Rural Grassroots Field Research Anthology: Walking the Fields, Recording Farming Villages, 2011 Summer Cultivation Publication Subscription

What do "rural village" and "fishing village" mean?

For Taiwan's "post-80s" youth, growing up under a mainstream ideology in which "farming" is demeaned or distorted, some say we are the "generation detached from farming." Yet no one can be separated from the land, the lifeline that nurtures body and culture; people and "farming" interlock their lives in various forms, whether intentionally or not.

With this understanding, we consciously set out on a process of understanding whose road we did not know where it would lead, to "return to" or "walk into" Taiwan's farming and fishing villages. The journey formally began in 2009, and in the summer of 2011 we visited Meinong in Kaohsiung; the Dazhaiyuan Friendly Smallholder Market and Xingjian Organic Village in Yilan; the Puyu Project area in Zhubei; Dananpu in Miaoli; Dapu in Zhunan; Atayal tribal villages along the Daan River in Taichung; Qubing tribe in Nantou; Taixi and Lunbei in Yunlin; and Xizhou in Changhua. Within the social context of contemporary Taiwan, we re-examine the features and textures of farming and fishing villages. This is a journey of continuous construction and deconstruction, constantly in dialectic with the self and with society; the road is long, yet we hope to walk it deeply.

The "Summer Cultivation Rural Grassroots Field Research Anthology" is a record and miscellany of writings from along the way. Perhaps the writing is not yet mature, sometimes no more than murmurs; yet step by step we develop a structural discussion of Taiwan's farming and fishing villages, and also try to sort through the thoughts stirred along the way, these precious and real experiences.

.Contents

[Preface] The Road Toward Solidity / Cai Peihui (Taiwan Rural Front)

Are You Short of Labor? Understanding Rural Social Transformation from the Perspective of Agricultural Labor - Meinong, Kaohsiung Field Research

Visiting Xingjian Organic Village and Dazhaiyuan Friendly Smallholder Market in Yilan

[Thematic Commentary] Pulled Up, Replanted in Soil: Yilan and Meinong / Cai Yanlin (Institute of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, NYCU)

Field Research Notes on the Xizhou Irrigation Canals

Visiting the People of the Sea Under the Sunset - Taixi, Yunlin Field Research

[Thematic Commentary] Commentary on Taixi & Xizhou Field Research - Zhu Shujuan (Environmental Reporting)

Roots - Lunbei, Yunlin Field Research

[Thematic Commentary] Making Peace with the Land - A Brief Review of the 2011 Tunghai Changqing Lunbei Field Research Action / Xu Boren (Taiwan Rural Front)

Sweet Persimmon. Bale - Field Research on Sweet Persimmons Along the Daan River in Taichung

Household Livelihood Structure and Crop Survey of the Qubing Tribe

[Thematic Commentary] New Paths for Tribal Work Seen from Agricultural Production and Marketing / Huang Yinghao (Shengeng Demawen Association)

Traveling with Vegetables: The Change and Continuation of the Smallholder Economy in Dananpu, Miaoli

[Thematic Commentary] Staple and Non-Staple Food - A Rough Response to Gender Roles, Production Space and Observations of Production and Marketing / Wen Zhongliang (Meinong Rural Field Society)

Observation Notes on Land Expropriation in Dapu, Zhunan

A Truly Unpolished Jade - Overview of the Puyu Project Area in Zhubei and Personal Experience

[Thematic Commentary] Looking Forward to a Taiwan Farmers Survey / Zhuang Fengjia (Newtalk)

[Comprehensive Commentary] In Action, We See the Future / Li Dingzan (College of Humanities and Social Sciences, NTHU)

[Comprehensive Commentary] The Rural Village as a Standpoint for Cultural Criticism / Lin Xiuxing (Institute of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, NYCU)

[Editor's Afterword] Summer Cultivation, Embarking on an Odyssey of "Slow Revolution" / Chen Ying'en (Executive Editor, 2011 Summer Cultivation Anthology)

Price: 350 yuan

ISBN: 978-986-03-3041-0

To order, please visit the Taiwan Rural Front website: http://www.taiwanruralfront.org/node/158

"On the abandoned land, we awaken";

Get our feet wet, and walk the road toward solidity

-- This book is dedicated to Taiwan's rural villages and farmers, and to all rural activists who have set out on their way