Mainland Chinese Wife Zhang Yanjun Shares Her Experience of Struggling in Taiwan

From Guilin, Guangxi, mainland spouse Zhang Yanjun recently served as a lecturer at the Taiwan Immigration Department course, sharing her successful entrepreneurial story in Taiwan and hoping that all new residents can strive for their own success in Taiwan.

The Taiwan Immigration Department announced on the 12th that March 8th is International Women’s Day. The Immigration Department’s Southern District Affairs Division in Chiayi County organized a family education course for new residents on Women’s Day, specially inviting mainland Chinese new resident Zhang Yanjun as a lecturer. Zhang Yanjun is not only a successful entrepreneur but also holds multiple outstanding model and entrepreneurship competition awards titles.

Zhang Yanjun has been honored as a model mother, outstanding woman, and filial piety model in Chiayi County and City on multiple occasions. The handmade sauce she founded, Yizhiwei, was also recognized by the Ministry of Labor as a micro-enterprise role model in 2022. However, Zhang Yanjun’s life has not always been smooth sailing.

When she returned home for the first time, she suddenly received news of her husband’s sudden death. She then had to single-handedly take care of her in-laws and raise a pair of children, which plunged her life into a low point. But she did not let the circumstances defeat her. She not only shouldered the family burden but also forged ahead in adversity, becoming a successful entrepreneur.

In 2018, Zhang Yanjun participated in the “New Power-New Immigrant Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program” organized by the Foundation for the Development of Women’s Rights and won the national first prize, receiving a 300,000 New Taiwan Dollars entrepreneurship award.

Zhang Yanjun not only shares her experience with her fellow new resident friends but also successfully coached over ten new resident friends to participate in entrepreneurship planning competitions and win prizes. She also shared successful entrepreneurship cases she coached during the course, hoping that these experiences can help more people.

At the end of the course, Zhang Yanjun brought her hometown’s specialty food, “Guilin oil tea,” to share with everyone. She mentioned that “oil tea” is a special way of tea drinking in the northern part of Guangxi and among ethnic minorities, listed as intangible cultural heritage and is a staple food for the people in northern Guilin for their three meals a day.

The making of oil tea requires three specialized tools, including a tea cauldron, a tea pestle, and a tea strainer. The tea cauldron is heated with a small amount of tea oil and clean tea leaves and slices of fresh ginger are added, then repeatedly pounded and pressed with the tea pestle to extract the juice from the tea leaves. This mixture is boiled with hot water until boiling, and after straining out the tea residue with a tea strainer, the authentic oil tea is ready. The participants at the event experienced making and tasting oil tea for the first time, finding it quite novel and interesting.

Huang Shih-hua, director of the Chiayi County Service Station of the Immigration Department, stated that International Women’s Day is a holiday to commemorate the women’s rights movement. Although Taiwan does not designate Women’s Day as a national holiday, both the central and local governments organize various activities to express the importance of Women’s Day.

Huang Shih-hua expressed his gratitude to Zhang Yanjun for sharing her entrepreneurial experience in Taiwan with everyone. From Zhang Yanjun’s story, we can sense her resilient vitality. Every new resident who crossed the seas to establish a family in Taiwan needs courage and resilience. He thanked them for their hard work and dedication, becoming an indispensable force in Taiwanese society, and wished all women around the world a happy Women’s Day.