Strengthening community awareness
Living at a time when all aspects of life are increasingly embedded within networks, education ought to prompt more sensitive awareness and curiosity about the things around us.
Although City Wanderer’s name itself pays homage to Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s Wanderers Program, the organization has narrowed the transnational scope of Cloud Gate’s program to the city where one currently resides. That emphasis on finding experiential “travel” nearby is summed up neatly in the sentence: “The whole city is my classroom.” For the City Wanderer Competition, a city is divided into districts. Firstly, this saves time and money spent on transportation, facilitating broader participation. Secondly, the missions can thus be tailored to the resources of specific districts, highlighting local character. City Wanderer’s licensing director Eileen Chien emphasizes that in addition to missions in each of the four main categories, a further “special mission” is often given a particularly local spin. For instance, participants in Kaohsiung have been required to uncover historical anecdotes about Kaohsiung Harbor. Otherwise, competitors might be asked to visit local sites of special cultural or historic significance. Such missions have given many students who moved to cities to pursue their studies a much deeper sense of connection to their adopted locales.
The Good Step for Place Studio in Tianmu is committed to expanding the use of local resources. To many, Tianmu, with its Western-style luxury residences, has an exotic flavor. By compiling historical documents and interviewing residents and shop proprietors, often with the assistance of local organizations, Good Step has gradually taken an inventory of the community’s historical and environmental resources. Apart from the Caoshan aqueducts and the Sanjiaopu power plant, Tianmu’s cultural resources, such as the Tianmu White House and the former residence of general Luo Youlun, were also situated here because of Tianmu’s location between the mountains of Yangmingshan and downtown Taipei. The community features ten parks and six other natural areas. These provide needed islands for wildlife between the wild mountains and the city center. Via Tzeng Yu-ren’s innovations, these easily accessible resources have provided fodder for fun local tours and environmental education courses aimed at varying age groups, with topics such as “Tianmu schools,” “a magnifying glass on local aesthetics” and “a window onto Tianmu stories.”
In working on children’s education, Tzeng is trying to incite change in the parents, who can then influence the outside community, awakening concern about local cultural resources and ecologies and cultivating citizens’ engagement.
Sixty youths took up the challenge to avoid using any electricity for 72 hours. Through this material deprivation they rediscovered their own courage. (courtesy of City Wanderer)