A Mother and Her Library: TaiMei Education Foundation
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This article is part of the 22ed issue of LEAP — Voices of Youth e-letter. Subscribe now.
Located on the southern tip of Taiwan, Zhutian Township is a small village with a population of just over 17,000. Looking over Zhutian from an elevated platform at the train station, all that is visible is a boundless betel nut field.
In the middle of this sparsely populated, serene countryside, TaiMei Education Foundation built a Parent Child Library, which has been attracting parents from hundreds of miles away, and who line up all night just to sign up for activities hosted by the foundation.
What exactly is the magic so enchanting parents from afar? We interviewed Chang Chih-Hui, the head of the library and CEO of Tai Mei Education Foundation, to talk about her experiences over the past decade.
The Journey From Housewife to CEO
Two decades ago, Chang Chih-Hui was a housewife too shy to even speak in public. Being the CEO of a foundation and managing a library had never been part of her life plan.
“Actually, I quite enjoyed being a housewife.” Tasked with raising three children, Chang considered being with her children as they grew up the most important thing she could do. She bought picture books to read to her children, showed them educational films, and took them everywhere to participate in activities. “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.” Quoting from The Prophet author Kahlil Gibran’s poem On Children, she said that she wished her children would be able to find their own interests.
In 1999, Chang’s father-in-law established a foundation and appointed her as the chairperson. “My father-in-law said that he saw that I took good care of my children, so he stated that I should serve as the head of the foundation.” As a result, a mother who originally only worked to bring up her children became the head of a foundation organizing educational activities for countless families.
Initially, Chang could not get used to being the chairperson. “As a housewife who all of a sudden had to speak to many school principals or head of towns, such immense pressure made me stomachache. Also, when I attended meetings with the board of directors, I worried the whole time that no one was looking after my children.” Later on, she became the CEO instead, and was no longer obligated to attend social gatherings. Therefore, she felt more at ease in making arrangements for classes at the foundation.
Based on her own experience taking care of children, Chang Chih-Hui considered the needs of children from a mother’s point of view. Thus, she sought teachers from across Taiwan and arranged for courses according to the needs of the children. Furthermore, the courses are often based on the family unit so that both parents and children can participate together. Mutual assistance between families also helped to reduce pressure on the parents. Eventually a parent-child community was formed.
Perhaps that is the reason that many parents really enjoy the activities planned by the TaiMei Education Foundation. Every year, more than a hundred courses are held, attracting many families to sign up, and the number of children who spent their childhood to teenage years have added up to more than one thousand.
The Process From Many “Story Mothers” To A Library
In 2008, the foundation built a four-floor parent-child library. The library began with several “story mothers” who wanted to tell stories to children.
In 2001, the foundation organized the “Story Mother Training Class”, attracting the participation of 30 to 40 mothers locally. “Ordinarily, if these mothers did not come out to take classes, they did not have a social life and had no friends.” Chang Chih-Hui recalled that initially, some mothers would rush home to cook before the class ends. After several years, these mothers said: “Now I just tell them to cook for themselves!” After they gradually reached a consensus with their families, they began to embrace their autonomy.
These studious mothers eagerly participated in the training courses, and served as volunteers in nearby primary schools and nurseries to tell stories to children. “The mothers of that time were very willing to serve.” During this process, they were encouraged and applauded by the principals of various schools, which gave them a wonderful sense of achievement.
While the number of storytelling mothers gradually increased, they were also slowly running out of stories to tell. At the time, the foundation did not have its own library, so some picture books were bought and placed in a corner of the Zhutian Township Library. As more people participated in the activities and more picture books were purchased, the borrowed space at the township library gradually ran out of room. At this point, Chang’s mother-in-law donated 14 million NT dollars (roughly equal to 46,666 USD) to the foundation before she passed away. Thus, the foundation decided to build its own library — the TaiMei Parent Child Library.
Chang has always enjoyed going to the libraries and bookstores since she was young. However, she realized that parents seldom took their children to borrow library books since libraries in Taiwan carried an insufficient amount of old picture books and closed early.
Therefore, the collection of more than 10,000 books at the TaiMei Parent Child Library are mainly children’s picture books. Chang also invented her own book classification method with stickers of different colors and varying sizes to make it convenient for parents and children to find and return borrowed books. Other than Lunar New Year, the library opens from 9 am to 9 pm daily. Many parents who live nearby bring their children to the library to read books after dinner, which was exactly Chang’s vision in achieving “parent and children reading together” and the “life-long learning type of families”.
When a mother became the CEO of a foundation, she made it possible for more children to find themselves in diversified courses. When a mother built a library, it became possible for more families to enjoy reading and become passionate about learning in a parent-child friendly environment. That is what Chang Chih-Hui and her library are accomplishing!
Also in This Issue:
Fembooks in the Alley — An Ongoing History of Women’s Rights Movement in Taiwan
As the first feminist bookstore in the ethnic Chinese world, Fembooks is a landmark of women’s rights promotion.
Author : Lin Si-hou
Freelance journalist exploring gender and public issues.
