Zengwen Reservoir Through the Eyes of Dapu Locals: Rural Rebirth After the Glitter Fades
Driving north along the Provincial Highway 3 from Yujing District and Nanxi District in Tainan City, winding through the mountains, after crossing the county and city border into Chiayi County, the first township you come upon is Dapu. This is a simple rural town not yet too ravaged by the footsteps of modernization; the pace of life for residents is very slow, so slow that we city kids even dazedly wondered whether time had simply stopped here.
Dapu is a land nestled against mountains and beside water, so beautiful it stirs a sense of serene longing. The mountains that embrace it are the Alishan Range, and the water it holds is Taiwan's largest reservoir: Zengwen Reservoir. After Zengwen Reservoir was completed in 1973 CE (Republic of China year 62) under the leadership of the Nationalist government, a total of 636 jia of land across the township was submerged, and the number of original households in the submerged area was 718 households, with a population of 3,087 people. Because the original Dapu Creek valley plain was submerged by the reservoir, agricultural development was limited, and Dapu residents shifted to tourism as their main development focus, while the Zengwen Reservoir scenic area also became an important tourism resource.
All these people and events above truly happened on this land of Taiwan, in places that some city dwellers may find hard to imagine yet that unquestionably exist. There is a group of simple people, in a simple village, with a simple heart, doing some simple things; that is their life, their experience, their memory, and their history.
If you have ever ridden a motorcycle on a sweltering June afternoon in midsummer, racing along Provincial Highway 3 just washed by heavy rain, heading north from Tainan City toward Chiayi County, you will notice wave after wave of water vapor curling and rising from the asphalt because of the rain's cooling, gently lining the road as if welcoming you; then, looking at the Zengwen Reservoir shrouded in mist with dark clouds about to scatter but not yet dispersed, on the lake surface floats one, just that one lonely fishing raft, and on the raft is an old man wearing a bamboo hat, with his resolute and simple silhouette. This is Dapu, a Taiwan satoyama that is surely worth you exploring and visiting in this lifetime. This is the most beautiful, most selfless treasure Taiwan possesses, one that has always silently watched over the people living on this land: "Our mountains and sea."
Video viewing: The Dapu Story
Zengwen Reservoir and the Vision Imagined for the Dapu Community
Comprehensive Discussion of the Zengwen Creek Watershed & Planning and Practice of the Satoyama and Satoumi Approach
Text authored and video produced by: Li Pinyi (Shi Mingdi), Chen Yajun, Huang Yuxuan, Zheng Zhiyuan, Lin Boqian, Chen Shizhen, Li Wei, Hong Yixiu, Wu Xianglong
Copyright owned by: Professor Lin Chaocheng, Department of Chinese Literature, National Cheng Kung University
For more articles, please see Zengwen Creek Watershed Co-Learning Community