Pingtung, the southernmost county in Taiwan, has long been known as a major agricultural provider. With its abundant resources from mountain and sea, this subtropical area, inhabited by Hakka, Holo and mainlander, as well as Rukai and Paiwan (two of Taiwan's indigenous peoples), displays a brilliant cultural diversity and attracts large crowds of tourists.
On the way to the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) located in Neipu, one of Pingtung County's Hakka towns, visitors can see a lot of betel palms standing thin and erect. The betel nut has long been used by Chinese doctors to treat intestinal disorders and other parasitic infections, but Pingtung's farmers never intended to provide their crop for the medicine market alone. In the Taiwan area, millions of people chew betel nut as a habit, and have helped create an enormous market worth billions of US dollars.
The expansion of betel palms is, therefore, easy to explain. Pingtung's paddyfields used to yield more than an eighth of Taiwan's rice, but the handsome income a farmer could earn by producing "green gold" was much higher than what he could get from growing rice. In addition, while agricultural laborers are aging, the choice to grow betel nuts (a crop that requires no heavy travail) is understandable. More significantly, the wide sweep of betel palms indicates--for better or for worse--a transition in the agricultural scene of Pingtung County, an agricultural stronghold of Taiwan.
Betel-nut growing exemplifies the switch from traditional agriculture (growing large fields of crops such as rice and sugarcane) to the smaller-scale one that aims at creating a high profit. It is a controversial business. The betel nut chewed ubiquitously in Taiwan often contains additives that cause oral cancer and mucous membrane fibrosis, although the pulpy nut itself is not detrimental to one's health if it is not used in excess. Still, there have been other fairly agreeable developments during the transitional stage of Pingtung's agriculture. "While the agricultural economy is declining and membership in the World Trade Organization is soon to be acquired," says Tsai Lung-ming, chairperson of NPUST's Department of Rural Planning and Landscaping, "local farmers in this land can be encouraged to produce highly competitive crops such as fruits and flowers." Wu Chin-liang, a farmer living in Pingtung City who also holds a position in the Taiwan Provincial Fruit Cooperative, suggests that the government make more state- or province-owned land available to farmers who can form groups and grow, on a cooperative basis, the most competitive crops in the international market, such as bananas, papayas and wax apples. In order to promote the development of tropical agriculture and its related industries, the NPUST set up the Institute of Tropical Agriculture in 1997.
"We're not pessimistic about our agricultural economy, because we have unique agricultural products that can't be found in other counties," remarks Su Jia-chyuan, magistrate of Pingtung County. "If utilized appropriately and marketed skillfully, that resource will uphold our agricultural villages and keep them alive." Another possibility has also helped keep the magistrate from pessimism: the agritourism industry. In April 1999, the Executive Yuan approved a revised set of Recrea tional Agriculture Guidance Measures drawn up by the Council of Agriculture. The measures aim to promote agricultural, educational and recreational activities, and thereby increase farming incomes and improve farming communities. In Pingtung County, the recreational orchards are very promising, especially those growing mangoes and wax apples, the so-called "black pearls." With a view to boosting the marriage of agriculture and tourism, several traffic facility construction projects are now underway, including the coastline's "blue highway," the freeway, and the east-west expressway, which is near completion.
However, as the magistrate points out, there are several obstacles to the transformation and revitalization of the agricul tural economy. First of all, the farmers who have gotten used to living by the adage, "Work at sunrise and rest at sundown," have little knowledge of business management or promotional strategies. "Farmers must be educated to know that their agricultural produce can be packaged to have additional value," says the magistrate. "They should be taught to think differ ently. Selling their labor passively is not all they can do; they can also actively exert their intellectual power." In addition to the shortage of money caused by unfair distribution of national resources on the part of the central government, the local farmers' associations that are supposed to help farmers but poorly fulfill that function also cause problems that need to be resolved. It is proposed that these organizations separate their banking and agricultural departments. In order to achieve that separation, relevant regulations must be revised.
With regard to agritourism, Lin Yei-wun, an instructor in NPUST's Department of Rural Planning and Landscaping, suggests that the government provide assistance for farmers to help carry out the revised Recreational Agriculture Guidance Measures. First of all, the fragmented pieces of land owned by individual farmers who rarely cooperate with others must be integrated into a proposed recreational farm large enough to meet the regulations. Second, while the environmental impact evaluation, the certification, and all of the other procedures required for the establishment of a recreational farm cost a considerable sum of money, the government should offer subsidies or low-interest loans to the financially deficient farmers.
An advantage for Pingtung's ongoing development is the great expanse of land owned by the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC), a legacy of Japanese colonization (1895_1945) that enabled Taiwan to provide a large amount of sugar for the prewar Japanese empire. Of all the arable land in Pingtung County (an estimated 270 square miles), TSC possesses about forty square miles, used mostly for growing sugarcane. Now, most of Pingtung's public construction projects take place on the TSC-owned land, which has cost the county government far less money and effort than private ownership would have required. "It's in fact a mutually beneficial enterprise," explains the magistrate. "TSC is also glad to see us making the best use of its undeveloped land." He adds that the land will not undergo intensive or exhaustive development. The retention of a naturally and socially friendly environment that is favorable to tourism and habitation is the top priority.
"With regard to habitation, Pingtung is undoubtedly superior to the industrial city of Kaohsiung," says Wang Chin-shih, Pingtung City mayor. "We have a better climate, better air and water, and brighter sunshine." Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan, has become increasingly populous--and oppressively complex--due to rapid growth, and the one-river-away Pingtung has every chance of becoming its satellite city. That orientation constitutes one important aspect of Pingtung's enlarged urban development project (derived from the one drawn up during the days of Japanese colonialism), which includes the extension of Kaohsiung's rapid transit system to Pingtung, the expansion of Pingtung Airport, and the widening of the Kaohsiung-Pingtung Bridge over the Kaoping River. The coming ten years will see such large-scale construction projects carried out, which aim to bring Kaohsiung and Pingtung closer to each other.
As to the widely believed superiority of the northern part of Taiwan over the southern, or of the urban area over the rural, Wang suggests that it is a question of viewpoint. "Sometimes it's likely to look on the seeming inferiority as a welcome advantage," emphasizes the mayor, who has vowed to build a garden-like city. "I'm not expecting Pingtung to be exactly what Taipei is like. The most important thing to do is shape a life of good quality, with local flavor based on what we've already got." However, the feeling of being a second-class citizen did manifest itself among Pingtung inhabitants when they saw the North-South Freeway end in Kaohsiung, and the first-class train not enter Pingtung as promised. (The Second Freeway will go to Pingtung.) "It's reasonable enough when people complain of such discrimination," the mayor says. He takes the number of garbage-collecting trucks as an example of the uneven distribution of governmental resources. Whereas Taipei City is served by hundreds of such trucks, Pingtung City has fewer than thirty--plainly disproportionate to the popula tion. Wang hopes that the streamlining of the provincial government, when the initial confusion is over, will substantially strengthen the operation of local governments.
Cultural diversity characterizes Pingtung County, in which reside Taiwan's four major ethnic groups: indigenous people of the Paiwan and Rukai tribes dwell mostly in the mountainous areas; Hakka in the plains bordering the mountains; Holo by the sea; and mainlanders in Pingtung City. Tawu Mountain is considered by Paiwan and Rukai people to be sacred, echoing with mysterious legends handed down from their ancestors. They believe that the mountain is inhabited by heavenly gods, and that it receives the souls of human beings after people die. Anyone who shouts loudly in the mountain is seen as commit ting an act of blasphemy, which will incur misfortune. Plain-dwellers also bear a special relationship to Tawu Mountain, as rivers that flow down from it help form the Pingtung Plain. With its unique forest, flora and fauna, this mountain of great historical and geographical significance is thus aptly representative of Pingtung's liveliness and serves as the spiritual home town of Pingtung's people. This is why the county government has been actively working to promote the mountain, instead of the aloof man-made Oluanpi Lighthouse located in Kenting National Park, as Pingtung's true landmark.
"We can't afford to see the cultural and artistic heritage of different racial groups die away," says the magistrate. In addition to the established Aboriginal Cultural Park, a Hakka Cultural Park is now under construction. The latter will not be confined to a walled-in space intended chiefly for static exhibition; rather, it will be connected dynamically to neighboring Hakka towns, forming a cultural network that contributes to both local consciousness and tourist interests. Each spot in that network will feature a particular aspect of Hakka culture, such as architecture, food, handicrafts, or agriculture. The county government will push forward similar projects for Holo people and mainlanders, in order to preserve and invigorate their cultures.
"To make a commercial business of culture and a culture of commercial business is the way to the vitalization of local life," says Tsai Lung-ming. "We can prove that traditional things are not only 'museum stuff,' but also real moneymakers." The handmade bags and clothing of aboriginal style, for example, can be attractive for tourists. "A county of prosperous culture, tourism and agriculture is what I expect Pingtung to be," remarks Lin Yei-wun. "Pingtung County needs a well -defined status with regard to its overall development. A county without a sense of direction will end up nowhere." Well said! But a county-in-progress also needs a sense of common history and memory. "That kind of awakening can't be brought into existence by an authority. It always arises from deep inside one's heart," says Lisha Huang, chief executive of the Blue Tungkang River Conservation Association, established in 1996, which aims, among other things, to conduct historical and ecological research along the river, to educate and integrate the people living near the river, and to formulate a local, "distinc tively southern" point of view. A river goes through many lives and creates a lot of memories. In the process of simultaneous social and urban development, we should never stop listening to the voice of nature or of our collective memory.