Lee Yung Xing, a man who is proud of his work, who doesn’t give up passing down the Taiwanese charcoal
making
tradition, his doings really impressed me. According to Mr. Lee, he can work on his own, without the local
government’s support, without other people joining him for full time, only volunteers helping him. Mr. Lee
motivates me to work hard, aim for my life goal, in addition, his life experience encourages me to do what I
want to do.
competition into a successful project.
The 2021’s International Cyber Fair Competition is one of the
most challenging events I have participated in due to COVID-19.
However, under numerous restrictions and limited
accesses, I have experienced significant growth throughout the year.
From the start, I learned to organize information
into paragraphs, interviewing people, writing a survey, analyzing
data, and creating a complete website. Most importantly, I learned
practical skills including communication skills, teamwork, and the
ability to overcome problems. Lastly, thanks to all my teammates for
making our best in this competition. Mr. Lee, the main character of
our website; Mr. Hsiao, and Mr. Peng for making the competition
remarkable and delightful.
What I’ve learned from Cyber Fair is that it’s not just simply searching for information and waiting for the
teacher to mentor us step-by-step, we have to be responsible for our own tasks and time management,
including
splitting the tasks evenly, and work as a team, not working individually. Overall, everyone has to be a part
of this team in order to compete. Throughout that year I‘ve been supported by all of my teammates and
teacher,
I’ve learned analyzing skills and organizing data searched online. From choosing the topic to finishing the
website, I thought of this whole process as a sense of accomplishment, finishing the project step-by-step
and
processes have been made during our work. Also, we’ve learned how to properly interview others and asking
questions that are straightforward with the topics, we couldn’t miss any tiny detail from our interview and
we
tried our best to gain information from Mr. Lee in order to add some more finishing touches to our project.
Although obstacles and challenges delayed our progress, we’ve eventually overcome those obstacles by working
as one. As a result, we are satisfied with our final progress, the completion of our website. All of the
team
members contributed throughout this year and paved the path for all of our ultimate goals.
As a member of the Cyber Fair team at Kang Chiao, I was assign a task to create a website, even tho the
design
can be all made by the template, I still add some tweaks to the original template, our whole group poor into
this website, and my job is to make sure their hard work can be seen by the judges and the public, so I want
to make sure that they see what my teammates want them to see, about the history and background of charcoal
here in Taiwan, and not let them distract because one design mistake in the website and people can’t enjoy
my
teammate’s work. I think that this is a very special opportunity for me to show my talents and specialties
in
computers, I rarely have these opportunities in other areas, I really appreciate this time at the team, and
my
teammates has been very supportive and helpful, so we can all finish the project.
From this competition I learned significant messages and
knowledge. First, I
learn to communicate with my teammates to solve problems. Our team
faced a big issue choosing a topic, we had plenty of choices, each
profession is important but it can not highlight the history and
inheritance of culture in Taiwan. Consequently, we made our choice
of interviewing Mr. Lee Yong Xing about his life experiences and the
history of his family business in charcoal making. Charcoal has a
long history about how it changed thousands of years, and the
culture of charcoal around the world. After communication with my
teammates, we decided to choose a topic that can inherit the culture
of charcoal in Taiwan by researching and interviewing Mr. Lee
Yong Xing’s charcoal business. Secondly, I learned a lot during
researching the history of charcoal. From when does the charcoal
first being discovered, to the changes of charcoal in history. I
also learned about how charcoal was made throughout the internet and
interviewing Mr. Lee. Last but not least, I learned that
responsibility is an important part of teamwork. We faced the problem of not
able to meet each other due to COVID-19, which made this project challenging. Communicating
online and giving support to
each other who could not finish the work is our solution. Thanks for all the support
from teachers and my teammates for leading this cyber fair
competition into a successful project.
In this International Cyber Fair project, every member has a job to complete. For example, I am in charge of
survey design. Such a way of teamwork helps to improve my cooperation ability. As we have to organize or
finalized information for the website, we have to discuss how to arrange the data. The competition this year
is especially challenging under covid-19 and multiple vacations. However, we still managed to complete the
project online during winter vacation. Overall, our team cooperated well and fully used our strengths to
complete the cyber fair project.
This is a valuable experience of joining Cyber Fair. Thanks to the teammates and teachers who have supported
me. I learned new skills and knowledge, including techniques for designing, analyzing, and organizing
information. The whole process is interesting and educational. From the beginning to the end, we complete
our
project step by step, with our patience and enthusiasm, we make continuous progress in the process. Through
some adversity, we also have the ability to overcome obstacles. In addition, because I work with different
people, I have learned the strengths of others to make up for my own weaknesses. All in all, our group ended
up with a satisfactory result with an organized website. And I grew and became a better version of myself,
Cyber Fair enriched my knowledge and broadened my horizon.
Throughout the
participation
in the International Cyber Fair Competition was challenging and it was also the first time I’ve ever
experienced and participated in this kind of competition. At first, I didn’t know anything about this
competition but after I joined the team, I feel it isn’t boring and it is kind of fun. We experienced and
grew
very much as a team, but for me individually, I learned to communicate with my team members in order to
achieve the same goal for the long term.
Me as a photographer inside our Cyber Fair, from the perspective of the camera to look through the beauty of
my homeland’s culture, charcoal. Apart from being a photographer, I’m also an editor that records down the
life of a charcoal expert, Lee Yung Xing. The wisdom and skills of making charcoal have been inherited from
Mr.Lee’s ancestors, but he doesn’t want to stop the frame of charcoal, he chooses to pass down the spirit,
which makes me very touched. In this era, traditional culture seems not to be current, it’s almost been
forgotten. But the willingness that Mr.Lee wants to pass down the beauty of our homeland is never trapped,
even if he needs to do the hard work, he chooses to face it. The experience from Mr.Lee teaches me that
always
do what you really want to do, follow your heart. The lesson “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch” is
also one that Mr.Lee has taught me, behind every success, there are more hard works you can imagine.
After
interviewing Lee Yong Xing, I learn a lesson that I can carry with my
entire life. Usually, the rarer a thing is, the more precious it can
get. The charcoal made with humans without a single machine can
actually sell a much higher amount of money than the current price,
but Lee Yong Xing didn’t raise the price of his charcoal to make a
fortune. He wouldn’t let people buy all of his charcoal at once even
if the consumers are willing to pay more than the original price.
Due to curiosity, we asked the reason he didn’t raise the price, and
the answer is surprising. He told us he only wants to know more
people and make friends by doing this business instead of making
money. I was surprised by how people can give up such chances to
make money just to make friends. But I figure that it may be a
better way to be happy in some ways.
All images on this page was shot by Hsiao Shih-Hsuan
