School: Char-Shan elementary school
    Chiayi, none, Taiwan

12 students, ages 11~12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 13, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 1

Classes and Teachers: Mr. Yi-Hsiao Wang, Ms. Fang-Hsi Lin and Ms. Mei-Lan Lin

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.chses.cyc.edu.tw/

1. Description of Our Community

Chashan Village, at elevation of 350 to 1,200 meters (1,100-3,900 feet), is located at the far south tip of Alishan Township. It’s famous for various organic farm products. Chashan was called Cea Ya Ma, meaning “the plain at mountainside”. It’s a place shared by the Tsou tribe, the Bunun tribe and the Han Chinese, and displays multiculturism and diversity. Chashan is unique in the way of the custom of sharing Hu-fu (pavilions), the Cea Ya Ma Band, its bed and breakfast inns, and the wooden and stone sculptures everywhere. You’re among the nice villagers and the nature as soon as you arrive Chashan. And it’s donned as “the Chashan Agriculture Resort” by Chia-Yi County Government.

2. Summary of Our Project

The totems symbolizing the mutual dependence of the three different tribes are erected at the major roads leading to Chashan. The population is composed of 60% Tsou, 30% Han Chinese and 10% of Bununs. They co-depend, and share with each other. Everyone visiting Chashan feels it. We were lucky enough to have met Mr. Lee, one of the chiefs of Chashan, who told the story of how the three tribes merged together. The divides between races blurred after generations of endeavors. Our project will look into how the three different tribes lived together and merged into one, and how they developed their hometown with shared efforts. The achievement of Chashan is rooted in the tri-tribe binding. We know that Chashan is a successful example of culture merge. We will take the perspective of the school, the church and the community to see how Chashan did something unusual.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:2-3

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Few team members have computers at home. So most of the team made use of the Computer Center at school, which has 20 computers with online links, during non-school hours and weekends. The online connection is not stable, though, especially in rainy days. We store the files in discs, and upload when the connection was on again. Microsoft gave several computers to the church last year, so there’s one more place where computers are available.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

(1)Difficulties in transportation Chashan is a big place. Most of us live in Neighborhood Three and Four, and it takes more than one hours of walking to get to Neighborhood One and Two. So when we visited Neighborhood One and Two for project research and interviews, we had to rely on our teachers to drive us there, and it often took two trips because there were many of us. (2)No Time for Team Meetings At first, the Chashan Platoon could hardly found time for discussions and meetings. Many team members had to help with their parents’ bed and breakfast businesses during the weekends, and they attended church services on Saturdays. It was only after our teachers talked to the parents, that we were able to work for the project on Sundays. (3)Too Many Extra Curriculum Activities Our School assigned many activities for us, including Chorus Contest, Chia-Yi County and Games, and Alishan Township Games, etc. We were usually pressed for time. To keep us from exhausted, our teachers did some of the interviews for us, and tell us about them when giving classes.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

(1) We chose an even harder subject because it was the second time that we took part in Cyber Fair. We hope people would know that the beautiful Chashan is the result of the endeavors of all of its residents. I have to keep on in the future. I want to protect our Chashan Village and keep it intact. By Hao (2) My elder sister took part in the Cyber Fair project last year. She told me many interesting stories, so I decided to join the team this year. Our teachers, the big brothers and big sisters of Chung Cheng University took us to interview different people. I’ve never conducted interviews before. It was fun. And we made an audio drama. I didn’t know we could do so many things with a recorder. By Miao-Wei (3) I didn’t know there were some many stories worthy of sharing with everyone. After interviewing Mr. Magistrate and the elders in tribes, we realized that everyone was working for a better tomorrow. By Hsiao-Ling

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

The purpose of our curriculum covers all the five aspects mentioned above our project plan has covered: (1)Humanity: The project of Stories of Cea Ya Ma made us know more about our hometown. Besides, our focus is culture merge. We looked into people, through interviews and data searching, of three different tribes. Mr. Lee is a Bunun; Mr. Tien is a Tsou; and Mr. Hsu is a Han Chinese. They were glad to tell us about what Chashan was in the old days, and all of them said that there has never been no divides among different tribes. (2)Integration: The project itself is an integration of humanity and technology. We sorted the data we collected, made up the needy parts and integrated them together. The project website is an integrated database of Chashan. (3)Knowledge of Democracy: I think all of us grew a lot in this aspect. The team began to realize the importance of teamwork. The project resulted from the shared efforts of the team members. (4)Community and Globe-village-consciousness: The whole Chashan Village helped with this project. Everyone loves Chashan, which goes for every student of Chashan Elementary School and every villager of Chashan. (5)Habits of learning: We’ve learned to search for things that interest us online. The big brothers and big sisters of Chung Cheng University led us to browse the previous Cyber Fair projects, and taught us how to make audio dramas. They also taught us English and Math during the intervals. Our teachers took us to interviews, and reminded us of the details. We learned things happened in Chashan long time ago. We wouldn’t have known there were so many great persons in Chashan if there weren’t interviews.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

(1)Interviews Interviewing Ms. Magistrate, Ms. Hsiu-Hsiang, Mr. Lee, Mr. Hsu, Mr. Mailman, Mr. Tien… etc were the most important part of our project. (2)Library We searched our School Library for the books about the Tsou and Bunun cultures. (3)Books and Videotapes We found many footages and paragraphs related with the native cultures from Chashan Elementary School’s books and videotapes collections. (4)Recorders We recorded the interviews, and transcribed them. We also found that we could insert sound-track files into web pages. Recorders were also very helpful when making audio dramas (5)Cameras We took photos of our research and activities. (6)Scanners and Printers We saved photos with scanners, and filed printer-printed documents (7)Telephones and Cell Phones We used telephones and cell phones to confirm details of the interviews. (8)Computer Softwares We used software like Photo Impact, FrontPage, Real encoder to build our project website. (9)Digital Camcorder We used digital camcorders to film our Cea Ya Ma dance.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We began by asking our parents about Chashan. We would ask, for example, what was Chashan like? And we told them about the Cyber Fair project. Our parent knew the Cyber Fair because there was a project last year, and they gave us much help. We visited many elders of different tribes, including Ms. Magistrate, Ms. Hsiu-Hsiang, Mr. Tien, Mr. Mailman and Mr. Hsu. They told us many, many stories about Chashan, and some were fun. We were impressed. Sometimes most team members were pressed for time, and our teachers would take a couple of us to the interviews, and played the audiotapes when everyone was available. The big brothers and big sisters emailed Mr. Lin, who had been the Principal of Chashan Elementary School and is now the Principal of Liu-Kou Elementary School, and told us about the stories from Mr. Lin. We began to understand the changes of Chashan, and how people expect of it in the future. We’re touched.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

Our project is on culture merge, and it reminded many interviewees of the old days. Some thought of the days when they were still students in Chashan Elementary, and the tree-climbing contests in Village Games. They seemed to have gone back to the Chashan in their childhood. Some interviewees mentioned the good ideas in the old days, like the Home Economics Course. We were glad to learn that they thought about reviving these organizations after the interviews. In fact, it’s the second that the Chashan Elementary took part in Cyber Fair. The Principal and our parents said the pupils who took part in last year’s project did well in Junior High Schools this year. Some of them participated in County-wide contests on behalf of their own schools. It’s because they’re experienced and confident, the Principal said. So we hope we’d also learn a lot from the project, and let everyone know that the children from the mountains could do even better. It’s good that we completed the project together. We all believe that Chashan will be better in the future. The project gave common experience, and brought us together, like a big family.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

Firstly, we would like to take this opportunity to thank HADA, Hope Agent Development Association. They gave us tangible and intangible resources through their Petite Digi-Heroes project, and brought in the student tutors of Chung Cheng University for on-site guidance. The children of Chashan Elementary were able to complete the project, use computers and know more about the tribe cultures because of them. We would also like to thank many good villagers, parents and elders. They guided us, and taught us many things that you don’t find in books. We will definitely keep your expectations in mind. And we have Mr. Chou, the Principal, the three instructor-schoolteachers, and many other teachers to thank for. We were able to learn things in a wonderful environment because of you. We got almost all the documents firsthand, either through interviews or observations, because the project is about the village that we live in. We want to thank the former Magistrate, Ms. Lee-Yu-Yen An, for she provided many photos, and authorized us to play the music of Cea Ya Ma Band in our website. Our school, the Chashan Elementary also provided many old photos. Some of the data were abstracted from the Cyber Fair project last year.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We found that Chashan is like a melting pot. Not only does Chashan absorbs the features and cultures of three different races, it develops them into an unique culture of Tri-Tribe Codependence, which even attracts people from out of Chashan, like Microsoft and Ogilvy&Mather Advertising, to contribute to the development of Chashan. Chashan has grown from a backwater village into a tourist attraction. Every Chashan resident did their part and strived for common good. They knew things get better despites adversities. Young though we are, we’re glad to be able to keep a permanent record of our precious village through our website In Chashan’s first project, we tried to let everyone to see the beauty of Chashan, and learn about the “Culture of Sharing” here. Now we’d take one step further, and let everyone know that our village is better because of sharing and culture merge.