Beauty and sadness in Fenglin
After Xu Mingtang returned to Fenglin to take care of his parents, he established Niaoju Farm, and joined a local project in which groups of 100 households each financially support a farmer who is implementing environmentally friendly organic farming methods. Supporters are thus able to share the farmers’ risks and takings. Xu is also working on promoting awareness of organic farming and the need to look after the land. During the rice harvest, he invited children from the city to work in his paddy fields to experience the harvest hands-on.
Born in 1982, Xie Yi is the son of a farmer. He became concerned about his father’s welfare as he had to work so hard as a farmer. He was also distressed at the exploitation his father suffered at the hands of middlemen. So he returned to Fenglin, where he now runs his own brand through Facebook, selling his produce online and inviting other farmers to advertise their quality foods on his Facebook page to increase the range offered.
Chung Soon-long and his partner Helen Liang returned to Fenglin because they wanted to continue the tradition of home-style cooking they inherited from Chung’s mother. They learned how to fry peanuts from her and established a new brand called Good Eats, which they run from their home. Chung and Liang often invite visitors in to sit around their big wooden table, sharing home-made soy milk and chatting about some of the local attractions.
Chen Kengyan, born in 1978, has a doctorate in mathematics. He gave up teaching at college after his mother passed away, and bought a piece of land in Fenglin to grow healthy food, later gaining organic farming certification. When he chose to clear the rocks from his land manually, passers-by mocked him for not using a machine, thinking him a fool. So he called his farm Yan Tou Organic Farm (the name yan sounds similar to the word for “fool” in Taiwanese).
Lin Gonghong, who returned to Fenglin with his wife Pan Zhenfang just a year ago after retiring from the financial sector, is running a 25-year-old ice cream store which used to belong to his mother-in-law. As a relative newcomer to the area, he is concerned about the gradual decline of his adopted town. He’s witnessed an exodus of young people, and a consequent shortage of labor and lack of opportunity.
Liu Qingsong gives a group of visitors a class in hand-dyeing scarves, as they experience the beauty of Fenglin.