By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
“Turns out you have beautiful eyes.” When Shu-Yan hears people say this, she immediately answers: “But I’ve always been beautiful!” During the last few years, as everyone has been wearing masks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Shu-Yan noticed that she has encountered less stares from strangers on the street. She jokes that it’s another advantage of wearing masks in addition to preventing infections.
Shu-Yan lives on the offshore island of Kinmen. When she was about three, four months old, Shu-Yan sustained burns over her face and hands. Because advanced burn treatment was not available on Kinmen, she had to be transferred to Taiwan’s main island. During this time away from home, she stayed at Sunshine’s Children Center (the Center became the Sunshine Half-Way House in 2001) and over a ten-year period, she underwent numerous surgeries as well as rehabilitation. Finally, she was able to return to Kinmen when she was in third grade.
Because of visible burn scars on her body, Shu-Yan often had to endure the stares of strangers. Some people would even directly ask: “How could you be burned like that?”, “How could your parents let you get burn?” These stares and comments hurt her and her family. During junior high school, some classmates gave her the nickname of “crab claw” because of the scars on her hand. They would also say hurtful things: “Don’t touch her or her things, otherwise you’ll be infected and become a monster like her!” Back then, Shu-Yan didn’t know how to answer her classmates to defend herself, so instead, she tried to make herself invisible to avoid the bullying. But in that process, she also became more withdrawn and less confident in herself.
It’s only after senior high school that the bullying stopped and Shu-Yan started to feel that she was no different from others. While in university, she took part in training courses that helped her learn how to deal with discriminatory behaviors, overcome her fear of interpersonal relationships, and she gradually build up her self-confidence from her academic and work achievements. She also joined the ranks of Sunshine’s Face Equality Spokespersons, going to campuses and workplaces to educate people about the equal rights of people with facial differences.
Shu-Yan says: “People usually are quick to get their first impression of others from looks and appearances. But since the pandemic, masks have become part of our daily lives and people must now make more efforts to really get to know others.” In the past, people first noticed Shu-Yan’s burns and immediately got the impression that because of her difference, her abilities or what she could do in life were necessarily limited. But after interacting with her and getting to know her, they realized that she is not defined or limited by her burn scars. Shu-Yan says: “Even though I have scars, I am no different from other people.”
Sunshine provides physical and psychosocial rehabilitation services to burn survivors to facilitate their return to society after their injury. But if burn survivors return to an environment that doesn’t understand burns and discriminates based on appearance, we’ve only done half of our work. That is why social education has always been part of Sunshine’s mission. By raising awareness about facial difference and by helping the public understand how appearance-related bias, stereotypes and even outright discrimination affect burn survivors, we aim to create a fairer and more tolerant society. Throughout this process, burn survivors like Shu-Yan play a crucial role when they go out and share their stories with others.
We hope that you can continue to support burn survivors like Shu-Yan, as they not only overcome physical difficulties after burns, but also strive to create a society that is accepting of facial differences, where the way a person looks doesn't define their abilities or limit their potential.
By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
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