'Touching China' honors 1st Taiwanese woman

Launched by CCTV in 2002, the “Touching China” program honors 10 people that have moved China's people and between one and three groups that have made special contributions each year.

Chang, a former journalist with Taipei-based China Times, said at the award ceremony that she “felt especially lucky due to being surrounded by so many who love me. There are a lot of kindhearted people in Taiwan and there are a lot of kindhearted people in the mainland too.”

She also took the opportunity to encourage the children of Dayingpan Village to focus on their studies, complete the nine-year compulsory education period and hopefully one day even become university students.

Chang's unexpected turn in life came when she was covering a story in the village in 1999. She found the village had been almost deliberately forgotten because of the stigma against people with the disease.

She recalled being shocked when she saw some leprosy sufferers dragging themselves around the village with their deformed arms and legs, leaving bloodstains on the road. She discovered that the children of the lepers had no IDs and many of them were illiterate and wandering in the street.

In addition, the classrooms were densely crowded with more than 70 students, with some of them having to stand during class due to a lack of seats.

Chang originally wanted to write a story and then return to Taiwan, but she said she simply couldn't forget “the increasing number of children who were left in the street like chickens or ducks.”

Chang quit her job in 2003, so she could be more dedicated to her cause of promoting education in the village.

She founded a charity group called the Wings of Hope in Taiwan. She wrote articles, gave speeches and talked to potential donors to raise money to build new classrooms and dormitories. Over the years, those classrooms turned into buildings and eventually a middle high school.

When difficulties blocked her way, she cried and then wiped away her tears to get down to work again. “Love has become my driving force,” she said.

Chang, who gave birth to her second son when she first visited Dayingpan Village, said that she felt the power of a new life and that she has devoted herself to education in the village “like a mother” because she could not turn away from “those angelic children.”

Online voting for this year's “Touching China” winners started in October.

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