Lee Chang Jae Discovers Kaohsiung to be a Land of Potential／開發自己潛能的李昌財
Lee Chang Jae Discovers Kaohsiung to be a Land of Potential
◎English translation: Lin Fang-ju
◎Photo by Hou Ya-ting
Lee Chang Jae is from Jeju Island, South Korea. At first he only planned to stay in Kaohsiung for three months to study Chinese, but ended up staying for four and a half years. He even studies Japanese at the National University of Kaohsiung and is now in his junior year. He is the store manager of the Korean coffee shop franchise Caffe bene.
After his first three months in Taiwan, Lee cycled around the entire island with his friends. He received a lot of help from friendly Taiwanese locals and made a lot of friends, many of whom he still keeps in touch with. He believes this bike tour was the turning point of making the decision to stay in Taiwan. He chose to settle in Kaohsiung because it was where his aunt's husband came from and found people to be as friendly as they were in his hometown. Kaohsiung has certainly become a land of new discoveries and potential for Lee.
Lee would like to see Kaohsiung have more chic coffee shops, and he is glad that the Caffe bene he manages in Kaohsiung is the first location in Taiwan and that it contributes to the diversity of Kaohsiung's culinary culture.
Lee Chang Jae is not afraid of attempting anything that he is interested and isn't afraid of failure. When he first came to Kaohsiung, he always carried an electronic dictionary with him because he didn't speak any Chinese. At that time he felt speaking Chinese was more difficult than listening, reading or writing. He was often scared of speaking Chinese to the local people and always regretted it when he got home. One day, he realized he could communicate with locals for ten minutes, then twenty minutes and even an hour without using the dictionary. He discovers that he has managed to do something he thought he would never be capable of.
Lee Chang Jae recommends that if people want to learn Chinese they should come to Kaohsiung. The locals are happy to converse with foreigners and enjoy making friends with them. Lee has always wanted to work in international trade since he was very young, which is one of the reasons he decided to go to university to study Japanese in Taiwan. Knowing a variety of languages is a great asset for his future career. He also feels his job at Caffe bene is related to international trade. His hard work and studies in Kaohsiung have made his parents proud of him.
開發自己潛能的李昌財
◎文、攝影／侯雅婷
來自韓國濟州島的李昌財最初只打算在高雄學習3個月的中文，選擇高雄是因為姨丈是高雄人，李昌財說高雄人給他的感覺就像家鄉濟州島居民般的親切，就這麼在高雄長住下來，一晃眼4年半過去了，他現在就讀國立高雄大學日文系大三，同時也是Caffe bene韓國連鎖咖啡店的店長，在高雄不斷開發自己的潛能。
李昌財什麼都不怕，特別是不怕失敗 ！他常掛在嘴邊的話是：試試看，失敗沒關係。不會說中文的他一開始到哪都帶著電子字典，「說」中文對他而言，比聽、讀、寫都還困難，有時想說的話會卡在喉嚨，回家還會懊悔怎麼沒勇敢的說中文，有天他發現，沒用字典他也可以跟台灣人聊天！從10分鐘、20分鐘，再增加到1個小時，做到了不知道自己可以做到的事，越來越愛中文、也就越學越好。來台的第3個月，李昌財與朋友展開騎單車環島，熱情的台灣人會主動幫助他，環島旅行途中，結交許多朋友，到現在都保持聯絡，他想了一會說，也許就是那次旅行讓他愛上台灣，繼續留在高雄。
李昌財推薦外籍朋友到高雄學中文，因為友善的高雄人樂於與外國朋友交談、做朋友。從小就想從事貿易工作的他決定在台灣學中文，同時進大學學習日文，為日後蓄積能量。在Caffe bene擔任店長一職，圓了他想從事貿易工作夢想。李昌財說他在高雄認真就學、努力工作，讓原本擔心他的父母親 ，感到驕傲。
談起Caffe bene引進台灣首點落腳高雄，他說，他一直希望高雄也能有氣氛很好的咖啡店，很開心Caffe bene提供高雄民眾更多元的飲食文化選擇。
A Dazzling Life Lit By Splendid Lanterns
◎English translation: Lin Yi-chun
◎Photo by Pao Chung-hui
"I want every child to be so amazed by my lanterns that they exclaim 'wow!' when they lay their eyes on them," says Huang Min-fang, a renowned lantern artist from Kaohsiung City's Meinong District. Every year since 2007, Ms. Huang's works have been displayed in the Creative Lantern Area of Taiwan's Lantern Festival. She laughs and says her lanterns can be spotted because they are the most colorful or romantic ones, often decorated with lace trimmings.
Ms. Huang is an elementary school teacher. A lantern-making camp she joined in 1999 inspired her interest in creating figurine lanterns. She has loved painting since she was a child, and this hobby gave her a strong foundation of fine arts, allowing her to be more creative when styling her lanterns, and able to inject different styles of vitality into her works. Her abundant creativity has manifested in more than 150 lanterns so far.
The material Ms. Huang uses for the lanterns' frames has evolved from bamboo sticks with steel wires and paper-wrapped steel wires to welded large steel wires. The scale of her creations is expanding, too. Such is her devotion to the art form that she purchased a welding gun for welding the wires. Her works range from individual lanterns to whole sets which, viewed together, tell a story. To vividly express the unique, exquisite character of her work, Ms. Huang has traveled to Taipei's Yongle Fabric Market to find suitable fabrics, and Changhua's Ribbon King Cultural Area in search of unique materials. She spends so much on materials that her husband worries whenever he hears she is planning another shopping trip. However, Ms. Huang says that her lantern work is art, and she insists on attending to every detail of it.
Ms. Huang's work is romantic and heart-warming. She uses elements such as Hakka floral fabrics to decorate, reflecting her Hakka cultural background. She uses simple steel wires to frame the figurine's face. After mastering the shape of the lantern, she addresses the challenge of how to let the audience detect the facial expressions on large figurine lanterns. She once used two cats as her theme, and managed to unfold the charm of two felines snuggling up to each other. She is excited by the progress she has made in her art.
Although each lanterns requires a great amount of work, Ms. Huang enjoys her creations. She says that making lanterns lights up her life. For her, making a lantern from scratch is like breathing life into a work of art. The moment one of her lanterns is lit up, she is always deeply moved by gasps of amazement from the crowd.
繽紛花燈 點亮璀璨人生
◎文／侯雅婷
◎攝影／鮑忠暉
「我想要小朋友一看到我的花燈作品就會驚喜不已，發出Wow的一聲！」美濃知名花燈創作者黃敏芳說。從2007年起，黃敏芳的花燈作品每年都在台灣燈會創作燈區展出，她笑著說，顏色最絢麗、或是裝飾著蕾絲呈現浪漫風格的花燈，就是她的作品。
任教於國小的黃敏芳1999年參加竹編燈籠研習營接觸花燈，開啟了她對花燈人偶創作的濃厚興趣，從小喜愛畫畫，累積美術創作底子，讓她在塑造外形上更加靈活，賦予花燈不同的生命力，豐沛的創作力，迄今累計製作超過150件作品。
黃敏芳的創作花燈，骨架材料從竹子結合鐵絲、包著紙的鐵絲，進展到焊接大型鐵線，規模日漸宏大，更遑論連焊接鐵線的噴槍都買到第二隻，可見她投入程度。她的花燈作品也從單個擴大到一整組，展現豐富而完整的故事；而為了傳神地表現花燈的精緻性和獨特性，黃敏芳會至台北的永樂市場選購布料，或是到彰化緞帶王找尋獨特材料，採買材料所費不貲，陪在一旁的先生每回聽到黃敏芳又要採買布料不免覺得膽顫心驚。但，黃敏芳表示，花燈是藝術創作，她堅持把作品的每個環節都做到位。
黃敏芳的花燈作品風格浪漫而溫馨，使用客家花布等元素裝飾，反映著客家文化背景。她以簡單鐵絲線條展現花燈人物臉型，在駕馭花燈外型後，她進一步挑戰如何讓觀眾從偌大的花燈中，感受出人物表情，她曾以二隻貓為題材，表現貓咪互相依偎的神韻，這個進步讓她興奮不已。
儘管製作花燈的工作量超大，黃敏芳卻甘之如飴，她說，創作花燈讓她的人生更為燦爛，對她而言，花燈創作過程從無到有，有如賦予花燈生命一般，點亮燈剎那，在眾人的驚呼聲中，她滿是感動。