Chih-ying Ma’s Railway Experience
Text/Yi-chen Wang
We planned the content of the interview with Chih-ying Ma, the railway fan in the classroom next door. It includes developing interview questions, making appointment, and interviewing. Our group had three people. We interviewed Chih-ying Ma about her life experience and railway story.
Chih-ying Ma came to our class for the interview. She said she could no longer watch trains from a short distance after the railway was elevated so she prefer the original ground-level railway. She has followed Mr. Chen-hong Ma to participate in many railway cultural activities and knew the conservation of railway relics needed to be strengthened. With only a few people’s effort, it is very difficult. However, she supports Mr. Ma very much. It’s tiring but meaningful. Mr. Ma’s spirit has affected Chih-ying Ma. When facing learning difficulties, she always tells herself to continue because changes will be seen soon.
“Of course I love Yuanlin!” Chih-ying Ma replied me. She said since she heard Jingsiou Vanguard Team’s topic, she has been eager to contribute for making the railway history become known by the public and the hometown become better. “It’s meaningful,” Chih-ying Ma said. She has seen the Jingsiou Vanguard Team’s rescue action for the Yuanlin Railway. The small seed has sprouted.
Interviewing with the Little Railway Fan Chih-ying Ma Text/Wei-ru Huang
When knowing that Chih-ying Ma in the classroom next door is Chen-hong Ma’s daughter, the Jingsiou Vanguard Team invited her for an interview in order to learn her viewpoint toward the railway. We talked about the impact of the elevation construction. She said she felt trains were more cordial and watching trains was easier when they ran in plains. After the elevation, she no longer sees charming trains. She and her father often chased trains and visited the Yuanlin Silo and Changhua Sector Garage since she was little. She likes to take TRA cruise-style trains planned by Mr. Ma to visit trains and listen to local stories.
Especially the Yuanlin Railway Silo, she hopes that the mayor could adopt the railway silo and we clean the weeds around it so that it can meet with the public again. After the interview, we knew Chih-ying Ma’s father was a railway police and grandfather was a stationmaster. All three generations are railway fans. I am glad that I know her now. She is in my grade. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to chase trains with the Ma family!
When the Jingsiou Vanguard Team intensively and seriously visited residents, senior, and the chairman, we found Chen-hong Ma and chairman Jian-hsin Chang’s child were in our grade, so we scheduled an appointment with Tsai-tzu Chang tight away.
Tsai-tzu Chang lives in Puxin Township where no train passes by, so she didn’t know much about trains until few years ago when Jian-hsin Chang served as Tpcode Design Foundation’ chairman and promoted the activation of Yuanlin Silo. She often participated in Yuanlin Silo’s various activities, such as art exhibitions, kaleidoscope laser art experience, million handcraft sound show, and others. Some foreigners even came to promote arts in Yuanlin Silo! At that time, the silo was opened to the public, so she had the opportunity to get close to the giant Railway Silo. However, Yuanlin Silo has been discarded again due to the elevation construction. The surroundings of the silo are very dirty now. What a pity! Tsai-tzu Chang hopes that the Yuanlin Silo can reopen soon so that more people can enjoy the beauty of the Railway Silo.
Tsai-tzu Chang believes that Jian-hsin Chang has lofty ideas and is very keen on the promotion of artistic culture of the Railway Silo. She and her mother are very supportive to her father. Now the Jingsiou Vanguard Team already knows her, so we will occasionally meet her for the Yuanlin Railway!
He, in my grade, is really special. He has amblyopia and uses a white cane. When knowing that he was a railway fan and could memorize the train schedule, Yu-shuo and I decided to visit him.
The talkative Fa-hsu lives in Dacun Township. His house is about 10 minutes away from Dacun Train Station by driving. Since he was born with eye problems, anything moves fast can catch his attention. He likes to ask his mother to take him to watch trains, listen to train sound, and take photos for trains, so he is familiar with the types and models of trains. He can even tell what time a train will pass which station. It surprised our teacher and us.
He said he would like to work for a train station when he grew up, such as ticket inspector or announcer. Fa-hsu likes the EMU100 and EMU500 diesel trains the most. His knowledge about the railway history, disaster news, and recent news is above his age, which makes us admire him very much. In the past six years, he comes to Jingsiou Elementary School from Dacun everyday. With vision problem but great hearing, he thinks that Yuanlin is a convenient town traveling to and from places, but its serious noise and pollution problems need to be improved.
The interview was great. I saw Fa-hsu’s love to the railway. From the talk about the railway, I felt his optimism and his heart for the railway. He is a typical railway fan, and I admire him very much.
Learning from peer Tsai-tzu
Text/Ruo-ci Huang
Upon knowing our peer Tsai-tzu was from an adopting family of Railway Silo, we were too impatient to interview her. Tsai-tzu said that her father Zhang Jian-xin is the director of Qiangaotai Cultural Association, her family handled a lot of activities in adopting railway silo, and she loved the days when she was active in the silo. At that time, there were expensive speakers boxes playing old music for the public free of charge, and there were also foreigners actively exhibit artworks, which successively attracted a lot of people to appreciate Railway Silo.
Her mother supported her father’s adoption very much, pitifully, the activity has been neglected due to the elevated project. She hoped that after construction of the elevated railway, there would be another opportunity to activate the silo. The area under the elevated railway can be used for special night market or sightseeing shop circle. The Zhang family living in Puxin love Yuanlin for its beauty and convenience, but the air quality still needs to be improved… “I profit more from the consultation with Tsai-tzu than 10 years of reading”. Although Tsai-tzu is my peer, she has deep seeing and ideas, and her strong points are worth learning.