Prosperity for Fisherman, Fishing Village and Fishery-International Blue Economy Pilot Zones

〈Dyeing with shoulang yam and seawater - an unfinished fishing village story〉

In the early days, fishnets were made of cotton and linen. To improve strength and durability and prevent seawater from corroding them, local residents used the dye found in shoulang yam, which made them last longer. This has made me wonder if we could use local shoulang yam to promote the products of Badouzi. It then occurred to me that dyed fabrics and the ocean could be combined. As shoulang yam is a pure natural dye, everyone can see that the dye rinsed with seawater is much softer than a dye not rinsed with seawater. It is really amazing.

During the 2020 shoulang yam and seawater achievement exhibition, listening to Lan Li-Ling, Chairwoman of the Badouzi Tourism Industry Promotion introduce shoulang yam and seawater dye reminded me of my exploration of the local culture over 2 years ago. Chairman Lan looked at me full of hope and said: “I wanted to be involved in this for some time, can NTOU help?” I was already familiar with Badouzi fish village for many years, but this was my first time hearing about shoulang yam and its cultural significance. I thought the idea was great and told her we should go for it! The next step was how to really put the USR Project into practice. We set objectives and plans for sustainable development - Firstly, we aimed for the 14 goals and 17 Sustainable Development Goals as well as the main objective of our Project, using “life” as the foundation to emphasize local companionship. As well as this, we also created new industries with unique local characteristics to achieve a sustainability model. Moreover, according to the regional revitalization theory, sustainable development must be divided into a cycle of “people”, “place”, and “production”, centering on “recognition of local belongings”, “practices of local belongings”, and “deepening of local belongings” based on the concept of “empowering localization” and “empowering value-added use of results”. Five basic-to-advanced strategies have also been formulated to enhance and integrate the power of local human resources and organizations, hoping to turn cultural values into local profits, thus creating a new industry model.

Two years have passed and we have trained a total of 50 basic/advanced seed teachers whose responsibilities range from designing courses to organizing exhibitions. The two achievement exhibitions have attracted tens of thousands of visitors. In response to the high number of people who expressed their desire to purchase the content, an online platform was subsequently set up. While Chairman Lan's intention was to put shoulang yam into full play, she restored an old house locally and turned it into the “Shoulang Yam and Seawater Dye Dream Factory”. She applied for the Multiple Employment Promotion Program from the Ministry of Labor and each year, she has two employees to assist in the industrial planning. From 2020 to January 2021, the Badouzi Industry Tourism Promotion Association organized various tours involving shoulang yam and seawater dye. A total of 790 people participated in 27 tours and its increasing profits will support the operations of the Association. In March this year, the unique dye was filmed and introduced by Gala Television’s “Discover Taiwan with Taiwan No.1”. Moreover, Chairman Lan also introduced the exceptional dye to President Tsai at the stall in Chaojing Park during the 2021 tree-planting event organized by the Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture.

In the end, I think our greatest achievement is not the number of sessions we have held or the amount of press coverage we have received.

Some time ago, Chairman Lan and I were having a chat. She said that people in other communities had heard about the novelty of shoulang yam and seawater dye and had wanted to invent their own dye. They tried to dye fabrics with Beautiful Galangal and coffee grounds. Some had succeeded, but others failed. Chairman Lan laughed and said: “It was a lot of fun!” For me, this is the most important achievement, as we have built a network that connects local organizations and residents. We made sure that everyone enjoyed the process of the challenge and affirmed their cultural values. This process is like an unfinished fishing village story that anyone can easily write.

Would you like to experience it? Come visit Badouzi and write your own fishing village story.