Summer Cultivation Chronicle - A Bittersweet Investigation of Sugarcane Farmers in Erlin, Changhua
Photos/Text by Wang Chang-Yi
“Who am I? Where do I come from? Why am I here?"Before entering the field for investigation, Chong-Ming, our partner in Erlin, asked everyone this question.
Using History as the Warp Using Field Investigation as the Weft
In the sweltering heat of August, the Taiwan Rural Front, in collaboration with the Sugarcane Youth Cultural Studio (hereafter referred to as Sugarcane Youth), led participants in a field investigation in the Goutou community of Erlin. Sugarcane Youth specializes in field investigation and cultural writing, and after several years of operation has accumulated rich local records and actions. In addition, they also collaborate with local schools and organizations, planning local curricula and leading field investigation workshops. Well aware of Sugarcane Youth's local practice and deep cultivation, after finalizing the collaboration with Sugarcane Youth for the second phase of Summer Cultivation, the Taiwan Rural Front office had already begun looking forward to the arrival of the Erlin field investigation.
Living up to our expectations, under Sugarcane Youth's planning, this field investigation was not merely a one-week rural experience, but solid training and practice. Before entering the community, Chong-Ming first led participants in discussing "Three Hundred Years of the Zhuoshui River" written by Teacher Chang Su-Fen. This book describes three hundred years of history of the Zhuoshui River, from the river's irregular flooding, to the large-scale sugarcane planting on the riverbed lands after regulation, to the present situation where the construction of the Jiji Weir has changed the ecology of the Zhuoshui River. Although the Zhuoshui River has gradually become calm, the lives of riverside residents have not become stable as a result. Sugarcane planting became a means for the Japanese to extract from farmers, and the Jiji Weir restricted irrigation water for farmland and drastically changed the riverside ecology.
In addition to history, Chong-Ming also spent a morning explaining "Basic Concepts and Methods of Field Investigation." Sugarcane Youth possesses rich experience in teaching field investigation; in addition to long-term collaboration with junior and senior high schools in the Erlin area, they had just concluded leading a four-day "Xizhou Water Culture Investigation Workshop" before the Summer Cultivation investigation began. Chong-Ming condensed and distilled his experience, pairing it with field investigation stories from his own experience, making the course a quick-entry booster for field investigation beginners. He divided field investigation into three steps: literature analysis, field investigation, and proposal implementation. In addition to sharing techniques and precautions for literature and field investigation, Chong-Ming placed even greater emphasis on the follow-up of field investigation: "For me, field investigation is not merely simple understanding and investigation. The key point is, after understanding a place, what plans and actions can be proposed that fit local needs." Most people know that field investigation is an important method for understanding a place, yet the follow-up care is often forgotten. Such a reminder is undoubtedly important and deeply inspiring for participants just beginning to engage with rural areas and field investigation.
As Chong-Ming said in his concluding remarks for the field investigation course, "Starting from the field, learning from the local," fitting in with the local has always been Sugarcane Youth's most important spirit. In co-organizing this Summer Cultivation field investigation, they also hoped to pass on the concept of "taking the local as teacher" to the participants. After being baptized by the history of "Three Hundred Years of the Zhuoshui River" and supplemented by the field investigation course, the participants finally entered the field investigation site:Goutou Community。
A Hundred Years After the Erlin Sugarcane Farmers Incident——Sugarcane Farmers' Labor Memories and Goutou's Rebirth
Erlin is the birthplace of Taiwan's first peasant movement. After the Japanese regulated the Zhuoshui River and controlled flooding, the large areas of previously submerged riverbed land became cultivable. Under the Japanese government's promotion, these newly formed riverbed lands were planted with sugarcane one after another, and the Zhangnan area, including Erlin, became one of the important sugarcane production areas. In early 1924, farmers through local elites responded to the unfairness of Lin Sugar (Lin Pen-Yuan Sugar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) in purchasing sugarcane, and in 1925 they established the "Erlin Sugarcane Farmers Association," organizing members to negotiate with Lin Sugar. In October of the same year, Lin Sugar, with the assistance of the Japanese police, forcibly harvested sugarcane, triggering a violent conflict between sugarcane farmers and the authorities.
The reason the Erlin Sugarcane Farmers Incident is special is that, in addition to being Taiwan's first peasant movement, it also reflects the agricultural control and extraction during the Japanese colonial period. A hundred years later, the sugarcane farmers incident has gradually faded from people's knowledge, the sugarcane fields that once spread everywhere have been replaced by Koshihikari rice, and the labor and circumstances of the sugarcane farmers at that time have been scattered by the tides of history. We often hear a common saying: "The first fool, the sugarcane-planter who gets weighed by the company scales." Just how hard was life for the sugarcane farmers of that time? With this question in mind, the Erlin group's investigation focused on sugarcane farmers' labor experiences and entered Goutou to explore.
A hundred years later, most of the generation that experienced the sugarcane farmers incident have passed away, but fortunately several elders still remain in the Goutou community. Several elders in their eighties and nineties provided participants with precious field data, from their childhood memories full of sugarcane (during harvest they always had to sneak a few stalks from the five-ton carts to taste something sweet), to being employed at the farm as rough, low-daily-wage company workers (at that time all labor relied on human power; land preparation, sugarcane planting, harvesting, they did it all. The sweetness of sugarcane came from hard-earned sweat), and then to the period after the farm closed, when sugarcane gradually disappeared from Erlin (the farm has now, under the plain afforestation policy, become a forest that cannot be approached). The elders' sharing is like a paintbrush, gradually making clear the image of sugarcane planting in the past, and also bearing witness to the century-long rise and fall of the sugar industry.
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