Further Endeavors Imbue Formosa with the Loving Concepts of Alternative Living

Compiled report by the Taipei News Group (Originally in Chinese)

Taoyuan

On April 22, the Taoyuan Center held a vegetarian tasting event at the Sport Games of the Fudan Elementary School in Jhongli, Taoyuan County, where they distributed the Alternative Living leaflets to convey the message of loving animals through a compassionate diet to the teaching staff, students and their parents as well as guests participating in the event. To attract the attention of people, fellow initiates donned animal costumes such as chickens, piglets, cows, fish and other animal characters. A health counseling service desk was also provided, staffed by initiates with medical training.

With God’s blessing, the activity turned out to be a sensational event. The lovely animal characters attracted many children, who spontaneously hugged them. The guests who had the opportunity to sample the vegetarian food were deeply impressed by its great taste. Many guests, concerned about their health, went to the health counseling desk for a check-up. More than half of them were found to have high blood pressure and fat levels, and all were glad to listen to the advice of the fellow initiates, showing a willingness to introduce more vegetarian food into their diet and do more exercise.

After their previous ‘carpet’ distribution of leaflets, this activity was yet another endeavor by the fellow initiates in Taoyuan to promote vegetarianism since this was a more concrete way of reaching deeper into the community. After the activity, fellow initiates immediately reviewed and listed what they needed to improve to make the next event even more perfect.

Hsinchu

After two months’ effort, the message of the compassionate diet has been shared in every corner of Hsinchu. Fellow practitioners thus continue to promote vegetarianism in more intensive ways. For example, they held vegetarian food tasting events and cooking lessons and informed the people about vegetarian restaurants and shops. They also paid a visit to the Chairman of the Wufeng Township Villagers Representative Assembly, Mr. Lin Xiang-qing, and his wife. Mrs. Lin was responsible for the Wufeng Township Women’s Society and was also the host of a local cooking class. Fellow practitioners explained to Mrs. Lin the benefit of the vegetarian diet and presented to her with a copy of the Supreme Kitchen cookbook, hoping that she would initiate a vegetarian trend through her cooking class. According to Mrs. Lin, the local aboriginal compatriots were accustomed mainly to a meat diet, which accounted for their generally bad health. Therefore, she also wished that the local inhabitants would eat less meat and learn to cook vegetarian food, thus improving their health conditions.

With the assistance of fellow initiates from universities and colleges in Taipei and Hsinchu, fellow practitioners at Tsing Hua University held an activity to promote vegetarianism at a garden party celebrating the University’s 50th anniversary. At the venue, besides showing “The Real Heroes” video, they had also prepared plenty of delicious vegetarian food to serve the guests. Of course, they also did not waste this opportunity to distribute Alternative Living leaflets. That day, many foreign students who went to the venue received the English version of the leaflet. A fellow initiate who was a teacher led the young friends from his class to visit our booth and let them learn the benefit of a vegetarian diet. Coordinated with the days’ activity was an invitation from fellow initiates in the Tsing Hua University for people to join the “Light and Sound Vegetarian Society,” which they planned to establish to share Master’s teachings and promote vegetarianism as a permanent heritage for the university.