
4-Way Voice Culture and Creativity Ltd.
Protecting the rights of immigrants and migrant workers through social movements and culture.
Enterprise/business philosophy and objectives of the founder
Statistics published by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Labor in October 2016 show that the number of Southeast Asian immigrants and migrant workers has reached 770,000 in Taiwan. However, working in a foreign land, these people are often subject to unfair treatment, and the language barrier they experience can make them feel more attached to their mother tongues. In 2006, when Chang Cheng, the founder of 4-Way Voice Culture and Creativity Ltd., still worked as an deputy editor at Lihpao Daily, he had already begun issuing the newspaper 4-Way Voice in Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Filipino and Cambodian. The newspaper not only provided essential information about living in Taiwan and all kinds of business news, but also reserved half of its space for opinions and commentary contributed by immigrants and migrant workers. Seizing this trend further, Chang Cheng left Lihpao Daily and established 4-Way Voice Culture and Creativity Ltd., in which he started working with multimedia.
History of development/business model
4-Way Voice Culture and Creativity Ltd. is dedicated to protecting the human rights of immigrants and migrant workers through different aspects of culture. For example, 4-Way Gallery displays immigrants’ paintings around Taiwan to showcase their artistic talents to a wider Taiwanese population. “Grandma’s Bridge” was a program that arranged home-stays with female immigrants’ families for their children and their children’s teachers, so that the children could rebuild a connection with their mother’s homeland, and so that Taiwanese teachers could have the opportunity to learn about Southeast Asian culture. Conducted by a professional team, Singing 4-Way was a musical show which went to construction sites, fishing ports, railway stations, grocery stores and other places, randomly inviting immigrants and migrant workers to sing and talk to their relatives via camera. The program was shown both on television channels and YouTube. In addition, when Chang Cheng found that many of the tens of thousands of reader contributions to 4-Way Voice were very well-written works, he collaborated with members of the arts and cultural circles to organise the Taiwan Literature Award for Migrants, which solicited the participation of migrant workers, immigrants and their children and encouraged them to write in their mother’s language. Chang Cheng, along with his friends, has also opened a Southeast Asian bookstore Brilliant Time Bookstore, which encourage Taiwanese people who travel to Southeast Asia to bring back a local book that they can then lend to immigrants and migrant workers.
Creating social value/mitigating social problems
4-Way Voice Culture and Creativity Ltd. provides a cultural platform for immigrants and migrant workers to express their talents. Through the dissemination and exchange of cultures, the enterprise reminds Taiwanese people to face up to the human rights problems that Southeast Asian migrants encounter in Taiwan so that policy change can be possible in the future.
Contact them
http://4wayvoice.com/
info@4way.tw
886-2-2236-0118
886-2-2236-0270
No.1, Ln. 17, Sec. 1, Muzha Rd., Wenshan Dist.,
Taipei City 116, Taiwan (R.O.C.) 11604