Hualien-Taitung Field Survey Camp (Part 1): Rolling Up Our Sleeves to Transform Life in the Rift Valley

Text and photos / Wu Tsu-hua

On Sunday, August 14, in the 100th year of the Republic of China, a summer day under blazing sunshine, I stepped into the Kuo Tzu-chiu Music and Culture Hall in Hualien City, China. The red gate looked like a scene from an old postcard; the rustic Japanese-style building, warm sunlight spilling through the branches and leaves, forming patches of haloed light on the stone-tiled ground, the ceaseless chorus of cicadas, and a black-and-white dog wagging its tail in welcome to me, an abrupt outsider.

Today, a survey camp focused on combining culture and the economy in Hualien will present its findings here.

I took off my canvas shoes and walked into the culture hall. On the cool wooden floor, about twenty young people were divided into three or four groups, gathered around square tables, deep in lively discussion. Participants trickling in greeted one another familiarly. Golden light bathed the whole scene, creating a harmonious atmosphere.

A young man in a yellow T-shirt poked his head out from behind his laptop. Wearing square-framed glasses, he gave me a friendly smile, yet his hands never stopped typing on the keyboard. He was today's interviewee: Pan Hsin-jung.

Pan Hsin-jung, himself a Hualien native, had been deeply interested in Taiwan's public issues since his student days. The Heishuigou Society he joined in university was a club dedicated to exploring social issues and personally taking part in many protest movements. Later, together with like-minded friends, he founded the Taiwan Publicization Association, devoted to the publicization of five basic social needs: the environment, healthcare, education, media and transportation.

Pan Hsin-jung, who had long been stationed in Taipei promoting the publicization of education, now turned his gaze to the picturesque Hualien, for a very simple reason.

A simple idea

"Before 2008, I had always stayed in Taipei. That was when the issue of building the Suhua Highway improvement first came up, and friends asked me to join the protest activities. I'm a Hualien native myself, and I thought I could give back to my hometown what I had learned outside all these years, so I returned to Hualien."

But this urge to do something for his hometown once met with severe skepticism.

"I was doubted by the local folks. They thought, you outsider kids don't care about our livelihoods at all. You just oppose it over environmental issues and the like, without ever really thinking about us."

Pan Hsin-jung said that nearly 70 percent of Hualien residents supported building the Suhua Highway improvement, mainly because of employment. Most residents believed that improving transportation meant a better economy. "We aren't actually completely opposed to the Suhua Highway improvement, but it needs some adjustments, like narrowing the lanes and avoiding excessive land reclamation that affects the environment and population. Facilities like tunnels can still be built, and transportation improvements should also take the environment and culture into account."

"At the time I felt heartbroken, but it also woke us up. To truly help the people of Hualien, we had to think of an economic model better suited to Hualien, rather than building hotels on a grand scale and creating an artificial tourist spot." Pan Hsin-jung said that the Eastern Development Act later proposed by the government claimed it would allocate 40 billion to assist development, but the method was to loosen state ownership of land so that various enterprises wanting to invest could buy it up and build luxury hotels, which would clearly impact the residents living on the land and the environment, and even the existing culture would be affected.

So Pan Hsin-jung and his partners began to think of alternatives, a path that could improve the economy without harming the existing situation.

A small but beautiful economic model

"Promoting a cooperative economy in Hualien and Taitung might be a workable new path." Pan Hsin-jung, answering me, had by then been through the past four days of a fulfilling yet busy survey camp, and though his tone was a little tired, it still carried resolve.

This is also why Pan Hsin-jung joined the Happy Hualien-Taitung Promotion Association, which has held this survey camp many times.

"This may be the economic model best suited to Hualien, because Hualien has its own unique natural environment, socioeconomic conditions and culture, and a small-capital cooperative approach may be the best."

The so-called cooperative economy can be described as a localized economy, like a cooperative, in which all industries within a region combine and help one another, and the surplus ultimately obtained is shared by local residents. It is a sustainable system that emphasizes mutual aid, quite different from a profit-driven economic model, and it does not require sacrificing traditional industries for the sake of employment.

"What it emphasizes most is the spirit of mutual aid," Pan Hsin-jung cited Wang Fu-yu's "King's Vegetable Shop" in Hualien as an example. "The King trades with Han Chinese or Indigenous people alike in a very easygoing way. Just one phone call and he goes to pick up the vegetables, one online order and it ships. It's no trouble at all, and there's no haggling. It not only helps customers eat healthy, delicious local vegetables, but also helps farmers have a more stable source of income."

"Actually in Hualien, some Indigenous people already have this kind of model themselves, like the Kalala tribe we surveyed this time (see the related report). The cooperative economy applies to all industries, and Indigenous tribal culture suits it very well too. Since the Indigenous cooperative economic system itself is currently a bit ahead of us, we hope to understand it through firsthand experience."

This summer, the Cooperative Economy Survey and Production-Marketing Plan Design Camp from August 11 to August 14 was in fact already the fourth survey camp; previous ones were held in 2008 and 2009. "Back then we were still figuring things out. It was starting with this February 2011 camp and this survey camp that we went directly into the tribes and focused on the tribes themselves at their core." Pan Hsin-jung said.

The ultimate goal of the survey camp is to integrate the cooperative economy into a model best suited to Hualien and Taitung, which is why they need to go into the tribes in person, understand the needs and conditions of different tribes, and learn from them.

The importance of property-rights autonomy

The production of all kinds of industries is often affected by market demand or distribution channels, especially for farmers, whose property rights sometimes seem to be controlled by the market or the channels. "Property-rights autonomy is truly important," Pan Hsin-jung said.

"One of the tribes we surveyed this time has already developed a cooperative economy itself. They use communal fields to grow pineapple and share production tools, help one another with labor, and keep the surplus from sales as a public fund for community activities and the next planting. They share costs together and launch their own brand online."

Among these, from production to sales, the most important thing is the distribution channel. If they can have their own sales channel, they can avoid the middleman's cut and need not worry about market trends, and can build their own brand in sales.

"We hope that out of the 40 billion of the Eastern Development Act, some can be allocated to help them create their own brands and expand channels, such as implementing low-interest loans, which can truly help them stand on their own feet."

Doubt and conviction

Having understood and promoted the Hualien-Taitung cooperative economy for nearly four years, Pan Hsin-jung and his colleagues have suffered all kinds of setbacks and doubts. The cooperative economy is a beautiful vision, but it requires long-term planning and management. The same approach does not necessarily suit every case, and some places simply cannot afford losses in cost. However you look at it, it is a path strewn with thorns.

But what has troubled the team most are doubts on an emotional level.

"Some people say, aren't we being disrespectful, even destroying the tribes' subjectivity? Why not let the Indigenous people protest on their own initiative? Others think what we do is a kind of charity."

Pan Hsin-jung said that today's Indigenous work forms are mainly of two kinds: one is going to the city to work as a waiter in a hotel for a salary, and the other is relying on government subsidies to open a small shop, which may then face the fate of closing down.

"Why can't there be a third choice, one that directly helps them themselves, without having to give up their original way of life, and without relying on hotels, enterprises or the government to give them job opportunities?"

"Society is in fact built on mutual aid. If we had all struggled on our own from the start without helping one another, then of course we could say we don't care whether they live or die. But haven't all of us received help from one another?"

Pan Hsin-jung believes that social development comes from mutual assistance. The purpose of the survey camp and of promoting the cooperative economy is not to force Hualien-Taitung residents to accept it, still less to say they are incapable, but through the survey camp to bring them knowledge they do not yet have, so they can know and consider whether there are other choices. Everything respects the other party's decision. But without ever having tried to make contact, there is no opportunity for change.

"Sometimes, it's actually the opposite," he said. "We think we are bringing knowledge and methods to them, but sometimes it turns out they are the ones teaching us."

The Happy Hualien-Taitung Association's survey camp is still a fledgling approach to promoting the cooperative economy. Only after actual experience can one know whether effective suggestions can be made for the local area. The camp's members come from all directions and all walks of life. Some students are veterans of related issues, some are novices, and this does nothing to diminish their enthusiasm. Even just going into the tribes in person, they learned many things that cannot be expressed in words.

"I hope our members, after going through the camp, can bring their own friends to the tribes too, and invite more people to understand and love Hualien."

Pan Hsin-jung believes that taking the initiative to understand and experience, while maintaining a heart that helps yet respects, is the only way to untie the knot of distrust that Hualien-Taitung people feel toward outsiders, and the only way it can become the cornerstone of change. From Pan Hsin-jung's words and his shining eyes, I know that this is the spirit of the survey camp and the cooperative economy.

The survey camp's presentation

This survey camp ran from August 11 to August 14, 2011. On the first day, the fifteen students took a learning course to understand what the cooperative economy is and why a cooperative economy is essential, as well as survey techniques and points to note.

On the second and third days they actually visited the tribes, experiencing firsthand and understanding the tribes' environment and current economic model; on the last day they gathered at the Kuo Tzu-chiu Memorial Hall to share these two days of tribal life and propose ways to improve the tribe's current state. If a good plan was put forward, cooperation with the tribe could be considered, promoting a plan proposed by the group. Each group had fifteen minutes, and "King" Wang Fu-yu of "King's Vegetable Shop" and Sister Hsiu-mei of "A-jhih-bao Handmade Studio" were invited to watch the presentations and offer suggestions.


Happy Hualien-Taitung Promotion Association official website
Taiwan Publicization Association official website
Kuo Tzu-chiu Music and Culture Hall official website

Hualien-Taitung Survey Camp: Rolling Up Our Sleeves, Transforming Life in the Rift Valley
Hongye Dahdah: A Tribe Just Starting Out
Kalala: The Beautiful Hometown of Baskets
Ci-lakai-yan  A Tribe That Fights On Despite Repeated Setbacks