On overcoming obstacles in her life, from Yahoo!.com.tw, translated…
She’d dreamed of becoming a writer, an artist, but before her own grandmother passed away, she was, given to an aunt to become her son’s child bride. It wasn’t until Pan had reached age sixty, did she finally, get to live her dreams of being a writer! She’d owned and operated the “Used Book Shop in Fucheng” for many years, as she mentioned this part of her childhood, she’d written a memoir of her days as a child bride, to share her experiences as the last generation of child brides, to encourage the younger generations to never give up on dreaming, to work hard toward one’s own goals.
and, here she is, with her published book…
“I’d published my first book at the age of sixty, what, do you, younger generations have to be afraid of?”, Pan had worked hard, to promote Taiwanese literature, poured herself into volunteering, and the Fucheng Used Book Shop is also, a platform, for those who needed a stage, she’d rarely told others of her life as a child bride, and it wasn’t until the publication of her very first book, did she tell her story, to encourage people, not to give in, to their destinies.
Pan said, she was born in Taipei, and her birthfather was Liu, but, the family had too many mouths to feed, she was the third daughter of the family, at the age of ten, before her grandmother died, she’d asked her parents, to give her to her aunt, who has only a son, to be his child bride, and, she’d arrived in Tainan, and, took her uncle’s last name, Pan. She said, that her uncle ran and operated a cookie factory, and, as a child bride, she’d needed to help out around the factory, she’d cooked, for the factory workers, at the age of twelve, she’d learned to cook, and, she’d had to cook the meals for all thirty of her uncle’s factory employees during her summers and winters.
Her life as a child bride lasted until she was twenty-four. She said, that she and her cousin who was two years older became like siblings, plus, as he’d gone off to college, he’d met another that he loved, and, they’d kept the fact that they were betrothed to themselves, at the age of twenty-four, in order to break away from the chains of this family, she’d married her ex-husband in a hurry, only to end up divorced from him, a decade later.
Having an optimistic outlook on life, she’d told, that she refused to give in to her own destiny, nor did she ever give up on her dreams. In a decade’s time, she’d never stopped, writing, made art using the recycled materials, done paintings in oil, and wrote the paragraphs, poetry that went alongside with her paintings, toured around a lot, and she’d also asked for sponsoring of her writing from the Department of Culture, and managed to publish her first book. Yesterday, on her book signing, she’d stated that she was going to donate the proceeds from the sales of her first hundred volumes, to the deaf community, to help them build a home.
So, this, is how a woman turned the trials of her life into something that inspires, and, being a child bride is hard, because you’d have to, start taking care of huge family at a very young age, you are being asked, to take on adult responsibilities, even was you were still, just a young child, but this woman manage to turn this misfortune in her life, into something that helps inspire others.
Life, the Obstacle Course 