Mirroring the World

Because she knew how it’d felt, getting hit by the hard times, and now, she’d offered practical help to those released inmates, so they can start their lives again, after they’d served their time, paid for their, crimes…such an inspiration to the society!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Lin and the Group of Volunteers Fixed Up the Hundred-Year-Old Old Mansions, & Helped Many to Start on a Brand New Page of Their Lives

“Sis, what would happen to all of us, if the old mansion were to, close down?” these words from the reformed former inmates, was all it took for the founder of Dongli Jia Feng, Lin to grit her teeth down, to pass through the trials that the pandemic brought; she’d gone from the heights of her career, to bankrupting and living on the streets, then, she took a group of those “who were similar to her in their situations in life” to return, Lin continued to write her own legendary tales.

“The residents living her are not normal, this is not the place the normal can stay for long…”, the released inmate, “Jih”, was talking about their “home” after their release from prison—the Dongli Jiafeng.

This traditional Minangese old style mansion is a very rare well-preserved red brick and pottery architecture, a registered ancient site by the Miaoli government, the place where the soaps come for the out takes, but twenty years ago, it was, a total, ruin. It was the sixty-six-year-old Lin who brought the place back to its former days of, glory.

a video of the place, what it’s about, found on YouTube, how Lin and her group of volunteers fixed up the old mansion…from YouTube, and yes, the link works.

CTWANT 社會傳真 / 「東里家風」割稻飯飄香　女強人修復古厝也修復人生 – YouTube

By age eighteen, Lin had made enough money for the purchasing of the mansion, at age twenty, she’d started up her own travel agencies, and the hardware import company, she’d accumulated dozens of properties in Taichung then, but, she’d made the bad investments in a species of orchids, and, lost it all, with tens of billion dollars that she took out in loans with the loan sharks, she had to place her three young children with relatives and families emergently, and escaped from the loan sharks separately with her husband then.

From Not Being Expected to Succeed to the Experts Getting Onboard the “Programs”

In 2000, Lin had retreated to the township of Yuanli, Miaoli, felt the deserted old mansion, the “Donglijiafeng” was a place of shelter, and she could get away from public attention too, she’d immediately rented this 140-plus year-old ancient home.  Although, the neighbors didn’t believe that an outsider like her can renovate the old mansion, but Lin didn’t care, she’d set up the Fishery Farming Tourism Association, took the volunteers to pick up the pieces of the ancient ruins, she’d managed to recycle and reuse the doors, windows, and the shingles too, even found the constructing materials from the cemeteries, and three years later, the T.V. stations came to film, and the old master of the ancient home’s reconstruction even showed how to mix the mud with the brown sugar and hay, to make the bricks, the ancient methods in building, to assist in remodeling of the historical site.

Maybe, because of how the principle of the place that it attracts those who are down on their lucks, there were the released inmates who came to seek out help from the foundation’s headquarters.  “Ji”, a released inmate told that he wanted to live with more dignity, he didn’t want to beg for money for a pack of cigarettes he wanted to smoke, “those days really get to me”, he’d told, he was originally an manual laborer, working in moving the bricks for the construction sites, painting places, and temporary janitorial work, because he’d injured someone in a fight, charged with assault, he was sent to prison, the employers didn’t dare hire him again, he’d gone to the firms to find work, but soon as the firms asked for the proof of character, he couldn’t provide, and he was introduced to find a place at the foundation, placed in charge of electrician and plumbing work, he only asked for a place to sleep at night, and the meals provided.

After the old mansion got fixed up completely, it earned the government verification to become a B&B, the entire space became the places where the visitors could move around in, later because of the local soap opera’s filming there, the Dong-Li Jia Feng started offering the guests who were staying the clothes to dress themselves up as the various traditional roles to act in a self-scripted comedy, which helped attracted more visitors.

The Major Impacts from the Pandemic, She’d Rented the Lots Out to Planters to be Sold

During the pandemic, the tourism industry had come to a dead halt, this was the hardest couple of years for the historical site foundation, Lin admitted, that those were the hardest times, she’d carried the livelihoods of more than a hundred, and had originally planned to stop this “business”  she’d begun with the released inmates, but the words from them, “Whatever will happen to us if you closed down shop?”, so she’d, rented a lot, and took the employees to plant the crops in the fields, then gone door-to-door to sell the vegetables and fruits they’d harvested.

“During the pandemic, we were all out running around town, like we were, invincible, but, the doors we knocked, were all shut in our faces, because the residents feared we were, carriers…”  as Lin recalled those harder times a couple of years ago, she’d taken a long sigh, that she’d, passed through it all, currently, the foundation rented a total of sixteen acres lots of farm for the vegetables and fruits in Tongxiao, Yuanli, and Cholang and other locations, they’d planted the dragon fruits, the figs, the watermelons and other crops, and close by the lots, they’d rented the housing for the families and the released inmates to live, and there are more than twenty single released inmates who are living at her home in the foundation she’d set up.

a HUGE success of setting up the booths to sell the goods for the New Years, around New Year’s this year…photo from online

The county magistrate of Miaoli, Chung knew how difficult it is for the released inmates to return to work, and held firm to the beliefs of “to err is human, so long as people are willing to admit their wrongdoings, and change, then they all deserve a second chance.”, combining this with the protection for the reformed, the honorary reformed released inmates, the volunteers from the justice systems and other government, local agencies, they’d begun the “Miaoli Released Inmates Care Foundation” in 2023, with Lin as the acting C.E.O., but, it still was quite difficult to remove the labels of the reformed inmates.

The C.E.O. of the association, Chen said, many of the enterprises, the stores in the job interviews would inquire if the applicants had priors of criminal histories, this made the inmates who’d been reformed and released felt defeated, and are forced into working the temp jobs, and if they’re without the support from the families, plus they don’t have enough persistence, then, they have a very high chance to return back to their old ways of crimes.

She’d Started the Food Banks, to Help Out the Homeless & the Needy

New Year’s Eve, and it’s cold, but the members of this large family are warmed up, they are engaging in conversations, connecting with each other, and there are the laughter that came spilling to the outside.  Lin told, that in recent years, she and the partners she works with in the B&B had poured their hearts into the nonprofit work, they’d set up the food bank stations for the families in need, and the homeless to get the foods they need, hoping to let those who were released from prison to know, “when you guys were hit by the hard times, we’d helped you guys out, and now, please give back to the communities if you’re, able to.”

In her sixty years of life, she’d fallen from the higher up places, and, as she hit the dead-ends, the path became clearer; she doesn’t have enough funds, but, those who are in need can go to her for assistance, “I will never back down, in turning people’s lives around”, this is, Lin’s motto.

And, because this woman had seen the highs AND lows of life, lived through all of it, she gained more empathy for those who are having it hard, those who’d been sent to prison, and are now released, and knew that finding work was too hard for them, so she’d offered these individuals a place called “home”, allowed them to find a place to settle themselves down in, to start their lives over again.  She’d offered them a chance of starting their new life, a place where there’s no judgments of them based off their past crimes, all because she knew what it’d felt like, getting HIT with her hard times.