'Suspended
coffee' tradition inspires noodle vendor in Taiwan (By
Jay Chen)
Taipei, April 12 (CNA) For the past two
weeks, a noodle shop in New Taipei has served noodles to people in need for
free in honor of the Italian tradition of "caffe sospeso," or
suspended coffee, and the practice is already resonating in other small
businesses nearby. The soup noodles are in fact not free but
paid for in advance by other customers so that they are reserved, or
"suspended," for people who cannot afford the shop's fare.
According to the Apple Daily, Yen Lin-ying,
who has run the shop in a market in Banqiao District for 32 years, started
asking customers in late March whether they would pay for noodles to give away
to others after her son told her about the suspended coffee movement he saw on
Facebook.
The response was surprisingly positive, she
said.
In two weeks, customers have paid for more
than 40 suspended bowls of noodles at NT$75 each, and half of the bowls have
already been served to needy people who are just learning about the help she's
offering.
Yen keeps track of suspended noodles on
offer on a whiteboard in her shop.
Among those she has given food to are a
single mother and her child who shared a bowl of noodles and an unemployed man
who ordered the noodles to go so he could give them to his elderly mother at
home.
Since she began the practice, two other
food shops and three stalls in the market have also offered to provide their
own versions of suspended service.
"I never imagined that a mere bowl of
noodles could have such an impact," the 60-year-old was quoted as saying.
She hopes the suspended noodles could help promote the power to do good so that
more people can benefit, she said.
As in Italy, where the tradition of caffe
sospeso has enjoyed a kind of revival because of hard economic times, poverty
and hunger have become more common in Taiwan. Earlier this year, the New Taipei
government began a program under which school children of low-income families
can get food for free in neighborhood convenience stores.
Yen's initiative won widespread praise
after the Apple Daily first reported her story Friday.
Questions:
1. What
do you think about the "suspended meal" idea?
What are your opinions on helping the
"less fortunate?
2.Are
you willing to help others?
What do you do to help others?
3.Have
you ever donated money to a charity?
4.Should
people donate money and volunteer time to help others?
5.How
to motivate people to help the people in need?
6.Are you willing to sacrifice your life for a complete stranger?
我是歌手
Culture
and influence (China Post)
The popularity of "I Am a Singer"
was demonstrated by the amount of time major Taiwanese TV stations gave to
broadcasting the show. In fact, news stations that broadcast the finale of the
show have found themselves in deep water for doing so.
Cable news channels ETTV and CTi Television
may each be fined due to their overnight broadcast of the TV show, the National
Communications Commission (NCC) said. News channels are not supposed to devote
so much of their programming to entertainment shows, and the coverage of the
show also prevented the public from getting news reports, the NCC pointed out.
The two channels broadcast the last episode
of "I Am a Singer" for as long as four hours, said the NCC, noting
that it received complaints from viewers. Mainland China TV programs have to be
sent to the Ministry of Culture for review before being broadcast, which did
not happen in this case. This has led to concerns about China's growing
cultural influence on Taiwan.
Of course, Taiwan has its own popular
talent shows, but critics say local TV stations cannot afford to create a show
like "I Am a Singer," which features stunning sound and lighting
effects and movie-quality videos introducing singers' lives.
Noting that Hunan Satellite TV has invested
heavily in making "I Am a Singer" such a huge success, Lung said
Taiwan must consider how it can retain its creativity and competitiveness with
the country's relatively small economy. Taiwan must work harder to keep its
edge in the entertainment industry, she warned. "Will Taiwan retain its
abundant talents in pop culture 30 years from now?" she asked. This is now
a question that many people are asking.
Questions:
1.What do you think about the talent show?
2.Why Chinese talent show captivates Taiwanese
viewers?
3.In your opinion, who is the best singer in the
talent show?
4.Which songs or singers do you like the most?
5.How does the growing Chinese influence on Taiwan's
culture?
6."Will Taiwan retain its
abundant talents in pop culture 30 years from now?"
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