Wave Goodbye to Online Bullying ‧ Be a Painter and a Singer
    The present employment project specialist for the physically and mentally disabled, Lin Fang-yu, is a new young instructor of life education in the art circle, sharing her life all over Taiwan and benefiting more than 20 thousand audience.
    An online bullying incident of the false accusation for abusing a dog to death on March 6, 2016 made her totally fall into the abyss of living death—She became severely visually impaired!
     The online bullying incident struck Lin’s body and mind. The colorful world turned into black and white overnight.
    Lin stood out for justice and fought against online bullying alone, from reporting to Yuanlin Precinct, Changhua County Police Department, initiating a public prosecution at Changhua District Prosecutors Office, waiting for the judgment of Changhua District Court, to confirming the guilty verdict rendered by Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch Court. She finally made the senior Chen, who had hid behind his keyboard, sentenced.
    Three months after the breakout of her eye disease, Lin got rid of the negative thinking. Two years after she lost her eyesight, she moved to Taipei alone, experienced numerous frustrations, and still stood up again to fulfill the dream since childhood—to be a painter and a singer.
One-Eighth Eyesight ‧ Embrace the World 
    Lin’s world is limited to the one-eighth eyesight. Despite fear, she never forgets to move forward. She believes there will always be a way for her and promises that she will raise the medical expenses on her own!
    From 2020, she started to stand on the stage to make an appeal that the victims of online bullying should stand up for themselves. At the same time, she shares her life story with the public—by looking back on the process from suffering from the bullying incident to overcoming the visual impairment, she encourages everyone to defend online justice.
    Lin, on the stage, can’t help feeling agitated. But she is thankful that she didn’t choose to end her life because of losing eyesight nor yield to the online bully.
    Lin won the third place in National Student Art Competition, the third place in the painting competition of International Orchid Show, and the second place in National Beauty Creative Design Competition.
    At the same time, she also endured the humiliation and completed the studies in Department of Industrial Design with outstanding grades, surviving all frustrations in life and regaining confidence step by step. She has tried the different roles of a painter, an assistive device designer, an actress, and a hostess and invented the assistive device for the visually impaired through her personal experience.
    Therefore, Lin says goodbye to online bullying, becomes a painter and a singer, embraces the world with the one-eighth eyesight, and keeps bringing her life story to campuses. At the same time, she also hopes to brighten more submerged dark corners and expects to bring more bright hopes to the society by developing the user-friendly assistive devices for the visually impaired and create the versatile life. The “versatile visually-impaired talent” stood out from the 2893 recommended candidates and won “The 24^th Global Fervent Love of Lives Awards” given by Chou Ta-Kuan Cultural & Educational Foundation in 2021.
Misunderstand Visual Impairment for Myopia
    Lin started to wear glasses from kindergarten. As she got older, she was nearsighted with up to 10 diopters! Her eyesight was poor, but she always bore the hope that as long as she wore the glasses properly, her nearsightedness could be corrected. Unfortunately, after growing up, she realized that her eyesight would never be fully corrected or cured because she had visual impairment instead of worsening nearsightedness!
    The impairment means that visual perception decreases to certain extent, so it can’t be corrected in the general ways such as wearing glasses. Lin, with the visual impairment since childhood, has survived bravely along the bumpy road unknowingly.
Paint the World
    Lin has dreamed to become a painter since little. She often made the textbooks canvases and exerted her creativity by drawing on them.
    Most of the teachers persuaded her to focus on the studies. However, she met her life mentor at the third grade in Shiuan Shin Elementary School, Ms. Lin Yue-jun. The homeroom teacher gave Lin a box of colored pencils, which truly opened Lin’s “painting world” in her heart.
    Unlike other teachers who always asked the students to study hard and take exams, she told Lin, “I believe in you. You have to insist on your dream!”
    Since then, Lin took part in numerous painting competitions. Whether joining a school competition or sketching in the park, she never got tired because she knew painting was her favorite!
Sprout of Dream
     When studying in Chiayi Junior High School, Lin not only joined the swimming school team and wind band but also actively explored the unknown world of painting full of surprises. She often expected to gain new experiences at the different intersections in life.
    Lin fulfilled her wish to be admitted into Department of Arts and Crafts, Houbi Senior High School, and started her journey to advance painting.
    Therefore, Lin had more opportunities to make use of all kinds of media in creation and make many friends from the different backgrounds.
    At that time, Lin felt she was a grownup and often found her lifestyle similar to that in the workplace. She expected to enter the unknown new life of university as soon as possible.
    To greet the more beautiful future life, Lin told herself: “Only by getting stronger can one get closer to the dream!” Therefore, she made up her mind to learn the different media, such as watercolor, markers, sketching, ceramics, carpentry, paper craft, technical pen, and computer graphics, looking into the future and actively participating in all kinds of competitions at the same time!
    Besides sharpening the practical skills, Lin also got the Class B Technician Certificate for Pre-Press Process PC Graphics.
    She also liked to join in a variety of activities on and off campus at leisure, including pop music society, summer camp, swimming game, and speech contest. Besides advancing herself, she also added color to her senior high school life.
    In the diverse experiences, Lin further set up her goal and direction in the future college life—to become a designer.
Dream Sets Sail
     Lin fulfilled her wish to be admitted to Department of Industrial Design-Vehicle Transportation Group.
    At the age of 18, Lin felt everything in life fresh and expected!
    As time passed by, Lin felt closer to her dream. She clearly knew what she wanted and at the same time felt grateful to God for the blessings.
Late Justice ‧Spokesman of Online Bullying Victims
     Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch Court Shan-Yi-Zi No.747 Criminal Sentence confirmed the online bullying offense against reputation in 2017.
    I.      Chen attempted to spread the public slander on the social network of Facebook at the rented residence of No.000, 000 Rd. Sec.0, 00 City, Changhua County at 11:04, March 6, 2016 by publishing a comment with the nickname of “Eason Chen” on “Hong Cheng Years,” the website page that the students and staff of the school and the unspecific users can browse through after they are approved of the entry: “ . . .The last one died in our dorm because it was starved or thirsty to death . . .I’ve lived here for one semester. That dead poodle lived a hard life every day. Dog lovers, have you heard a poodle screaming every day? I know it screams when people educating a dog by punishing or abusing it. I’ve heard it in the morning, afternoon, and evening every day for one semester . . . There are so many witnesses to the dead dog’s daily life . . . I have no prejudice against the owner, but I do have something to say about dog abuse.” The action to post the picture as the postscript and publicly accuse Lin for abusing the dead poodle damaged Lin’s personality and social judgment.
    II.     The case was reported by Lin Fang-yu to Changhua District Prosecutors Office through Yuanlin Precinct, Changhua County Police, for investigation and prosecution.
    When studying in college, Lin became the victim of online bullying from the rumor of dog abuse spread by a schoolmate. The rumor spreader, a senior named Chen, was convicted of offense against reputation and sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment. However, before the late justice, she felt helpless, cried her heart out every day, and finally turned blind overnight. The colorful life turned into black and white. The incident was a traumatic experience to her.
     The online bullying incident turned Lin’s beautiful life into nothing.
     The false online accusation was widely spread at that time. The major social media also made reports. Hundreds of netizens forwarded the comments and scolded the behavior. Some radical people even hunted the place where Lin worked part-time!
    The netizens only wanted to be the justice warrior and the man behind the keyboard, but they finally turned into the monster that may take away people’s life brutally.
    It never occurred to Lin that an unheard term, online bullying, would happen to her life . . . so vividly . . .
    The invisible impact and helplessness frightened Lin. For a young girl like her, such impact easily crushed her!
    Lin spent numerous nights shedding tears, unable to fall asleep . . .
    Today, to make an appeal that everyone should guard online justice, she decides to stand out to be the spokesman for the online bullying victims.
Terminal Glaucoma
     One morning after online bullying, Lin woke up finding she was blind! After seeing the doctor, Lin was diagnosed with terminal glaucoma because of high eye pressure!
    Lin’s optic nerve was damaged with less than ten percent functioning. The doctor told her that she would go blind in half a year!
    The ruthless sentence out of the blue shocked Lin. She didn’t know how to shed tears and how to express her feelings at that moment.
    She saw her father, who had always been strong, crying after talking with the doctor. Her mother and elder sister could only cry helplessly on the other side of the phone.
    Lin thought to herself: “I have nothing. Anything worse just comes to me at one time!”
The Raining World
    Lin locked herself in the room for a long time. During those days, she only complained to dolls and cursed to the air . . .Visually impaired, she can never do what she likes at will—painting. Even the most basic part of drawing a circle becomes difficult for her, not to mention to be qualified to become a designer.
    Her hobby of riding the SYM Wolf 125 motorcycle was also deprived. She loved to look beautiful, but she couldn’t put on makeup because she couldn’t see herself clearly. She couldn’t wear high heeled shoes, either, and she was even afraid to wear clothes backward.
    Lin couldn’t bear how others looked at her—By carrying a white cane, she had to admit her visual impairment indirectly.
    All these made Lin isolate herself. She was afraid that the world that she had loved before would bring her the unimaginable impact on life. . .
The One Holding the Umbrella for Her
    One day, Lin’s elder sister came to her room as usual to cheer her up!
    But she angrily answered “It is not you that can’t see” and slammed the door.
    After about one week, when her sister knocked her door again, she sobbed and held Lin: “I’ve made the decision. When I am forty, I am married, have work and kids, I am willing to give one of my eyes to you.” Finishing her words, her sister cried loudly.
    Lin knew her sister, who will always keep her promise even though she is afraid. She understood her sister loves her so much. Therefore, Lin told herself: “I will be in despair no longer. Only when I stand up again, will I be able to turn everything around.”
Away from the Cloudy Days
    Lin started to try to walk from home to the park and convenience store and try to talk with friends. She practiced opening her heart again and again.
    Two months after the breakout of her visual disease, she traveled to Orchid Island and then Hualien and Taitung with friends.
    Taking the wrong ship and returning to Kenting, Lin lost her way alone at the wharf at dusk. After she waited for a long time, someone passed by. Therefore, she plucked up courage and told him: “I can’t see. I’m lost. I want to go to Taitung.”
    Not knowing where the courage came from, she took the highway bus, local bus, and train and finally arrived at Taitung at night.
    Her friends asked curiously how she made it to Taitung on her own.
    In fact, Lin herself didn’t have the clear answer. But her intuition told her that it was the lesson the universe would give her to let her understand that she could still accomplish everything despite visual impairment!
Choose to Face It
    After summer vacation, Lin returned to school. She still felt frightened in her mind, but she would like to do something instead of staying in the room all day.
    At the start, Lin didn’t have the courage to be honest with her eyesight condition. But some accused her of being big-headed, not greeting people, and not yielding the way.
    After the opinions came like surging waves, Lin decided not to be afraid anymore—she made her mind stronger!
    She thought about nearly hundred ways to tell others that she couldn’t see. Sometimes, she practiced the conversation alone in her room. She knew that she had to face the different voices. She also started to find ways from the obstacles, including transportation and peculiar looks from others, and learn to accept her true self.
     The process was not easy for her, but she chose to face it bravely.
Regain Confidence
    Lin studied in Department of Industrial Design-Vehicle Transportation Group, which mainly focuses on the design of vehicle appearance.
    When making a model and a poster, she could only feel the curves of the modeling clay through touch and modified it again and again after asking her friend to check it up. She had to see from a really close distance or enlarge it for a checkup by taking the photos of the details with a cell phone. The repeated checkup took a long time, so she often had to work until midnight . . .
    At that time, she was so stubborn that she refused to be defeated by reality. She kept working hard, hoping to achieve something in the field. Therefore, she participated in the 5^th KYMCO Design Challenge Competition and won the prize of Honorable Mention!
    Due to her poor eyesight, Lin transferred from the vehicle transportation group to the product group. She believed in “Design comes from humanity,” so she started to design the assistive devices for the blind. The friends around her had few opportunities to get along with the visually impaired. Therefore, Lin had to explain very carefully at every presentation. At the same time, she also shared with everyone all kinds of situations a visually impaired person would encounter to increase everyone’s understanding about the different groups. Through the process, Lin gradually regained her confidence from imperfection!
Design Assistive Devices for the Blind
    When Lin’s eye disease broke out, she found the trend of the visually impaired getting younger and the percentage of midway visual impairment rising.
     Most of the visually impaired are not willing to face it in the early stage. Afraid of other’s strange looks, they are not willing to take the white cane and afraid to be labeled as disabled. They even lose confidence in taking care of themselves!
    Therefore, Lin designed and made the assistive device that would tell the blind the obstacles in front of them through the App of artificial intelligence by combining the ornament embedded in the hardware. Different from the bare bone design in the past, the product also corresponds to the users’ needs.
    As a visually-impaired person, she hopes to make the products meeting the users’ needs most through her own experience.
    After the product went public, many visually impaired friends inquired about her product. As a student, she didn’t have sufficient budget to develop the product. Therefore, she joined Ustart, the startup project competition of Ministry of Education. There was only one week before the registration deadline.
    The three-phase plan, profit and loss statement, market competition table, marketing model, and sustainable management had to be attached.
    These were all new to her. With passion, she found three partners, two from Soochow University and one from Jinwen University of Science and Technology (also the volunteers of Eden Social Welfare Foundation) in less than a week. They worked day and night searching for and collecting documents, consulted the teachers of the related departments, and finally successfully sent out the proposal at the last moment.
    For Lin, it was a very special experience. She not only did it for herself but also had a sense of mission to bring better life to people!
    She didn’t win at the end, but she still hoped to join the development and design of the assistive device and put the product into practice one day.
    In the last year of college, Lin joined the pop music society and performing arts society to fulfill her dream in college.
    She has had the aspiration for performing in her heart. She was lucky to meet the friends with the same interest and empathy with her.
    When she went to the hot music society for the first time, she told the cadre her situation. They generously said, “It’s not a problem that you can’t see. You can sing after all.” Then Lin became the vocalist of the band again.
    The four years of college passed soon. She used to regret losing the beautiful college life in the last two years in college because she had to travel between Chiayi, Changhua, and Taipei for medical treatment and school. But she was grateful that she had so many special experiences at the end of college years.
Versatile Life
    Lin’s family has always been worried that she would live a more difficult life than others because of her eyesight.
    Lin decided to live an independent life and experience life with courage and dream in order not to worry her family.
    After graduation, she looked for the residence in Taipei alone and explored everything in life.
    At the same time, she also started to receive orientation training. Alone in the large city, she sometimes felt afraid, but she would like to explore more possibilities when she was still young.
    She started to become an actress and have work arrangement. She has loved acting since little, so she found the job fresh and challenging!
    At the start, she even accepted the 10-hour job with a pay of only NT$500. No matter what time the job was, as long as she could get to the place by MRT, she was willing to take it because she hoped to grow up in the shortest time.
    Luckily, in the second week after she started to work, Lin got a role with lines.
    She passed the audition and got a minor role in a TV series. In the process, she couldn’t tell anyone about her eyesight because only the fittest survive in the society.
    For several times, the director suddenly asked her to put on the high-heeled shoes of more than 10 cm or changed the lines by writing them on the poster. Lin couldn’t tell anyone that she can’t see because she may lose the chance. However, she still cleverly thought of all kinds of responses to keep every performance flawless.
Behind the Success
    Lin’s friends always said, “I envy you because you can act!”
    Lin asked in return: “If you have no lines, play a bit role like the background, work in the scorching sun, get pushed around, and even sit on the ground eating lunch without a chair, do you still envy my life?”
    Everyone was silent because they didn’t see how she accumulated step by step behind the beautiful scenes.
    Lin had to wear makeup at work, so she applied for the makeup class for the blind at Eden Social Welfare Foundation.
    The class astonished Lin—To look beautiful by wearing makeup is no more the benefit for those who can see. She can feel the makeup areas even if she can’t see the face clearly.
    To enhance her skills and increase competitiveness, Lin started to learn Boshiamy input method at Taiwan Foundation for the Blind, hoping to maximize the limited eyesight. At the start, by holding the attitude to improve the computer skills, she expected to find a steady job. However, she was acquainted with a teacher, who recommended her to Dream Catcher, a group of the physically and mentally disabled. Her heart to settle down started to be restless again.
    After talking with Ju Wan-hua’s agent, Lin started her training soon. In the course of training, she clearly understood that it was where she belonged to. They were all disabled friends, so she could express her situation honestly. As everyone had the different situations, they could make up for each other’s inconvenience more. Here Lin felt the full love—the feeling of having the second home in Taipei!
    After receiving the training for more than one month, she was lucky to have some performing opportunities.
    From the past loss and fear, she seemed to find the way out unwittingly. During every performance, Lin pushed herself to the extremes. At the start, she would shake when holding a microphone. Now she can host, sing, and dance on the stage.
    Lin has witnessed the reversal and change in her life. Different from three years ago, she is confident and beautiful. She would like to thank herself for embracing imperfect herself. As long as she is willing to face and try it, the opportunities for her will surely appear!
Turn the Life Gap into Love
    Lin joined 2019 Liu Ta-Tan Life Speech Contest and won the second place.
    It was the first time for Lin to stand on a stage and share her life story with others. She was touched and happy.
    She found that when sharing her past on the stage she had no resentment, hatred, and sorrow but full gratitude!
    These days, Lin has passed through the ups and down and gradually found her position in the society.
    Lin has always hoped to encourage those suffering from bullying like her, those unseen at the social corners, and those experiencing imperfection through her story.
    She believes that everyone has the meaning of existence. Good or bad, everyone is unique!
    Lin used to wonder: “If I didn’t have glaucoma, have I become a designer?”
    But, it is not important for her now because she has seen herself in the process of living a smooth life, falling into an abyss, and standing up again with perseverance!
    She likes what she is like at present—telling everyone confidently at every performance: “Hello, everyone! I’m the visually impaired singer, Fanny Lin.”
Resume Painting
    Recommended by the employment specialist, Lin is lucky to have the present regular job.
    At leisure, she also resumes painting. Once she met a visually impaired friend, who is also a painter.
    Lin asked him, “You can’t see. Do you know what you are painting?”
    He answered, “I know what I do can’t compare with the professional ones. But that’s me!”
    She was deeply touched by these words, which gave her courage to paint again. The works may not compare those in the past, but that’s the truest self!
    To guarantee a better life, Lin made use of the leisure time to join the performance training and step toward her own dream.
    She started to learn how to give a speech and music arrangement. Recently she has written her first song in life!
     At present, she is planning for the YouTube program and managing her personal fan page. She knows nothing comes from nowhere. The belief in persistence counts.
    With only one-eighth eyesight, Lin learns to look at the world in a simpler way.
    She has learned to feel with her heart and listen to the deepest voice in her mind.
    No matter how bumpy the road is and how thorny the world is, she will act like a fierce tiger with the keen smell, acting with fortitude and completing the most detailed challenge. With the dream in her heart, she believes she has no limits!
Awards Lin Fang-Yu Won:

 

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