A young man from Nanzhuang, as a smallholder farmer blending ethnic cultures, founded the Leinu Grain Shop
Legend has it that long ago, the Saisiyat people lived by hunting and gathering wild vegetables. The Thunder God could not bear to see them live in such hardship, so he sent his daughter Waoen down to the mortal world to teach the Saisiyat how to grow millet, and from then on the people no longer had to worry about where their next meal would come from.
In 2013, Huang Shih-hsiu, a young man from Nanzhuang in Miaoli, returned to his hometown to farm, following in the footsteps of the Thunder Maiden. But he is not Saisiyat; he is a Hakka born and raised there. To tell the story of the local culture formed by the blending of Nanzhuang's Hakka, Saisiyat and Atayal peoples, he and a group of friends opened "Thunder Maiden Grain Shop," selling not only good rice and tangerines from small farmers, but also inviting a Saisiyat mythology expert to recount the 4-hundred-year history of hardship and toil in reclaiming the wilderness.
A young farmer returns home to grow tangerines, unafraid even if wild boars eat them all
In the future, Huang Shih-hsiu will combine this with farm experiences: pick fruit in the morning, eat vegetables he grew himself at home at noon, and in the afternoon come listen to stories. Li Chen-chun believes that nowadays old streets all over Taiwan look much the same, having lost their local cultural meaning. "Thunder Maiden Grain Shop" is a window; besides selling things and listening to stories, in the future they hope even more to bring people into the tribe and develop a cultural character that belongs to the local area.
At present the "Thunder Maiden Grain Shop" team has four people in total and is only open on Saturdays and Sundays; the rest of the time "the boss has to go up the mountain to farm." Huang Shih-hsiu says that later he hopes to build a sales platform integrating Nanzhuang, Sanwan, Toufen and other townships across Miaoli to jointly sell environmentally friendly agricultural products and restore a farming model of harmonious coexistence with nature.
Thunder Maiden Grain Shop address: No. 24, Zhongshan Road, Xi Village, Nanzhuang Township, Miaoli County (near the Pumpkin Story House)
(This article was funded by the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation for personnel expenses, but the foundation does not interfere at all with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring journalistic independence.)