What the Forest Tells Us

When I was small, there were many century-old trees around the old commercial quarter of Hsinchu’s Xinpu Township. One of them stood alone at the entrance to our neighborhood, surrounded by low red-brick houses. I would often go and talk to that tree, and over time it seemed to take on a kind of sentience, with the sound of falling leaves somehow responding to my changing moods. As I gently touched the beautiful patterns on its trunk, it felt to me as if the tree were telling stories of its surroundings.

Of course, there are even more old trees out in the countryside. Some are as beautiful as celestial beings. Others loom threaten­ingly, or tangle together in impenetrable thickets. The forest is also a place of wild animals and plants, and of many fascinating hidden phenomena. As the Qing-­Dynasty scholar Wei Yuan wrote, besides taking pleasure in nature, we should learn about the living world and seek harmony with it.

In this month’s cover story, we take you deep into the mountain forests. We visit the Forest Culture Museum in Taitung, to experi­ence the life and culture of the Bunun indigenous people. We follow research­ers into the mountains, where they use scientific measures to learn about the forest ecology and understand its current condition. We also discover how the CMP Group is combining design with nature to transform a former theme park, and how the “under­forest economy” is providing a blueprint for how daily life and economic activity can coexist with the environment.

Nature is the fountainhead of creativity, but it is also up to humans to cherish and protect nature. In recent years, “AirBox” air quality sensors and the “Walk in Taiwan” guided tour service have helped raise environ­mental consciousness and cultural awareness in Taiwan. And late last year the “Startup Island TAIWAN” brand identity was launched, in hopes of boosting the collective image of Taiwanese startups.

Amid the waves of Taipei Metro passengers on New Year’s Eve, I saw many Southeast-­Asian migrant workers acting as volunteer stewards. No matter where we are from, there is a growing cohesion among those of us who live on this island. Just as I recall the old trees in my hometown, Taiwan has many collective memories shared by people from different places. As artist Chu Chen-nan’s calligraphy in the de­parture hall at Taoyuan International Airport expresses it, “We can talk about so many things on the road / There is a place full of hospitality / Taiwan is her name.”