CyberFair Project ID: 7738

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Great pastry as precious gems, or the beauty’s bright eyes
Category: 4. Local Specialties
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2014/gsh7738/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2014/gsh7738/bibliography.htm

School: Changtai Junior High School
    Changhua, N/A, Taiwan

9 students, ages 14 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 14, 2014. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2014

Classes and Teachers: Hue-fen Cho/Siao-wei Chen/Chih-hung Huang

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

Project Overview

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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Project Elements

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

1. Computer hardware Desk-top computer, Notebook and Tablet: Web surfing for information, information integration, and Webpage production.

2. Computer software PhotoImpact: Editing of photos and other images Namo FreeMotion2006: Software for animation production is needed to make the Webpage more lively, dynamic, and colorful. Dream Weaver C55: Architecture scripting. Photo Zoom Pro5, Paint.net 3.6: Used for materials for photos NamoWebEditor 2008: Used to make Webpage more presentable Word2010, Word2003: Used to edit words.

3. Common equipment Phone/ Mobile phone: To keep contact with the shop owners. Television or radio: To closely observe if there’s any information that is related to this project. Camera and digital camera: To shoot the photos for interviewing, visits, and other scenes. Recorder: To record the conversation of the interviewees and document such remarks in the report.

4. Other Library, books, newspapers, computer classroom, and onsite-investigation and interviews: We searched for the information regarding the pastries of Lukang in the school’s computer classroom.

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

We have practiced for many times before actually interviewing with the owners of the pastry shops and the town mayor. We also designed several questionnaires for the students and customers who frequented the pastry shops. Through this Cyberfair project, we introduced Lukang’s pastry industry and the background and development of such shops. Our ultimate goal is to promote the culture of pastry in Lukang.

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

1. About ourselves We would like to explain this in three respects: Understanding: Through collection and compilation of information, we understand more about the pastry industry. Emotion: Through interviews, we have come to comprehend the labor and hard-working spirit behind each and every industry. When we knew that the shop owner (the 4th generation) made all kinds of efforts to invent new flavors of pastries and keep the good, old spirit of the ancestors, we could not help but feel that success was not an easy pie. Technology: We have acquired many computer skills through this project, which would be most helpful in the future.

2. About our family members We have our parents to thank for, as they offered help and drove us to the shops to conduct interviews and gave us encouraging words when we felt depressed.

3. About our schoolmates: Many schoolmates have come to ask us about our project and how it was going. When we took round every class to give tips on the questionnaire, they seemed all very curious about our investigation and interviews. We think we have made schoolmates notice the pastry industry of Lukang, which is the pride of our hometown.

4. About locality: Undoubtedly our Webpage for the project helps many nationals to pay attention on the inheritance of our pastry industry, and promotes the popularity of pastries at the same time. We believe this project would attract more tourists to Lukang, and boost our local tourism as a result.

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

We would like to acknowledge everyone who participated in preserving the wonderful tradition of making Taiwan's unique rice cake. We could not have successfully completed the project without any of you. First and foremost, we are truly grateful for our mayor's very generous assistance in making crucial introductions and sharing very helpful advice with us. We understand it must have been difficult to make time for us in his busy schedule, and greatly appreciate every minute of his time. Next, we would like to thank our dear teachers for their continuous support and encouragement. They sacrificed several evenings and weekends to ensure our project was on schedule. We would also like to thank our parents who volunteered their time and resources for our journey. In the face of difficulties we could always count on our parents to educate, comfort and guide us forward. Lastly, thank you teammates. Without a team, the work can feel lonely and monotonous. As a team, we were not only able to accomplish great work, but also share our joys, tears and dreams with each other. Together we were invincible. Finally, we would like to thank the organization for giving us this amazing opportunity to promote and share the culture of Taiwan Lu Gang. We wish everyone all the best, thank you.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 7738)

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