Unlike most individuals in Taiwan who are blind, Lin Chia-te (林家德) says he's not interested in having a career as a masseur or working at blind men's foundations or schools. He's desperately in love with music, likes to interact with people and is always full of creative ideas.
Now a program host at a local radio station, Lin is one of Taipei City's blind who have developed a career in something other than what has long been deemed one of the few choices for the blind -- the massage industry.
Taipei City has 15,000 blind people, accounting for 0.6 percent of the city's total population. However, only 2,000 of them are employed and half of the blind working population are masseurs or masseuses.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lin's road to success wasn't easy. Six years ago Lin sent a resume to the newly founded Green Peace Broadcasting Station (
He was given a part-time job but could barely survive on the NT$6,000 monthly salary. Six months later, Lin was promoted to a full-time employee producing and hosting a two-hour radio program targeting youths.
The program was a hit and he was asked to participate in such creative work as advertising literature and program production.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I love my job and adore the people here. I consider myself lucky," said the 32-year-old Lin with shoulder-length straight hair and dark sunglasses.
"I've always believed in hard work. God helps only those who help themselves."
Apart from working at the radio station, the college graduate also works at his one-man studio, composing music and writing lyrics for record companies.
"I hope I will be able to write television or movie scripts, try acting and producing, and hopefully get married by the end of the year," he said.
To help the city's physically and mentally challenged population, the Bureau of Social Affairs (社會局) has earmarked NT$3.5 billion this year to continue the long-term subsidy program.
Under the program, each physically and mentally challenged person is entitled to a monthly allowance of between NT$3,000 and NT$6,000, depending on the seriousness of their situation.
Blind masseurs or masseuses are also invited by the bureau to offer services at Taipei City Hall every Monday and every other Thursday.
Since March this year, diners at the city hall's basement restaurant have had the opportunity to eat while enjoying music played by the city's blind bands on the third Wednesday of each month.
The city currently has about 10 such bands, and eight of them take turns performing at city hall.
"We're doing what we can to open more doors for the blind. We hope we can create more job opportunities for them in the already-limited job market," said Chen Chih-chang (陳志章), third division chief of the social affairs bureau.
Chen Chih-yang (
"More money means more work can be done," he said.
One of the biggest challenges faced by the blind, Chen said, is employment opportunities.
Founded in 1987, the association started three years ago arranging performance opportunities for the city's eight blind bands.
The organization also works with the city government in various projects to help the blind find jobs.
"We'd like to see each blind person have a job so they can be financially independent," Chen said.
For some, the program seems to be working. At an outdoor activity celebrating Mother's Day at Warner Village square yesterday afternoon, college girls were cheering, screaming and singing along with Hsiao Huang-chi (蕭煌奇), the lead singer and saxophone player of the band All-in-One (全方位樂團).
Hsiao, who went completely blind during his senior high school years, formed the pop music band in 1995 with four of his best friends from the Municipal School for the Blind (
Now they perform at least six times a month and each band member is able to make roughly NT$30,000 per month -- just enough to survive.
"When we first started, we had only two or three engagements a month and could afford only two meals a day," said the 25-year-old. "But I don't complain because music is my life. Without it, I'm nothing."
In addition to music, Hsiao is also a black-belt judo practitioner. He won the bronze medal in judo competitions at the South Pacific Asia Paralympic Games in 1994.
He also ranked 7th in judo competitions at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics.
Like Hsiao, 40-year-old David Chang (
Chang, who founded the Woodpecker Chamber Ensemble (
During the first half of the year, when activities are scarce, Chang makes between NT$30,000 and NT$40,000 a month. He can make NT$10,000 or NT$20,000 more during the other half of the year when performance opportunities are plentiful.
Chang lost his eyesight completely at the age of 12 after having suffered from glaucoma since childhood.
To kill time, Chang said he developed an interest in music.
"I taught myself to play the guitar and started learning the piano in junior high at the Municipal School for the Blind. I tried composing during my college years and loved it from the very beginning," he said.
Before he founded the band, things had not gone that well, since he had to play the piano in one bar or hotel after another.
The hourly pay back then for musicians with ordinary eyesight was about NT$300 but his was just NT$180, he said.
When Vincent Ho (
He learned to play the violin, piano and clarinet in senior high at the Municipal School for the Blind and majored in music in college.
To ease the family's financial burden, Ho started to teach others how to play the violin and earned about NT$2,000 a month some seven years ago.
Some 10 years ago, Ho along with four other blind music lovers founded the Five Eyes Band (
For Ho, he said transportation is the most difficult challenge he has to face on a day-to-day basis.
"Because I don't look much different from ordinary people from the outside, sometimes I'm treated with disdain when asking for directions," he said.
"I just hope that people will be more patient dealing with the blind."
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