My Story & Journey
0~18 Edition: The 18 years I spent in Taiwan (R.O.C.)
"Don't let the world change you before you change the world."
I have always been a political enthusiast for the past 8 years, it was not until the age of 13 in 2018, I was inspired by a local Taiwanese director, Charlie Chu who has worked on 3D-documenting neglected traditional art crafts and has donated to film truck project for over 10 years to 2171 designated schools and over 220000 students.
.png)
The inspiration pushed me to ask and reevaluate the power privileges I own as a Taiwanese teen living in a relatively privileged community. I then started to work on turning my inspiration into reality: Founded CULTUREDU FLUENT in 2018, a nonprofit run by teens for teens which works on issues of immigration by identifying polarizing inequalities in immigrant education. We tried to address these issues by teaching students how to speak out through self-representation, and bridging media coverage to the public through social media. Four chapters are established on the idea of helping people to break though cultural identities, immigration issues, cross-cultural relationships, and other multicultural social concerns.
CULTUREDU FLUENT has partnered with NTUST Professor Wannie Wang on projects ranging from Project Let's Talk Zhishang middle school English Boradcast project to New Taipei City Immigrants' Next Generation Project in collaboration with New Taipei City Government. Outside of national work, CULTUREDU FLUENT has provided opportunities to teen leaders from India, The United States, Canada and The Philippines in names of Global Network Project branch. I formed alliances of teen leaders around the globe from Russia, the United States, Mexico, India etc, I have helped SkyLyne (India based NPO for quality education) and Youth Politician (Taiwan & U.S based NPO for political journalism).
Over three years of working in independent news organizations, I have struggled between objective reporting and the pressures placed on journalists by sponsors and their political preferences. In early 2020 at The Reporters Without Borders Annual Journalism Conference in Taiwan, I met independent journalist and activist Carey Chang who has served as an activist against human rights violation and has known for her support in the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement since 2014. I got the chance to work with her in her founded independent journalism non-profit organization called The Islanders as the head of Public Relations. In early 2021, we collaborated with several local activists, college students, and journalists and initiated our first social enterprise (social startup company)- The Enfotrip.
In order to achieve financial sustainability and tackle bias and combat the delivery of fake information, Enfotrip worked with stakeholders, ranging from media corporations to educational institutions, to design a curriculum and strengthen media literacy. We created an internal research department, taught VR techniques, and have created a network of global connections. We have also collected feedback from students and innovate ourselves for the better. Our aim is to build students’ information literacy skills and encourage students to consume a wider range of news media. These experiences have paved my way to develop solutions for the media industries from the perspective of a political journalist. Throughout 2021, we connected with local activists against Myanmar coup d'état brutality and supported Afghanistan women activists. In 2022, Taiwan Stands With Ukraine was founded by the same group of journalists and activists in support of Ukrainians event in Taiwan ranging from parades, protests, to large fundraising events and has been covered on The Washington Post, CNN, and many other world class news publications.
Outside of activism and journalism, I have dabbled deeply into federal level politics and finance technology as I met with the head of KMT (Kuomintang) Youth League, Thomas Liu. My invitation to serve as the co-lead in KMT Youth League Fintech research group allowed me to connect with legislators, CEOs of high-tech corporations, and the brightest mind students from top colleges. As I stepped into the niche of political work, I have represented Youth Rights Council as a teen media representative and lobbyist to engage in conversations, hold political events, and discuss amended public policies with parties and politicians on topics of civic engagement, quality education and right to access media. I am now 18 years old and have served as a speaker in over 5 colleges, 2 TED Talks, and over 40+ events. I now worked as an independent researcher and youth entrepreneur, currently preparing for my Fintech and media related startup company.