Culture Diving Taiwan (former Couch Surfers in Class) is a platform that focuses on combining cultural experiences with education. The organization creates a social network of travelers, schools, host families, and local guides and invites travelers to local schools to share their cultures while they are traveling in Taiwan. CDT's mission is to motivate the students to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds and enlarge students' horizons through cultural exchange.

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I first learned about this organization while I was planning a summer trip back to Taiwan where I spent my childhood at. I left Taiwan at a young age and spent most of my life in my second hometown, Canada, and other parts of the world. Although I still speak the language and understand partially the culture in Taiwan, I feel disconnected from the culture, the people, and my root. I first reached out to the founder, Chung-Han, Yang, who is an amazing backpacker with a great ambition of bringing the world into the rural schools in Taiwan.

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I began my culture diving experience in a middle school in my most familiar hometown, Taichung, where I shared my traveling and studying experience with a group of grade 8 students. Throughout the interaction with the students, I was really inspired and touched by their passion and motivation in learning about the outside world. They raised great and inspirational questions which surprised me too! My first CDT experience was great!

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A year later in 2020, I made an unexpected trip back to Taiwan due to COVID-19. I did not expect that I would stay in the country for the longest since I left the country at a young age. Again, I reached out to Chung-Han and asked whether I could continue my CDT experience. Due to the pandemic, most of the foreigners were not allowed to enter Taiwan, which made it really challenging for the organization to reach out to travelers to visit the schools. This time, I went to different cities outside of my hometown and visited 4 other different schools in Miaoli, Tainan, and Changhua. Again, the schools all welcomed me with great hospitality. I learned about the Mazhu Pilgrimage, Taiwanese traditional glove puppetry, tasted the homemade red date tea and jam from Miaoli, Tainan-styled rice dumplings, and more! In return for such great hospitality from these schools, I shared my music with them. I thought that I was bringing the cultures to students, but in fact, I have learned so much more than what I could offer!

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Here is an article that was written by a teacher at one of the schools that I visited in Tainan. She writes stories about the travelers who visited her classroom and donates the article payment to a non-profit organization that is agreed by the traveler. For this article, we've decided to donate it to the Angel Heart Family Social Welfare Foundation.