Dr. Chang Tien-hsiung, Honorary Chairman of ROC Charity Artist Association and CEO of Wu Mai Cultural and Educational Foundation, has been a photojournalist from Dacheng News, Central Daily News, Central News Agency, China Times, to United Daily. Like the protagonist in the film Forrest Gump, he has stayed truthful to his work as a photojournalist for fifteen years, travelling around four continents and thirty countries, seeing the world and sharing the touching moments through his camera.
    His work, “Spring in Sianguang Before,” won “Taishin Arts Award.” His workm “Goodbye Hometown Ximending,” won the first prize of Cross-Strait Exchange Nonfiction Award. His work, “Children in Papua New Guinea,” won the award in New York International Photography Show. Chang insisted on recording the historical reality with his camera, including the 921 Earthquake, the 525 air crash, and the SARS breakout in Taiwan . . .
    The reason why Chang decided to quit his job was the flood caused by Typhoon Morakot. When he couldn’t give any help when seeing his hometown, Kaohsiung, devastated, he determined to retire from the media, where he could only witness others’ pain as a bystander.
    By accident, Chang entered the academia and was hired as Director of Technical Cooperation Division and Dean of Student Affairs of Kao Fong College of Digital Contents and worked all the way for three years with the belief that “No students should be sold after the school is closed even though he loses his job.”
    At last, to protect the students’ basic right, Chang stood out to be a “whistler” by submitting an article “Exchange Thirty Students for a Teaching Position” to United Daily and Liberty Times, unveiling the ugly side of the academia and prompting Ministry of Education to deal with the aftermath of the first closed college in Taiwan. All staff and students were property arranged and ended well.
    However, after guarding the educational conscience, Chang became unemployed, and his parents died of illnesses successively. He only had hundred dollars in his account, even unable to pay one thousand for the labor insurance.
    At that time, Chang realized that everything was the test from God. He didn’t believe that a man of conscience would be fooled and abandoned by Fate.
    He took his camera again, calling for those with the same interest to the schools in remote townships most seriously damaged by Eight-Eight Flood such as Shan Lin Elementary School. He aimed to become a charity pioneer for the disadvantaged and reverse sorrow through photography. After twelve years, he led the schoolchildren in remote townships to complete two photography tool books for the co-reading of parents and children, Tell Stories with Photographs, opened the cultural and creative charity model to combine the professionals’ knowledge and the practice of schoolchildren in remote townships, publish the books, and build the schoolchildren’s confidence. The result of the schoolchildren in remote townships was brought to Helsinki, Finland, the country with the top educational power in the world, and won “HundrED,” the global educational innovation award, passing the educational love in Taiwan on.
    The precious part is that Chang and his partners are never conceited after winning the world-level award. To open the window to the world, they have decided to set up a charity experimental school where “all men are born equal, and benevolence is for all.”
    Therefore, Chang spent twelve years leading the children in remote townships to find confidence through photography, not asking for reward but for value. He assisted with the art education in the remote schools such as Shan Lin, Nei Men, Shang Ping, Xin Zhuang, and Ji Lai, spared no effort to encourage the schoolchildren in remote townships to learn and reverse the image of being aided, and benefited tens of thousands of schoolchildren in remote townships.
    Through the hands of the new immigrant schoolchildren in remote townships, Chang recorded the life moments of the mothers who travelled across the ocean to Taiwan, not only opening the children’s vision of visual collision but also integrating life education and family education. He successively won the honor of the three major contribution awards in social education, art education, and family education in     Taiwan and further won the global educational innovation award in Finland.
    Chang challenged the old frame, created the new possibilities, opened the window to the world, planned the charity experimental school, and made the promise that in his life he would reverse sorrow through photography by leading the schoolchildren in remote townships to the world stage. The “Media Forrest Gump”.
Media Worker as the Witness
    The publisher of Merit Times, Master Miao Xi said: If Mr. Chang’s camera is focused on recording the great time, the record of his life should be the representative time-lapse photography.
    I. The early stage of his life is the microcosm of the media in Taiwan.
    As a media worker, I’ve seen Mr. Chang encounter the shift from the old to the new media and the Taiwanese traditional media’s reordering of the target readers. Eliminated by the time, the media were closed one after another, and he also had to move to the new media. As I still work in the media circle, I feel touched by his truthful depiction of the bitters and sweets after losing his job from a journalist’s perspective.
    II. The middle stage of his life is the microcosm of the higher education in Taiwan.
    The higher education in Taiwan is over-popularized. The low birthrate even worsens the chaotic situation. Take Kao Fong College of Digital Contents, where Mr. Chang used to worked at, for example. Lacking funds, it made the fake student list to keep the teachers’ position. Full of internal and external problems, it tried to turn around the situation but in vain, becoming the first college to be closed in Taiwan and witnessing the collapse on the fringe of the educational system in Taiwan.
    He used to have the educational aspiration, but he felt so close to the evil side of the academia.
    III. His later stage in life is the start of the charity in Taiwan.
    Spring will come after winter. The withered wood will greet the blossoming flowers in warm spring. When Mr. Chang lost his job and salary and became so poor that he had nothing but “hope,” which can’t be destroyed by reality, he chose to “contribute to” others as his lifelong mission.
    Quit the Job with Million-Dollar Annual Salary．Contribute to Remote Township Education
    Born in Kaohsiung in 1973, Chang got his master’s degree at Graduate School of Applied Media Art, National Taiwan University of Arts, and PhD degree at Graduate Institute of Adult Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University. At present he is CEO of Wu Mai Cultural and Educational Foundation, Honorary Chairman of ROC Charity Artist Association, Consultant of Life News Agency of Fo Guang Shan, and Columnist of Future Family.
    Having engaged in visual work for nearly fifteen years, he used to be the photojournalist of United Daily Photography Center, China Times, Central News Agency, Central Daily News, and Dacheng News, travelling to four continents and more than thirty countries and having many photos published in the worldwide media and collected by National Repository of Cultural Heritage.
   In 2009, Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan. The “Eight-Eight Flood” caused 681 death, 18 missing, and more than NT$20 billion agricultural losses.
    As a photojournalist at that time, he joined the rescue and digging of Xiaolin Village. The images of the bodies under his feet and the victims’ crying their heart out and waiting for the rescue helicopters were deeply rooted in his mind. He decided to quit the job with the annual salary of million dollars and contribute to the remote township education.
    After the flood, to help the disadvantaged children in the affected and remote townships, he enthusiastically and sincerely invited the senior media workers, Lin Jian-rong, Hu Sheng-ti, Shu Shi-jing, Zhao Yuan-bin, and Ling Hong-jian, to organize the charity artist association. They came to Shan Lin Great Love Community and Shan Lin Elementary School, hoping to bring some possibilities different from school subjects to children in remote townships. They have traveled to many remote townships in northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan and taught more than 2,000 children in remote townships through art education, including those with learning disabilities identified by Ministry of Education. They can all find the successful experience through art.
    On April 16, 2012, the program “Exploring World by Camera” was produced in cooperation with PTS, hoping that the children will forget the pains from disasters through art learning, tell their stories with a camera, and acquire a proficient skill at the same time.
One Taiwan．Two Worlds
 “Neither mountain nor city” means the areas where the schools are located are neither the remote mountain areas nor the cities.
    While the gap between urban and rural areas has become a familiar term, few people are aware that the educational resources between the city and the country in Taiwan have also gradually become M-shaped.
    There are many educational resources in the urban schools, and the social care and assistance tend to go to the remote townships. It is hard for the “neither mountain nor city” schools in between to access the resources, and the efforts often come to nothing. Shan Lin Elementary School, which Chang cooperates with in the project, is a typical “neither mountain nor city” school. Many children of the school come from the economically disadvantaged families. They have lunch to eat with the support from school. Therefore, the school has to hold activities during winter and summer vacation so that the children will be provided with lunch.
    According to Child Welfare League Foundation’s 2018 Survey Report of the Gap between Rural and Country Areas in Taiwan,” the disadvantaged children in remote townships neither eat well nor dress warm. Their learning situation is even more worrying.
    Many teacher with love in remote townships spend a lot of time and effort helping them, not only assisting them with learning but also shouldering the responsibility to offer three meals.
    Due to the lack of educational resources, many children have to drop out of school in junior high school. After the city-county consolidation, there are even fewer resources. The principal keeps working hard to connecting with the external resources to take care of the children in need of the school’s help.
    The gap of educational resources is truthfully reflected on the children’s learning ability. Only half of the children in remote townships can answer the questions of the basic academic competence. It’s nearly thirty percent less than the advantaged children. There are nearly twenty percent children in remote townships saying they can’t understand most of the daily classes.
    In the past, as long as the children in remote townships or economically disadvantaged families worked hard, they still had the opportunities to enter an ideal senior high school and university. However, after the implementation of twelve-year compulsory education, the students have to not only score high but also acquire special skills, extracurricular activity experiences, and even competition awards. For the children who love learning but have rare resources, it is almost impossible for them to have the additional money for remote township education.
    According to a report in 2018, an enthusiastic remote township teacher in Africa, Richard Appiah Akoto, gave the computer class with a chalk for six years. The only computer in the remote school was broken, and so was his own laptop. With the barren resources, he drew the word processing software interface on the blackboard with a chalk, carefully marked the function of every key, and explained the operation procedure to the students step by step, attempting to compensate for the lack of the computer equipment in remote schools. The teaching passion was seen by Microsoft, which actively provided the school with the hardware and software equipment and sent the teacher to a training course to boost his computer teaching skills.
    As for Taiwan, with plenty of educational resources from the government and the financial support from many charity groups in the society, the facilities of the schools in remote townships are not longer the major problem. Instead, the most needed are the teachers who are willing to cultivate the remote townships for a long term.
Backyard of Kaohsiung：Lovely Secret Garden of Second-Generation Immigrants
    Shan Lin District, Kaohsiung, was regarded as the backyard after the city-county consolidation, enjoying the beautiful scenery and located on the way to the hot spring and delicacies in the mountain area. However, after Eight-Eight Flood, it turned into a “post-disaster recovery area” without any impressive industry except for several large communities of the victims.
    The stores and schools in Shan Lin often jokingly call themselves the places that people “walk by, pass by, and just skip.” The remote schools joining the photography project included Shan Lin, Nei Men, Shang Ping, Xin Zhuang, and Ji Lai, the small schools with only about forty students. In some of the schools, the second-generation immigrants account for half, making the schools full of diversities.
    In the process of photography teaching, the most interesting was the interaction between the teachers and children. The teachers with a sense of mission like social workers were so familiar with the children and parents that they were like neighbors. Some school directors were like commanders in charge at the school entrance. They asked the students and parents to welcome the photography team on time. So there were fathers with children, elder sisters with younger sisters on bicycles, and mothers with daughters greeting the guests with the highest standard.
    The teachers were so familiar with the places where the students often hung around. Without the teachers to lead the way, it was even harder than reaching the sky to find the children to learn photography along the winding paths of the small village!
    It was lucky that the principals, directors, and teachers of the collaborative schools gave full support to the shooting process, so the work could be completed in two months.
    For example, to make the parents understand thoroughly about the project, Principal Lin Wen-yi of Xin Zhuang Elementary School spared no effort to visit and explain to the students’ family one by one. When the photography teacher stepped into the children’s house, all family members had been well prepared for the shooting.
Free Art and Children’s Learning Frame
    Photography is an art presented through machines. The different styles of photography pursue the extremes of “truth, goodness, and beauty” respectively. In the past, a photographer aimed to accumulate the works, awards, exhibitions, and published portfolios in his career. The personal achievements helped guarding the status and fame.
    The American photographer, Steve McCurry, became a world famous photographer after his photo “Afghan Girl” appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. His photographic works spread worldwide, and he won the awards of World Press Photo for several times.
    He received the extremely high appraisal in terms of the “truthful” press photography. But there was a rumor that he overused the photo-editing software to keep the consistent characteristic in his works,        “beauty in truth with splendid colors.” Besides, he claimed publicly that he was a “story-teller,” instead of a documentary photographer who only pursued the truth, which was severely attacked by the public opinion. Finally, he even closed his popular website.
    There was an Indonesian ecological photographer, Penkdix Palme, taking a cute photo of a little frog using a leaf sheltering from the rain. In another photo, to cross the river on a rainy day, a frog shelters under a leaf umbrella and sits on another leaf as a boat.
    As many photography lovers admired the photos, some also wondered whether the photographers abused the animals and insects to pursue the beauty and specialty. They may have pierced the animals with thin threads or glued something to their bodies.
    The two examples mentioned above are the outstanding photographers in the different photography fields. However, they lose themselves on the way to pursue exquisiteness. They are not necessarily the ones to blame for such result. After all, the works have to be judged and evaluated by the public. It depends on whether the “market” buys it.
    For a photographer, it is better to think about the present value and meaning of the art of photography than to pursue more opportunities and applauses by making false photos.
    Chang said he had once fallen into the general photographers’ blind spot to pursue fame and wealth by holding exhibitions, joining competitions, and publishing the books of image marketing. However, he found the pursuit of exquisiteness resulted in the destroying of the core value, so he rethought about the way of photography’s existence after the evolution of one and half century.
Second-Generation Immigrants Reverse the Label．Turn Over a New Leaf
    After the post-war immigrants, the new immigrants in Taiwan bring the opportunities to integrate into more diverse culture and move toward the better direction.
In the past years, the media have exaggerated “the problem of cultural integration” and labeled the new immigrants as “disadvantaged.” The government even regards the education of the second-generation immigrants as “national issue.”
    As time passes by, the second-generation immigrants have become college students. Many of them do not have the learning problems, and their academic performance is not worse than the Taiwanese local children at all. This proves that life will not only find its own way but also lead to the unimaginable result.
    The society has always faced the educational issue of remote townships with the simple but incorrect label. The result of the label of “disadvantaged” is the forced division between “urban” and “non-urban.” Those living in the cities are advantaged, while the rest are disadvantaged.
    The weird point of view causes the public’s misunderstanding that the remote townships are full of starved people and desolate land. In the interaction for nearly twelve years, he deeply feels the prejudice and discrimination from the point of view.
    The children in remote townships have endless vitality, imagination, innocence, and full energy to explore new things. Compared with the hustle and bustle of urban life, there are more elegance of slow life, space to take a breath, and a sense of freedom and safety.
    Unlike the society’s impression, the new immigrant children have neither lower learning ability nor poor family functions. In the book, the readers will see the good students ranking top of the class and being the family’s great helpers. Through the photography project, we understand their families are as happy as most of the families in Taiwan, working hard for their life.
Take the Different Levels．Let Pictures Tell Stories
    The year of 2015 was a year of having a new try. Together with Yuanta Cultural and Educational Foundation’s “Dream Project” and Franz’s “Imagination Project,” Chang published Elementary School Students’ Photography Class and Mom is the Female Lead Role: Tell Stories with Photos with Linking Publishing, leading photography to the next century.
    By saying so, he is not boasting off what he has down but hoping that more photographers will join them and work hard together to promote the photography art to the public. The instillation of the correct equipment purchasing concept and knowledge will break the myth that has occupied people’s mind for long.
    He make the second-generation immigrants in the remote schools of Shan Lin, Nei Men, Shang Ping, Xin Zhuang, and Ji Lai the authors, introducing how to tell stories with photos to the photography lovers through the six simple tips—looking down, looking up, looking at eye level, far, mid, and near.
    He said, “The online social media are instantaneous, and the messages are replaced fast. The ‘Z-generation’ children only give a 8-second chance to a message. If it doesn’t come into their eyes at the first sight, it is an ineffective message. However, people will always listen to stories, which can stand the challenge of new media. Therefore, it is the most necessary and urgent knowledge to acquire nowadays how to tell stories visually.”
    After the two books were published, up to thousand copies were sold on the first day, which not only increased the confidence and learning motives of the remote township children but also gave them the chances to contribute to the society. By cooperating with Kaohsiung Public Library, they gave 100 new books to the public library branches so that the citizens could read them. The book, Mom is the Female      Lead Role: Tell Stories with Photos, not only depicts the status quo of how new immigrants work hard to support the families but also provides the chance for the second-generation new immigrants to understand their mothers’ devotion to the families by observing their own families.
    It is encouraged that from today on everyone brings a camera or a smart phone to learn photography outdoors together with the family, enjoy sunshine, experience everything of the real world, construct the shared topics and memories in life, open the children’s unlimited imagination and creativity, and find the laughter and happiness of the family again!
Gaze at the Remote Townships’ Highlight with Love Together with His Daughter
    Chang’s eldest daughter, Chang Chu-yi (Joy Chang), started to learn piano at the age of four and violin at the age of ten. She studied in a general class in elementary school and junior high school, but she was admitted into Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra Youth Orchestra by working hard and became the violinist.
    In 2017, she won the third place in Eelin Star, the top model selection, but she gave up the colorful life in the entertainment industry and chose to enter the remote townships. She led the new immigrant and disadvantaged children in Shan Lin Elementary School and Xin Zhuang Elementary School and several senior tailors including her mother to create the unprecedented educational mode by walking to the runway.
    By remaking old clothes as the contrast to “fast fashion,” which damages the environment, she invited the specialists in the universities and business world to create the runway stage and led the school children to endorse the events of Kaohsiung City with Coco Han, not only opening the eyes of the remote township children but also inspiring their future prospect and dream.
    Chang Chu-yi cooperated with all the partners of the event to publish the book Remote Township Children on the Stage-My Model Students and I to raise the educational funds for remote township children, which won “Social Education Contribution Award” and “Family Education Award” in Kaohsiung City.
    In 2015, National Tsing Hua University initiated the “The Gleaner’s Project,” which focused on the special talents and energy of going upstream regardless of the scholastic ability test result. In 2018, the student number of the project accounted for 3 percent of the total admitted students. There were 1,101 applicants, and only 60 were admitted. Chang Chu-yi was one of them.
    Chang Chu-yi said, “My favorite is music. I expect to become an art therapist in the future and to join NTHU International Volunteer Group to explore more possibilities. I hope to bring more positive energy to the society by making use of what I’ve learned. I also hope that my hard work will inspire all young friends to put down their smart phones and take action to bring more warmth to the society.”
Open the Window to the World—Planning Charity Experimental School
    After winning the global educational innovation award, Chang Tien-hsiung and his partners were neither self-conceited nor indulged in the glory. Instead, they decided the next step in a short time.
    To implement the diverse, useful, and positive educational ideal, they will work hard for the goal of setting up “a charity experimental school” to provide the more equal learning resources for the society so that the children in need will have the access to the required educational content without being confined by the high tuition.
    It is indeed very difficult to achieve the prospect, but they have to try! Chang has always believed that “all men are born equal” and “everyone is born with a mission.” Based on the correct generic concept, education itself should aim to build a life journey with conscience.
 “Benevolence is for all.” It is a hoped that in education children will learn the “highest goodness like water,” doing good to the society with a kind heart in a kind way and creating the better living environment.
    Every living person can be compared to a small ripple. But the past educational concept only focused on several trees rather than the whole forest, without developing the children’s abilities to interact with the society, shoulder the responsibility, and communicate with the environment.
    Chang creates the experience of goodness for his two daughters, which provides another educational choice for the parents who need and want to give their children a quality life.
    Every child has his or her gift. Education is to find every child’s successful experience.
    When Chang participated in the innovation summit of “HundrED” in Finland, he found the educational generic concept of the country, “People are passersby.” It is an elevated concept full of life context.     Under the value, all the categories including the environmental education, maker education, and STEAM education follow the supreme principle.
    The country emphasizes that every child counts and that every child should enjoy the same educational resources. It is not necessarily for a person to achieve something or become somebody in life. But he has to recognize that everyone plays a part in the environment with the mission to extend and love the land he lives on.
    In the past, the education in Taiwan put too much emphasis on academic performance and sacrificed children’s possibilities. Before developing their gifts, many people gave up and believed they didn’t have any ability and meaning of life.
    In 2014, “Act for School-based Experimental Education” was passed. Many parents started to have the difference choices for their children’s education. Many diverse educational systems therefore appeared such as romantic Waldorf and utilitarian Montessori.
    It is worth our attention that experimental education should provide the different choices for “those in need” rather than the VIP privilege for “the rich.” At present the average monthly fee over    NT$10,000 is not what the lower-income families can afford, not to mention the economically disadvantaged ones.
    If money is the critical part to receive education and develop a child’s gift, it is like putting the cart before the horse.
    Chang hopes to follow the tuition of “non-profit preschool” so that education will focus on the needs instead of money. The idea is approved by many enthusiastic friends. They are the outstanding talents excelling in their own fields in the society, willing to do their share for education to cause the larger ripples of goodness.
    The two daughters of Chang are not straight-A students. The older daughter, Joy, has the strong mind, music talent, and good expression. She bravely gives up the third place of national model selection, fulfills her dream to walk into the remote townships, raises the schooling funds for children, and endorses the event of the city government.
    The younger daughter, Peggy, is a “digital geek” who can create the lovely comic stories. She has held four major exhibitions for the senior citizens and given the creative works to the elderly viewers after the exhibitions. The related news website has got over 100,000 clicks. She has been a talented girl since junior high school.
    Through these successful experiences, Chang hopes to integrate the talents from all walks of life and develop the children’s diverse profession-oriented intelligence to achieve the dream life with the core frame of “goodness”!

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