Wheat reappears after 50 years, first wheat field planted in Mailiao

Yunlin County is a major agricultural county in Taiwan, China, but the coastal township of Mailiao is known for industry. The Sixth Naphtha Cracker Industrial Zone offshore is like an empire where the sun never sets, its lights burning all day and white smoke rising in curls. In such an industrialized environment, people almost forget that the two characters of Mailiao actually have a deep connection with wheat.

"It was called Mailiao because large amounts of wheat were planted here in the early days," explained Guo Huichan of Beneath the Moonlight Friendly Farm as she drove. Since the Qing Dynasty, Mailiao had been a major producer of wheat and barley. Local farmers specially built sheds beside the boat landing to store the wheat they transported, and that is how Mailiao got its name. Because large quantities of low-priced wheat were imported after the war, the economic returns from growing wheat were no longer as good as before, so after one rice crop the locals switched to peanuts. "Only later did no one in Mailiao grow wheat anymore."

Looking at the street lamps decorated with wheat on both sides of the road, yet seeing no wheat fields at all, sparked Guo Huichan's curiosity. She and a group of passionate local young people tried to revive wheat cultivation last year. After 50 years apart, real wheat fields grew again on the land of Mailiao. "Wheat is a kind of spiritual symbol. This is not something we invented; it can be considered our roots," said Wu Ziwei, head of Maifeng Village, who took part in the effort.