Yoropen was invented in Taiwan by Bao Shen Liu. Mr. Liu was born in 1959 in Taipei, Taiwan. He grew up in Taipei, finished school at 18 and started work in a chrome coating factory. Mr. Liu felt unfulfilled in his monotonous work but found inspiration to ‘invent’ after watching an Indiana Jones film. Mr. Liu accurately replicated the folding clothes hanger (as seen in the film) and his inventions developed from there!

Inspiration for Yoropen came from the premature birth of Mr. Liu’s twin daughters, Yoyo and Roro. Mr. Liu did not work for some time after their birth, instead, he and his wife put their energy into looking after and ensuring the survival of the twins. During this time he re-evaluated his life and recognized a need to add new meaning to his work. God’s gift of these vulnerable babies led him to decide that he should put his energies into a project for them and ultimately for all people.

Mr. Liu believes that one of the most effective means of learning takes place via the pen through the act of writing. He decided to apply his skills as an inventor to the improvement of the pen. He studied pens, writers and writing in order to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of conventional writing instruments.

Mr. Liu already had experience of working with angles through developing, among other instruments, a revolutionary measuring gauge and protractor that has helped engineers with the measurement of angles in their work. This instrument won the Grand Prize at the 1985 Geneva Inventions Awards. He has won over thirty awards for his work including the Gold Medal at the Pittsburg USA Inventions Fair for a rolling ruler. The rights to this were sold to the German stationery company Staedtler. Income from this invention has funded subsequent research.

Mr Liu realized, from his research, that a change in the angle that the pen meets the paper could make it more user friendly. He wanted to design a pen that addressed the many problems he had identified with conventional pens and would make writing easier for all writers, but particularly for children. He developed a series of prototypes, refining the angle of the writing point and other details of design. Some examples of the writing problems he identified are:

• Tension- due to poor grips and awkward writing positions. People of all ages suffer pain and muscle fatigue when writing for long periods.
• Poor posture- due to the writer bending around the page to see what is being written.
• Poor visibility- due to fingers slipping down towards the pen tip and obstructing the field of vision.
• Left-handedness- left-handers often adopt an awkward and uncomfortable writing position.
• Children- often find it difficult to properly control a writing instrument because of lack of co-ordination and undeveloped muscles.

To remedy these shortcomings Mr Liu developed a writing instrument which makes hand writing easier and reduces strain.