To help the city get spruced up for October, a month with three important national holidays in it, top officials in the Taipei City Department of Environmental Protection took on an added duty a while back--they "adopted" streets. The method was to mark out areas of responsibility according to the routes they followed to and from work each day and to report any trash or mess or unsightly construction work they spotted along the way to the authorities so it could be cleaned up.

It was simply the latest twist in the "adoption" of facilities like parks and underground walkways. Philanthropists in the old days used to build roads and bridges, but the popular trend nowadays is to preserve and maintain what's there by adopting it, a practice that got started with the relocation of the Taipei City Zoo.

Animals Up for Adoption: When the zoo moved across town to the south side suburb of Mucha five years ago, Mayor Hsu Shui-teh tried to attract the interest of children by introducing a fund-raising gimmick that had been practiced overseas for a long time: "adopting" animals. For a fee of NT$700 or so a year, a child can adopt an animal at the zoo and be its "guardian." Guardians can visit the zoo for free and take part in special activities like the birthday party for the elephant Lin Wang. The revenue is used by the Friends of the Zoo Association for educational and promotional purposes. More than 2,000 children signed up at the time, quite a good response.

This two-birds-with-one-stone approach set officials at the Taipei Office of City Parks and Street Lights thinking: Couldn't parks be adopted too? New parks were opening up constantly and manpower was stretched to the limit, so the office drew up a plan for the public to adopt parks and roadside trees, which went into effect in 1989. With a lot of play-up from Mayor Wu Po-hsiung, the business world responded enthusiastically: Pacific Construction Co., for instance, adopted 32 parks at one go. Six months later, the Taipei City Maintenance Engineering Bureau in the Department of Public Works followed suit, calling on corporations to adopt underground walkways. Suddenly "public service adoption" was all the vogue, spreading even to schools and colleges. Pupils at Tungyuan Elementary School in Taipei were encouraged to look after saplings on the school grounds, and each sapling had a marker beside it with the child's name on it.

Beating a Hasty Retreat: What are the rights and obligations of adoption? The contracts for major parks and underground walkways are currently limited to one or two years in length. The adopter of a park is responsible for keeping it clean and looking after its plants and trees. Underground walkways should also be kept clean, but to show their good will the companies usually fix them up nicely by repainting them, changing the flooring and installing new lights. IBM and Taiwan Television, for instance, spent more than NT$8 million on remodeling the underpass at the intersection of Tunhua South Road and Pateh Road, and the whole thing looks brand new now. "It's much brighter than before and I feel safer walking inside," says a woman who works nearby.

Viewed from the standpoint of the Public Works Department and the CityParks Office, the adoption system promotes public participation and citizen awareness, while businesses see it as a way to improve their corporate image. "Talking strictly dollars and cents, we're more than willing to do anything that can attract public attention and benefit our corporate image, so we're naturally happy to take part in something like this," says Hsin Kong Life Insurance Co. manager Lu Jung, expressing the general feeling of most adopting companies.

Even though they all joined together for the same reason--mutual benefit--the results have been widely inconsistent, and by the end of last year quite a few firms had backed out. Sterling Trust Real Estate Co. says that maintaining a park really isn't easy. Take trash, for example. Some people dumped piles of it nearby, thinking it all had to be cleaned up anyway, and then others called to complain when it wasn't. Pacific Construction, a real estate company chain that adopted a lot of parks, found itself scolded by some city council members as engaged in advertising and commercial activities, maybe because its signs were too conspicuous. "We thought we were going to raise our corporate image, and instead we spent all that money and wound up getting yelled at," they say, feeling much abused. The result was that after the real estate market cooled down they terminated their contracts. Statistics of the City Parks Office list 92 "adopters" this year, but half of them are junior high schools and elementary schools.

Plaudits for a Park: The adoption program for Sung Chiang Park is one of the rare examples to have obtained splendid results. The seven adopting firms, Common Wealth magazine, Continental Engineering Corp., United World Chinese Commercial Bank, China Broadcasting Company, Yue Long Motor Co., Yu Sheng Research Foundation and J.J. Pan and Partners Architects and Planners pitched in and carefully redesigned and remodeled the whole park, using poetry as a theme. Inside stands a statue of the ancient poet-patriot Chu Yuan by the famous mainland sculptor Chao Jui-ying, and there are stone slabs with poems from the past and present carved by the noted calligrapher Tung Yangtzu. The little park is equipped with a foot-massage health track, playground equipment and a stage for performances by artistic groups.

Two examples may leave an even deeper impression.

Two thirds of the park's sign is devoted to narrating the changes the park has witnessed over the past 300 years, while the firms' names appear modestly at the end. The second example is that during construction the site was ringed by a metal fence decorated with posters from famous parks around the world. It not only covered the mess but also served as a kind of outdoor art gallery.

Since work was completed, all kinds of artistic and cultural activities have been held in the park, such as a program on exotic folk dances presented by a troupe from South Africa and the folk dance club at National Taiwan University.

To encourage more participation in public service adoption, Environmental Protection Administration has recently been planning to kick off anew campaign to recruit volunteers to adopt neighborhood streets and help keep the city clean.

Exploiting Mines of Good Will: Compared with donating money, adoption involves greater participation and concern, which produces unexpected benefits sometimes.

Taiwan Power Company, for instance, has encouraged retired workers to adopt saplings at its Kueishan Training Center. In that way, they feel like they're still a part of things, and they can keep in touch with their fellow workers when they go back to water the trees and fertilize them.

To raise its public image and strengthen employee cohesion, Hewlett Packard Taiwan also engages in public interest activities. It adopted Tatun Nature Park, encouraging workers to take part, and set up a course in park ecology. "Adopting a park gives our employees something meaningful they throw themselves into besides their work and brings them closer together," says company public relations specialist Luo Yen-nung. "Since taking part in the program, we've become more than just coworkers--we've really become friends."

People in today's cold world have many emotional resources waiting to be tapped, and "adoption" has struck a rich lode of warmth.

[Picture Caption]

Adopting and renovating underground walkways has become a popular way for corporations to give something back to society.

Bringing poetry into the urban environment and giving people a break from their hectic pace of life is the idea motivating the adopters of Sung Chiang Park.

Adopting Tatun Nature Park has drawn the employees of Hewlett Packard even closer together. (photo by Vincent Chang)

Bringing poetry into the urban environment and giving people a break from their hectic pace of life is the idea motivating the adopters of Sung Chiang Park.

Adopting Tatun Nature Park has drawn the employees of Hewlett Packard even closer together. （photo by Vincent Chang）