Seven mountain villages in Taiwan struggle with the agricultural ‘progress’ imposed by the outside world.
Article and photos by Fr. Tom Browning

Leisa, an Atayal man, sorted persimmons headed to market.

Then the world came to their mountains, subjugated the people and forced them to play by the rules of the outside world. Their traditional lifestyle collapsed, and the great hunters were forced to become farmers to sustain themselves, to compete with the world.

The hunters’ holy mountains in which they had lived in harmony for centuries now became dollar signs, economic playgrounds subject to the conniving intruders’ abuse.

The intruders cut down the holy mountains’ majestic trees to sell for wood. They forced the great hunters to live on reservations and prohibited them from living their traditional way of life.

The oppressed people then looked at their ravaged mountains—now no longer seen as holy—and they, too, started to see dollar signs. They, too, started slashing and burning. They cleared the land to plant their own “Garden of Eden” that would bring them money.

In the past, this would have been an alien idea, but the intruders had taught them well.

The hunters learned from the intruders that cheating, lying and abusing their mountains were the way to make money, get ahead and sustain a livelihood.

There was no more living in harmony.

Fr. Tom Browning visited with two Atayal women at this marketplace.

When I first arrived in 1990, the major crops were local varieties of plums and tangerines sold by growers in Taiwan’s local markets. Atayals eked out a living selling these fruits, bamboo shoots and ginger roots.

Then, Taiwan was accepted into the international compact called GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in 1994. Nearly overnight, local markets were filled with fruits from California. The Californian plums and tangerines were bigger and better, and everyone bought the imported and improved fruits. Soon, the Atayals could not make enough money from their own fruits to even buy the boxes to put them in.

The Atayals were faced with little household income to sustain their lifestyle. In winter, they could sell ginger root. In the spring, they could still sell bamboo shoots (if it rained enough). The summer and fall were desolate. Their holy mountains lay burnt with no income, no hunting, no culture. Their “Garden of Eden” never bloomed.

It was a hard couple of years. The local farmers’ association was not helpful. It had become a corrupt institution run by intruders, Hakkense businessmen who lived just outside the mountain range.

There, the intruders planted strawberries, and they were only interested in developing this one cash crop. They did not concern themselves with plans to help the Atayals’ agricultural economy.

Since the Atayals had very little flatland, growing strawberries was not an option. The intruders welcomed the lack of competition.

The members of the farmers’ association sat back and lined their pockets with government money that should have gone to help the Atayals.

Until this day, the Atayals continue to fend for themselves with little outside agricultural assistance.

A Short Economic Revival
Then, in the late 1990s, an aboriginal man named Delau Dorieh traveled to Japan to learn about agriculture. There he discovered persimmons that were not like those indigenous to the mountains of Taiwan. They had been genetically engineered so they were bigger and better. He brought them back to Taiwan and started planting.

These fruits sold well in the local markets. But there is a serious debate about the safety of biologically engineered food. There is a legitimate fear that these products, which have been genetically altered, cause risks to human health and the environment.

There is concern that since the fruits have not been thoroughly studied in a controlled environment before being introduced into the natural environment, there could be terrible side effects. Now, the once holy mountains of Taiwan serve as test tubes for these fruits without any safety nets if something goes wrong.

With this new fruit crop at their disposal, the Atayals cut down their tangerine and plum trees and planted the trees that produced biologically engineered persimmons. Their livelihood started to improve and household income increased.

Then on January 1, 2002, Taiwan, along with Mainland China, became a part of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Because of this relationship, the Atayals know they will be inundated with fruits, including persimmons, from Mainland China.

The Atayals do not expect their fruits to survive the competition. They are just waiting to see what happens when that day arrives, but it looks grim. Now people are even planting two types of fruit trees next to each other to see which one will get the better price for their products. Persimmon and peach trees grow side by side.

They also grow genetically engineered custard-apple trees next to biologically engineered persimmon trees. It looks like the holy mountains are mutating.

A Plan Corrupted?
Delau Dorieh is considering the future when the new fruits will not be able to compete with Mainland China. He has an idea to build a small factory to sell the persimmons as dried fruit for cakes and other desserts. He believes he can get the government’s Aboriginal Affairs Department to approve financing for the plan. It will cost a tremendous amount of money.

However, Dorieh fears that as the money travels down the bureaucratic ladder, many officials will line their pockets with the money earmarked for his factory and he will, in the end, not get the money he needs.

He, as all Atayals, is frustrated with the corruption, especially when their own people sell them out.

The aboriginal Atayal people are quickly losing their culture and livelihood to the intruding, nonaborginial world. The Atayal language is slipping from use as younger children speak the language of the intruding Chinese culture. They also must study English, the language of the globalizing world.

Many, then, perceive that the hope for Atayals lies in tourism. There are now many projects started by government agencies and local nonprofit governmental organizations (NGOs) to bring back traditional architecture, crafts, singing and dancing.

The Atayals hope to build their tourism industry as the government now allows Mainland Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan.

Through tourism, it is hoped, the Atayals household income will increase once again. At the same time, they will preserve their traditional lifestyle—if only for show.

Alternative In Jesus
The local Catholic Church’s stance has always been to work with the parishioners of the villages to achieve an authentic revitalization of the people’s culture. The Church insists that preserving one’s culture is not done for financial gain, but for one’s own dignity. It is vital to pass on the Atayal identity to the next generation so it will be secure in its identity and will be able to share their special cultural characteristics with the rest of the world.

The Church is a place of solace from the competing world where we refuse to live by its rules, but by Jesus’ command to love. Within the church, people do not have to compete, but only to care.