An Interview with Brother Chen Weirun: Returning to My Roots Is My Answer

The well-known saying "Guilin's scenery is the finest under heaven" refers to the city of Guilin in China, but what many people do not know is that Taiwan also has a Guilin Village, located in Gukeng Township, and its scenery is no less beautiful than that of Guilin, China. If Guilin in China is the finest under heaven, why can't Guilin in Taiwan be the finest in Taiwan?

Guilin in Taiwan has blue skies and white clouds that set off the bamboo groves and tea trees, and negative ions that rival the phytoncides. "Bamboo groves everywhere" describes precisely Gukeng's Guilin. In the past, Guilin's bamboo output was extremely abundant; in its heyday, the bamboo industry there could supply nearly one third of Taiwan's total production. In recent years, with the promotion of Gukeng coffee, the Guilin community has also become the community with the densest coffee production in Yunlin County.

Having visited the Guilin community many times, the things that make us stop and linger are actually simple little spots: the plain three-sided courtyard houses, the abandoned pigsties, the narrow alleys, the spectacular stone walls, and so on. This trip to Guilin was the same: we stopped outside a simple pigsty and discussed its structure, while a colleague explained the pig feed trough made with chiseled-stone technique and the outer wall enclosed with masonry technique. Although there were long since no piglets in the pigsty and the stone wall was covered with moss, the outline of the pigsty was still very structurally intact.

While we were chatting, the owner of the house, who was watering flowers in the distance, heard us talking and came over. He is Chen Weirun, a man approaching sixty but still full of energy. After a simple greeting, he began to show us around his courtyard, starting with the pigsty. It turned out that this seemingly simple pigsty was at least a hundred years old; it was built when the Chen family ancestors settled here. When he was a child, pigs were still raised there, and after the piglets were sold, it had been left idle until now.

After the interview ended, we said goodbye to Brother Chen and, with the satisfaction of having learned a lesson, reluctantly left the Guilin community. Blue skies and white clouds, accompanied by the warm afternoon sun and clean, fresh air: this is Guilin, Taiwan's Guilin, a Guilin with fine mountains, fine waters and wonderfully fresh air, a good place that makes people want to stay for a lifetime.

#Noah Cultural and Creative reported