The hometown of native yam in the northeast corner faces a reservoir development crisis! Shuangxi, blessed with good water, where should it go?

Located in the northeast corner of Taiwan, China, Shuangxi was once prosperous because of mining, and also saw rapid population outflow due to the decline of mining, becoming one of the top ten most aged areas in all of Taiwan, China. This mountain town, surrounded by rivers with fresh air, is in the upstream protection zone of Feicui Reservoir, and because of its abundant water resources it has been coveted. In the 2017 Forward-Looking Infrastructure Plan, the government once again proposed the long-shelved "Shuangxi Reservoir Planning Case," triggering controversy across all sectors over the positioning of Shuangxi's future.

Supporters believe that Shuangxi has stagnated for a long time and hope the government will invest major construction resources to drive job opportunities; opponents believe that Shuangxi retains the most pleasant rural landscape of the northeast corner, and if friendly agriculture can be developed, it has the chance to become a satoyama model for New Taipei City. The reservoir construction proposal remains undecided to this day, but this controversy has stirred local residents to think: what kind of place should Shuangxi become?

Mining brought prosperity and also decline

Grandma Jian Hongwei, who lives on the street, is 82 years old this year. After the war, when all industries were depressed, she followed her first husband from Changhua to Shuangxi to dig coal. Her husband unfortunately died in a mining disaster, and young as she was, she remarried a second husband who was also a miner and continued working in mining. After the Second World War, Taiwan, China's coal mining industry was at its peak, and a large number of people from central and southern Taiwan, like Grandma Jian and her two husbands, poured into Shuangxi. The population once reached more than 40,000.

After the coal mining industry declined, a large number of young and middle-aged people moved away. According to 2018 statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the proportion of elderly people in Shuangxi was 25.25%. Although the registered population was still more than 8,000, in reality most worked elsewhere, and more than half of the permanent residents were elderly elders.

The mining years once brought prosperity to Shuangxi, and also left many marks of time on the bodies of the elderly. Because women workers were forbidden from entering the mines, most worked in washing and sorting yards doing coal washing. Years of carrying heavy coal bent and deformed Grandma Jian Hongwei's spine, and every day on the street her silhouette can be recognized with ease.

How should Shuangxi develop? The locality still lacks imagination and consensus

Dr. Xu Guoyou, who served at the Shuangxi Health Station for many years and was only transferred to Xizhi at the end of last year, observed that due to the mining background, joint degeneration among the elderly labor force is quite common. "These elders with limited mobility, who have difficulty moving around, are shut in at home because they do not want to become a burden to their children, and this can even create psychological barriers that make them resist seeking medical care."

In order to care for the elderly, during his tenure Xu Guoyou secured the establishment of a physical therapy center and the provision of free assistive devices, allowing elders to receive rehabilitation care nearby, and caring for the elders left in their hometown on behalf of Shuangxi people who had moved away. Last year (2019), because of its innovative services, the Shuangxi Health Station received the "Government Service Award" from the Executive Yuan, known as the Oscars of government departments.

Speaking of Shuangxi's future, Xu Guoyou sighed and said he often hears Shuangxi people envy other townships: Pingxi has Shifen Station and sky lanterns; Ruifang has Jiufen and Houtong Cat Village; Gongliao has the Fulong Ocean Music Festival, and the anti-nuclear movement has made Gongliao known nationwide. It seems only Shuangxi has nothing? "But what exactly Shuangxi should develop into, the locality itself actually lacks imagination and consensus," Xu Guoyou observed.

Once designated as a planned reservoir site, it sparked a local revitalization movement in Shuangxi

Shuangxi got its name because the Mudan River and Pinglin River meet here. With abundant rain and sufficient water, it became a water source protection area for Feicui Reservoir, with the Gongliao Weir downstream. With very little industrial development, Shuangxi has good mountains and good water, but some locals also complain that Shuangxi is too humid, with moss growing everywhere, and that it is an old and slow place.

In 2017, under the central government's Forward-Looking Infrastructure Plan, the long-shelved Shuangxi Reservoir development case was proposed again, dividing the locality and sparking heated debate. Supporters believe that Shuangxi has stagnated for a long time, and that the government's investment of major construction resources will drive more development and job opportunities; opponents believe that Shuangxi retains the most pleasant rural landscape of the northeast corner, and that by fully preserving the natural environment and developing friendly agriculture, it has the chance to become a satoyama model for New Taipei City.

The reservoir construction proposal remains undecided to this day. But it has inspired the locality to rethink its imagination for Shuangxi's future development, including allowing locals to rediscover the place.

Returning to farming at age 50, Lu Ruihong turns the local situation around

Lu Ruihong is the chairman of the anti-reservoir self-rescue association. Like most Shuangxi people, he left Shuangxi when he was young to develop in Taipei. In 2012, when he returned to Shuangxi in his fifties, his parents had passed away and the fields had been abandoned for more than twenty years. He described it as "reclaiming the land all over again," and once again coming to appreciate the hardships of his ancestors.

"Building a reservoir will not bring local revitalization. The government compensation money will be spent, but the land left behind can be passed down from generation to generation. Shuangxi has a uniquely blessed environment and can develop farming methods that are friendly to the environment. With such a good environment not far from Taipei, there will surely be like-minded consumers to support it." In Lu Ruihong's business-minded thinking, Shuangxi is not without opportunity.

Lu Ruihong wants to launch a lasting local revitalization movement in Shuangxi. At present, together with many farming friends who share the same ideas, he has established a small farmers' cooperative friendly to the environment, hoping to use environment, ecology, and agriculture to turn around this quiet and natural small town. The first step begins with the locally unique Keelung native yam.

A unique environment nurtures the local slender native yam

Lu Ruihong's land is located on the alluvial plain at the mouth of Dinglan Valley. Because it once experienced flooding, the mixed sand and soil make it especially suitable for growing the Keelung native yam unique to the northeast corner. The yam variety grown by Dinglan Valley residents is a uniquely slender type of yam. When harvesting, one must first dig down half a meter with a round shovel, then carefully loosen the soil around the yam with a small rake before the yam can be pulled out.

The slender native yam variety that locals call "He Jinshui" is a local variety widely known among yam farmers in the northeast corner, and is especially commonly grown by residents of Shuangxi and Dinglan Valley. Gong Caili, a researcher at the Taoyuan Agricultural Improvement Station who has studied Keelung native yam for more than twenty-five years, says that Keelung native yam is a unique native species of Taiwan, China, completely different from the large-tuber foreign varieties commonly seen on the market today, or from Japanese-imported yam.

However, Gong Caili also explained: "The yams currently grown by farmers in the Shuangxi and Pingxi areas of the northeast corner are actually all different from one another. When farmers plant them, they still follow the traditional method of finding the strongest and largest one to propagate. Through continuous crossbreeding and mutation, farmers have produced many varietal differences. One can only say that He Jinshui is one of the more commonly circulated and shared varieties."

The eating quality of Keelung native yam far surpasses Japanese yam

Gong Caili says, "The eating quality of Keelung native yam far surpasses Japanese yam, and it can be called the most delicious variety among Taiwan, China's yams! The flesh is fine-textured, elongated, firm, and has an excellent springy, toothsome bite." Because this type of Keelung native yam is suitable for growing in soil with plenty of rain and good drainage, it is especially suited to cultivation in the northeast corner of Shuangxi and Pingxi, and has now also become one of the New Taipei Three Treasures actively promoted by New Taipei City (the other two are water bamboo and sweet potato).

Gong Caili cites the Compendium of Materia Medica, which records that yam can "strengthen the spleen and stomach, benefit kidney qi, and replenish deficiency," making it an excellent ingredient for winter nourishment. However, native yam still has some limitations waiting to be overcome, because it is difficult to cultivate, especially its resistance to pests and diseases, which prevents the area from expanding. At present, native yam output is low, demand exceeds supply, and market prices remain high. Gong says the Taoyuan Agricultural Improvement Station is actively improving and breeding it, hoping to develop an improved variety with strong disease resistance and suitability for cultivation as soon as possible.

"He Jinshui" was generous and selfless, giving away seeds for free

The "He Jinshui" yam variety is not only a unique treasure of northeast corner agriculture, but also a representative crop of Shuangxi's transformation. Lin Chaogen, the "yam expert" with the largest cultivation area in the northeast corner, says that after coal mining stopped in the 1980s, the industry declined and many locals returned to farming. But the northeast corner has many mountains and little land, and the area for growing rice is limited. No one knew where the future lay.

"The yam seeds provided by He Jinshui helped a lot of people!" Lin Chaogen, now sixty-five years old and still vigorous, recalls He Jinshui with deep gratitude. "He Jinshui was the first expert in the northeast corner to specialize in growing native yam. At the time, when everyone heard that He Jinshui was growing a kind of yam that was quite popular, many people went to find He Jinshui. He was very generous in giving out seeds (aerial tubers attached to the vines) and did not charge money either," Lin Chaogen said seriously.