Dalin: Culture, Nurture and Nature

Cathy Teng　/　photos Jimmy Lin　/　tr. by Jonathan Barnard

August 2016

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Dalin was once one of the wealthiest areas in Chiayi. This year Cittaslow has officially recognized it as the first “slow town” in Western Taiwan. When you come to such a place, you’ve got to slow your pace to experience life there. It’s the only way to get a true sense of its beauty. (courtesy of Dalin Township Office)

After several successive days of rain, the air feels saturated with moisture. A series of distinct calls—“dee, dee, dee”—pierce the bamboo grove’s night. The extraordinary sound filling one’s ears is the call of the farmland green tree frog, which can only be heard in Taiwan.

Commonly found climbing bamboo, this frog grows to a length of four to eight centimeters, depending on gender. It has a small body, with a yellowish-green back, a white belly and round, bulging eyes. When the male makes his calls, he blows up his vocal sac like a gum bubble, enlarging his whole body in the process.

We are in the place with the highest density of farmland green tree frogs anywhere in the world: Chiayi’s Dalin, a.k.a. “Darling” or “Little Milano.”

Located at the northern end of the Jianan Plain, Dalin features beautiful, open scenery. Thanks to its fertile rice fields and advantageous location, Dalin was once the wealthiest area of Chiayi County. But as various industries moved out, jobs disappeared and the population shrank. The town fell into decline.

Dalin hasn’t taken the hard times lying down. Many people are investing a lot of effort to turn the town’s fortunes around. Some are working to get residents to eat healthier, toxin-free food. Others are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and help save the planet. Still others are trying to bring back to their living environment the sounds of birds and frogs that filled their childhoods.

The community is pushing hard in the direction of local culture, healthy foods, environmental protection and so forth—all of which fits the international spirit of slow urban living. Reflecting on this trend, the town’s mayor Huang Zhenyu applied for Dalin to be recognized by Cittaslow, the “slow town” organization based in Italy. This year Dalin became the second municipality in Taiwan to be so recognized.

Apart from its use as a recreation site, the Minghua Wetland serves an even more important function by naturally treating 50% of the community’s residential wastewater. After being purified by aquatic plants, the water is released into a creek to be used by local farmers for irrigation. (courtesy of Dalin Township Office)

Renovating a theater to revitalize a town

“After I saw Report to the Squad Leader at the Dalin Palais Theatre, I resolved to protect my home and country by serving as a professional soldier.” Thus began Jiang Minghe’s Chiayi TED talk. But the ties of fate that have bound Jiang’s life to that theater would not end there.

Six years ago, he moved back home from up north. Determined to get young people to return home and to provide a means for them to earn a living there, he decided to start with something close to the collective memories of all Dalin people: a renovation of the Dalin Palais. He communicated with the owner, gaining the rights to use the building. Then he drew up a business plan to apply for public funding. He first restored its exterior and then tackled an interior renovation. A business that had been closed for more than 20 years reopened in 2012 in all of its former glory, and immediately began to attract public attention.

The town’s mayor Huang Zhenyu is promoting the use of the town’s homophonic nickname: “My Darling.”

Culture in the lanes and alleys

In order to let more people learn about Dalin’s former glory, Jiang gives weekend tours at regularly scheduled times every month.

During the town’s prosperous early years, Chinese herbal apothecaries and Western pharmacies lined Dalin’s streets. Xu Kaixing, the third-generation owner of the Tai Cheng Traditional Chinese Medicine apothecary, which is hidden in an alleyway, has put the slogan “cultural creativity” on its prescription form. The apothecary allows customers to make medicinal teas out of their own mix of herbs. In the doorway there’s a display of various kinds of tools for cutting and grinding herbal medicines, which people are encouraged to pick up and experience for themselves.

Shixin Watches and Spectacles was Dalin’s first store to sell eyeglasses. Second-generation owner Zhuang Hanlin and his wife Cai Yuwen ripped out most of the old décor after taking over the business, but left the old home’s ceiling and whitewashed walls as vestiges of its history. They hope the pared-down design will make customers feel at ease.

Big 10 Café is hidden in an alley. Its proprietor-barista Zeng Yanzhu retired from the military to open her hometown’s first coffee shop. Her greatest joy in returning to Dalin has been going home to eat her mother’s home-cooked meals every day. Her ambition is simply to make a good cup of joe for the local community here in Dalin.

The use of solar-powered golf carts to pick up and let off visitors who have come for tours is one of the Minghua Community’s special features.

Living the green life

The Minghua Community in the southwestern part of Dalin is a famous environmental community. Jiang Zhihong of the community association showed us around the Huang Family Mansion. The old house is quite remarkable: Its kitchen roof has three openings where the light can shine through, strategically located over the table, the stove and the sink. Sunlight can meet all the room’s lighting needs during the day—not to mention illuminating the energy-saving, low-carbon lifestyle of previous generations.

Jiang drives a solar-powered golf cart as he gives a community tour. The roofs of quite a few homes feature solar panels. These supply both the households and the grid with electricity.

The Minghua Wetland purifies about 50% of the community’s wastewater via biological methods, using water plants and sunlight to remove organic matter and ammonia, before returning the purified water to a creek to be used for irrigation.

The community’s hard work and environmental friendliness have helped greatly to raise Dalin’s Cittaslow score.

Every month at regularly scheduled times, Jiang Minghe conducts tours of Dalin, guiding visitors through the streets and alleys and telling them the tales behind the people who have opened the new shops. In our photo, Jiang provides commentary on Dalin artist Jian Yuanzhong’s mosaic of the Earth God.

Purifying the land

The 6.7-hectare Shanglin Pond in the Shanglin Community is a wetland area of national importance, and in former times it provided residents with the water they needed in their daily lives.

Recently a business wanted to rent neighboring land to raise geese, but residents who feared that it would pollute the water organized and made an appeal to the township office.

Su Rongshang, general secretary of the Shanglin Community, sports a crewcut and resembles a bashful child when he laughs. He constantly keeps in mind the time when this pond that holds so many beautiful childhood memories for so many was threatened: “This body of water has nourished our lives,” he says with emotion. “So when it was threatened, it was our turn to step up and protect it.”

Fortunately, the controversy prompted the township office to facilitate negotiations, and it all ended peacefully, with the business withdrawing its plan. Now all sides are working together in a push to attract green industry.

Jiang Minghe has made it his mission to restore the old Dalin Palais Theatre, which has reopened in all its former majesty.

Seeing the forest and the trees

Located in the Sanjiao Community, the Hola Family homestay is an excellent place for experiencing the local pace of life. Its owners—lawyer Liu Jiongyi and his wife Xie Yuanling, a teacher—operate it together. They too are pioneers in Dalin.

Breakfast is a do-it-yourself affair. The hens the homestay raises have just laid some eggs, and you can collect them to make your own breakfast. You pick the vegetables from the garden yourself. If you don’t feel you’ve eaten enough, no problem: There’s zero distance between the field and the table. The homestay epitomizes the town’s slow-food ethos.

The homestay’s rooms have no air-conditioning—all the better for the cool night breezes and chorus of frogs to accompany your slumber. At night you can go out with Liu Yichang of the Chiayi Beishi Cultural Development Association to look for tree frogs. On a small path through the fields one suddenly comes upon a group of fireflies engaging in their slow flash dance.

The farmland green tree frog (Rhacophorus arvalis) was first named and determined to be a species endemic to Taiwan in 1995. Since it was first discovered in Chiayi, it is known in Chinese as the “Zhuluo tree frog,” after the old name for Chiayi. Though extremely particular about its environment, it can be found in most Dalin neighborhoods—a testament to the success of Dalin’s efforts at environmental protection.

To fully appreciate Dalin’s unique charms, you’ve got to relax, travel slowly, and take things one step at a time.

No doubt the same advice applies to life in general.

Shop proprietors also participate in the tours, jumping at the chance to tell their stories. Pictured above are the owners of Shixin Watches and Spectacles

Shop proprietors also participate in the tours, jumping at the chance to tell their stories. Pictured above are the owners of Shixin Watches and Spectacles (top) and Big 10 Café (bottom).

Exploring every nook and cranny of the Hola Family homestay, you can enjoy the blue sky and lush scenery free of charge. The homestay’s owners welcome guests to come and have a chat, while enjoying Dalin’s slow pace of life.