Exchange for Love Between Taiwan and Japan-Three University Female Students’ National Diplomacy Connecting Friendship Between Both Countries

CYCU Learning Service Center subsidized the student group “CYCU Japan International Volunteer Group – Exchange for Love Between Taiwan and Japan” to engage in the international volunteer service in Japan for 10 days as of July 14. The students “exchanged” the hand-made Taiwan’s cultural hanging ornament with the locals in Japan for the charity goods. As a result, both countries would understand more about each other’s cultures and the students also took the chance to promote Taiwan’s cultures and thereby establish the friendship between Taiwan and Japan.

The student group “CYCU Japan International Volunteer Group – Exchange for Love Between Taiwan and Japan” consisted of 3 female students of CYCU Department of Finance, namely Wang Kuan-Jung, Hu Yu-Lun and Su Jo-Hua. According to the group members, the three of them didn’t know how to speak Japanese language at the very beginning. For this trip to Japan to help the activity run successfully, the group members consulted with Teacher Chang Chia-Fen of Department of Applied Linguistics and Language Studies, who once continued her education in Japan, about the Japanese language, Japan’s national condition & cultures and anything to be noted before the trip. The three female students hoped to communicate Taiwan’s cultures to Japan by virtue of the goods of high sentimental value. Therefore, they worked together to produce 96 pieces of hanging ornament, of which the base consisted of used wooden pieces. The front sides of these ornaments portrayed the painting about 12 representative traditional festivals in Taiwan, and the reverse sides interpreted the ideas about Taiwan’s cultures wrote down by Taiwan’s people to share with the locals in Japan, who were invited by them online and street and by working with LOHAS Preschool in Taoyuan County. They would like to share these decoration ornaments with Japan’s people to “exchange for charity” and make them experience the passion and kindness of the Taiwanese people. The tangible goods received upon the exchange would be fed back to LOHAS Preschool to show the appreciation to the Preschool students for their assistance in preparation for the decoration ornaments. The intangible ones would be photographed or described in writing and shared online to enable all people to participate the exchange between both countries.

One of the three members, Hu Yu-Lun, had a long stay in Japan before. She found that Japanese knew very little about Taiwan but only knew Taiwan’s geographic position. Therefore, she thought about how to make Japan’s people know more about Taiwan by this national diplomacy. With the subsidy from CYCU Service-Learning Center, three of them teamed up, worked with each other, and spent more than 3 months in planning the trip, in hopes of promoting their hometown in which they have lived for more than 20 years to the world and making more people know about Taiwan.

The counterparts targeted for the exchange included the kind Japanese old people from Kishiwadakenro University, the passionate juveniles from Kansai University, the cute kids from Hashiba Nursery, and the friends of different ages interviewed on street. They were very thankful to all of these friends.

Meanwhile, the group members also appreciated Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CYCU Service-Learning Center, LAHOS Preschool and Overseas Chinese Culture and Education Foundation for their assistance and guidance which enabled them to find more resources to help them make their volunteer dream come true.

Soon, the group will organize the presentation of results and feedback ceremony at LAHOS Preschool. Meanwhile, they would like to share the experience about this trip to Japan with the students of LAHOS Preschool to lead the students to see the world and share the love from both countries.