School: Ludong elementary school
    Changhua, Taiwan, Taiwan

10 students, ages 11-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on November 3, 2025. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2020,2021,2022,2023,2024

Classes and Teachers: LU,CHIUNG-LI

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Community

Lukang is located in the northern part of the Changhua plain. The name Lukang was adopted in the early 17th century; it means “Deer Harbor” in Mandarin. At one point, Lukang became the second largest city on the island of Taiwan due to mass immigration from the Chinese mainland. It was the hub of commerce, culture and communications for the area. Historians describe the fourth phase of Taiwanese culture (1684-1842 AD) as the “Lukang Period” because of its historical significance in the development of Taiwan.

2. Summary of Our Project

Lukang, located in Changhua County, Taiwan, played a significant role during the Qing Dynasty. In the early stage of Japanese colonial governance, the Government-General of Taiwan encouraged the straw hat business. The shift in modern values allowed the straw hat to ride the trend of queue cutting, and became a fashionable item among the public during the Japanese rule.Lukang is an ancient town with traditional crafts. During the Japanese rule period, the weaving of hats made of shaved cypress Trees was once popular among people from home and abroad, but this skill has declined due to changes in the industrial environment.

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:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Because daily school work was busy, some members delayed the writing due time, and members did not finish their assignment on time.Overcome the Problem: In order to resolve this difficulty, we utilized the early self-study everyweek made good progress.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

During the Cyberfair project period,what we learned most was writing, since it challenged our logic, and the fluency of utilizing language. We were so inexperienced that we always had many misspellings, so we needed to review our writing after it was done. We always found many missing words and unsmooth context when we reviewed our writing, so our articles needed to be edited again and again. The most laborious ones were not us but the teachers who continued to guide us. Not only did they always care for our writing condition, but also they pointed out the areas that needed to be improved after we visited each site. They helped us improve much. Thank you for all the guidance from the teachers.

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

1. Language: Through many discussions and meetings, we improved our skills on communication and problem solving. We could focus on problems, and properly provide suggestions. From many interviews, we built data analysis and key point summary. With the guidance of the teachers, we could finally write and edit the articles from different angles and using various narrative ways. We also learned to read and appreciate other writers’ thoughts and creativity to develop our own writing and language expression. 2. Social Studies: We learned more about the historical and cultural background and geographical environment of about Lukang Old Street through Cyberfair project. We also learned the development and evolution from the past to today to understand the big changes. In the production of webpage, we learned team work, enhanced our data ability, increased our interests and research spirit on subject production, cultivated our communication ability, participated in various activities, and demonstrated the spirit of participating in the society. 3. Mathematics: In webpage production, we translated our words into data through questionnaire, and learned to use Microsoft Excel to produce statistical charts to analyze everyone’s view on Lukang Old Street. 4. Arts and Humanities: It is very important to pick the appropriate background color for making the website. By using artwork software, we learned how to match colors, and how to create artwork. Chromatics taught us that different colors give people different feeling.

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

1) We learned how to cooperate with people, and help one another. Also, we learned to face problems together without avoiding it. 2) We learned to take good notes and record interview content to avoid losing memory. These became very good references in writing articles later. 3) We learned how to appropriately utilize various software to create and edit artwork, so that the webpage would not appear monotonous.

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

The roles we played were the cultural promotion ambassadors of Lukang. By on-site interviews, investigation, analysis, document literature organization, and website production .

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

The craft of making straw hats in Lukang is a legend full of creativity and technology. The Taiwan Cypress Straw’s uniformity and toughness of the fibers are spun on a spinning wheel to become the material for “Shibori”. The Taiwan Cypress Straw Hat in Lukang became the center of this craft when it became popular in the late Japanese colonial period and just after the restoration of the Republic of China. The materials and techniques, in particular, have been gradually integrated into history and have become a precious cultural memory.The Taiwan Cypress Straw Hats are not only a melting pot of crafts, but also a symbol of Lugang's past prosperity and innovative spirit.At that time most of the hat and mat making jobs fell on women who were good at weaving. And the women’s wages for straw hat weaving could even support a whole family. We will let more people know the Legend of Taiwan Cypress Straw Hat in Lukang, and let more people see the vigorous vitality of this land. This will be the deepest impact brought in by our Cyberfair project.

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

Our research began with learning how to weave straw hats and then visiting the artifacts displayed in the Qiaotou community. Mainly because the master hat weaver we were going to interview was too old and had lost his memory to be interviewed, and because Taiwanese cypress was unavailable, it was impossible to reproduce the cypress straw hats, so we went to learn how to weave hats at the Osmanthus Alley Artist Villageand then visited the Qiaotou community, which has artifacts that are used for weaving hats, and this also helped to complete our research. This made our research more complete.