Written by members from many fields, these articles share the everyday wisdom of practising slow living in words and pictures. Each one is an invitation — to slow down and meet yourself again.
A Character a Month
Slow Living in Words
陳玉明 (小明老師), a co-author of the book "漢字好好教 好好教漢字", explores one Chinese character each month — tracing how the ancients formed it, from oracle bone script to standard script — and finds in it a gentle reminder to slow down.
A Scent a Month
Slow Living through Scent
郭純嵐 (小嵐老師) of the Maoxiang Charcoal Workshop in Sanyi chooses one plant scent each month and shares its story and everyday blends — a practice of caring for yourself through smell and breathing well.
A Journey a Month
Slow Living with a Traveller
楊文鴻 (楊導), an experienced tour leader and guesthouse owner in Taitung, shares the people and stories he meets on the road, and how travelling with care changes the rhythm of life.
A documentary screening in the school library brought students from the tea-making and mechatronics departments together with aunties and uncles from the community. Director 顏蘭權 spent eight years documenting the land and its people — and that afternoon, together, we planted a seed worth waiting for.
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Slow Travel LearningSlow Living in Words | A Journey a Month
This year's Taitung Expo is built around the "slow economy". Taitung, once called the place "left over for others to pick up", escaped over-development — and has become the top choice for a slow economy city. Travel with care, and it really will change the rhythm of your life.
June is hot and humid; it is easy to feel tired and irritable, and the mosquitoes come out. Citronella was once an important cash crop in Taiwan — let its freshness bring back a simple, pure sense of ease.
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Art & CompanionshipSlow Living in Words | A Character a Month
When we think of 中, the Doctrine of the Mean usually comes to mind — leaning neither way, neither too much nor too little; in other words, "just right". The earliest 中 may have been the flag flying over the central army. And what does 中 mean in the Ghost Festival (中元節) and the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節)?
In the second SEL (social and emotional learning) class at Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School, making bamboo-slip books of Chinese characters, scent work and breathing practice helped students and staff understand emotions and learn empathy — moving forward slowly, step by step, without comparing or rushing.
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Slow Travel LearningSlow Living in Words | A Journey a Month
From career soldier and globe-trotting international trader to running small tours and a guesthouse back home in Taitung, 楊導 discovered that simply being with the people he loves slowed time down and settled his heart. When did you last truly spend time with your family?
May is full of love and the scent of flowers. The quiet, steady woody fragrance of red cypress, with its slightly sweet finish, seems to remind those of us busy caring for others: it's fine to go a little slower, it's fine to rest.
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Art & CompanionshipSlow Living in Words | A Character a Month
香 is the first compound character in our series: 禾 (grain) on top, 甘 (sweet) below — the sweet fragrance of grain. From ancient fire offerings and fragrant wine to the incense of Song dynasty scholars — and did you know that the three 香 in "the incense (香) I bought in Hong Kong (香港) smells lovely (香)" are each pronounced differently in Taiwanese?
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Slow Travel LearningSlow Living in Words | A Journey a Month
"Live in the moment" is how a no-menu chef sums up her own life. From international racing driver to no-menu chef in Taitung, she learned — by living slowly and breathing slowly — to let go and to be content.
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Art & CompanionshipSlow Living in Words | A Character a Month
"Hoeing the grain at midday, sweat drips onto the soil beneath." The character 禾 shows a ripe rice plant with its head drooping. Characters containing 禾 relate either to rice or to things that happen "at regular times" — and what character do you get when a right hand holds a stalk of 禾?
Spring is here~ Spring isn't really a loud, intense season; it's more like slowly waking up after winter. The air carries a little more moisture, and the wind turns gentler and feels lovely.
After the lively Lunar New Year, life slowly returns to its everyday rhythm. When a long holiday ends there is always a touch of "post-holiday blues" — wanting to stay in bed a little longer when the alarm rings, sitting at your desk without any energy, your mind still running on holiday time.
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Art & CompanionshipSlow Living in Words | A Character a Month
The character 木 is a tree. Throughout its evolution you can always see the trunk in the middle, branches above and roots below. When the ancients created characters, they highlighted distinctive features to tell similar characters apart…
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Slow Travel LearningSlow Living in Words | A Journey a Month
This is the record of a journey, and a practice in slowing down. One day I drove along the South Link Highway towards the southernmost tip of Taitung — Nantian in Daren, and Nanxing Village in Dawu.
Festivals year after year, life day after day — within routines that all look alike lie incredible surprises. If we can slow down, we find that no moment is ever really a repeat.
At the start of 2026, let us practise breathing slowly, letting body and mind grow still often, experiencing the calm that has always been ours to enjoy — and then throwing ourselves into life lightly and freely, as if flying.
All the cleaning before Lunar New Year always takes a little motivation and resolve. Clearing out the clutter, sweeping the dust from the corners — and packing away the year's weariness and worries along with it…
The east wind is coming, and with it a warm spring of countless blessings. Today is Major Cold (Dahan), the coldest time of the year and the last of the twenty-four solar terms. The period from Major Cold to the Beginning of Spring marks the turn from old to new in the year's cycle — a precious chance to tune the body, the breath and the mind.
陳鵬文 visited Zhuolan Senior High School with breathing awareness, handmade herbal bath sachets, a shared "Little Flowers, Great Vessels" painting and blending incense powder, helping teachers and students find calm and settle body and mind at the start of the new year.
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