TSMC Charity Foundation's promotion of filial piety started when chairperson Sophie Chang launched Network of Compassion back in April, 2014. The Network was created with the goal to integrate hospital resources and nursing centers, so as to provide elderlies with more concrete support, such as hospital fast pass service, social worker visitations, and 24/7 hospital hotlines. In the process of integration, Sophie paid many visits to rural elderly residents, where she could not help but lament the decline of family values. As a result, she decided to make filial piety promotion one of the major initiatives of the Foundation.
When you want to do something good, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Since filial piety is an abstract, metaphysical concept, people have been asking Sophie how does she promote filial piety for the past three years. Was the action taking effect? In reality, we saw the gradual transformation of something even more crucial than what KPI data shows us, and that is “mindset.” Without the power of mindset, nothing can sustain. Besides the establishment of systems, we saw the warmth and moving power through Sophie's actions, and how these actions can melt the coldest hearts.
Establishing a Filial Piety Benchmark Model in Tainan: Dream Big but Focus Small
As the first step, Sophie considered Tainan, a city rich in history and culture, as the perfect location for filial piety promotion. With a proposal in mind, she picked up the phone and called the mayor of Tainan at the time, William Lai, in 2015. After hearing the proposal, Lai consented at once, even making a note to put a person capable of cross-department communication and coordination in charge. The one-time secretary-general, Chen Mei-ling, (now Minister of National Development Council) was chosen for the job. For over a year, Tainan City Hall, with the invaluable help of TSMC Charity Foundation, has accomplished different work at senior centers, caring centers, and schools. We have seen filial piety practices carried out at different age, for example: junior and elementary schools are embedding filial piety practices into different subjects, such as Chinese or math; while college students are writing biographies for elderlies living in the community. 2015~2016 marked the beginning of TSMC's long-term promotion of filial piety.
Executive Yuan Launches Nationwide “Filial Piety Model,” Tainan Hosts Experience-sharing Event
Sophie met with previous President of Executive Yuan, Lin Chuan, in 2016. She hoped to use Tainan as an example, apply the benchmarking approach, and hold an event where local, frontline teachers and principals may share their experiences of promoting filial piety.
President Lin invited former general-secretary Chen Mei-ling (now Minister of National Development Council) to call for local governments around Taiwan to join in the filial piety campaign just like Tainan, an accomplishment Chen has sweated and toiled for. With the meticulous planning of Director-general, Chen Hsiou-ping of Bureau of Education, Tainan City Government, esteemed school representatives assembled at Jincheng junior school in Anping District on February 21st, 2017. The officials shared their experiences of filial piety promotion for the past year. Students also gave an exciting drama performance on filial piety. This is the proof that a seed planted in a single city has now grown into a plant bearing fruit.
After the event, Sophie's actions inspired Ministry of Education, K-12 Education Administration Division head, Chiu Chien-kuo, to start promoting filial piety practices in the compulsory education curriculum in Taiwan.
Scholars Assemble to Work on Filial Piety Teaching Materials
The benevolence and love brought by filial piety practices soon spread from Tainan to other cities. Sophie attended Filial Piety Education Workshop at National Yuanlin ChungShih Industrial High School, which was organized by Division head Chiu and supported by TSMC Charity Foundation. From frontline promotion to nationwide campaign, Chang was overwhelmed with emotions after reviewing the efforts and dedication for the past 2 years.
In the workshop, different city representatives, school representatives, and scholars shared their experiences and acknowledged the importance of filial piety education, which marked the beginning of the making of filial piety teaching materials.
K-12 Education Administration hosted a workshop for the making of filial piety teaching materials in July, 2017. The workshop invited Sophie, along with 8 principals of different schools, which TSMC storytelling volunteers have been volunteering at, to share first-hand teaching and management experiences. The workshop reached the consensus to set filial piety education as an individual website for people to have better access to teaching materials. With the keyword feature, it also enables better searching and categorizing. The workshop also proposed to set up Materials Development Team, so that it can become the major force and unit for promoting filial piety in due course.
In the following meetings, scholars and experts went through multiple times of proposals and revisions. Besides the dedication of the development team, Commonwealth Publishing Co. also joined in the campaign. Within the shortest time period, K-12 Education Administration hosted the first filial piety demonstration at Feng Gu Elementary School on December 21st. With the story of winter solstice, students and teachers started a bilateral interaction, which induced students to show appreciation for their parents. Sophie was moved to tears by the performance. Even though people have always been saying that filial piety is an abstract concept, and even harder to practice, the performance is a living proof that filial piety can be manifested into teaching with the help of a team of people.
Catching Fire: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Interior, and ASE Group Invite Sophie as Spokesperson for Filial Piety
Sophie shared with the officials of Ministry of Education that the promotion of filial piety will be carried out in 2 ways in 2018. The realization and assessment of filial piety education within the educational system will be extended by K-12 Education Administration. For enterprises with elementary schools similar to TSMC volunteering services, they may ask K-12 Education Administration to host programs for training teachers. In this way, enterprises may also take part in promoting filial piety practices. With the right teachers, students will be more open to the teaching of filial piety. TSMC also joined in K-12 Education Administration's campaign, holding enterprise volunteer training programs at Educational Research Center on June 23rd, 2018, so that TSMC's storytelling volunteers and plant volunteers can learn to embed filial piety in their future interactions with children.
Further, what is even more exciting is that Ministry of Interior, Civil Affairs Department Director, Lin Ching-chi, also shared the same goal and mindset with Sophie. He tried to promote practicing filial piety in daily life, and called for enterprises to promote this practice as well. Director Lin invited Chang to be the spokesperson for the Filial Piety Awards this year. The first corporate filial piety event was held on February 2nd by Civic Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government, while Kaohsiung's Civic Affairs Bureau also joined in with another event on May 3rd. In addition, CEO of ASE Group, Tien Wu, invited Sophie to give a lecture on charity at ASE's Kaohsiung Headquarter on June 15th. The attendees included not only ASE employees, but also 50 or more Nanzih Export Processing Zone employees.
Starting Early: TSMC's Filial Piety Essay Contest
TSMC officially formed a group of filial piety volunteers on June, 23rd, 2018. Further, in the national filial piety essay contest this year, we received a lot of entries from first and second graders. We hope to see the same enthusiasm with fourth and sixth graders through the end of the year. With this creative and interesting design, we hope the students may be able to have a more vivid way of showing their appreciation of filial piety after their own personal experiences.