she didn’t put it there. Then everyone would get into an argument over this unimportant thing. I think we can deal with dementia because we’re a strong family. If we weren’t, dementia would’ve absolutely torn us apart.

About seven years ago, Lee Lin-chuan got into a traffic accident that worsened her condition. Walking became difficult and her memory suffered.

Lee Wen-chuan
Shopkeeper
Now she doesn’t recognize me. In fact it’s been several years since she’s stopped recognizing me. She calls me the wrong name. Or she calls me dad.

Being forgotten by his own beloved mother caused Lee Wen-chuan unbearable pain. Their story is just one of many like it in Pingxi.

Pingxi is famed for its sky lanterns, which attract visitors from far and wide. But when it’s not hosting the lantern festival, it is a town abandoned by young people, a super-aged community. Pingxi has 4,160 residents, making it the least populated district in New Taipei. The number of residents aged 65 and up is 1,368 – that is, about 1 in 3 people.

With so many older adults, dealing with dementia is a top priority. According to estimates from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, about 1 in 30 people aged 65 and up suffers from dementia. This cognitive disorder is not limited to memory loss. Patients experience a deterioration of language skills, spatial awareness, and the ability to perform calculations and make judgments. In Pingxi, older adults often go missing. When that happens, the whole town forms a big search party.

Lin Shu-hua
Shopkeeper
There was a man who was worried about his mother. So the whole town got together to look for her. They checked surveillance camera footage, and saw she had gone in the direction of the school over there. Everyone was looking for her until 10 p.m., but we still couldn’t find her. In the end, her son found her sitting near a stream.

The shopkeeper says that seniors sometimes wander in to ask the same questions, over and over.

Lin Shu-hua
Shopkeeper
“Do you need to use a garbage bag for this?” She asked me the same thing five times. She really didn’t know. Later I told her family, but I was dismissed. Her daughter said, “It’s not like that, my mother isn’t like that.”

When family members refuse to acknowledge signs of dementia, patients can miss out on early diagnosis and prevention.

But in 2016, Pingxi’s Public Health Center brought in a doctor to service the aging community.

This was Dr. Lin Tai-jen, who used his expertise in neurology to provide proactive dementia care.

The public health center offered rehab sessions to older adults. Lin used the sessions to screen patients for dementia, using the AD8 questionnaire. Participants saw it just one more step in their routine checkups and were happy to cooperate. For people who did not attend the rehab sessions, Lin adopted a different strategy.

Lin Tai-jen
Doctor
We went out to them. We cover 20 boroughs, so we split into four teams, each one assigned to a different area. Each area had more than 300, nearly 400 older adults. We got four nurses to work with us on this project.

It took the health center almost an entire year to screen everyone in Pingxi for dementia. After the screening, they encountered an even tougher challenge, that of getting potential dementia patients to go to a hospital for a diagnosis.

Lin Tai-jen
Doctor
You may want to tell them they have dementia, but they might feel a bit sensitive about the word. So instead we might tell them, “Hey, there could be something funny going on up there. Things can be confusing, right? Do you feel that?” Then they might say, “Yes, I do get confused.” So then I tell them, “It’s fine, let’s go to the hospital for a checkup, to take a look at your head. It can smarten you up, and make it less likely that you get into trouble.” We say things like that so that we can bring them over. We kind of have to deceive them sometimes.

The health center works with the Tzu Chi Hospital to offer a fast-track checkup process that can be completed in one day, saving patients multiple trips to the doctor. The process ends with a diagnosis.

Lin Tai-jen
Doctor
We found between 105 and 108 patients with varying levels of severity on the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale. We had mild patients, who are a 0.5 on the CDR scale, all the way up to 3 or 4, which is when they have to stay in bed. We had about 32 to 35 patients with severe dementia. That’s patients who are a 3 or more on the scale and who are bedridden. In those cases, their families had them transferred to institutional care. Then there’s about 70 or more patients who have stayed at home.

Lin’s goal was for 70 patients with mild and moderate dementia to remain in the community. With caregiver numbers limited and many adult children working elsewhere, there were 101 older adults in Pingxi living alone. With no family to help out with dementia care, the community had to get involved in supporting patients.

Liu Ching-fang
A Kernel of Wheat Foundation
We arrange courses for them. So for example, in the morning, we mostly offer exercise classes. Sometimes, adult children who don’t live with their aging parents rely on us to keep them updated on their parents’ condition.

Pingxi offers more than exercise classes at the long-term care center. Over the last three years now, New Taipei’s Department of Health has offered 24 workshops and team-building events, to teach local businesses about dementia. The training courses have created a community that’s accommodating to dementia patients.

Lin Shu-hua
Shopkeeper
Sometimes we can tell if an older adult is behaving a little differently. Or if something odd is up. If so, we tell their families.

When dementia patients pop in to make the same purchase multiple times, shopkeepers are sympathetic.

Lee Yu-tsung
Shopkeeper
We are a dementia-friendly business. So I tell their families that they can return all non-perishable goods, like canned food. We even let them return things like spring onions and garlic as long as it’s within three hours. We’re fine with all of that.

Across the nation, more than 300,000 people live with dementia. But not every community is as accommodating as Pingxi. The mountain town has become an example of how acceptance and caring for your neighbors can help dementia patients remember to smile, even when other memories fade away.

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

2024-01-28

Spotlight on bass player and jazz violinist Matt Garbutt

Today we take you to meet Matt Garbutt, a violinist and bass guitarist from the U.K. He played bass guitar and double bass professionally for 15 years, performing with several musical theater productions in the U.K. and internationally. However, due to a neurological condition, Garbutt stopped playing the bass and decided to come to Taiwan in 2016 to teach and perform jazz violin. FTV reporter Stephany Yang caught up with Garbutt to find out more about his career.

He plays "The Moon Represents My Heart" on the violin with a jazz twist. Matt Garbutt is a jazz violinist and bass guitarist from the U.K. Garbutt moved to Taiwan in 2016, and he busks around Taipei performing jazz hits and Taiwanese songs. 

Matt Garbutt
Violin player
I play all sorts styles like straight jazz, gypsy jazz as well, more like European jazz. When I go busking, when I perform in the streets I play all sorts of styles. I have learned lots of Taiwanese songs because Taiwanese people like to see foreigners playing Taiwanese music. I play folk, pop, The Beatles, The Carpenters, old stuff, new stuff. I am trying to learn some more new stuff to play to appeal to younger people but some of the stuff doesn’t sound so good on the violin. That is the challenge. 

Garbutt was classically trained on the violin and piano from the age of 7. Later, when he was 16, he began playing bass guitar. After graduating from King’s College London, he started playing bass guitar and double bass professionally, performing in a variety of musical theater productions in the U.K. and internationally for 15 years.

Violin player
I have been involved in several different theater productions. The longest was “Mama Mia!” That was for four and half years. I also spent 18 months on the production “Wicked,” touring the U.K., the show about the Wizard of Oz. The wicked witch. “The Lion King” I spent a short time on that. “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals. Musically “Mama Mia!” was the most memorable because it was the most fun to play. ABBA has written some amzing tunes. It was great fun to play these baselines. “Wicked” was also a lot of fun because it is challenging. It is very difficult to play so it was very satisfying to play. 

However, in 2015, he developed a neurological condition that caused him to lose control of his hands. Therefore, he had to stop playing the bass and touring professionally. But he didn’t quit making music. Instead, he began to foster his interest in jazz violin.  

Matt Garbutt
Violin player
It is a neurological condition. I kind of lost control of my hand basically through kind of a few issues. Not really practicing properly or warming up.I learned the hard way kind of thing. It is called dystonia. It is a long story but it is a long road to sort of to be a bass player again but I am currently having therapy and various guidance to become a bass player again. One day, I hope to resume my professional career as a bass player. It doesn’t affect playing the violin, I just hold the bow. It is absoultely fine.

Garbutt moved to Taiwan in 2016 with his Taiwanese wife. Besides performing across the streets of Taipei as well as at jazz bars and other venues, he also teaches jazz violin. 

Matt Garbutt
Violin player
I focus on jazz violin. I teach a bit of English but when I teach violin, it is mainly jazz and just how to use your ears, how to listen. It is not really classical violin that is more like reading music and very precise technique. I teach people to kind of feel the music and use their ears. When you play jazz, you have to sort of feel it here and here. There are many classical violin players here. The kind of style that I go for is jazz or folk. I kind of bring my own thing to it. In terms of the jazz scene, it is kind of small in Taiwan but it is definitely growing and there are some great jazz musicians. Living here is great. It is very different from the U.K. Sometimes it is a little challenging in certain ways but I love how convenient everything is. I feel very safe here. The people are obviously very friendly.

Having lived in Taiwan for seven years now, Garbutt sees Taiwan as his second home. He hopes to play bass professionally again, as well as teach more people jazz violin and spread joy through his performances. 

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

2024-01-24