"I'm going back to Ilan!" When the 39-year-old Huang Jui-hsiang, an associate researcher at the Taiwan forestry experimental station, told everyone about his decision, all his friends and relatives were startled.

A Ph.D. in soil and agricultural sciences from the University of Hawaii, he returned to Taiwan four years ago. In Taiwan he specialized in recultivation of seeds from rare and precious local varieties of trees. Because he made a major breakthrough in asexual propagation, he had just begun to earn a reputation. Yet it was just at this point that he chose to pull up roots.

"Not as Good as a Farmer": Ilan is where he grew up. He wanted to return to serve his community, and thus realize a long-cherished desire. But by going back now he would pay a rather high price. Don't even mention the fact that it means a one-half cut in salary, or that housing and his children's education would have to be reorganized from scratch, many doubted how long he could maintain the enthusiasm to abandon ten years of research to go to the countryside.

One of his acquaintances, Chu Tsu-chiang, assistant director of the Office of Manpower Training of the Taiwan Power Company, doesn't have much good to say about the decision: "He has the academic background, credentials, practical experience, and the proper outlook. This type of talent should stay at the center to exercise his influence."

But Huang Jui-hsiang has a different opinion. He knows that if he stayed in Taipei he could certainly do things, but they would be different things from the countryside. He says he could write a fine research report, and use all kinds of statistics and evidence, but the purpose of study is not merely to do research. If you really want to know how research results can be put to use, and how to resolve technical problems, you have to "go into the field." "Why did Confucious say, 'I am not as good as an old farmer or an old gardener'? I think the reason is he didn't go out into the field."

Also, in his opinion, Taipei is already a "trap." Besides the poor air quality and terrible traffic, interpersonal relations are increasingly alienated. He talks about his second oldest' brother's house in Su-ao, a small city in Ilan. If a child goes next door to play, and wets the bed, people don't get upset in the least, but they only wonder whether the child might not be feeling unwell. "You can still find respect and fellow-feeling among people in the countryside." He fears that with modernization the malevolence typical of large Amerin cities might appear in Taipei, so he's merely "making a break for it a little early."

A Social Movement: In his view, with transportation so well-developed these days, and communications and information so abundant, there are only advantages, and no real liabilities, to moving to the countryside. "Of the 'urbanization of the countryside' and the 'rustification of the city,' the former ideal has been realized, but not the latter." Because the former already exists, he can go to the countryside without worrying; because the latter does not exist, he wants to head to the country even more.

His purpose in this journey is to plan and promote the work of "greenification" for Ilan County. Is it so hard to plant trees? Isn't this a waste of talent? In fact, it's not at all. For example, shortly after returning to Taiwan he proposed a new view: To encourage everyone to plant more trees native to this locality and not to spend a lot of money buying pretty but impractical trees from outside. "In Ilan you can plant Cimmamonum micranthum. The wood is solid and the buds are beautiful."

Planting a Lot of Trees: He also advocates using more sprouts; this way you can save money and also screen the trees during the growing process. For example, the Kaohsiung Municipal Park originally wanted to use imported tree varieties, and it would have been necessary to spend NT$300 million at one shot. But if they were helped to grow from sprouts, using local varieties, then they could start work with only NT$50 million.

"The former trades money for time, while the latter trades time for money," Huang says. Trees in any case will grow, so naturally the latter works out. Moreover, local varieties have resistance to insects and natural calamities, and won't collapse if they are faced with a disease.

He hopes to realize all these ideas in Ilan, and to make Ilan into a "greenified prototype," to let everyone understand that Taiwan can indeed have trees and plants everywhere.

Huang says that to "build a huge greenhouse for seedlings, and to plant lots and lots of trees" is the greatest dream of his life. It seems as simple as the thought many children have to "open a huge bakery and just make sweet-smelling breads all the time." What's different is he is making his dream a reality!

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(photo by Vincent Chang)