1. Description of Our Community
Lukang Township is part of Changhua County, faced westward toward the Taiwan Strait, neighboring with Xiushui Township in the east, Fuxing Township in the south, and Xianxi Township and Hemei Township in the north. Lukang embraces an area of 39.4624 square kilometers, with a population of 85,000 people, which ranked as the 4th of Changhua County. A pivotal port of the central Taiwan since Qing Dynasty, Lukang had had developed into a bustling city where commerce began to prosper in the first years of the reign of Qianlong Emperor. In 1784, Lukang opened a chartered port specifically did business with the mainland China and thus became a crucial port of the central Taiwan. In 1816, Lukang set up eight commercial institutions, all of which were funded by mainland’s wealthy merchants who introduced many merchants into Lukang. On the other hand, many ancestors of Lukang came from Fujian, a province that for long boasts tea plantation and pastries (since the Chinese tend to drink tea with pastries). That explains why Lukang is so renowned for pastry making. After the war, the industry remained competitive. The town had seen its prosperity in old times, and had a saying that “A family would never know about quality cuisine before accumulating wealth for three generations.” This manifests the fact that with the expansion of business in Lukang, Lukang people have developed a liking and taste for pastry, and has gradually acquired a high status in this respect.
2. Summary of Our Project
The Beauty’s Eyes (one kind of pastry), a local specialty of Lukang, has been famous far and wide for a century. Added with the government’s promotion of local specialties, named as “One Town One Product,” traditional industries have seen a revival over the last years. There are three bakeries that make The Beauty’s Eyes in Lukang, and two of them, Cheng Yu Chen Bakery and Cheng Hsing Chen Bakery, were founded by a pastry chef, Cheng Chui, who came from the mainland China. One of his offspring decided to found a new bakery. Ever since the Japanese-colonized period, the Beauty’s Eyes got numerous awards and started to become very popular with the Japanese people at that time. Till today, the Japanese would not forget to buy the Beauty’s Eyes whenever they visited Lukang. Once upon a time, the pastry industry was faced with a severe crisis under the huge impact of western cakes and sweets. Yet still some bakeries hit a success after transformation in the wake of this western storm. We interviewed these century-old pastry shops with inside information of this industry. We also interviewed the town mayor for his vision for local industry. We hope to disclose the challenge to keep an old industry alive and awaken civilians to the value of such century-old pastries. Now, the pastry shop has passed to the 4th generation, and is very popular with tourists. Many people came a long way to taste the marvelously sweet pastry. With a name as the “Story of the Beauty’s Eyes,” our team aims to help people to acknowledge the value of old pastry and appreciate the skills and wisdom from ancestors in making yummy pastries.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:none
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:none
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:1
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
1. Allocation of tasks Content: Unbalanced tasks Solution: A work conference was held to discuss the allocation of work. Problem solved. Result: Fairly allotted. The project is finished smoothly.
2. Webpage production Content: The Webpage group encountered many technical problems in the process. Solution: Asked the teacher to ask the help from the chief of Information Section. Result: Difficulties, including photo editing, layout design and Webpage production, were all solved.
3. Time arrangement Content: We made use of after-school hours and weekends to do this project, yet some schoolmates had to go to after-class school (buxiban) and could not join us. Solution: A timetable was formulated in advance. Anybody who cannot join may take their own time to do their parts. Result: A person’s absence would not affect the performance of the team. The only setback was team discussion could not take place.
4. Topics of interviews Content: We were not able to think of any specific topic for the interviews with the town mayor and the two shop owners. Solution: Upon the teacher’s guidance, we finally came up with revised questions for each. Result: Thanks to the teachers’ guidance, we finally found a direction to ask questions and made a list of questions accordingly.
5. Spirit of teamwork Content: When the project faced a standstill, some schoolmates began to whine and complain. Solution: Other schoolmates would take time to explain to them “hard work brings a harvest.” Result: Most of the schoolmates accepted in the ned, although they still felt a little depressed.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
A successful Cyberfair project requires everybody’s full-heart participation. Starting from zero, we moved forward with tiny steps and ultimately completed a very satisfying project. The process is not as simple as reading a book and copying the content word by word. For example, many teachers devoted their summer/ winter vacation to guiding us. Peers tried to make cooperative effort to finish the work. Parents offered any help as they could, while many shops and our school had provided us with hardware and software to complete the project. We all learned a lot from this most valuable experience, and came to realize what contributed to a successful project and how to solve problems. This wonderful experience was so unforgettable to all of us.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
1. Language Language skills are required in the process of interviews, documenting, and compiling articles. 2. Mathematics Math skills are needed to complete the statistics of the questionnaire. 3. Nature and life technologies When making the Beauty’s Eyes, we needed to place castor sugar in a jar for three months, which would get moist and become smaller cubics—a mixed state of liquid and solid. This requires knowledge about life technologies. 4. Social science Geography: Situated in the central part of the Taiwan Strait, opposite the mainland China, Lukang thus became a major commercial port of the central Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty. History: Through interviews, we have come to understand the ordeals and hardships our ancestors had undergone in the Qing-reigned period. Ethics: By working together on the Cyberfair project, we all understand the meaning of cooperation. From information collection, the design and testing of the questionnaire, editing of materials, to Webpage production, all the tasks required time and effort, and a concerted commitment to the project. We are so glad we have made it through cooperation.
5. Integrative activities To get the information from local pastry shops, we have had to visit the shop owners and make inquiries. We the understood how important it is to speak gently and behave nicely so that the interviewees would be happy to answer our questions. We learned that words and body language are both important to personal communication. 6. Arts and humanitarian affairs When making Webpage, we needed to use arrows and buttons to highlight the direction. We remembered we have learned in the course of Arts about the theory for “dot, line, and place,” and about using differing materials to present different themes, so that the work can be more inviting. 7. Computer and IT Whether it is making statistical charts, components of the webpage, or editing photos, computer skills and IT knowledge are necessary to complete the work.
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