Chishang, this prosperous rice township, stuns the world with its rigorous origin certification

Text / Taiwan Cultural and Creative Development Foundation (speech content compiled / Wang Yunling)

Series preface: To build a platform for sharing local knowledge, experience and resources belonging to Taiwan, the "Taiwan Cultural and Creative Development Foundation" regularly holds the "Huashan Culture and Tourism Studies X Encountering the Local Lecture", introducing representative cases across Taiwan that use cultural creativity to solve local problems, and cooperates with "Upstream and Downstream" to publish the case stories introduced in this lecture series, hoping to promote the sharing and exchange of experience and knowledge.

Encountering Chishang - The good of Taiwan starts from townships

From an objective standpoint, Chishang is a small farming village that must depend on the weather for its living, but in recent years this remote small town has attracted domestic and foreign tourists alike, and has even become the best model of local revitalization in Taiwan. Many people think that Cloud Gate and the Taiwan Good Foundation made Chishang, unaware that the residents of Chishang are the soul figures behind this place's transformation and rebirth. Nearly 20 years ago, the residents of Chishang went through a difficult certification process to build the Chishang rice brand, thereby laying a solid local economic foundation; 10 years ago, the residents of Chishang began spontaneously joining hands with groups such as Taiwan Good and Cloud Gate to create rural artistic life, finally achieving this beautiful chapter. (Good local self-governance makes Chishang full of charm)

Liang Zhengxian: Chishang is still an agricultural small town, but it has become more diverse

With all kinds of cultural and artistic activities and a steady stream of tourists, has anything about Chishang changed? Liang Zhengxian, currently chairman of the Chishang Township Culture and Art Association, said that Chishang has changed a great deal in the past five years. Although it is still an agricultural small town and residents still maintain an agricultural lifestyle, economically, Chishang has gained tourism income beyond agriculture, and industrial development has become more diverse and vibrant.

It is worth mentioning that Chishang was originally a remote area, where children had few resources and relatively few connections with the outside world. But since Cloud Gate Dance Theatre came to Chishang in 2013, students from Chishang Junior High School have received Cloud Gate training and served as volunteers at performance venues, and their outstanding performance won praise from many audience members watching the dance. And when everyone's eyes focused on these children and gave them affirmation, the children gained unprecedented confidence, and later even their academic performance and performance in various aspects improved.

Liang Zhengxian said: "The whole atmosphere of Chishang Junior High School has changed, and it has even repeatedly achieved good results in external competitions, which shows that the sense of achievement and confidence gave the children very positive help." In response, Lin Hwai-min happily said: "Actually, culture and art in the end are all matters of life, and children's cultivation is also accumulated through exposure and influence."

Indeed, every local problem cannot be turned around overnight, and one must still return to life and to the ideas of local people, just as Li Yingping said: "The most critical things in running local revitalization, besides money and people, are time. You have to discuss and communicate slowly, and then quietly wait for it to ferment." How much people invest, time will give back, and Chishang is the best proof.

"The Key Secrets of Chishang's Local Development"

1、The "Chishang Rice" brand certification laid a solid economic foundation, farmers' incomes are stable, and their income is not affected by market price fluctuations. With a stable livelihood, there is room to talk about "life".

2、The Taiwan Good Foundation joins hands to co-create, and the secret is "stationing on the ground to learn, observing and visiting, integrating and participating, communicating and arguing, creating and implementing, waiting for fermentation". The lower you position yourself, the better you can understand the local area!

3、The most critical things in running a place, besides money and people, are time. You have to discuss and communicate slowly, and then quietly wait for it to ferment.

4、The beauty of Chishang comes not only from nature; more of it is maintained because of the aesthetics and choices of local people.

(To watch the complete video content of the "Huashan Culture and Tourism Studies X Encountering Chishang" lecture, please contact the Taiwan Cultural and Creative Development Foundation)