TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A daughter’s love for her father mixed with a touch of public shaming has convinced a Kaohsiung man to quit chewing betel nut.
The university student surnamed Liu (劉) said that she has always hated her father’s use of betel nut, and had tried multiple times to get him to stop, per CNA. She said the fact that her father Liu Ming-huang (劉明煌) continued to use it after recovering from oral lesions caused by its use convinced her to take action.
Liu decided to print posters featuring her father’s face with the words, “Please don’t give Liu Ming-huang betel nut to chew or sell it to him.” “If Liu Ming-huang chews betel nut, he will be beaten by his daughter,” it reads.
The posters were hung in and around the family’s motorcycle repair shop, and Liu said she plans to send them to betel nut sellers throughout her local area. She said she had already convinced the betel nut stand opposite their home to stop selling to her father and also banned their neighbors from giving it to him.
The 43-year-old father said his daughter’s campaign to get him to quit had left him feeling embarrassed, so he made up his mind to stop.
Betel nut, also known as areca nut, works as a mild stimulant and is known to cause oral cancer. Oral cancer was the fifth most common cancer in Taiwan in 2020.
Health ministry statistics showed decreasing betel nut usage between 2007 and 2018. About 600,000 people used betel nut in Taiwan in 2019.