Anny Ting is one of the hosts of the Happy United program on National Education Radio on Thursdays. When she joined the show three years ago, most of the guests were Indonesians like Ting, who would talk to them in Mandarin about their lives in Taiwan and share favorite hometown recipes. Ting has since moved to a different format: introducing Taiwanese picture books, largely in Mandarin, but with a bit of Indonesian thrown in here and there.

Ting is a popular host who has also received critical acclaim. In fact, she and her co-hosts garnered their second Golden Bell nomination in 2015 and went on to win that year’s award for best host of an educational and cultural program. Ting laughs when asked about her earliest experiences hosting radio shows, saying she has long forgotten most of it. She does recall turning down the offer to work in radio several times because of her lack of experience in the field, but says she has never felt nervous or uncomfortable on the air.

Anny Ting (third from right) won the 2015 Golden Bell for best host of an educational and cultural program for her work on Happy United, a radio show featuring new immigrants from Southeast Asia.

Finding love in her adopted home

Radio hosting is just one of the many fields at which Ting has tried her hand. Her 2001 decision to leave Indonesia to work in Taiwan was a means of satisfying her curiosity about the wider world.

But her family opposed her decision. Her mother refused to let her youngest child, a daughter no less, go abroad. Ting begged her parents for a year before her mother finally consented.

Her first job in Taiwan was as a caregiver. Generally thought to be a grueling occupation, Ting enjoyed it. “It let me make new friends,” she recalls.

For all that Ting hoped for adventure, she never expected to find love in Taiwan.

One of the first patients she took care of was the grandfather of the man who became her husband. He came to see his grandfather every week, saying little during his visits to the hospital. Although he and Ting hardly spoke, he always brought her a little something. But while his quiet affection for Ting was plain to others, Ting herself didn’t catch on until one of the nurses whispered, “It looks as if your patient’s grandson likes you.” Startled by the revelation, Ting shouted, “No way!” More than a decade later, she still laughs shyly at the memory.

But there was a serious obstacle to their marriage: as a Muslim, she was expected to marry someone who shared her religion. What was she to do? She decided to convert him. She spent a week talking him round, and when he adopted Islam, they married.

Anny Ting (right) took the stage at TEDxTaipei early this year, offering a presentation entitled “Ten Questions for Taiwanese” in hopes of encouraging greater cultural understanding and mutual respect.

A ready smile

Interestingly, Ting found Taiwan more unfamiliar in the period immediately following her marriage than she had when she first arrived. Marriage led to a new job that kept her away from the Indonesian friends she used to talk to when she was a caregiver. She made new friends when she enrolled in adult education classes to improve her Mandarin.

Ting’s life during those years consisted of her day job, then collecting her child from school in the afternoon and hustling off to her own classes at 6 p.m. Those classes proved to be a lifeline for her, and she never skipped a single one even though they kept her out until ten o’clock at night.

After completing her course, she went on to obtain certificates in Chinese cooking, baking, and making cocktails. Ting says that she’s not a particularly good student, but is good at taking tests. She couldn’t read most of the Chinese characters in her textbooks, and passed her certification exams by memorizing all the bits she could read. “Even though I didn’t know many of the characters, I could puzzle them out after reading them a few times.”

The friends she made taking classes not only helped alleviate her homesickness, but also opened up new opportunities. She had been volunteering at her daughter’s school and interpreting for the nearby Xindian police station in her free time when friends suggested other possibilities, which led to her teaching Mandarin at the Taiwan International Workers’ Association, working as an editor, and ultimately becoming a radio host.

As Ting has become more widely known, she has become much more inclined to smile in public. “I didn’t use to be this way.” She explains that although she was independent-minded, she was also shy and had difficulty greeting people unless they had already acknowledged her. But with her life bringing her into contact with more and more people, she’s acquired a ready smile that often helps her in her dealings with others. Her female in-laws all joke: “She hasn’t been here any time at all, but she knows more people than we do.”

Anny Ting found unexpected love while working in Taiwan as a caregiver. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)

Asking questions of Taiwan

The petite Ting has also taken the time to offer Taiwanese a foreign perspective on Taiwan. In April 2016, she took the stage at TEDxTaipei with a presentation entitled “Ten Questions for Taiwanese,” with which she hoped to provide Taiwanese with a reminder about prejudice. She told the audience that she wears a smile most of the time even though Taiwanese often ask her things like: “Didn’t you marry a Taiwanese man for money?” She pointed out that such questions stick with you, and, while admitting that such queries have become much less frequent in recent years, said she wanted to remind Taiwanese people of the need for mutual respect when speaking with people from other cultures. 

The longer Ting has lived in Taiwan, the more she has become a cultural bridge between Taiwan and Indonesia. In 2012, Ting won the Council of Agriculture’s “New Immigrant Cooking Contest,” part of its Taiwan Rice Expo, with an Indonesian-style fried rice dish featuring shallots and spices.

As busy as she is, Ting continues to look for still other new things to try. She recently summited Yu­shan and He­huan­shan with friends, and looks forward to someday having a big, cool motorcycle of her own. Though now a wife, Ting hasn’t lost her youthful desire to keep her life fresh and new.

Does she become anxious when exploring new territories? “I came to Taiwan all the way from Indonesia. What’s left to be afraid of?” asks a grinning Ting.

Ting always spends weekends at her in-laws’ cooking for the family with her mother-in-law. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)

Ting and her friends wear brightly colored headscarves with a strongly Muslim character.