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| A Case of Community Industry in Taiwan |
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Hwang, Shyh-Huei
Associate Professor, Department of Creative Design, NYUST
1. Prologue
The earthquake happened in 21st, Sep. 1999 has brought not only terrible damages but also some opportunities in country communities.
When we consider the term ˇ§local industryˇ¨ sometimes they mean private industries that situated in local areas, but sometimes they means collaborative industries which belong to non-profit organization in local areas. The fact in Taiwan is both of the above situations exist really.
People who have been carrying the experiences of earthquake may come out of a kind of psychological attitude to help each other. It is one of the reason why many NPO community industries born after 921 earthquake.
2. Local Industries in Taiwan
There are so many local industries in Taiwan. Not only Taiwan but also most other countries, local industries take the highest percentage in every country's industries. But, why we have to discuss the local industries here? There are at least three reasons. Firstly, local industry is the economic basis of local areas; Secondly, local industry often afford work opportunity for local people, and the failure of local industries will bring us social problems; Lastly, the local industries built by NPO provide economic force and welfare simultaneously.
Taking the Nantou county as example, we can find plant-dyed goods in Zhong-Liau town, bamboo culture zone in Zhu-Shan town, black tea in Yu-Chih town ˇK etc.
Most of the local industries created after 921 earthquakes in Nantou appears some characteristic as below.
a. Women play important roles in the community industries.
b. Ecology and organic farming are welcome in the community industries.
c. Not only commerce but also welfare is considered in the community industries.
d. They have been received help and grant from government.
3. Case Study of the Forest Black Tea
3.1 The history of black tea in Yu-Chih town
It seems that nobody knows what time the black tea started cultivating in Taiwan, but the elder people reported that in 1925, Japanese bring the black tea plants to Taiwan. And some elders said that black tea in Yu-Chih had been very famous in the world. In the 1990s' black tea were produced too much, no more a valuable products.
When we went to see the agriculture of Da-Yan village, belonging to Yu-Chih town, we found that the whole black tea industry kept on declining.
3.2 Regeneration of black tea
After 921 earthquakes, government decided to help the reconstruction areas. One of the planning held by Council of Labor Affairs is to provide salary to local people who lost his job and would like to work for community. This strategy has changed its name every year but continued till now.
Da-Yan village has used many helping plans from different institutions to rebuild its community, including expanding the circle road, building ceramic workshop, fixing mountain climbing road, developing organic vegetables, and regenerating black tea industry.
When we went there and start our work of regeneration, we found that the black tea field has lots of betel nut trees. Because the price of black tea was too low to cultivate, farmers grow other economic crops to make more money.
But part of the black tea farmers still remember the good old time when black tea was so famous and valuable. Then they decided restarting hand made black tea. It is not difficult to restart cultivating and making black tea, but not easy to sell.
Maybe the reconstruction areas are quite attractive for normal town, many people pay attention to the black tea of Yu-Chih town. Right now black tea has become the most famous products in Yu-Chih town. Some of the black teas own their brands. According to the homepages of ˇ§Taiwan one town one productˇ¨, there are six brands in Yu-Chih town, that are Forest Black Tea, She-Shuei Black Tea, He-Guo Black Tea, Swollens Mouse Tea, Flavor Tea Road No.40, and Awan Master Tea. It seems that the black tea has been regenerated this time.
3.3 Collision between two small areas
There are at least three small areas exist in the Da-Yan Village. The small area A got together soon after earthquakes, so, many government's helping plans selected A to investigate, and every time area A got the chance, the residents work very hard on it.
For the sake of residents' good response, the Civil Service such as Small & Medium Enterprise Administration (SMEA), Council for Cultural Affairs, Soil & Water Conservation BureauˇK etc. were willing to give area A new planning.
On the contrary, area B did not get any helping plan in two years after 921 earthquakes. Once a time in 2001 year, the Medium Enterprise Administration selected Da-Yan village, especially area A, as one of the Local Characteristic Industry Project. The project has changed its English name lately as One Town One Product Project at present. According to this project, SMEA gave over one million NT to build a tea workshop, but because no one could provide land in area A, finally the workshop was built in area B. This is the beginning of collision between two areas.
The production and regeneration of black tea is not only happened in Da-Yan village but also other villages in Yu-Chih town. There are at least six brands exist in Yu-Chih town, this situation makes Yu-Chih town becomes the most famous source of black tea, even in the homepage of Yu-Chih town we can find the black tea introduced by town mayor.
4. Conclusion
Taiwan government has prompted culture industry many years since 1994, the year community empowerment movement started. People in Taiwan turn to understand the importance of their community resource, and try to treat the resource carefully. The regeneration of black tea is only one small case of the whole trend. But, we can learn many things from this case.
Firstly, even facing the impact of WTO, agriculture with characteristic like black tea still can find its way of development. Secondly, the primary reasons why black tea lost its market in 1950s are cost jump and quality down, and the same fears are still exit today. If black tea farmers do not take care, the history of decline may happen again easily. Thirdly, the One Town One Product Project encourages farmers to have their own brand. This makes their products more reliable, and makes the farmers more confident. Fourthly, although there was collision happened between two areas in the case mentioned above, but competition will enhance the quality, and the future collaboration is always possible. Fifthly, the black tea industries in Da-Yan village are not only a commercial work but also a welfare work, because the chain of production, sale, income and community activity take care the old farmers' finance and heart.
Reference
1. Homepage of Taiwan one town one product: http://otop.moeasmea.gov.tw/v3/quickSearch.php?qsCity=M&qsTown=555&qsChannel=goods&qsCategory=, 2006/8/20
2. Homepage of Yu-Chih town: http://www.yuchih.gov.tw/, 2006/8/20
3. Hwang, Shyh-Huei, 2004, The development and difficult situation of reconstruction areas (written in Chinese), Symposium of community empowerment in 921 reconstruction areas.
4. Hwang, Shyh-Huei, 2001, The concept and mechanism of endogenous community empowerment (written in Chinese), Architecture information press.
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