On the afternoon of April 1st, a day before the World Autism Awareness Day, Wang Chunyan, a consultant of Taiwan Kuo Hua Culture and Education Foundation and an expert of early childhood education, delivered a report titled “Love Makes No Barriers” upon the invitation of CWI, sharing Taiwan’s achievements and experience on inclusive education of autistic children. Wang Luning, Vice Chairwoman of CWI, and experts from Shanghai Municipal Women and Children Committee, Shanghai Mental Health Center, East China Normal University, Shanghai Xingyu Children’s Health Institute, and Soong Ching Ling Kindergarten, etc. attended the symposium and exchanged opinions on how to care for autistic children.

　　Last year, the CWI Children’s Theater delegation, headed by Wang Luning, visited Taiwan with the non-scene modern drama The Bright Sunshine from October 28th to November 3rd. The drama received enthusiastic responses among all walks of life in Taiwan. The physical challenged people, workers and volunteers for the disabled, as well as ordinary people, all thought that the drama was impressive and was of great artistic value and educational significance. The attendees reached a consensus on the importance of caring for autistic children and other disadvantaged groups, and of advocating and fostering the culture of “boundless love” across the society. The visit of Madam Wang to Shanghai for discussion and exchanges is a response to this idea.

　　Madam Wang elaborated on the specific role of inclusive education on the treatment of autistic children from the following two perspectives: New Taipei City’s practice of preschool inclusive education and her own pedagogic cases over the years. Madam Wang called these special children “angels”, for whom inclusion is the best aftercare. She proposed that the chance to “include” autistic children into the community of regular children to receive education and grow up together and this was beneficial to both. On the one hand, it could allow autistic children to accelerate their physical and mental recovery by imitation and inspiration during the process of understanding their peers, teachers and parents; on the other hand, it could provide ordinary children with the chance to know these special children and learn to respect them, thus increasing their ability to learn, accept and care for others, allowing the two groups to interact with each other in social communications and strengthening their feeling of study during cooperation and interaction. During the process of inclusive education, the teachers of general education and teachers of special education are required to cooperate with each other and through their cooperation, provide appropriate plan of inclusive education, and popularize the inclusive education methodology to achieve results, thus helping autistic children to restore their normal life. As for her own pedagogic cases, Madam Wang, with 37 years of teaching experience, vividly recounted many typical ones. One of them was about a pair of brother and sister who were both autistic. After receiving inclusive education, they gradually got integrated into the society. They were not only enrolled in ordinary classes, but also took part in speech contests and became model students in their classes. While narrating these hard-won successes in a tireless manner, Madam Wang even shed tears several times at some moving stories. She said: “Love can tolerate everything, so we should have confidence in all children and help them restore their hopes.

　　Wang Luning, Vice Chairwoman of CWI, pointed out that government’s presence and investment played an irreplaceable role in special education. CWI hoped to build a bridge to facilitate the interaction and cooperation between relevant government agencies and non-governmental organizations in Mainland China and their counterparts in Taiwan and to endow every child with equal chance of education.

　　During the symposium, Madam Wang exchanged ideas with other experts present, learnt the progress of Shanghai’s special education and discussed with them on the similarities and differences of special education between Shanghai and Taiwan. After the symposium, Madam Wang visited the CWI History Exhibition Room with great interest.