Overview

Excuse me, where is your hometown? What special local products does your hometown have? If you have the opportunity, how would you introduce your hometown? Do you know that a group of people formed a team four years ago and started to take their children to participate in the “Knowing my Hometown” campaign? During the campaign, everyone including adults and children had the opportunity to visit small towns and big cities, gaining early momentum in social participation and learning professional skills to thoroughly record the story of their hometown.

The "Knowing my Hometown" project was initiated by Professor Wen-Yu Su, founder of the Program the World Association. Inspired by Po-Lin Chi, director of the documentary film "Beyond Beauty--TAIWAN FROM ABOVE," four years ago Xu-Liang Hong (secretary-general of the association) and Yu-Qing Huang (professor of the Media Literacy Center at Shih Hsin University) jointly developed courses that enlisted media professionals to guide students from universities to primary schools and take them to different Taiwan cities and towns to record their stories and experiences. The documentary "Beyond Beauty - TAIWAN FROM ABOVE" used images to truly portray Taiwan under the camera, which inspired the Program the World Association to promote the "Knowing my Hometown" project, hoping to take children who lack educational resources and live in remote areas to know their hometown. Through the use of images to record hometown stories, they could develop a deeper sense of identity with their hometown. The "Little Director Practice Camp" was also organized, allowing students to learn about photography, interviews, and the use of camera drones. The students are accompanied by a team composed of professional instructors. The school also invites special experts from the media to provide professional instructions to students while visiting different cities and towns, allowing them to complete a documentary film about their hometown in half a year.

Only by Learning How to "See" Can You Have the Ability to "See."
In 2020, the UMC Foundation had the opportunity to engage in this teaching program to support the promotion of the "Knowing my Hometown" project. We selected the Yanjou Elementary School in Pingtung County who had been striving continuously to participate in the project. Through the guidance of the professional team of the "Knowing my Hometown" project, teachers and students visited their hometowns and interviewed the local elders, including captains who had lived at sea for 50 years, master woodcarvers, shipyards workers, migrant workers, etc.

After finishing the camp activities in July and August, the children welcomed Men-An Pan, magistrate of Pingtung County, Xuan Lan, senior media professional, and ML Liao, vice president of UMC, in a very special way on September 12. They introduced the fishing port, industrial culture, the life of migrant workers, etc. in their hometown to the guests, and used shadow play to tell the story of their hometown. What's more special is that in addition to personally interviewing Mayor Pan, the students also taught him how to use drones for filming, applying what they learned in the camp to real life.

Skills that Stay with You Forever, Bringing Influence to Others
The “Knowing my Hometown” project not only expands children’s knowledge, but also teaches them skills that can stay with them forever. This year, seven schools participated in this project, including Chenggong Elementary School in Yunlin County, Yanjou Elementary School in Pingtung County, Shulin Elementary School in Tainan City, Hushan Elementary School in Yilan County, Yuli Elementary School in Hualien County, Binmao Junior High School in Taitung County, and Shengli Elementary School in Penghu County. The 4th "Knowing my Hometown Film Festival and Presentation" was held in the Ge-Chi Hall of National Cheng Kung University on November 28 to present the work of the students. The Mayor of Tainan City, Wei-Che Huang, as well as many media professionals from TVBS, MOMO TV, DaAi TV were also invited to attend the event, hearing the stories told by students from seven elementary/junior high schools across Taiwan about their hometowns. Through live broadcast, the heart-touching stories were also delivered to people around the world. On that day, the volunteers of the UMC Love Story Group also participated in this event. It is expected that in the upcoming new year, they will launch new scripts to bring influence of UMC's volunteers and continue to tell stories with plays, promoting life education.

The “Knowing my Hometown” project is not just a teaching program; it is a campaign worthy of everyone to think about, and to see the existence of the hometown from the perspective of oneself. All of us can start by paying a little more attention to our hometown, or places where we work and live now, whether it is from the aspect of humanities, environment, or land. Perhaps you can be the same as those students involved in the “Knowing my Hometown” project who write a story for your hometown, shoot a short film, support the “Knowing my Hometown” project by actions, or choose to join the UMC Love Story Group.

Surprisingly, we can be so close to our hometown.