New Year's is a time of new hopes and dreams. Having ideals and ambitions is a good thing, but unless you work at achieving them, it is unlikely they will ever come true. This issue's cover story on Taichung city and a community on Tatu Mountain called "Utopia" explores how people there are working to achieve their ideals and dreams.
Taichung City and a Modern Utopia: Seven graduates in architecture from Tunghai University, led by Pai Hsi-ming, devoted years of effort to rebuilding a dilapidated old village on Tatu mountain into a "Utopia" of some 2,000 homes covering 40 hectares.
To "mold a community lifestyle imbued with the traditional Chinese spirit of neighborliness," they designed a safe, secure residential area with lots of green space for recreation and imitated traditional Chinese temp le gatherings, village festivals and evening get-togethers, so that people would get out of the house more and get to know their neighbors. Even more worth mentioning, there is a library, aerobics and flower arranging classes, "community college" . . .all the kinds of things that make middle class hearts beat faster.
"Utopia" is the most sought after place in Taichung to live in, and faculty and doctoral students at Tokyo University and Sangyo University in Kyushu have come all the way to Taiwan to study it.
As for the residents of Taichung, what are some their dreams and ideals?
Taichung's development over the past five years has been obvious to all. The real estate boom was pretty stupendous for a time, but when it turned out that the enticing prospects of "upgrading the city to a metropolis under the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan," of "building an international airport nearby," of "making the city a stop on the high-speed railway" and "finishing the mass rapid transit system" weren't lik ely to be realized anytime soon, prices dropped and speculators got burned, making some people long once again for the good old days of the past.
With things back to normal now, the common hope of Mayor Lin Po-jung and his fellow citizens is to build on transportation as a foundation and make Taichung "a versatile city of high-tech industries and recreational agriculture offering culture, education and shopping in a pollution free environment."
The Handicapped 'Push On to Barcelona': For those of us who are handicapped, the ideal this year is to raise enough funds to tak e part in the Paralympics in Barcelona and to come back covered in glory.
To most people's minds, the handicapped have a hard enough time simply getting about--how could they take part in races and athletic competition? The "Handicapped but Not Invalid" Sun-Moon Lake Crossing, the 500K "South-North" Marathon and other activities held by the R.O.C. Paralympics Athletes Association in its "Push On to Barcelona" campaign have proven to the Chinese that the handicapped are able to engage in athletics, too.
In fact, the handicapped need exercise even more than most people: first, because increasing one's strength is helpful in rehabilitation, a nd second, because a lack of it can lead to "secondary handicaps."
How do they exercise and compete? Don't worry, there are special rules, equipment and classes of competition to help them shine in a wide range of athletic events.
"Plan X" to Strike Back at Japan: The ideal of businessmen, economists and trade experts this year is to shrink the R.O.C's trade de ficit with Japan. The "Plan X" that has been drawn up to do this is off to a flying start and is described in detail in this issue's special feature.
Our trade deficit with Japan has expanded year after year, and even though the government has tried many remedies, none of them has really worked. The strong medicine it is prescribing this time includes a Mini-Europe Plan and setting up a Taiwan Trade Center in Osaka, Japan.
Most people think the Japanese market is hard to get into, but Politic al Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Chiang Pin-kung thinks that "precisely because it's hard, we have opportunities." Eighteen Taiwan firms, including Acer, Sun Moon Star and Sampo, have sent executives to offices in the new trade center in Osaka to display their products and make busi ness contacts.
They have gained an in-depth understanding of Osaka society, which is similar to Taiwan's, from Lin Ching-chih of Tahsin Co., which set up an office in Japan many years ago.
In view of how much the Japanese seem to like high-end products from Europe, the Ministry of Economic Affairs is encouraging domestic makers to increase their cooperation and technology transfer with European name-brand companies and produce more first-class items to raise the standards of domestic industry and break into the Japanese market.
New York's Chinatowns: At the mentioning of Chinatown, it is hard not to pan images of darkness and desolation. Although New York Chinatown is no exception, following all kinds of demand brought about by the increase in immigration of Chinese, it has changed and gradually expanded to Brooklyn.
This issue's series on overseas Chinese communities reports for the reader on the situation of New York Chinatown.
In addition, "New Year's Scrolls oChinese Doors," "Chinese Chariots of Flower," "Spaces," "Hot Sales for Frozen Food," "Markets that Have Grown Up with the Babies," "Moscow University" and "Performance Workshop" will well repay the reader's attention.
[Picture Caption]
Lin Ching-chih, head of Tahsin Co.'s branch in Osaka, Japan, relates his 13 years of experience in marketing in Japan to executives from several firms in the Taiwan Trade Center, while senior editor Laura Li (right) listens in.