Co-organized by NCCU’s “Satoyama Initiative for Urban-Adjacent Areas,” the “Taipei Tea Road Social-Enterprise Incubation Project,” and the Agricultural Technology Research Institute, the forum Exploring Diverse Approaches to Local Revitalization was held on 17 December 2022. Local-development practitioners from around Taiwan joined the discussion. The morning session—moderated by Professor Dung- Sheng Chen (Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University) and titled “Entering Communities: Multiple Perspectives on Local Issues”—featured the following case studies:

“Puli, Nantou” — Guli Cooperative · Wu Tsung-Tse

Speaking on “Entering the Field and Becoming Local,” Wu Tsung-Tse, CEO of Guli Cooperative, noted that although his team consists of non-local youth, they have made the land their life’s work, growing rice and corn. Guided by the Hokkien idea of siang-pang-pan (mutual aid), they focus on rural issues and youth return.

Guli uses food as a bridge: sharing meals and tracing ingredient sources builds networks among producers and neighbors. Beyond processing rice products, the co-op tackles space issues—offering young people office and living quarters through work-exchange or rental—and activates community venues with diverse events that spark discussion.

Wu stresses that residents and everyday social groups are the true “local” subjects; cultivating a sense of place is essential. Guli encourages townspeople to use long-term field data, develop problem awareness, and act.

Today the co-op offers culture-based tours, a winter-solstice rice-ball festival, a podcast channel, and a work-exchange farming program—using information and data to involve locals and outsiders in multifaceted revitalization.

“Fonglin, Hualien” — Fonglin Tingshou Project · Pan Wen-Chin

Project lead Pan Wen-Chin shared his deep engagement with Fonglin and how the Tingshou Project took shape. Borrowing the Hakka idea of “helping hands,” the project builds unpaid, mutual-aid schemes among locals. Team members all juggle multiple roles—befitting Fonglin’s designation as Taiwan’s first “Cittaslow” town.

While the slow pace attracts retirees, a high dependency ratio can dampen youth participation. Yet surveys show many independent studios, and young migrants also settle here, giving Fonglin demographic resilience and unique potential.

Through workshops, the project explores newcomers’ challenges—loneliness, climate adjustment, daily inconveniences—and fosters dialogue between migrants and long-term residents. To draw young locals, the team launched the community journal Mei-Fong You-Yueh, each issue tackling a theme (one focused on newcomers) and spawning spin-offs like street-mural classes.

Vacant houses—caused by industrial change and migration—are the next hurdle; the team is negotiating with government and NGOs to turn empty homes into opportunities for returning or incoming youth.

“Nanzhuang, Miaoli” — Geng-Shan Agriventure · Chiu Hsing-Wei

Founder Chiu Hsing-Wei focused on “place-ness,” arguing that revitalization and community building both begin with truly knowing a place.

Long-standing “borrowed” policies often import overseas models without addressing Taiwan’s local specifics, leading to duplicated problems. Genuine place-sense grows from deep memory and identity.

Chiu suggests understanding place on three levels—patterns (recurring phenomena), configurations (village layouts such as temples or hunting grounds), and mechanisms (large-scale social interactions). Practitioners gain “insights” only after immersion; from insight comes “repair.”

He offers five analytical threads: natural environment, family life-cycles, technology/craft, social networks (ritual zones), and historical institutions. Only with this groundwork can branding or marketing follow. He closed with MOS Burger’s success in re-imagining rice culture, urging reflection on how traditional products can gain new life today.

Keynote — Exploring Place: Lessons from Chishang · Dr. Huang Hsuan-Wei

Anthropologist Dr. Huang Hsuan-Wei (Academia Sinica) examined Chishang’s development. Unlike indigenous villages with clear in/out boundaries, Chishang’s plain settlements are tightly linked, forming a township-wide identity. The Chishang rice certification symbolizes this collective spirit.

Chishang’s multi-ethnic history and external pressures forged a shared local consciousness, visible in civic groups like the Chitan Headwaters Association, born from an environmental movement and later key to rice certification.

The iconic paddy landscape endures not by chance but through this place-sense, local organizations, visionary leaders, certification, and tourism. Dr. Huang reminded listeners that place-sense is dynamic; social networks and resources constantly shift. Scale also matters—issues differ across spatial levels, offering varied potentials and limits for action.