She is cool, so cool as to have earned the moniker “cool-cool sister-in-law,” a title her fans like to call her affectionately. She is reticent and rarely smiles, but that doesn’t affect her charisma. Her sincerity and modesty are often betrayed by her Japanese-style bowing to ordinary people on the street, a habit that that has not been changed by her new, exalted status.

She made her first visit this week as first lady to a remote village in southern Taiwan to see a school for indigenous children who belong to a disadvantaged group. The school, Taiwu elementary school and kindergarten, is facing the danger of being merged with a larger school far away from the village due to dwindling enrollment. If so, some of the school’s 65 pupils could become dropouts. It would be difficult for some of the indigenous pupils to continue school.

Chien Yan-hui, principal of Taiwu elementary school, gave the first lady an earful of the plight of the school and his concern about the school’s fate. “You have my ear,” she told the principal laconically.

Her first foray into public welfare and charitable work — now her full-time job after quitting a well-paid job as an executive at a local bank — was as impressive as it was laudable. Working for the disadvantaged and for the public good is a noble cause, bringing to mind the image of the late Princess Diana who spent time with hungry and diseased children in remote villages in Africa. But Christine Ma is not a celebrity. She wears neither diamonds nor makeup. She prefers buses and trains to limos or Air Force One. Yes, she is her own hairdresser, quite an anomaly for a first lady.

We hope she will find her new job interesting and rewarding. Millions of society’s less fortunate — seniors, handicapped, imprisoned and socially-marginalized — need her help, her care and her strength to change their lives for the better and to give them hope.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email