The Sweet Taste of Peaches: Alternative Service Men and the Miraculous Summer of Smangus

"The person who originally brought everyone to this piece of land was called Smangus; transliterated, that is Smangus. One tribe was split into two, gazing at each other across the valley, and they decided to name their tribe after this warrior. Later the Han Chinese came, transportation developed, and a road was cut between the valleys. At that point a problem arose: how were two tribes with the same name supposed to tell each other apart? The clever Han Chinese renamed the tribe on this side of the valley 'Xinguang' tribe, but the locals still preferred their own original name, so to tell the difference they privately called themselves 'Smangus.' Lai Dingjun went to great lengths to explain to me the bumpy naming history of the Tayal Xinguang tribe.

"So there really are two kinds of Smangus," I said, and Lai Dingjun laughed and said, "Right, there really are!"

We chatted leaning against a corner of the school, the outdoor temperature was 20 degrees, I spread an excessive amount of peach jam on the toast, and glistening bits of peach fruit lay one by one on the soft white toast. As I listened to the story, I marveled: this jam tastes so good!

This is the staff kitchen of Xinguang Elementary School, used as a jam factory during the summer vacation. Outside the window is the beautiful campus of Xinguang Elementary School, a filming location for many well-known commercials. In the kitchen, several indigenous women and youths were busy making jam. Indigenous children were playing on the playground, and from time to time they shouted through the window, "Dingjun, come out and play!"

The Story of the Oldest-Looking Conscript Going Up the Mountain