A Dedicated Volunteer at the Age of 84

2017/10/13

Li Yi-rong is capable of guiding tours through the Lin Family Mansion and Garden in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Japanese
 
“Welcome, everyone! The Lin Family Mansion and Garden covers a total of 19,978 square meters with three main houses. Let’s take a look at it now,” said Li Yi-rong, an 84-year-old volunteer guide, pointing to a building with upturned eaves like swallow tails. The tourists looked in the same direction and saw on the roof ridge a Chinese character meaning longevity.  
 
“The character is written high up on the roof ridge, which implied a craving for long life,” he proceeded to say. Tour members uttered knowing sounds in response, denoting their sudden understanding of the meaning hidden in the details.
 
 Despite the day’s high temperature, Li showed up high-spirited with a checkered suit and neatly combed hair in the Lin Family Mansion and Garden, a noted scenic spot in Banqiao District of New Taipei City. He was surrounded by tourists of all ages, the oldest one looking perhaps several years younger than the guide.
 
 Li has been volunteering to guide people in historical sites, for which he has great passion. In addition to the Luzhou Li Family Mansion, Baoan Temple and Confucius Temple, he joined the team of volunteers in 2010 guiding visitors to the Lin Family Mansion and Garden. He has never tired of his voluntary job, for which he was granted the Outstanding Volunteer Award by the New Taipei City Government in 2016.
 
 Fluent in Japanese, Li took exclusively Japanese tourists to scenic spots.
 
 A civil engineering major at the Provincial Taipei Institute of Technology, later renamed National Taipei University of Technology, Li held an architecture job after graduation. At the age of 46, he decided to sit an examination for Japanese-language tour guides after a relative casually spoke of the shortage of Japanese-speaking guides in Taiwan. Having learned the language during the Japanese colonial era, he easily obtained the tour guide license that allowed him to take Japanese people around Taiwan. At 50, he retired from his architecture job and began to work as a full-time tour guide. Li once was the board director of Tourist Guide Association R.O.C.       
 
 In the years Li worked as a tour guide, he met Lin Heng-dao, an expert in Taiwan history and member of the Lin family that built the famous mansion and garden. After listening to Lin speak about Taiwan traditional buildings and stories, Li developed a strong interest in Taiwan architecture. He followed experts in this area around Taiwan and then fully devoted himself to doing research and guiding tourists around Taiwan’s historical sites.       
 
 Li is capable of guiding tourists not only in Mandarin and Taiwanese, but also in Japanese. A guided tour usually lasts one hour, but can extend to two hours if the tourists are hungry for more. Interestingly, a guided tour usually attracted only several people in the beginning, but as Li walked around the site and explained things in his humorous style, it would grow in size to up to 30 people.
 
 Extensive reading to improve the experience
 
 Though the oldest volunteer guide at the Lin Family Mansion and Garden, Li, smiling and with great confidence, said that “the audience at the end of his tour usually is larger than at its beginning,” despite the tour lasting a comparatively long time. If the tour ends with only a couple of people listening, that means it is so boring that most have already left.
 
 The sky is the limit when it comes to learning about historical assets from various aspects, from architecture and feng shui to the stories behind them. Li would seize every opportunity to take courses taught by experts in these areas.
 
 Thanks to his poor hearing, Li, more diligent than average students, would record what was taught in class and listen to the recordings repeatedly when he was back home. He even bought more than 300 books on Taiwan’s historical sites that filled the three large bookcases in his home.
 
 Li encourages visitors to the Lin Family Mansion and Garden to join guided tours. This place, the design of which was contracted out to cultured men and feng shui masters by its owner, a very learned and wealthy man, is known for its cultural richness. If one walks around the site unguided without paying attention to details, it’s just like entering a place full of treasures but leaving empty-handed.
 
 It takes physical strength to guide people in the outdoors, so does Li have any tips on staying healthy? A man speaking at a speed not too fast and not too slow, he noted that guide jobs require one to speak loudly and therefore have a sufficient vital capacity. But since one’s vital capacity at the age of 70 is only half that of a 30-year-old, he often takes deep breaths and avoids speaking too fast. Otherwise there will be a risk of aging quickly. Li emphasized the importance of breathing with abdominal muscles, which he said can improve vital capacity. He practices breathing this way whenever he thinks of it, doing it many times a day. Walking, qigong and taijiquan, meanwhile, are the types of exercise he takes up on a regular basis.
 
 The area of the Lin Family Mansion and Garden open to the public doubled from more than 9,900 to more than 19,800 square meters in October. Does Li, the oldest volunteer guide at the site, feel pressure from the subsequently doubled workload? “You don’t feel tired if you have passion and interest in this job,” he said resolutely. As a professional guide with a strong interest in research on historical sites, Li, though aged over 80, doubtless will continue to work as a dedicated volunteer.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=11&post=123021)