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.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS