Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Taiwanese students saddened by massive 7.6 earthquake

Randy Metcalf Arizona Daily Wildcat Electrical engineering junior Hsiuanju Hsuc and professor Chia-lin Pao Tao, who are both from Taiwan, speak yesterday about their family connections in the earthquake-stricken region.

Ching-Hwa Chen said her two-day wait to hear if her parents were involved in the Taiwan earthquake felt more like two years.

"I felt the days were a couple of years, but I feel the peace that my parents were okay," she said.

Chen's husband, Jiann-Ming Wang, had just read about Monday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake on the Internet when they both started trying to contact their families.

Chen, a University of Arizona graduate with a degree in library science, could not get through because the telephone lines were down for two days. Her hometown, Chu San, is about a 20-minute drive from the epicenter, which is in Nantou county.

"The situation is very bad," Wang said. "Almost all the buildings are crashed in the town."

He said the bridge to the small, agricultural town is damaged to the point that there is no way of getting food and water to victims, except by helicopter. Wang added there are people who are still in the rubble, awaiting rescue.

"There are a lot of people who are trapped in the crashed houses," he said.

Wang, an environmental science graduate student, said many are still worried about the aftershocks in Taichung, one of Taiwan's largest cities.

"The people in there are very scared," he said. "My father's dressed throughout the night, so they're prepared to leave the house right away."

The president of UA's Chinese Student Association, Hsiuanju Hsu, said he became emotional when he saw that the island he left just a year ago was in a disastrous state.

"I feel very sorry, very sad," he said. "I cried a little bit."

Hsiuanju, an electrical engineering junior, said only a few people in his 120-member organization had relatives who were involved with the quake.

"Most of the students' families are okay - fortunately," he said.

The CSA is collaborating with Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation - a Taiwan-based group - to collect financial donations tomorrow on the UA Mall from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Hsiuanju said they will have three tables on the Mall tomorrow that will also sell Chinese egg tarts, cupcakes and potstickers to raise funds. All of the proceeds will go to Tzu Chi's Phoenix chapter before it is sent to Taiwan.

Shuo-Lin Hsu, a graduate student in material science engineering, said he felt stunned when he first heard about the quake.

"(It) give me a shock, like a earthquake in my heart," he said.

Hsu, not related to Hsiuanju, is from the city of Tainan in southern Taiwan, which was not affected by the earthquake.

"All my family are fine," he said.

Hsu, also the editor of the CSA newsletter, has experienced less serious earthquakes in Taiwan and sympathizes with the 100,000 homeless earthquake victims.

"Since my childhood, I've met several earthquakes, but this is the most serious one I've heard," Hsu said. "I feel sorry to hear the bad news of my home country."