When it comes to raw talent, lawmakers are not always one-trick ponies.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Sitting at his office desk, Wang raised his brush in the vertical manner of Chinese calligraphers and began to write. For Wang, Chinese calligraphy is more of a passion than a hobby.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The 64-year-old son of a farmer was first introduced to Chinese calligraphy when he was in the third grade at school. He soon represented his school to win the bronze medal in a county Chinese calligraphy competition.
The native son of Kaohsiung County said that he learns concentration and patience from the art of calligraphy.
In addition to calligraphy, Wang is a talented athlete.
He was a senior-high-school champion in the long jump, triple jump, shot put and tennis. He was also captain of his university's tennis team and won a bronze medal in inter-collegiate tennis competitions when he was in his senior year.
No matter how hectic or onerous things are at the legislature, Wang usually looks serene and calm. He attributes his serenity to inborn temperament.
"If you see through things, you behave with perfect composure," he said. "Coming from a big family also teaches me to be sensitive to others' feelings, tolerant, respectful to others' opinions and a team player."
His Buddhist beliefs also help him get through many difficult times in life, he said.
Wang was familiar with Buddhism from a tender age. His parents lived close by a Buddhist temple. He started to seriously study Buddhism in 1986, after he heard the call of Buddha.
"The religion inspires me to think thoroughly, clearly and to be flexible," he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (
The 45-year-old native of Tainan began to play piano when she was in the second grade. Her mother wanted her three daughters to learn a professional skill so they could support themselves whether they got married or not.
Yeh did get married and obtained a masters degree in music from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, but she did not stay in music circles because of her grudge against her former employer, National Tainan Normal College, where she had taught music for four years.
She was passed over in the appointment of a full-time lecturer because she was labeled by school authorities as a "problem teacher" for vocalizing her political opinions.
"I was very angry when I found out the reason they rejected my application," she said. "I told myself if they disliked my talking about politics so much, I would take it somewhere else."
She was soon recruited by the DPP to run in the 1995 provincial councilor elections, and won her seat. She then moved on to win the legislative election in 1998 and has been re-elected ever since.
She said she has never found it hard to adjust to the political life nor has she had to change herself a lot.
"I usually adopt the most simple and direct way to face the most complicated situation, simply because I am a simple and straightforward person," she said.
In addition to playing the piano, Yeh is an avid reader. Despite her busy schedule, Yeh always finds time to read and play the piano.
"It's only when I'm playing the piano that I am focused," she said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Kuo Lin-yung (
The oil-painting class his wife attended rekindled the fervor he developed for the art in elementary school. He later signed up for the class himself and specialized in painting landscapes and still lifes.
He was surprised to see his artistic talent receiving kudos when he and his wife held their first joint exhibition two years ago in Tai-chung. Instead of selling his works of art, Kuo auctioned them off and donated the money to charity.
In addition to painting, the lawyer-turned-politician was very much into sports.
He was the captain of the baseball team at senior high, university and graduate school. He was also an intramural champion in the hurdles and 400m relay.
Kuo returned to practicing law in 1986 when he lost the legislative election, but made a comeback last year when he was assigned as a legislator-at-large by his party.
Talking about the 19-year political hiatus, Kuo said that what keeps him going is his love for life and responsibility toward the public.
"There is more than one battlefield in our life and the most important thing is always to have faith and do the best you can," he said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its