From Adversity to Excellence:Yen Yung-chuan's Story

"Yung-chuan is a very special kid," says Wang Shu-chen, his fifth and sixth-grade elementary school teacher. Unlike most other children, when Yung-chuan comes across something he doesn't understand, he always tries get to the bottom of it. And no matter what the school subject, he always goes all out. He was once selected to deliver a speech representing his school and he has also taken part in recorder (end-blown flute) competitions. He has attained handsome achievements all round.

Wang Shu-chen recalls that when Yen Yung-chuan was in fifth grade, the school principal noticed that after class, this outstanding student would often squat in front of a flowerbed observing its plants and insects. Aware of his special family circumstances, the principal asked Ms. Wang to give Yung-chuan a lot of encouragement. Wang observed that unlike other children from broken homes, Yung-chuan was not depressed. Instead, he was well spoken and courteous and would always take the initiative in saying hello to his teachers. He got a lot of praise from parents.

Wang explains, "His foster mother treats him as her own child." The way Yung-chuan talks to his foster mother shows how close they are. He is also very close to his foster mother's daughter, and calls her "aunty."

Having grown up in an environment full of love and encouragement, it's no wonder that Yung-chuan is such a happy boy and gets on so well with others.

Foster home

The story of how Chen Feng-chu became Yung-chuan's foster mother is quite complicated. Ms. Chen is Yung-chuan's great-aunt on his father's side. Not long after Yung-chuan was born, his mother went back to the Philippines because she was young, loved to party and could not fit in with life in Taiwan. Yung-chuan's father, who is deaf-mute, was unable to look after him, and Yung-chuan ended up in his aunt's care. At the time, his father's brothers had not yet left their parents' home to found their own families, and the household was managed by his father's elder brother. The five brothers were all plasterers and bricklayers and shared family expenses. Yung-chuan was sent to live next door with his great-aunt, but his father's elder brother paid her a monthly allowance to look after him and cover his living expenses.

During the next six or seven years, Yung-chuan's biological mother occasionally returned to Taiwan asking for money to live on, and would look in on him. She also gave birth to another boy and girl. But several years ago, Yung-chuan's biological mother got cancer, and she hasn't been back to Taiwan since then. Mother and son are no longer in touch. Some time later, economic doldrums and bad debts forced the brothers to divide up the family property and their finances. Yung-chuan's father could not afford to pay Yung-chuan's living expenses, but his foster mother and her husband, who had cared for him since infancy, could not bring themselves to hand him over to his father, who was out of work and had a drinking problem.

"This child is very intelligent. Without someone to look after him properly, he could easily turn bad," says Chen Feng-chu. So they put a bold face on it and decided to keep raising Yung-chuan.

Yung-chuan's foster father--his great-uncle, Cheng Kuang-hsiung--also makes his living as a plasterer and bricklayer. He is 65 and does not have a steady income. It's difficult for Yung-chuan's foster mother to find work outside the home, because she was born with a malformed right foot. The family lives in straitened circumstances, but fortunately the two daughters have started working and send their parents a little something every month to help them with family expenses.

Growing up in a poor but honest family is quite possibly what prompted Yung-chuan to work hard to better himself. He takes what his foster mother often tells him to heart: "Study for yourself, not for Mama." His "aunty" says that even if you go to university, you're not guaranteed a job and asks what Yung-chuan's chances for the future would be if, coming as he does from a poor family, he failed to study hard and get into a public university.

All teenagers like to have fun. Chen Feng-chu says that when Yung-chuan wants to play he doesn't always hit the books of his own accord. But as soon as she tells him to, he obediently returns to his desk and gets back to his schoolwork.

"Yung-chuan used not to want people to know his biological father was deaf-mute," says Wang Shu-chen. When he signed up for the presidential education award, she set him straight: "Your father's deaf-muteness is nothing to feel ashamed of. On the contrary, it shows that you've had to rely on your own hard work. You're a good example for other school students." She was very happy when Yung-chuan gradually began to talk about his background with ease and confidence.

We are just as smart!

Seeing what a vivacious and articulate boy Yung-chuan is today, it's hard to imagine that his biological mother is foreign, that he was brought up by foster parents, and that his father is disabled. Yung-chuan feels little resentment toward his biological mother, who took his younger brother and sister back to the Philippines and left him behind in Taiwan, because he has been given a new, loving mother and now has two fathers.

Nor does Yung-chuan think that the children of foreign wives are less capable than most Taiwanese children: "We also have two eyes, two ears and one nose. We're perfectly normal! My elder cousin even says that the children of mixed parents tend to be smarter and better looking!"

Chen Feng-chu takes great comfort in Yung-chuan's all-round excellence, but she can't help worrying that as she and her husband become infirm with age, they will be unable to support his further studies. There is no knowing what hardships he will encounter as he grows up.

Yung-chuan doesn't worry about the future. He loves mathematics and is also very keen on literature. He sometimes complains a little about that fact that because he goes to honors math class, he has to spend a lot of time solving math problems and has little time left to read fiction. When he's feeling down, Yung-chuan finds distraction in listening to music, reading or surfing the net. He says that listening to music till he falls asleep is the best way to wind down, because the next day he wakes up refreshed and carefree.

Because Yung-chuan is so good in school, his relatives and friends urge him to eventually go to medical school to repay his foster parents for all they have done for him. But he loves to play the bamboo flute and the recorder, and also likes to go to schoolmates' homes to play the piano. He hopes that after he grows up and starts earning money, he'll be able to study music and become a musician. That would enable him to share with others the joy music gives him.