Young returnees in Qishan rap the Great Compassion Mantra to oppose the demolition of a century-old temple
Listening to rock music on the beach is nothing unusual, but a temple hosting a concert? In 2008, a group of young people from Qishan in Kaohsiung returned home for Chinese New Year and found there was nowhere in Qishan to hold activities, so on a whim they grabbed a soapbox and started a community karaoke. Over five years it grew into the "Qishan Rock" rock music festival. Last year word came out that the Kaohsiung City Government planned to demolish the locally century-old Taiping Temple, so the local band "Taiqingjiao" (Taiwan Green Banana) reworked Buddhist hymns into blues and rapped the Great Compassion Mantra, and together with nine other bands they took the stage at the open-air stage in the Taiping Temple square on Saturday, inviting everyone to join in protecting the memory of Qishan.
Marketing the place: returning youth hold a grassroots concert
Besides listening to rock music, visitors may want to set aside some time to experience the fun of banana picking in Qishan. The year before last, the Taiqingjiao team launched a banana tree adoption program: for 3,000 yuan a year, you get a banana tree bearing your own name, plus pesticide-free bananas carefully irrigated by local youth, and bonus Taiqingjiao cultural and creative merchandise.
Qishan prospered because of bananas, and declined because of bananas. In recent years many young people have returned home to do community building, yet talent still slips away. Wang Chi-wei thought to himself: "If you want to persuade others to stay, you have to persuade yourself first." So he led by example and plunged in to grow bananas. Because he uses a grass-based cultivation method, the elders teased him that he was "feeding fertilizer to the weeds." It was both infuriating and funny, but he says optimistically that at least it shows the elders are paying attention. "If our pesticide- and fertilizer-free bananas sell better than theirs, they will want to follow our example too."
More than three years after returning home, Wang Chi-wei, in his early 30s, says agriculture is a highly valuable industry, but it needs a different language. At first he just wanted to market local produce, but after diving in he found that was not enough. In recent years he has combined community building with music and cultural creativity, hoping to bring a new atmosphere to Qishan and let those who have left use bananas to find their way home.
Event date and time: 02/15 (Sat) 12:00~21:00
Event location: Taiping Temple, Qishan
Event address: Taiping Temple beside Zhongzheng Road, Qishan District, Kaohsiung City
Event phone: 07-6611451
Event contact: Lao Wang
Event website: http://cishanrock.blogspot.tw/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/QishanRock