A Russian artist has spent the past few months painting a school in Pingtung County awash in color, using her knowledge of child psychology to guide her brush.
Strongly affected by Taiwan’s falling birthrate, Da Tong Primary School has cut its classes down to only six, leaving large parts of its campus empty.
To enliven the space, more than 20 walls are now sporting colorful murals of sea creatures, Chinese and Western zodiac signs, cartoons and even 3D scenes accompanied by slogans in English.
Photo courtesy of Da Tong Primary School via CNA
Tatiana Yu (尤湯雅) can be spotted there every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, painting for three to four hours at a time, even as temperatures climb above 38oC.
School principal Chi Yung-ming (季永明) on Monday last week said that after taking the position in September last year, he discovered a fading mural in a corner of campus and immediately began asking about the artist’s identity.
He found that it was the work of an immigrant artist from Russia, who originally specialized in studying children’s art, Chi said.
He had the idea to fill the campus with art to capture students’ imaginations, and after discussing with Yu, he decided that an underwater scene should be painted first, Chi said.
In their months working together, Chi said that he has come to feel Yu’s passion for art.
Yu has since painted large swathes of the campus, including both sides of its outer wall, the administrative building and a slide.
“When walking through campus, every turn, every wall has a surprise,” Chi said.
“The old, drab walls have new meaning,” he said. “Even the abandoned elephant slide has been reimagined under Yu’s colorful brush to become an installation straight from the children’s book series Elmer the Patchwork Elephant.”
Chiu Miao-miao (邱妙妙), who heads the school’s parent-teacher association, said that Yu’s paintings fill the school with warmth and energy.
Yu came to Pingtung from Russia 15 years ago to marry a Taiwanese man.
She said that she has studied art since junior high school and in university majored in child psychology.
“Painting and art can help people,” she said. “Images can change people’s psychology.”
After coming to Taiwan, Yu began teaching painting and wire jewelry-making to children, and has even returned to Russia to learn more about the psychology of creating art.
At Da Tong Primary School, Yu said she let her imagination run wild for murals like the one picturing Western zodiac signs, adding that she also strives to encourage participating children to use their creativity.
For example, Gemini is represented by two cats, as they are also social animals that often sleep and play together, while Virgo is a fox, as they are beautiful and smart, she said.
Yu said that she likes to visit Sandimen Township (三地門) in Pingtung County to see the glass beads created there, as their transparent beauty compliments her wire jewelry.
Her hope is to ignite a new creative spark by merging Western and Eastern artistic traditions, she said.
She took a step toward this goal three years ago, when she helped with the National Palace Museum’s exhibition “Giuseppe Castiglione: Visited in Art” in Pingtung County.
Yu said that the nation has a good creative environment — even some of the tools her friends in Russia and Germany cannot find are readily available in Taiwan.
Over her 15 years in Taiwan, Yu said she has not encountered any hardships.
However, this is all psychological: If someone is happy, anywhere will be good; if someone has love, they will be happy anywhere, she added.
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