School: Lukang Primary School
    Lu-Kang Town,, Chan-Hwa Hsien,, Taiwan

8 students, ages 9-10 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 5, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2003

Classes and Teachers: Mr. Yu Liang-Chang, Miss Lu Mei-Hui, Miss Lai Sheng-Feng

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.lges.chc.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Lukang, the place where we live, is a small town with many temples and old buildings. Although it is no longer one of the leading cities in Taiwan, it used to be the second biggest city on the island about two hundred years ago. At that time, Lukang was an important busy business harbor between Mainland China and Taiwan,and so many people came to do business and then even settled down. Among those immigrants, some of their families earned a great fortune in business and became famous in Lukang. The topic of the story, the Ding Family, is one of them. Now, let us work together to know something about "Ding's in Lukang - Far-Famed Family of Scholars for Generations."

2. Summary of Our Project

Since there are so many remarkable families in Lukang, why do we choose “the Ding Family” as our topic? This can be due to three reasons. First, it was in this family that the famous Scholar Ding who passed the highest level of the national civil service exam of Qing Dynasty. Second, there was a son with filial duty in this family. Last but not least, two members of our team also come from the Ding Family and both of them are excellent in their study. We cannot help but wonder about what on earth makes the Ding Family so distinguishing. Therefore, this time we choose to research the past of the family and reveal their benevolent deeds. In the end, we hope we can give our readers a more vivid and clear picture of "Ding's in Lukang - Far-Famed Family of Scholars for Generations."

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:1

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Most of our research works were done in the second computer lab in our school which has the T1 ADSL (1.5M) connections provided by the Chunghua Telecom. If the guidance teachers assigned any homework, then it was done in students’ homes. Some of the students have ADSL(512K) connections at home, some are still using the 56K modem.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

(1) Selection of the topic: At first, we wanted to do our search on the topic of “The House of Scholar Ding’s” and used it to compete under the category of “Historical Landmarks”. It not only was honor to be a historical landmark by the county government and it was also destroyed in the 921 earthquake.We heard from Principle Ding that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and our county government were budgeted to rebuild the house. However, the rebuild process can not start since no one applies for doing it. Then, we thought that since the rebuilding process of “House of Scholar Ding’s” are being delayed for so long, we wanted to put it under the category of “Environmental Awareness” and do our researches on it. We wanted to use it to let everyone to be more aware of the rebuilding process of historical landmark. When Principle Ding provided us with the information about Ding’s, we accidentally found out that the people from Ding’s are more interesting than other factors. In the end, we switched the topic to “The Ding’s in Lukang” and use it to compete under the category of “Community Groups and Special Populations”. Finally, our guidance teachers rewrote the topic as “Ding’s in Lukang - Far-Famed Family of Scholars for Generations." (2) Difficulties of interviewing members in Ding’s. Most people of the Ding’s already moved out of Lukang and have their own life. Only few of the Ding's still live in Lukang. We were unable to have face to face interviews with other members in Ding’s. Principle Ding told us that many members of the Ding’s immigrated to other countries already, it then became very difficult for us to interview people from Ding’s. Finally, we can only held phone interviews with those members who still live in Taiwan; those we interviewed were the representatives from the “seven concubines’ family” from Ding’s.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Lin Zhi-Yu, one of our teammates pointed out that “I learned a lot because of this competition and I also meet many friends whom I did not know in school before and I also learn how to make a webpage." We want to say thanks to our guidance teachers, without them we will not be able to see and meet those famous people. With their great cares, we learned and grew. This is an experience which I never experienced before.When we learned how to make a webpage, I felt that it is a very difficult task., but all other teammates stills work hard to learn it even thought they have no knowledge about it as well. I suddenly realized that if I want to be in this competition, I have to work hard for it, because it is going to help me to learn things before the others, and I need to try my best at all times. The way I feel now can be described like an old saying "Success only goes to those who work hard."

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

Our research project can correspond to the coursework on the following factors: (A) On the language part, we had the opportunities to practice our listening and speaking abilities in Taiwanese when we were interviewing the elder members of Ding’s. Since they all communicated in Taiwanese, sometimes we had a very hard time to communicate with them and we had to ask our mothers for help. We realized that if we do not know Taiwanese, we can not communicate with elders. (B) In the social factor, during our research and interview period we learned the following: (1) Our visit to Scholar Ding’s house let us know the structure of the “four-section compound”. (2) When we were interviewing Principle Ding, we learned that it was very hard to take the government held exams in the old times, and it is very difficult to score first on it, and how it brought honors to the family even for the later generations. Hence, it is very important that we study hard. (3) When we were interviewing Miss Lee, she told us that we have to reserve our family records, because every family has its own uniqueness. (4) We were touched by Ding Ke-Jia’s devotions for his parent from the 36 Stories of the Most Dutiful Sons. (C) In the art and humanity factor: we found out that there was a famous calligrapher in Ding’s, he was Mr. Ding Yu-Xi. Mr. Ding was a very famous calligrapher at the old times in Lukang. We borrow a book from Principle Ding in which there was much calligraphy written by Mr. Ding Yu-Xi and it helped us to see the beauty of his writings.We were touched to see the writing and painting on the walls in the house of Ding’s when we visited there; and also the hand writings of Scholar Ding which was Miss Lee's collection now. Although we didn't actually understand the meaning of the words, but we see how these ancient people enjoy their writings.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

We used the following technology tools on our research.(1) Digital cameras: we used it when we were visiting the historical sites, places and interviews; it is very easy for us to input those materials to the computers.(2) Digital recording pens: we recorded every interview and we can listen to it and edit it on the computer at the same time. It is a very good tool to use.(3) Traditional cameras: sometimes we use these cameras when those digital cameras were not working properly.(4) Scanners: we scanned the photos we took and information and charts from the books to the computers and then we did more things from it.(5) Traditional recorders: our teammate can record their interviews home and wrote down their own thoughts and feelings.(6) Digital video cameras: the most exciting thing that happened in our research project was those interviews taken by the digital video cameras. We can see the best part of the interviews by seeing the tapes we took.(7) Computers: it is the most important tool in our research project. We can write our reports, go online, search for information, and edit images…etc. (8) Telephones: we can use it to have phone interviews with every member in Ding’s, regardless of where they live in Taiwan. It is also the best communicating tool for our teammates.(9) Internet: we not only can search for information we needed but also we can send important messages to each other and we can report our research progress to the exposition’s committee. (10) Related computer software: such as Windows and Webpage software, they were both essential to our research.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We used both the personal visits and phone interviews to know and learn people and things about the Ding’s. Miss Lee was very surprised by us when we visited her. She thought that this research should be done by the students from Wen-Kai Elementary School instead of us from Lukang Elementary School.The reason why she said this was because Mr. Ding Rui-Yang donated his money to build a library for Wen-Kai Elementary School. However, we told her that two of our teammates are actually from the Ding’s. She also felt that it is very appropriated and reasonable for us from the Lukang Elementary School to do this research.When we interviews the elders from Ding’s by telephone, they were amazed by us, since we are so young and it is not easy to be a reporter. They phone us immediately when they recall something that we needed to know but they did not recall it back at the interviews. It was very encouraging for us since we were all just learning to be a reporter.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

We learned many things by doing this research project: (1) Everyone should study very hard: since it is the best and direct way to be successful in life. (2) We should try our best on everything we do: if we did not try our best in everything we do, we not only will achieve our best and also it may bring harms to others. (3) We have to be kind and care about the others: an old saying stated that “If you do good things then good things are going to happen to you; good people always have blessings”, that’s what we felt and experienced in this research. (4) We have to choose what is good and hold fast to it. We should not feel afraid to challenges; we have to seek for better improvements. (5) We have to respect elders, especially our own parents. We have to listen to their advises and be a good child. (6) We should not be afraid to face difficulties; we have to face the music: we have to work hard and work through it, that’s the only way for us to learn and grow. We hope what we have learned will make good impact in our community.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

We want to say many thanks for all the members in the Ding’s, from the first generation in Taiwan to present. Without their contributions, we can not have the opportunities to do researches on them, and we can let everyone know about their contributions to our society and history. They not only provided a great chance for us who were in the research project team to learn and grow, but also let everyone who visits this website a chance to learn and to make self-examination.We also want to say many thanks to Miss Lee; she is like the “pioneer” for us. Since she already finished the researches on Ding’s, and we learned a lot from her work. Hence, we can finish this research by ourselves.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

When we were discussing the “Examples in Ding’s” on our last meeting in the winter break. Our guidance teacher, Mr. Yu pointed out that “If everyone can think before they act and use their moral judgments in their daily life, which means that it is important to have the good intentions for others rather than doing what we considered good things for others. If we can do this then I believe that there will be less bad people in the whole world.” We wish that with our good intentions about this research project, we can help you to learn more about the Ding’s.