Chiu and his partners established the Dananpu Agricul- tural Village Office in 2011 to record, pass on, and promote the culture and history of the Nanzhuang area. They encour- aged community regeneration through a variety of mea- sures, including rehabilitating local organic wet rice farming, opening a handicrafts gallery, and printing a local paper. But their approach failed to win the approval of the area’s older residents, and whispers of doubt began to circulate.
Although their initial efforts struggled, the optimistic Chiu reveled in the possibility that, with younger people becoming interested in more in-depth tourism and in en- couraging the development of creative and cultural enter- prises, the times were ripe for a different kind of effort. He and his partners therefore opened Mountain Lodge Hostel last year. Located on Nanjiang Street, not far from Nan- zhuang’s old downtown, the hostel’s objective is to provide travelers with the opportunity to experience rural life at first hand by working the land.
Chiu and his group published their inaugural issue of Tentioncy on the same day they opened the hostel, enlist- ing the help of a dozen or so Miaoli residents to provide the magazine with a variety of local perspectives. Tentioncy is an interesting publication, with each issue devoted to a single topic and printed in its entirety on just one sheet of A4-sized paper. Though the content tops out at 600 to 700 characters, the magazine manages to deliver an in-depth look at Nanzhuang industries unfamiliar to outsiders.
Trained first in sociology and then in anthropology, Chiu’s every rationale and action is supported by reams of fieldwork. Even the names of his ventures are carefully selected. For example, Mountain Lodge Hostel’s Chinese name, Lao Liao (“old hut”) is a reference to the Nan- zhuang of yore. In the township’s early years, its Hakka residents used to go into the mountains for months at a time to farm, make paper, and produce camphor. To make those temporary stays more comfortable, they built simple liao (huts) in which to live and manufacture their camphor, paper, or charcoal. Mountain Lodge Hostel’s name honors this local heritage.
A little explanation makes Tentioncy’s Chinese name , Shizhi, much clearer as well: Shi (拾—the character banks use for the number ten) suggests that it costs just NT$10 to support independent progressive media on the banks of the Zhonggang River. Playing on other meanings of the same character, shi further suggests stooping, which indicates humility and reverence, both part of the authentic Hakka spirit, and also refers to picking up broken pieces, sifting glimmers from life and reflecting on the connections between the land and ourselves. Shizhi is an amalgamation of all of these things. (Zhi simply means “magazine.”)
Chiu sometimes speaks in abstractions, his conversation filled with sociological dialectics. But he does ultimately drill down to the root of his motivations: “Honestly, I wanted to return people to a dependency on the land.” When he visited Nanzhuang during his college years, he used to hear his grandmother say that “Hakka farm the mountains and till the fields.” Mountain forests have long been part and parcel of Hakka in life in northern Taiwan. That connection causes their culture to differ from those of both Taiwan’s Aborigines, who were hunters, and Taiwan’s Southern Min, whose culture originated on the plains. “At our core, we are tillers of mountains,” says Chiu.
Developing young people’s strengths
When Chiu decided to move back to Nanzhuang, he strove to learn from previous development mistakes, and concluded that local industries were the best way forward. Villages have been trying to transform themselves via the community regeneration movement, which encourages local residents to become involved in public affairs, for 20 years, but many are still struggling and residents are giv- ing up and leaving. Having reviewed the frustrations of
other villages, Chiu believes that promoting agricultural and local industries offers greater hope of success. He sees Miaoli’s Yuanli Township as a case in point: its rush weav- ing industry has helped it become one of community re- generation’s few successes.
Yuanli’s promotion of its traditional rush weaving handicrafts over the last few years has led to the creation of much more refined products, cooperation with interna- tional fashion designers, and even having their handicrafts worn by the likes of megastar Shu Qi. Chiu argues that the Nanzhuang area has plenty of wonderful crafts of its own awaiting discovery by the wider world, and cites Dahu’s papermaking and Dananpu’s stone-milled rice as two ex- amples with long histories.
Chiu and his partners are also pursuing efforts to develop agricultural value-added products and services that draw on young people’s interests. Having already established Moun- tain Lodge Hostel and begun promoting tours that deliver first-hand agricultural experience, they have now opened a shop selling local organic produce, food and drinks.
“From Mountain Lodge Hostel to Tentioncy, every word we write illuminates authentic local cultures and stories revealed through substantial fieldwork,” says Chiu. “Every single move we make is aimed at honestly relating the true story of Nanzhuang.”
@List.jpg?w=522&h=410&mode=crop&format=webp&quality=80)