Taiwan Today

For those who enjoy a taste of rural life and like to pick their own seasonal fruit at leisure farms, Dajin Village in Yilan County’s Dongshan Township is a good place to visit, as the area in northeastern Taiwan has many tourist farms that offer a variety of fruit year ’round. On weekends and holidays, there is always a long line of buses and cars on the main road entering the village, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Most visitors get their hands dirty picking fruit in the orchards or digging for bamboo shoots, and few miss viewing the aquatic plants at the village’s eco-park before they depart with an assortment of popular local snacks such as peanut cakes and preserved fruit.

The scene was very different in 1995, however, when Zhang Wen-ren (張文仁), now president of the Dajin Community Development Association, returned to his hometown to take care of his aging parents. “There was garbage along the side of the roads and no one was doing anything about it because no one cared,” he says. “Dajin wasn’t a very good place to live or visit back then.”

Village warden Lan Xi-chuan (藍細川) notes that like many other rural communities, Dajin declined as Taiwan’s economy grew more industrial and the once dominant role of agriculture faded. “The values and identity of an agricultural community are built on production, earning a livelihood from the land and ecology,” he says. “When those elements are taken out or neglected, problems like financial difficulties, an aging population and the exodus of young people follow.”

In fact, Lan was one of the many who left Dajin to seek work elsewhere. He returned in 2001 after retiring from an administrative position at an elementary school in Yilan’s Luodong Township. According to Lan, Dajin currently has a registered population of about 1,000, and about half of the 600-some people who actually live there are either elementary school students or more than 65 years old.

To ameliorate such problems in rural communities around the country, the government began launching a number of agricultural development and community empowerment projects in the early 1990s. Dajin was offered several chances to participate in such redevelopment projects, but never really took advantage of them. In fact, it was not uncommon for local residents to give these earlier projects a cold response. “Government officials and academics sent in to conduct surveys decided what we needed to develop, and then a redevelopment project was drawn up for us,” Zhang says. “It wasn’t surprising that these projects didn’t work out because they didn’t address the needs of village residents.” Even worse, the failure of the projects managed to kill off what little enthusiasm the village had for redevelopment projects in the first place, he adds.

In Zhang’s experience, it is a challenge to get farmers involved in redevelopment projects because, in many cases, they do not have much education and know little outside of their trade. As a result, they tend to focus on their own business and usually have neither the time nor the will to participate in public affairs. Dajin had more than its share of such mind-my-own-business farmers.

That attitude, however, changed dramatically in 2005, when the Yilan County Government approved a funeral company’s application to build a memorial pagoda on government property near the entrance to the village. “We already had one of the county’s dump sites and a public cemetery in our backyard,” Zhang says. “There was no way we were going to allow a tower full of cinerary urns at our front gate.” Finally stirred to action, the villagers organized and began protesting against the construction of the pagoda. The protestors erected a few tents on the site and took ’round-the-clock shifts to guard the property. This went on until the construction permit issued by the county government expired in January 2013. “One bonus of the protest was that villagers became very willing to participate in public affairs,” Zhang says. “They learned that they can make a difference if they stick together and make themselves heard.”

As the villagers of Dajin were beginning to grow more comfortable with civic action, the central government launched the Rural Regeneration project in 2008. The project gained legal status and funding in July 2010 when the legislature passed the Rural Regeneration Act, which requires the government “to facilitate rural sustainability, revitalization and regeneration, to improve production infrastructure, to conserve rural ecology and culture, to upgrade quality of life, and to construct new rural prosperity and beauty.” Under the terms of the act, the central government must allocate NT$150 billion (US$5 billion) for rural redevelopment projects through 2020.

Based on Consensus

In a departure from previous projects, the Rural Regeneration scheme is designed to give area residents autonomy over the process of revitalizing their community. Individual projects must be initiated by local organizations and be based upon a consensus reached through community discussions. The central government also began offering a series of courses in rural areas that are aimed at empowering residents to breathe new life into their communities. The classes are taught by professionals and experienced lecturers in agriculture, community planning, environmental engineering and related fields, while subjects include communicating with fellow residents, drawing up a workable plan, gathering sufficient resources and protecting the local environment.

Zhang became aware of the government’s efforts to promote the Rural Regeneration project in 2008. “It was the first bottom-up project I’d heard of and it sounded just about right, since local residents—who best know what their communities or villages need—get to make the decisions,” he says. “The government doesn’t interfere and only plays the role of distributing resources for the project.” Zhang shared the project’s message with Lan, and together they managed to convince another 25 Dajin residents to attend the incubation classes. “All of us completed the four levels of the course and we’ve all gone on to play roles in Dajin’s redevelopment,” Lan says. “This redevelopment project has helped some of the villagers discover their life goals.”

Lan Qin-lu (藍欽祿), who was known around the village for his fondness for alcohol, is perhaps the person that has changed most. After the incubation classes, Lan Qin-lu started surveying local cultural resources. On one of his field trips, he found some remnants of pottery left by the Pingpu indigenous people, who had resided in the area more than a century earlier. He wanted to bring back the aboriginal craft to add variety to the local cultural scene, and in the process was “forced” to quit drinking. He spent a year researching, gathering tools and learning the techniques associated with the craft, and even set up a kiln in his backyard to demonstrate how the Pingpu fired pottery. “I had to stay sober because I had to check the fire every couple of hours to get the temperature right,” he says. “I guess the redevelopment project helped me get a life.”

Indigenous Heritage

Pingpu pottery proved to be just the beginning for Lan Qin-lu, as he has researched many other aspects of Dajin’s cultural heritage and is now responsible for the community development association’s cultural projects. “I used to drink all day but now I talk all day about local culture,” he says. “I’m now officially a culture-holic.”

Dajin’s project was approved as part of the central government’s Rural Regeneration scheme and received funding from the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture. After the classes, the villagers reached a consensus to go ahead with the Dajin redevelopment project. Cleaning up the environment, the first step, was easy to accomplish because a large number of area residents volunteered for the effort. In fact, keeping Dajin clean has turned into a tradition, as residents put aside their work twice each month and spend a half day picking up garbage and trimming reeds. Residents have also enhanced the beauty of the village by planting purple peonies along both sides of the main roads. “Having a clean and pleasant environment and keeping it that way is the most influential change arising from the redevelopment project,” village warden Lan Xi-chuan says. “It makes the residents proud and gives visitors a better experience.”

The next step was constructing facilities that introduce local culture, ecology and history. The villagers, for example, built a house from the black shale found in Dajin that is reminiscent of structures once common but no longer seen in the area. They also constructed the Tea Pavilion on a popular bike path that runs through the village, a building that honors the village tradition of offering a cup of tea to travelers passing through. Another effort involved working with a local expert on water plants to design an eco-pond that showcases the diversity of the area’s natural environment.

In addition to cleaning up the village and building new facilities, Dajin’s renewal efforts have focused on improving the lives of local senior citizens. The village office, for example, launched a project in which volunteers regularly visit and care for senior citizens who live by themselves. A holiday market has also been set up where older farmers can sell their fruits or vegetables. “We want the elderly to know that they’re part of this community, that they’re needed,” Lan Xi-chuan says. In fact, many of the redevelopment projects were completed by senior citizens. The Tea Pavilion, for example, was constructed by a group of 70-something “kids,” as their 98-year-old team leader calls them.

Returning Youth

All of the redevelopment projects have gone smoothly thanks not only to the villagers’ active participation, but also their generosity in donating the necessary land. Tea farmer Lin Wen-de (林文德) recalls that one project was planned for a plot of land that was jointly controlled by 17 landowners. “In the past, no one would have donated a square inch of their land for any public construction plans,” he says. “But this time, we got the signatures of all 17 landowners within a day.” Zhang credits the owners’ willingness to donate their land to the bottom-up approach of the Rural Regeneration scheme. “We hold many village meetings before every redevelopment decision is made, and the residents are willing to give their full support and participate in the projects because the decisions are their own,” he says.

Dajin’s improving environment and increasing business opportunities are drawing young people back to the village. According to Lan Xi-chuan, about 50 young people have returned to the area in the past five years or so. Yu Yuan-hui (余源輝) and his wife Zeng Xing-yi (曾馨誼), who now operate a leisure farm named Happiness 20, were among the earliest young returnees. Yu and Zeng are Dajin natives who left to take jobs in Taipei, where Yu worked as a landscape designer and Zeng as a kindergarten teacher. They returned to their hometown in 2009 and converted part of the orchard owned by Yu’s father into Happiness 20. Visitors to the farm can pick fruit grown by Yu’s parents, enjoy meals made with Dajin fruit and take do-it-yourself courses on making fruit vinegar. Zeng explains that they named the farm Happiness 20 because its street address is No. 20 and because the couple got married on the 20th of the month. “And of course, we’ve found our happiness here,” she says.

As the village does not keep statistics on local revenues, Zhang cannot show definitive proof that the redevelopment project has benefited Dajin economically. But with the improved environment, enthusiastic residents and more young people returning, he is certain that the project is on the right track. “From my point of view, all of the investment is aimed at helping Dajin residents rebuild their identity as part of this village,” he says. “It’s the people that really matter.”

Write to Jim Hwang at cyhuang03@mofa.gov.tw