Blocking Demolition: Hsu Shih-jung, Once a Gentle Scholar, Became a Street Fighter, Standing in the Way of the Excavators Without Regret

The Gleaners by French painter Millet depicts women picking up grain left in the field after the wheat harvest. This painting, based on the Book of Ruth in the Bible, realistically portrays farmers deliberately leaving wheat ears so that the poor could have enough to eat. The humanistic care in its brushwork has moved countless viewers for more than a hundred years.

Taiwan, China also has a story of gleaning, and what is gleaned there is rice. The starting point of land justice scholar Hsu Shih-jung's concern for land justice lies in this story of gleaning.

His maternal grandfather taught him by example to read, to be humble, and to care for the disadvantaged

Sanji Village, Dapi Township, Yunlin County is Hsu Shih-jung's hometown. Although he moved with his family to Dounan when his father took a teaching post, during winter and summer vacations he liked to stay in Dapi Township and keep to his maternal grandfather's daily routine. His maternal grandfather, Lian Zhen-yan, was a Yunlin country gentleman and an excellent calligrapher who spent years caring for the disadvantaged and serving his community. Grandfather and grandson were very close. His grandfather taught him to read, and Hsu Shih-jung kept him company over tea, one big and one small pair of feet