a A 10 -year -old 10 -year -old is bouncing on a chair. On the wall of a small classroom, wet suits and racks with water equipment are lined up with turtles posters. However, the student's eyes are trained in the eyes of the teacher and explain the flow of the nearby banana bay and the condition of the sea in Zen Chinmin.
“Today, you have one mission. It's to take off your equipment and float in the water,” he says. Some children laugh nervously. They don't know that, but students at Kenting Elian Elementary School, at the southernmost tip of Taiwan, are rare among their colleagues and their predecessors.
Despite most of the 24 million residents in Taiwan, which lives near the coast and the river, the swimming ability is low. Marine safety skills are even lower. Classes like TSENG rely on several passionate individuals who want to share love for the sea.
They oppose many things -protection of determined parents, avoid bureaucratic risks, for decades of military -ized coastline heritage, and even ghosts.
For the past decade or two years, there was a coordinated push that shifted swimming culture, missed the price of high OWN death and the opportunity to enjoy it. It has been driven by dedicated teachers, civil servants, and family, and “really crazy” President.
The TSENG class ends immediately, and everyone loads it into a car with several adult helpers. In the banana bay, children pass through the jugged volcanic rocks and then choose the road before facing a small but interrupted wave.
“We don't want to be in the classroom. I want to stay underwater every day,” says a young girl.
2010 Ocean University investigation Only 44 % of Taiwan can swim. This is compared to about 66 % of the British citizens, 75 % of Australians, more than half of Hong Kong, and 76 %, close to the global average of high -income countries.
Like Australia, Taiwan has a stuffy, hot, dangerous waterway and beach. In the Australian coastal community, it is important to learn how to be safe in the sea. In Taiwan, the reaction seemed to have to be avoided because the sea was dangerous.
The attitude appears to some extent, from frustrated restrictions on the beach to the tragic risk of DR death when swimming. In 2007, the death rate of OWN death for Taiwan under the age of 14 is said to be three times higher than the Australian.
The most common explanation of swimming in Taiwan is that most parents simply fear their children near the water.
TSENG laughs when he recalls his first class. Sorry parents are lined up on the coast, folded their arms, and are not awake that their children are well trained.
“Because there are few children in Taiwan, children are like treasures, and people do not want an accident,” says TSeng, mentioned on Taiwan's record low birth rate.
This is a similar story of Xiaoliuqiu, a small island off the coast of elementary school. Here, elementary schools also provide marine skill curriculum and are now among famous people. Underwater graduation ceremony。
“If the school does not teach this, the children must rely on their families for water education,” says Hong Ji Run. But that is unlikely. “These families grew up near the beach, but they are actually afraid of water and their parents do not want to swim.”
Risk avoidance also seems to be institutional. There are many strict rules, and the beach approaches frequently. Life guards are known to tell people to get out of the deep knees. Alternatively, a single holiday Australian couple does not ask for rescue if you decide to stay in water in search of a signed pledge. Professor CHENG SHIH-CHUNG, Director of the Sports Management Bureau in Taiwan, says he is likely to be responsible if someone dries. Therefore, it is easier to keep people away from water.
“This beach is beautiful”
A downhill from the school, the two women in their forties, scream when the waves drop crash around their feet on a secret beach. The wrong name cob is a popular snorkeling spot.
“This beach is beautiful, I love it,” says Winnie Kuo. But she cannot enter. Instead, they are waiting for her 19 -year -old daughter to arrive.
“When we were young, our parents couldn't go to the beach, so we didn't have the opportunity to learn swimming,” Kuo lamented.
Some of the reasons for the lack of millennials like Kuo were that their parents grew up under martial law in the mid -1980s. At that time, civilians were mainly kept away from natural swimming places, the military -ized coastline was patroled for invaders and escape, and some rivers were executed. The elderly kiels mannered the bodies floating in the port after the government's crackdown in 1947.
Such an incident and hundreds of DAS death every year feed on religious superstitions on water.
“People are very superstition, and the gods of each family sometimes appear in their dreams and tell their parents that their children have problems with water,” Hong says about Xiaoliuqiu's deep traditional island.
More than 76 % of Taiwanese people practice private religions, Buddhism, Taoism, or the above blends, most of them have beliefs about the dangers of water. When Taiwan's midsummer -when DR death reaches peak, it matches the ghost month, a festival that praise ancestors and ghosts without descendants.
“People believe that there are some ghosts in the water to draw in you to attract you so that you can exchange them. They can go to another life.” Says Chen.
A small community that loves small swimming is holding a ghost moon ceremony every year in a river band that has not been attacked by a remote river outside Taipei. The locals swim almost every day, but they still respect the spirit of the people who have been DR here and ask them not to take others.
The successive governments tried to improve the death rate of DR death, but the most ambitious attempt is Release In 2011 by former President Ma Ying-Jeou.
In a 12 -year plan, 80 % of students swim and raised their fees between public servants and first responders. At that time, there was no requirement that even the coast guard staff could swim. The MA plan called 100 %. We have set 80 % of the police, 90 % of firefighters, and 85 % of soldiers. Massachusetts said that Taiwan was a marine country. If they didn't, it would be “a little embarrassing”.
The government built hundreds of pools, obliged swimming lessons at school, and incorporated skill tests to adopt public services.
“I needed a person who was really crazy about swimming,” Massachuse told the Guardian. “Taiwan is an island surrounded by the sea … and [parents] You should guarantee that children have learned swimming and swimming well. “
MA's love for swimming was caused by a lucky escape as a teenager.
“I was playing a little, but suddenly I realized that my feet could not reach the bottom,” he recalled and returned to the Taipei office. “I didn't panic. I sank to the bottom, jumped up, shouted,” help. ” The life guard came in about 15 seconds and I was withdrawn. But it was a shock, so I started learning to swim. “
Currently 74 years old, nearly 10 years from the government, Massachusetts swims several kilometers a week in a pool operated by the secret service. For him, swimming is almost what the answer is.
“I like Xi Jinping,” MA says in an interview that was given to the understanding that we wouldn't talk about China and was not advertised. MA met Xi, a Chinese leader who annexes Taiwan. In the meantime, he talked about swimming several times.
“One day, we were able to meet and swim together,” he said and urged him to sit on a chair on a nearby advisor.
“I hope he can beat him. So if I Beat him, I say: I swear that you won't enter Taiwan,” Ma Chuckles. He is joking, his mind is very fast and clear. We take it as a sign of how much you like swimming.
Since the 2014 survey, there have been no available statistics to show the progress. There is an anecdote, but more than 50 % of schools in some counties According to where it is conveyed Still, Cheng does not provide essential lessons that blame the shortage of facilities other than the city.
Lin says that he said “it worked” in the dream of swimming in Taiwan, but he does not think it has been bread out. “Most parents are still afraid.”
Chen says that water sports are growing, but they cannot imagine the future where Taiwanese people are confident on the beach. The fear has been so deeply established, and the lessons around the country are still basic, “not yet for rivers, lakes, and sea.”
However, an independent school program provides hope. TSENG's class was very popular, so some families have moved around the town so that children can attend. Local parents haven't been swimming separately for their children, but at least none of them have appeared to supervise the class. The most important thing is that students love it.
“If you learn risks, you can make swimming a really safe sport,” says Andy Zen, who supports the freedom to support his teacher Zen Ching Min. “We will tell students that the sea is not afraid.”
