Crowdfunding-campaign-related news

This weekend the "T-shirts of Courage" arrived! So I'll be ready to deliver them to contributors of my MAKING HISTORY crowdfunding campaign come July. It's also a sign that my time here is coming to an end. 

I've been wanting to post about this sooner, but I got caught up with some things that I had to take care of this weekend and on Monday I headed to Chiayi with Su Beng for a memorial service for Chan I-Hua (詹益樺).

Last week Su Beng signed copies of the TAIWAN'S 400 YEAR HISTORY book cover poster, another one of the incentives of my MAKING HISTORY crowdfunding campaign.

I'm feeling rather behind on updating this blog and I will try to get to that next week since I will be heading to Hualien with Su Beng this weekend.

But first, here are some photos from our trip to Chayi to attend Chan I-Hua's memorial- a trip that Su Beng makes annually.

As we waited at the train station in Taipei to take the high speed rail to Taichung on Monday, May 19th, Bin Hong, Su Beng's assistant went over some updates on Facebook with him.

It had been raining in Taipei that day and Bin Hong remarked that every year on this particular day (May 19th), somehow, it would always rain. 

During the drive from Taichung to Chiayi there were flashes of rain so heavy that there was little to no visibility on the road and at times it seemed worse than driving in a fog. As the rain swelled, the view from the windshield blurred. And the car's windshield wipers seemed like they were unable to keep up with the pounding, torrential rain, and motorists drove with their hazard lights on. Then, just as soon as the downpour had struck, it would abate. But that was not the end of it. For the downpours stuck again a several times throughout the drive.

The intermitent rain continued throughout the memorial service for Chan I-Hua in Chiayi. I had to run for cover a few times. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come because today was the third straight day of heavy rains here in Taiwan. 

Here are some photos from the memorial service:

Su Beng at the memorial service for Chan I-Hua in Chiayi.

Flowers for Chan I-Hua.

Su Beng was stopped for photographs and autographs while he was there.

Photo courtesy of : 敏紅

We drove back towards Taichung in the rain, and stopped for dinner before heading to the high speed rail station. 

Su Beng waiting to head home on the platform of the high speed rail in Taichung later that day.

As you can see, as I've accompanied Su Beng to his events and on his travels around Taiwan, it's not at all unusual to have someone stop and ask Su Beng to take a photograph with them, or for Su Beng to be asked to sign something.  However, this time on the high speed rail ride back to Taipei, he got a really unique request. Su Beng was asked to sign a plate! 

The plate was specially designed with a groove in it so that you can more easily scoop those pesky last kernels of rice that are always so hard to get off of a plate. If you look closely at the photo above you'll see that there is a groove at the bottom of the plate.

Su Beng wrote on the plate: 青年有志, which can be translated as: Youth with righteous aspirations. 

Photo courtesy of : 敏紅

I'll try to post more about what went on earlier this month, but I'm headed to Hualien for the weekend with Su Beng. 

Also, Su Beng will be speaking this Friday, May 23rd from 7-10pm at the National Taiwan University, Convention Center.

For those interested in attending here's the address of the location where he'll be speaking:

集思台大會議中心
台北市大安區羅斯福路四段85號B1

National Taiwan University, Convention Center: No. 85 Roosevelt Road, Section 4, B1

The event is also listed (in Chinese) here on Facebook.