YlNG-T] NG: A CULTURALvECOLOGICAL STUDY OF A
CHINESE MIXED CROPPING VILLAGE IN TAIWAN

DISSERTATION FOR THE DEGREE OF PH. D
MICl-HGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ’ '
CHUNG-MIN cam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                   

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YING—TING: A CULTURAL—ECOLOGIC
CHINESE MIXED CROPPING VILLAGE I TAIWAN

presented by

CHUNG—MIN CHEN

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

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ABSTRACT

YING-TING: A CULTURAL-ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF A
CHINESE MIXED CROPPING VILLAGE IN TAIWAN

BY

Chung-min Chen

This dissertation is a study of a rural village in
the southwestern region of Taiwan. It focuses on the mixed—
cropping system practiced by Ying-ting villagers as well as
other peasants in the Chia—nan Plain of Taiwan. This study
shows that the mixed-cropping system is related not only to
the local ecological conditions but also, if not more
directly, to the socioeconomic policies of the Japanese
Colonial Government, which controlled Taiwan from 1895 to
1945, and the Nationalist Chinese Government, which has
been the ruling authority since the end of Japanese coloniza-
tion.

Located in the southwestern corner of the Chia-nan
Plain, Ying—ting is in that part of Taiwan where irrigation
facilities are almost indispensable for agricultural enter-
prise. When the Japanese Colonial Government constructed
the Chia—nan Irrigation System in the 1920's, it planned
to make sugar cane the most important crop of this region.
Thus, instead of building a system that could supply irri-

gation.vn1ter to all of the farmsteads in the Chia—nan

Chung-min Chen

Plahh the Colonial Authority Opted for the present system
iflfich can only irrigate one-third of the entire plain. In
link when the Irrigation System was completed, a rotating
irrigation system was devised and enforced to distribute the
limited water sources among all the farming communities of
this region. As a consequence, peasants in Ying-ting village
mulother communities in the Chia~nan Plain were, and still
are, ”forced" to adOpt a mixed-cropping system and rotate
their lands with sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and wet-rice in
a three-year cycle.

With this unique agricultural practice, it was expect—
ed that the sociocultural configuration of Ying—ting village
Mmuld be somewhat different from that of other Taiwanese
peasant communities where the mixed-cropping system is not
practiced. However, after comparing Ying-ting village with
lbin Hsing and K'un Shen--two Taiwanese villages with econom-
ic bases quite different from that of Ying—ting——we failed
to observe any significant variation in their sociocultural
SYstems except their respective productive patterns.

The lack of significant differences among these three
Peasant communities can only be attributed to the fact that
all the villagers share the same cultural background and
have been intensively influenced by the same set of socio-

economic and political policies implemented by the state.

 

 

YING-TING: A CULTURAL—ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF A
CHINESE MIXED CROPPING VILLAGE IN TAIWAN

By

Chung—min Chen

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Anthropology

1975

 

69 Copyright by
CHUNG-MIN CHEN

1975

ii

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
PREFACE
CHAPTER

ONE INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . .
I. The Theoretical Framework.
II. The Village.
III. The Problem.
IV. The Procedure of Presentation.

TWO THE SETTING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I. The Village and Its Surroundings
II. The Physical Environment . .
A. Climate . .
B. Soil Types of the
Chia- -nan Plain.
C. Irrigation Facility
III. Settlement History . .
IV. The Village Population and Its
Characteristics. . . . . .

THREE AGRICULTURAL PROCESS
I. A Brief History of the Agricultural
Development of the Chia- nan Plain.
II. The Mixed Crop Rotation System
III. Agricultural Calendar. .
IV. Labor. . . . . . . . . . . .
A. The Sugar Cane Harvest Team
B. Rice Transplantation Team
C. Rice Harvesting Team.
D. The Jute Harvesting Team.
V. Credit Facility.
VI. Extension Service. .
A. Banking and Credit Service.
B. Agriculture Extension Service
C. Consumer Service.
D. Veterinarian Service.

iii

Page
vi
vii

viii

w~q¢>wra

17
25
29

31
32
37

4O
48

49
53
62
69
71
73
77
77
81
85
85
86
87
87

 

CHAPTER

FOUR ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Occupational Structure.
A. Factory Workers.
B. White- Collar Workers
C. Clerks and Store Owners.
D. Skilled Laborers and Others.
E. Poultry and Hog Raising.
II. The Increase of Occupational
Diversity and Its Implications.
III. Market Participation. .
A. The Marketing of Sugar Cane.

The Marketing of Sweet Potatoes.

B.

C. The Marketing of Rice.

D General Characteristics of
Market Participation

FIVE THE VILLAGE AS A SOCIAL UNIT.
I. Family Organization . . . . . .
A. The Conjugal, Stem, and
Rotating Stem Family
B. The Extended Family.
II. Marriage. .
A. Modified Arranged Marriage
B. Dowry and Its Implication.
III. Lineage Organization. . . . . .
A. The Chuang Lineage, Its
History and Organization
B. The Two Ssu Lineages . .
1. The Upper Ssu Lineage

2. The Southern Ssu Lineage...

C. The Social Roles and Functions
of Lineage Groups. .
IV. The Village as a Social Unit. .
A. Village Temple as the Focus
of Village Organization. .
1. Temple as the Source for
Financial Aid .
2. K'uan— yin as the Guardian
of the Community. .

SIX THE IMPACTS OF THE CONTROLLED IRRIGATION
SYSTEM AND OTHER NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

I. The Possible Impact of the Chia— nan
Irrigation System—-A Conjectural
Reconstruction. . . .

The Possible Impact on
Social Organization. . .
B. The Possible Impact on the
Agricultural Process and
Other Economic Activities.

iv

 

129
129

130
138
140
142
147
152
155
162
163
166

167
175

176
181

183

186

188
189

196

CHAPTER

II.

III.

The Actual Impact of the Chia-nan
Irrigation System-—an Historical
Reconstruction . . . . . . .
A. The Institutionalization
of the Crop Rotation System .
B. The Change of Land Ownership.
C. The Increase of Occupational
Diversity . . . . . .
Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, and K'un
Shen—-A Comparison of Three
Peasant Communities. . . .
A. A Brief Introduction of
Hsin Hsing and K'un Shen. .
B. Kinship and Family Organization
in Ying—ting, Hsin Hsing, and
K'un Shen . . . . . . .
1. Lineage Organizations.
2. Family Organizations
C. Production Organization and
Occupational Structure in
Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, and
K'un Shen . . . . . . .
1. Production Organization.
2. Occupational Structure

SEVEN SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

APPENDIX ONE-GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Page

202

204
206

208

212
213
215

215
220

223
223
227
236
246

248

Table

10

LIST OF TABLES

Migrants and their Contacts with the Village.

Age Groups by Sex and Percentage of
the Population in Ying—ting, 1970

Major Sources of Household Income

The Idealized Three— Year— Crop—
Rotation System . . .

Occupation Distributed by Age Group (Male),
Ying- ting, 1970 .

Occupation Distributed by Age Group (Female)
Ying- ting, 1970 .

Household Types and the Number of Persons
Each Type Contains. . . . .

Numbers and Percentages of Major Surname
Groups in Ying—ting, 1970 . . . . . . .

Numbers of Persons and Households of Each
Branch of the Chuang Lineage in Ying—ting, 1970

Major Sources of Household Income and the

Distribution of Landholdings in the Three
Cropping Zones in Ying—ting, 1970 .

vi

Page
43

44
49

56

89

90

131

153

160

209

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page
1 Ying-ting and Its Surroundings . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Map of Ying—ting Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3 Annual Precipitation Pattern,
Hsieh-chia, Tainan, 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4 Population Pyramid by Age Groups,
Sex, and Percentage. . . . . . . . . . . . 45

5 The Three-Year—Crop—Rotation System
as Seen in Ying—ting, 1968—71. . . . . . . . . . . 57

1 — _'_._._.:._ _“——'.— ..

PREFACE

The ethnographic research of this dissertation was
conducted in Ying—ting, Tainan County, Taiwan Province,
the Republic of China, over a period of fourteen months,
between January 1970 and February 1971. The data used in
this dissertation are from no later than the end of that
field season.

The Chinese words used in the text are romanized in
Mandarin in accordance with the Wade—Giles system. I have
several reasons for deciding to romanize the Chinese words
in Mandarin instead of the local (Min—nan) language.
First, most westerners, who probabily will make up the
majority of the potential readers of this dissertation,
would more likely be familiar with Mandarin than the
Min—nan language. Second, Mandarin is the official lan—
guage of China and Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan, includ-
ing the so—called native Taiwanese, understand and speak
Mandarin. In order to avoid any ambiguity, however, a
glossary of all the Chinese words used in the text will
be provided as Appendix One at the end of this disserta—
tion. In this glossary, the English translation, Mandarin
pronounciation, as well as the Chinese characters will be

presented.
viii

 

 

My field research was made possible by a grant
provided by the Harvard—Yenching Institute, at Harvard
University. Special thanks are due to this Institute and
its Director, Professor John C. Pelzel. I also wish to
express my sincere appreciation to Professors Bernard
Gallin, Joseph Spielberg, Iwao Ishino, and Harry Raulet
for their guidance and stimulation throughout my graduate
years at the Department of Anthropology, Michigan State
University.

Deep appreciation and great gratitude are due to
Professor Bernard Gallin who has so generously and patiently
given his time and energy in supervising my graduate
studies, field research, and the entire course of the pre-
paration of this dissertation. Without Professor Gallin's
most patient guidance, I would not have been able to finish
this dissertation. I would also like to express my special
thanks to Professor Yih-yuan Li, Director of the Institute
of Ethnology, Academia Sinica. Without his guidance and
training I would not have chosen anthropology as my career.

Last, but not least, many thanks go to the peOple
in Ying-ting village. Their gracious attitude in accepting
an outsider into their private lives and their most cooper-
ative efforts made it possible for this dissertation to be

written.

ix

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide
some brief answers to the "what" and "how" questions about
this dissertation. It will first outline the major thesis

of this dissertation in Section I, "The Theoretical Frame-

 

work,” so that the reader will know this study's focus and
theoretical approach. Section II, ”The Village," will be

a brief sketch of the village setting and its people so

that the reader will have a general picture of what the vil—
lage looks like before he proceeds to Chapter Two where a
more detailed description of the setting will be presented.
Section III, "The Problem,” will be a discussion of my
reasons for selecting this particular subject matter and its
implications for anthropological study of peasant society
and culture. Finally, in Section IV, ”The Procedure of
Presentation,” I will outline the subject matter of each of
the following chapters so that the reader will know how

this dissertation is being organized.

I. The Theoretical Framework

 

The concept of cultural ecology, first formulated by
Julian H. Steward, provides a framework within which anthro—
pologists can study the functional interrelationships
between man, his ways of life, and the environmental

1

2
conditions. As Steward himself has indicated, the research
strategy of cultural ecology contains three fundamental
procedures:

First, the interrelationship of exploitative or

productive technology and environment must be

analyzed. Second, the behavior pattern involved

in the exploitation of a particular technology

must be analyzed. The third procedure is to

ascertain the extent to which the behaviors en-

tailed in exploiting the environment affect

other aspects of culture (1955:40-41).

In other words, when a researcher adOpts this particular
approach as his orientation in field investigation, he
should first direct his attention to the people's natural
habitat, productive technology, and productive organiza—
tions and try to delineate their interrelationships. Then,
the researcher should attempt to ascertain the degree to
which the people's particular economic system affects other
aspects of their sociocultural system.

Over the last two decades or so, the many applications
of this particular research strategy have proven that
cultural ecology is a fruitful approach to understanding
the causal roles of environmental circumstances, their pos-
sible impacts on the people‘s ways of making a living, and
how such ways affect, in turn, the other major aspects of
their sociocultural system (cf. Harris 1968:654—687).

Further, Steward, his colleagues, and his students
have been refining his original strategy since its

inception. While directing the "Project of Studies of

Cultural Regularities” at the University of Illinois and

3
"The Puerto Rican Project" at Columbia University, Steward
and his adherents realized that the research strategy of
cultural ecology, originally developed from Steward's
experiences in studying various American band and tribal
societies, had to be modified and broadened before it could
be applied to the study of small communities and/or sub-
cultures of complex societies (cf. Steward 1967; 1969).
In Steward's words, ”. . .a modern community cannot be
adequately understood if, like a tribal society, it is
studied solely in terms of itself; it was necessary to
devise procedures for taking the total national culture into
account” (1969:16).

The new procedures thus formulated emphasize an under—
standing of the larger sociocultural context of which sub-
cultures and/or small communities are only a part. In
addition to the study of local techno-environmental condi—
tions, such as the traditional cultural ecologists have
done, the new approach studies the nature of national and
international frameworks within which the subcultures and
small communities developed.

Unlike the traditional approach, therefore, the new
cultural ecology, as it was developed in the late 60's,
no longer "allows” its practitioners to treat the small
communities of any national state as closed systems. It
advocates instead that such communities be investigated
as open systems which are constantly under the influences

of two groups of "external conditions," i.e., local

4
environment and national institutions. As a result of this
broadened perspective, the term "environment" has acquired
a new connotation in studies of small communities within
national states. It refers to not only local, natural
habitat and climatic conditions but also the national
state's socioeconomic-political policies as they affect
that state's individual communities.

In this dissertation, I am applying such a broadened
cultural—ecological framework to study a mixed—cropping
village in the southwestern part of Taiwan. While doing
so, my general goal is two-fold: first, to examine the
interrelationship between the local, natural environmental
conditions and the particular agricultural pattern prac—
ticed by the people; second, to discover how and to what
extent the Great Tradition of China and the socioeconomic
institutions of the Japanese Colonial Government, which
ruled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, and that of the National-
ist Chinese Government, which has ruled Taiwan since 1945,

affect the socioeconomic life of the villagers.

II. The Village

 

Ying—ting village, where the field work of this study
was conducted, is a Taiwanese rural community located in
the southern portion of the Chia—nan Plain of southwestern
Taiwan (see Figure 1). It is an administrative village as
well as a natural community. As an administrative village,

Ying-ting is under the jurisdiction of the Chia—li Cheng

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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YING-TING

 

TAINAN

 

 

KAOSHIANG

TAIPEI

 

Figure l:

Ying-ting and Its Surroundings

 

6
(township), Tainan Hsien (county), Taiwan Province. The
people elect a li-chang (village mayor) as the formal

political leader of the village and a li—min—tai-piao

 

(village representative) to the Township Council. As a
natural community, it has clear geographical as well as
social boundaries. Physically, it is a rather compact
settlement separated from other villages by fields in all
directions. Socially, the people of Ying-ting share a
strong sense of commonality. For example, when asked

by an outsider about their native place, the villagers
always identify themselves as people from Ying-ting vil-
lage. Only when further identification is requested do
they indicate that they are from Chia—li Township, Tainan
County. Furthermore, Ying-ting is a religious community:
villagers not only share the same ritual calendar and
participate in village—wide ceremonial activities, but
also jointly own and share the responsibility of main-
taining the village temple.

In 1970, when the field research was being conducted,
there were 842 people living in 159 village households.
The majority of these residents belonged to three lineages:
the Chuang and two Ssu. The Chuang lineage was by far the
largest of the three. It was subdivided into eight fang
(branches) and had 542 members, which constituted 64.37%
of the entire village population. The two Ssu lineages
were relatively smaller. The Upper Ssu lineage had a

membership of 127 persons, 15.08% of the population, and

7
the Southern Ssu had 53 members, 6.29% of the pOpulation.
In addition to the Chuang and Ssu lineages, there were
fourteen other surname groups represented in the village by
27 households. Thus, Ying—ting is a multi—lineage com—
munity, with the Chuangs as the dominating lineage.

Settlement of this village by the Chuangs and the
Ssus took place in the late seventeenth and early eigh-
teenth centuries after Taiwan had been incorporated into
the Ch'ing Empire and order in the country had been more or
less restored. Like most of the inhabitants in this area,
the ancestors of the Ying-ting residents were immigrants
who came across the Taiwan Strait from Lung-ch'i County,
Fukien Province.

Economically, Ying-ting is an agricultural community,
though a few households engage in nonagricultural occupa-
tions. Its major crops are sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and
rice. These three crops are cultivated in a three—year
rotating system which, as we will see later in this disser-
tation, is directly influenced by the government-controlled

irrigation facility.

III. The Problem

 

Before I fully present the subject matter and its
significance as a research problem, let me begin by eXplain-
ing how I discovered the problem. Not long after I started
my field work in Ying-ting, I noticed that many villagers

frequently complained about sugar cane farming. Their main

8
grievance was with the low price they received from the
Taiwan Sugar Company.1 Yet when the planting season for
sugar cane arrived, those who had complained planted their
plots with another crop of young canes. The inconsistency
between their words and deeds led me to consider such com-
plaints as little more than perfunctory grumblings made to
outsiders. In this case, the outsider was a man who
claimed to be an anthrOpologist but was suspected by the
villagers of being a government official. That the people
would complain about their poor economic situation to a
government official was understandable, I reasoned; by so
doing they might arouse his sympathy and prevent him from
reporting to the government that the peasants were doing
very well economically and could be taxed a little more.

The complaining continued during many of my interviews
as well as in the villagers' conversations with one another.
Even when this "outsider" had been well accepted into the
community and was no longer suspected of being a governmenal
agent, the complaints still surfaced from time to time.

Thus, I began to realize that they could not be interpreted

 

1After Taiwan was returned to the Nationalist Chinese
Government in 1945, the Japanese owned industries, including
all of the sugar refineries, were nationalized and put under
the control of different governmental agencies. The Taiwan
Sugar Company was established in 1947 to manage the sugar
industry of Taiwan. It is jointly owned by the Central
Government and the Provincial Government of Taiwan plus a
nominal percentage of private share. It has been the dg
facto monopoly of sugar industry of Taiwan ever since its
estaElishment and no other factory is allowed to purchase
sugar cane and process them for sugar refinement.

9
simply as sympathy—seeking attempts. Moreover, I came
across a saying that peasants in the area used to mock
themselves about their planting habits: ”There are three
most foolish things that a man can do: to smoke a cigar—
ette without inhaling, to take a girl out for an evening
walk just to enjoy the breeze without doing anything to
her, and, most of all, to plant sugar cane and let the
Company buy them by truck loads without being able to say
anything about the price!” (See Appendix for the original
text.)

At this point, I was gathering information relating to
agricultural processes. My data and all the references that
I had read revealed that growing sugar cane was, indeed,
less profitable than growing rice. A crop of sugar cane
usually took sixteen to eighteen months from planting to
harvest. During this same span of time, two crOps of paddy
rice and one of sweet potatoes could be raised and harvested.

Other things being equal then, a peasant should grow
sugar cane only if the single crop of cane could give him
at least the same cash value as the two crOps of rice and
one crop of potatoes.

An examination of the price records of these crops
clearly indicated, however, that such was not the case.

One crop of cane frequently amounted to only one-half to
three-fifths of the total value of the three other crops.
If growing sugar cane was frequently less profitable than

growing rice and potatoes, why did the peasants plant their

10
fields with cane?

A close investigation of the situation reveals that
peasants in Ying—ting village and in the general area have
been forced, indirectly, by governmental control and regu—
lation of irrigation water, to foresake rice and periodical-
ly plant their land with sugar cane. (A detailed descrip—
tion of the irrigation system is presented in Section 11,
Chapter Two.)

Under the so—called ”three-year-crop-rotation-system,"
initiated by the Japanese colonial authority in 1930, the
peasants have to cultivate at least one crop of sugar cane
in a three-year cycle. The crop rotation system, if taken
at face value, seems to be a rational, ecological adapta-
tive device. As one Japanese scholar has pointed out, this
system enables all the peasant households in the Chia-nan
Plain to share the benefit of the Chia-nan Irrigation System
(Cf. Yanaihara 1957:133). Actually, however, the original
Policy subtlely and effectively forced all the peasants in
the area to supply the Japanese colonialists with inexpen—
sive sugar cane for their sugar refineries.

Although different from the so-called ”culture system"
implemented in Java by the Dutch in the nineteenth century,

What the Japanese did in Taiwan accomplished essentially

2"Culture System," a mistranslation of the DUtCh word
"Culturstelsel," is so embedded in the literature that_ma$Y
Southeast Asian specialists, e.g., C. Geertz, believe 1t 15
less confusing to continue to use it than to translate it
Properly-~Cultivation System. It was an agrlCU1tRTaié30 to
taxation policy implemented in Java by the Dutch 1n

11
the same goal (cf. Geertz 1963:53—82). Both systems suc-
ceeded in making the peasants of their respective colonies
produce crops which were economically advantageous to the
colonial empire. Given the nature of colonialism, what is
advantageous to the colonial empire is frequently disadvan—
tageous to the natives, the peasants. Yet a study of how
the Japanese Colonial Government exploited the Taiwanese
peasants is not my particular concern in this investigation
of Ying—ting village. The brief discussion of the regula—
ted irrigation system and its rotating cropping system
shows, however, that Ying-ting village and its socioeco—
nomic activities can not be fully understood if one merely
focuses his attention on local ecological conditions and
theVillage itself. In order to gain a thorough understand—
ing fo Ying-ting village and, for that matter, any peasant
Villagge, one must study not only its socioeconomic organ-
izatican and natural environmental conditions but also the
interrelationship between the village and the state, i.e.,
the p<311tical system that exercises a certain amount of

control over the peasants' socioeconomic life.

__~_________________
lnCrease the cultivation of export crops. Under this system
the Javanese peasants were forced to grow export crops, such
3? Sugar cane, indigo, tobacco, in their rice fields and de—
llver them to the Dutch as a form of taxation. Villagers
Were Said to have been compensated for the export crops they
culti'Vated. According to historians who specialized in this
phage of Javanese history, however, the cost of living rose
Ester than the compensation, mainly because of the loss of
rlce fields. Hence, the economic situation of the Javanese
peasants under the Culture System was worse than before
C010nial intervention.

12

Contemporary peasant specialists might not all be
willing to accept Kroeber's definition of peasantry, i.e.,
'peasants constitute part—societies with part—cultures,“
as a complete definition (1948:284). But, Koreber has
certainly pointed out one of the most salient character—
istics of peasantry. Accepting Kroeber's definition, if
only as an incomplete but important one, many anthro—
pologists have advocated that when we study peasantry we
should attend primarily to the interrelationships between
the state and the peasant community. For example, when
discussing the problems of setting up a typology of
peasantry, Wolf observed that "in complex societies certain
components of the social superstructure rather than ecology
seem increasingly to be determinants of further develop—
ments"(l955:453).

My brief description of the crop rotation system and
its Ilistory seems to be a good ethnographic example sup—
POTtxing Wolf's statement. If I hadn't become aware of the
sociIDeconomic policy of the Japanese Colonial Government,

1 Wollld have remained substantially perplexed as to why the
Villagers complained so frequently about sugar cane farming
yet Continued planting their lands with the crop.

As I have indicated above, although many anthropolo—
gists have been emphasizing the importance of studying the
interrelationship between the state and the peasant com—
munity, there are others who prefer to take a "microscopic”

aPPTOach to the study of peasantry and concentrate their

l3
attention on the local ecological and social conditions.
In a review article of peasant studies in anthropology,
Clifford Geertz observed:
The view that a peasantry is only one element in
a larger civilization presents the anthropologists
who would study it with two rather divergent tasks:
(1) the description and analysis of the peasantry
in itself; (2) the characterization of the over—
all sociocultural whole within which the peasantry
exists. . . .The first approach involves an in—
tensive investigation of the specific pattern and
immediate quality of peasant life; the second, an
extensive investigation of its general form and
broader setting (1962213).
As I will argue later in this dissertation, however, these
two approaches which, for the lack of better terms, might
be labelled "microscopic” and ”macroscopic,” should be
utilized simultaneously even when the focus of one's study
is OIlly a single peasant community. It is the intention of
this dissertation, using the ethnographic material collected
fTOm. Ying—ting village, to show that a rounded and more
insightful picture of a peasant community can be obtained
if tlie researcher adopts the broadened cultural ecological
aPPIWDach because, in essense, it includes the so—called
"miCrbscopic" and "macroscopic” approaches. It investigates
not only the local ecological conditions but also the

broader setting of the community, especially its interrela-

tionship with the state.

IV- The Procedure of Presentation
Instead of being a descriptive ethnographic account of

the Village, this dissertation is problem-oriented. As

14
noted earlier in this chapter, I will try to focus on the
functional relations between the peasants' economic activ—
ities and the natural environmental conditions on the one
hand, and the socioeconomic policy of the state on the
other. To facilitate such a discussion, the remaining
chapters will be organized in the following manner.

Chapter Two, "The Setting," is a presentation of
specific background information relating to Ying—ting
village. I will first describe the interrelation between
the village and other communities in the surrounding area,
including a brief sketch of the settlement history of the
village. I will then examine the natural environmental
conditions and the demographic characteristics of the
Village.

In Chapter Three, ”The Agricultural Process,” 1 will
fiTS‘t review the agricultural history of the village and the
generral area. With such background information, I will then
PTOCleed to examine the agricultural patterns as they are
PTaIZticed today. Furthermore, other socioeconomic factors
relating to the agricultural process, such as patterns of
1abOr organization, credit facility, and agricultural ex-
tenSion services, will also be examined.

Chapter Four, "The Economic Activity,” deals with the
nonagricultural economic activities of the peasants. I will
first detail the occupational structure of the community and
the pattern of market participation. Secondly, I will

examine the complementary relationship between agricultural

15

and nonagricultural occupations. In addition, I will also
investigate the ecological factors that seem to have con-
tributed to the relatively diversified economic activity
of the village.

In Chapter Five, "The Village aszisocial Unit," I
will study the family and kinship organization of the
people. I will look into the process through which differ—
ent families and kin groups are held together by the temple
organization and how these families and lineages are inte-
grated into a social unit. I will also discuss the socio-
economic functions that the lineage and temple organiza-
tions play in the peasants' daily life.

The purpose of Chapter Six, ”The Impacts of the Con-
trOlled Irrigation System and Other National Institutions,”
is t() ascertain to what degree the lifeways of the peasants
in Yiing-ting have been influenced by the socioeconomic and
P01ifitical institutions implemented by thesnxnxeand by the
10Ca¥1 environmental conditions.

To facilitate such a discussion, I will start by
eX&mjning some hypothetical cases. In them I will take a
miCrOSCOpic approach, limiting my attention within the vil-
lage itself, i.e., treating the village as if there were
no Significant impinging influence coming from the larger
SOCiety. By so doing, I can make some tentative inferences
as t0 what might have happened if there had been no out—

slde interference. I can then surmise the ways in which

16

the particular mode of ecological adaptation of Ying—ting
Village would have influenced the other aspects of the
sociocultural configuration of the village community.

After such hypothetical exercises, I will compare
Ying—ting with two other Taiwanese peasant villages, each
having a distinctive ecological adaptation of its own, to
Show what these three villages have and do not have in com—
mon. As we will see in this chapter, the three villages
do share numerous sociocultural features in common, though
their ecological adaptations are quite different. Since
each of the three villages has a distinctive ecological
adaptation of its own, the similarities that they share
must be a direct result of their being deeply influenced by
a WelLL—established Great Tradition, by the same sets of
SOCiOeconomic and political policies, and by their parti—
CiPatj.on in the same national socioeconomic institutions.

Finally, in Chapter Seven, 1 will review some impor—
tant :issues discussed earlier and then discuss the value
0f file cultural-ecological approach. As will be demon—
strated in this study, the "broadened” cultural—ecological
aPPTOach is a sound research tool that can be fruitfully
applied to the study of peasantry, because it not only em—
phasizes the local conditions of a peasant community, but
also directs the field researcher's attention to the
natiohal institutions that are constantly influencing the

SOCiOCultural system of the peasant community.

 

CHAPTER TWO

THE SETTING

 

I. The Village and Its Surroundings

Located in the southwestern corner of the Chia-nan
Plain, Ying-ting is one of twenty-one administrative vil-
lages in the Chia—li Township, Tainan County, Taiwan
Province. It lies about twenty—eight kilometers north of
Tainan.city, the oldest city of Taiwan and the cultural
and economic center of the county. The easiest way to
reach Ying-ting from Taipei, the capital city of the
RePUblic of China, is to go to Tainan city first, for there
one Mfiill find bus lines connecting with all the rural com-
munitries in the surrounding areas.

The trip to Ying-ting from Tainan city is easy and
quite comfortable. The village is connected with the city
by a loaved highway and a private bus company provides ser—
vice. From six o'clock in the morning and until ten in
the evening, there are buses departing from the Tainan
Station for Nan—kun-shan, a market town in the northwest of
the County, and from Nan-kun—shan to Tainan city every
thirty minutes. Those passengers wanting to go to Ying-ting
fromTainan must take the bus bound for Nan-kun-shan. From
Tainan, there are both railroad and bus services connecting
With all.theother major cities of Taiwan.

17

 

l8

Departing from the Tainan Station, the bus bound for
Nan-kun-shan winds northwest out of the city and passes a
few villages and small towns, arriving at its midway sta-
tion Chia-li, in about forty minutes. Chia-li is the
administrative center of the township that bears the same
name. It is not only the administrative center of the
twenty-one villages that make up the township, it is also
the market town where villagers from the surrounding areas
come to sell and buy. In terms of its size and the kinds
of services and commodities that can be obtained there,
Chia-li can be labelled as an ”intermediate market town,"1
as defined by Wm. G. Skinner (1968:68).

Two main streets make up the business section of the
tOWTl where various kinds of stores and shops and two mar—

kets are located. One of the markets in Chia—li is the food

markeat for the local residents. Villagers from surrounding

 

 

1In his discussion of the traditional Chinese market
SYStxem, Wm. G. Skinner differentiates three types of markets,
namffily, the standard market, intermediate market, and the
Central market. He calls the places where the market 10-
catfas as ”standard market town,” ”intermediate market town,"
and "central market town," respectively. According to
Sk}nrmny a standard market is "that type of rural market
whIChmet all the normal trade needs of the peasant house-
hold: what the household produced but did not consume was
normally sold there, and what it consumed but did not pro-
duce was normally bought there" (1967:66). The so-called
centI‘al market is "normally situated at a strategic site in
the transportation network and has important wholesaling
fin“?tions. Its facilities are designed, on the one hand, to
receive imported items and distribute them within its de-
pendent area and, on the other, to collect local products
and export them to other central markets or higher-level
urPancenters” (ibid:68). The so-called intermediate mar-
ket is simply defined as the place that ”has an intermediate
posltion in the vertical flow of goods and service both
Ways” (ibid:68).

 

—..__-———--

19

areas also come here occasionally to shop, especially when
they need to buy a large quantity of food for special
occasions. The other market is a wholesale market where
middlemen buy vegetablesznulother local agricultural
products from the peasants and then ship them to Tainan or
other big cities of the Island.

Villagers of the surrounding area, which includes
Ying-ting village, come to Chia-li when they have business
with governmental agencies as well as for marketing. The
Public Office of the Cheng (township) is located here.
Right next door to the Public Office one finds the Land
Registration Office, Irrigation Station, Police Head-
quarters, Post and Telephone Bureau, and the Public Health
Clinic. A few blocks away from this ”office district” is
the Chia—li Farmers' Association and the branch offices of
three leading banks of Taiwan. There are also a hospital
and nine private clinics, each of them having at least one
western style doctor in residence. In addition to these
practitioners of western medicine, a few Chinese doctors
practice at herb stores they either own or with which they
are associated.

In and around the market, one also finds many food
stands, restaurants, wine houses, tea houses, and two movie
theaters, one of them specializing in foreign films and
the other showing mainly Chinese movies.

Chia—li has two senior high schools and three junior

high schools in addition to three elementary ones. Most

20

of the Ying—ting school children attend junior and senior
high schools here, commuting either by bus or bicycle.

A five-minute bus ride, four kilometers north of
Chia-li, is another market town called Chia—li-hsin. To
use Skinner's terminology again, Chia-li-hsin is a typical
example of the "standard market town." (For the definition
of this term, see Note (1) of this chapter, or Skinner
1967:66.) Because Chia-li—hsin is only one mile from
Ying-ting, it is the place where Ying—ting villagers do most
of their marketing. The food market begins trading at noon
every day. Its business hours are scheduled to accommodate
the working pattern of the peasants, the majority of the
patrons. Because this area is within the tropical zone,
peasants usually start their working day early in the morn-
ing, i.e., around five o'clock in the morning during the
summer season and seven in the winter, and work until noon,
when the sun becomes too hot for work. Thus, most of them
usually take a break during the noon hours when work is
not too pressing and go to the market for shopping, return-
ing to their work later in the afternoon when the sun is
tolerable.

Besides the market, various kinds of stores are also
in the adjacent area. All of the service and commodities
that one can get in Chia-li are also available at Chia-li—
hsin, although the prices in the latter may be somewhat
higher and the choices comparatively limited. Since

Chia-li-hsin is closer to Ying-ting than Chia-li, however,

21
so close that most of the villagers arrive by bicycle or
even on foot, it becomes the place outside the village
where Ying-ting people spend most of their time. Adults
come for shopping and for entertainment. School children
come to attend the elementary school.

In brief, Chia-li—hsin is a minor version of Chia-li,
both in terms of its size and the availability of market
and entertainment facilities. Since the relationship be-
tween Ying—ting and Chia-li-hsin is so intimate, we will
touch upon its many facets later on in other contexts of
this dissertation.

When the bus leaves Chia—li-hsin and continues north,
within a few minutes it stops again, this time at Ying-ting
village. The bus halts in front of a village store, and,
if one gets off here, he is standing right on the corner
of the intersection of a village road and the highway he has
just traveled. (See Figure 2: Map of Ying-ting village.)
If he has been in Ying—ting before, he will know that this
intersection is situated roughly in the center of the
village. In fact, the east—west village road and the north-
south highway divide the entire settlement into four sec—
tions. In the villagers' terminology, the western half of
the settlement is the "road—west" and its counterpart the
"road-east.” When the villagers need to specify a particu-
lar location, they will refer to the northeastern section
as the "upper road-east” and the southeastern section as

the "lower road-east." In addition to these four sections,

22

HIGHWAY AND ROAD

n HOUSE

ES IRRIGATION CANAL

SOUTHERN SSU SECTION
THE OTHER SURNAMES'

UPPER SSU SECTION

II
III
IV
V

I

SECTION

HALL

.L ANCESTRAI.
a: TEMPLE

UPPER ROAD-EAST SECTION
LOWER ROAD-EAST SECTION

FIELD

Q FISH POND

u, A

UPPER ROAD-WEST SECTION
LOWER ROAD—WEST SECTION

VII

VI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Map of Ying-ting Village

Figure 2:

23
i.e., "upper road—east," "lower road-east,” "upper road-
west,” and "lower road—west,” which are separated by the
highway and the village road and populated mainly by the
people of the Chuang lineage, three other compounds are
on the periphery of the village.

One of these compounds is called the ”southern Ssu”
which is located in the southern.edge of the "lower road-
west" section and is mainly populated by one of the two
Ssu lineages of Ying—ting. The other Ssu lineage congre-
gates in the northeastern corner of the village and forms
a discrete compound of its own, what the villagers call
the ”upper Ssu." Between the "upper Ssu" and the ”upper
road-east" compounds is another settlement called the
”other surnames' corner” populated by those villagers that
have surnames other than Ssu and Chuang. (For the relative
position of these seven compounds see Figure 2.) Thus, the
entire village is subdivided into seven sections which are
significant to the community organization and will be dis-
cussed later.

Quite a few stores and shops line both sides of the
highway near the bus stOp. In fact, most of the village's
"business establishments” can be found in this area, the
center of the village. Right next to the bus stOp, on the
east side of the highway, is a vegetable stand which opens
early in the morning and closes at noon. Behind the stand
lies a grindery which specializes in grinding dried sweet

potatoes and corn and in making animal fodder. A general

24

store is located slightly south of the stand, on the same
side of the highway. On the other side are another grind-
ery and general store. This store, somewhat larger than
the first one, carries a variety of groceries and dried
foods and also doubles as the village post office.

Further south of the main intersection, along the
east side of the highway, are two barber shops a few hun-
dred feet apart from each other. Across from the barber
shops, on the west side of the highway, is a large, brick-
paved square, owned by the Chuang lineage, where villagers
dry their crops during the harvest season and gather for
conversation in the early evenings during the summer season.
A house that the villagers call the "hui-so," i.e., the
meeting place, is next to the village square. This build-
ing, about the size of a normal classroom, is owned and
maintained by the villagers as a group. Used for civic
meetings, the building doubles as a first—grade classroom
for students from Ying—ting and a northern neighboring
village called Ta—wan.

North of the main intersection along the west side
of the highway stands the ancestral hall of the Chuang
lineage. ”In need of repair” best describes its exterior
appearance. The interior of the main hall, however, has
been recently refaced and is rather clean and well-
maintained.

The village temple is located on the eastern edge of

the "upper road-east" section. For a village temple it

25
is quite elaborate. The gods worshipped in its main hall
are Kuan—yin and her two sisters. And, as in most Chinese
temples, there is also a place for the Earth god. Two
wings stretch out from each side of the main hall. The
west wing is now used as the classroom for the village
nursery school sponsored by the Chia-li Farmers' Associ—
ation. Living quarters for the temple keeper and a public
meeting room occupy the east wing. Whenever a religious
matter warrants a meeting, it is held in this room. On
the northeast side of the temple is a small garden which,
coupled with the two big banyan trees that stand in front
of the temple, make this place one of the villagers'
favorite spots for gathering to chat and rest during those

long, hot summer afternoons.

II. The Physical Environment

 

A brief description of the geography of Taiwan will
provide an essential and enlightening context for the dis-
cussion of Ying-ting's particular environment. Taiwan,
sometimes referred to as Formosa, is an island province of
China, located in the South China Sea, southeast of the
mainland. Ninety-mile wide Taiwan Strait separates it
from the mainland province of Fukien, Kwangtung, from which
most of the Taiwanese migrated. Its shape somewhat resem-
bles that of a sweet potato, a term some Taiwanese call
themselves in a joking manner, with its ends pointing

toward north-northeast and south-southwest. Although it

26
is only 35,96l.2 square kilometers in size, it has a very
complicated climate and landscape.

Generally speaking, the northern,central parts of
Taiwan are in the sub-tropical zone while the southern
portion, where Ying—ting village is found, is in the trOp—
ical zone. Except in mountains higher than 4,000 feet
above the sea level, where frost and snow occur occasion—
ally, the growing season on the island lasts the entire
year. The principal characteristics of its climate are
high temperature, heavy rainfall, and frequent, sometimes
destructive, winds. Summer is long and hot, usually
beginning in early May and ending in late September. Dur-
ing this season, temperatures differ little from one end
of the island to the other; it is hot everywhere except
the mountains. Winters are short and mild, lasting from
December through February. During these months, a remark-
able variation in climate appears. The north is cold and
rainy, the south rather mild with much less rainfall.

The average annual rainfall for the entire island is
approximately 2,610 mm, but the rainfall in Taiwan is by
no means evenly distributed either in terms of time period
or region. Generally, the western coastal area receives
less rain than the eastern, the south less than the north,
and the lowlands less than the mountains. Two rainy
seasons occur, each differing in time period and region.
From October to March, northern Taiwan is in the course of

a strong, northwest monsoon which causes heavy rains in the

27

northwest coastal area and on the mountain slopes facing
north and northwest. During this same period, the south-
western part of Taiwan enjoys crisp, sunny winter. When
spring comes, the northwest monsoon gradually loses its
strength and the northern part of the island becomes dryer
while the southwestern region starts to receive its rain—
fall. When summer approaches, the southeast monsoon pre—
vails and frequent thunderstorms occur, bringing abundant
rainfall to the southern part of Taiwan. This contrast of
rainfall between north and south is due not only to the
seasonal change of monsoons but also to the geographical
arrangement of mountains in Taiwan. When the northwest
monsoon blows during the winter, it hits the mountain
range traversing the island from north to south. As the
air rises over the mountains, condensation causes clouds
and rain. Thus, by the time the wind reaches the south,
it has lost most of its moisture. In the summer months,
from April to September, the southeast monsoon and local
terrestrial rains cause downpours in the south. Most of
southern Taiwan receives more than 80 percent of its annual
rainfall during these six months.

In terms of its temperature and rainfall, Taiwan
seems to have a good agricultural environment. Taiwan
lies in the course of the great cyclonic tropical storms,
however. Typhoons, one of the most destructive natural
calamities, occur quite often between May and October,

predominantly in August. When they hit, not only can

28

their strong winds destroy crops, but the heavy rains pre-
ceding and following the winds frequently wash away the
crops standing in the fields. Furthermore, although every
region of the island receives more than 1,016 mm. of rain-
fall a year, the south is quite dry from October to March
and depends heavily upon irrigation, i.e., the storage and
control of water, to survive agriculturally during this
period.

Since Ying-ting is in the southwestern coastal (Chia—
nan) Plain, a description of the general region will further
clarify our perspective on the village's local environment.
The western coastal area of Taiwan is a narrow strip of
flat land consisting of low alluvial plains. Among these
plains, the Chia-nan Plain is the largest one--approxi-
mately 3,105 square kilometers in size. It is located south
of the Cho-Shui River and north of the Tseng—wen River.
Starting from the seashore, the plain extends roughly 40
kilometers east and then merges with the foothills of the
Central Mountains. Although its topography is quite
suitable for cropping, agriculture did not develop signifi-
cantly in this area until 1930, when the Chia-nan Irriga-
tion System was completed. With the building of this large
system, the irrigation problem was partially solved and the
Chia-nan Plain became one of the most important agricultural
zones of Taiwan. As such, it was designated by the Japanese
Colonial Government for an intensive development of sugar

cane cultivation.

29

The following paragraphs contain a general descrip-
tion of the environmental conditions of the Chia-nan Plain.
What can be said for the area will also apply to the village

under study, except when noted.

A. Climate

Located in southwest Taiwan, Chia-nan Plain, on which
Ying-ting village is located, lies in the tropical zone.
Because of monsoon winds and its closeness to the ocean,
i.e., the Taiwan Strait, however, the temperature of the
Plain is not as hot as its tropical location might suggest;
it has an average annual temperature of 23°C. December
through February, the ”coldest months," average l7.3°C,
while the hottest period, June through September, averages
27.4°C.

Because of the monsoon winds and the arrangement of
mountains, southern Taiwan as a whole receives less rainfall
than other parts of the island. Taiwan has an average
annual rainfall. of 2,610 mm, while the Chia-nan Plain
receives an average of only 1,500 mm annually. Furthermore,
this 1,500 mm of rainfall is unevenly distributed over the
twelve months of the year. Most of the precipitation, in
fact, 80 percent of the annual total, is concentrated
between the months of May and September, while the other
months are rather dry with a high-frequency of prolonged

drought.

 

30

Figure 3 is an annual precipitation record charted by
the Hsieh-chia Extension Station of the Taiwan Sugar Company
in 1970. Since the station is only four kilometers north
of Ying-ting village, the record could very well be taken
as the precipitation pattern of Ying-ting for that same
year. As we can see, the pattern of this particular year
corresponds closely to the general precipitation pattern

of the entire region as described above.

400nwn
350 349.9mm

300 mm
259...

200mm— 185.3mm

    
  

254.3mm

207mm 12.5mm
0mm-
o 0 110mm 7.7mm

 

 

zcncrnc>- _l CL
(TNT<IO_1<I‘§TDTQ‘IIBIC>DIBI
fim§<§fifi< 020

SE

Figure 3: Annual Precipitation Pattern,
Hsieh—Chia, Tainan, 1970.
Source: The Hsieh-Chia Exten-
sion Station, Taiwan Sugar
Company. ‘
Because of such a precipitation pattern, a well-
constructed irrigation system is almost indispensible for
any successful farmingzhi the area. As one geographer has

observed that "the dry season makes the region dusty and

dry. And, in the past it was difficult to cultivate any

31
crop" (Hsieh 1964:168).

B. Soil Types of the Chia-nan Plain

Three major types of soil are found in the Chia-nan
Plain: solonchak, planosol, and alluvial. They are dis—
tributed in three narrow strips arrayed next to each other
from the seashore to the foothills of the Central Mountains.
The solonchak strip runs north and south along the western
edge of the Plain. The next strip further inland is
planosol. Finally, along the foothills of the mountains,
the alluvial strip occurs.

Since the fields the Ying-ting villagers own and cul-
tivate are close to the coast, they are predominantly in
the solonchak soil zone. Therefore, it is necessary to
know the nature of this soil and how it is related to the
agricultural activities of the area.

The solonchak of the Chia—nan Plain was formed through
the action of salts in the sea water and those released from
the base-bearing parent rocks (Hsieh 1964:94). Because of
its high salt content, this soil is not very suitable for
most cr0ps. To be successfully cultivated, the land must
be irrigated to minimize the injurious effect of the soluble
salts. High in salt content, solonchak soil is also
notorious for its low content of organic matter, another
detriment to agricultural productivity. To counteract this
problem, the peasants must use green manure extensively in

their fields to develop a level of organic matter conducive

32

to a successful crop.

C. Irrigation Facility

Because of its unevenly distributed rainfall and salty
soil, the Chia-nan Plain must be irrigated for any signifi—
cant agricultural development. Before the construction of
the Chia—nan Irrigation System, most of the land in this

area was labelled kan-tien-t'en, literally, the field that

 

depends on the heaven. After planting, natural rainfall was
the primary source of water. If there was no rain, or if

it rained heavily in a short period of time, usually within
one or two days, drainage problems and damaged crOps were
also likely. Although hundreds of small dams and ponds
privately constructed and owned were used to regulate the
water supply, they could control only a limited area and
their efficiency was low.

Such a situation was changed to a certain extent
after the construction of the Chia—nan Irrigation System.
Soon after taking control over Taiwan and restoring polit—
ical order, the Japanese Colonial Government launched a
project to study the developmental possibilities of Taiwan.
Teams of specialists were sent throughout the island to
study different aSpects of its agricultural potential.
Those specialists determined that Chia-nan Plain, because
it was the largest plain on the island, would be the most
suitable region for agricultural development. They further

decided that the production of sugar cane in the area could

33

be largely increased if an irrigation system were provided
(cf. Grajdanzev 1942:57058). Based on these studies, the
colonial government started the construction of the Chia-
nan system in 1920 and completed it ten years later. Since
its completion in 1930 this irrigation network has had two
water sources: the Tseng—wen River and the Cho—shui River.
The water from these two rivers is first conducted into two
separate reservoirs. Then, it is released to the farms
through rivers, their tributaries, canals, and ditches.

The capacity of the two reservoirs, however, was not suf—
ficient to irrigate the entire Chia-nan Plain on a year—
round basis. Thus, a three-year—crop-rotation system was
designed and implemented.

The so—called three-year-crop-rotation system oper-
ates in the following way. The land to be irrigated by
these two reservoirs is divided into many small areas.

Each area is approximately 150 hectares in size, and is
further subdivided into three cropping zones. In any given
year, only one of the three cropping zones in each small
area is supplied with enough water for one crop of wet-
rice. Another cropping zone is irrigated briefly on two
separate occasions so that it can be used for sugar cane
farming. The third cropping zone of each small area is

not irrigated with the water from these reservoirs but is
left to depend entirely on the natural precipitation for
its water supply. Therefore, it can only be used for grow-

ing sweet potatoes and other drought resistent crops. In

34
the following year, the water is directed to those crop-
ping zones that were used as sugar cane fields in the
previous year, so that the land can be turned into paddies
for wet-rice cultivation. In the meantime, the dry-land
cropping area of previous year is irrigated briefly on two
occasions so that it is now turned into sugar cane fields.
Last year's wet-rice paddies receive no water from the
irrigation canal and become the dry-land crop areas. Such
a system, which rotates the use of the limited irrigation
water, takes three years to run its course. This system,
therefore, necessitates the annual change of crOps in each
of the cropping zones.

It is exactly because of this particular way of dis-
tributing the irrigation water that the Chia—nan Plain earns
its name as the "three-year-crop-rotation area." It is
also because of the control of water supply that sugar cane,
a crop that takes a longer time to mature and gives a lower
cash return as compared to wet-rice, is still cultivated by
the peasants in this area.

The majority of the fields that the Ying—ting vil-
lagers own and cultivate are scattered around the village
settlement. All are within the Ying-ting Small Area and,
like the other farms in this region, are divided into three
cropping zones. Although there are three fish ponds within
the village, they are too small to have any significance
for irrigation. In other words, all the fields that Ying—

ting villagers cultivate depend upon the water supplied and

35

controlled by the Chia-nan Irrigation Station.

Like all the villagers in the southern portion of
the Chia-nan Plain, Ying-ting is served by the Wu-shan-tou
Reservoir. Starting in early June and lasting each year
to late September or early October, the water of this res-
ervoir is released to its main canals which are connected
with almost all of the farmsteads in the region by irriga—
tion ditches or small rivers. During this period, the
irrigation water released is intended to be used only in the
wet-rice cropping zones in each of the small areas. The
supervision of the distribution of such irrigation water is
in the hands of various local irrigation stations. In
Ying—ting's case, the Chia—li Irrigation Station decides
when and how much water each farmstead will receive. A few
days before the coming of the irrigation water, people who
own lands in the wet—rice cropping zone are notified by the
village representative to the Irrigation Association of the
time their land is scheduled to be irrigated. When the time
comes, the landowner has to be present for he is expected
to break the embankment of the irrigation ditch and divert
the water into his plot. When his time is up, he is also
expected to close the embankment so that his neighbors
farther down the irrigation stream can draw their water in
turn. After the first irrigation, the water is supplied
periodically throughout the entire growing season of the
crop. Except for those years when water is exceptionally

abundant, the release of irrigation water is tightly

36

controlled by the officials at the Irrigation Station, and
peasants are expected to draw their water only within the
time scheduled for them.

Besides supplying water to the wet-rice cropping zones
between June and October of each year, the reservoir also
releases some water on two different occasions, once in
late November or early December and again in March or April.
This water is intended for the sugar cane cropping zones in
all the small areas. Each occasion lasts only for fifteen
days for the entire small area, however, and each plot can
be irrigated only once for a rather brief period of time.

For example, in April 1970, each 0.1 chia of land in the
Ying—ting small area was allowed to be irrigated only for
30 minutes.2

As we have seen from the above, people in Ying-ting
do not have the right to determine the amount of water they
can use to irrigate their fields. Furthermore, they are not
responsible for the maintenance of the irrigation facility.
All the jobs regarding the planning and construction as well
as the maintenance of the irrigation networks are in the
hands of the officials employed at the Irrigation Station.
The only time peasants in Ying—ting are involved with the
maintenance of irrigation networks is when they are hired

by the Irrigation Station to work for the construction or

 

2Each "chia” equals 2.396 acres. Thus, 0.1 chia
is equivalent to 0.239 acre.

 

37

maintenance crew.

III. Settlement History

 

Like most rural communities in the western coastal
area of Taiwan, Ying-ting was first populated by Han Chinese
during Koxinga's occupation of Taiwan (1662—1683). Although
there is no authoritative historical document that could be
used to reconstruct the village's history, legends, gene-
alogies, and local gazetteers all indicate that Ying-ting
was first developed during Koxinga's period. For example,
the name of the village, Ying-ting, literally means “the
upper camp,” suggesting that the settlement was first
started as a garrison post of Koxinga's army. During his
reign in Taiwan, Koxinga had his army stationed all over
the west coast in small garrison groups. These groups of
soldiers were ordered to engage in agricultural production
while training themselves and carrying out garrison duty.
These soldiers and their families were the ones who devel-
oped many new villages in various regions of Taiwan,
Ying-ting being one of them.

The people who live in Ying—ting today, however, are
not the descendants of those military men, the first Han
Chinese to populate the village. The Chuang surname people,
who make up the majority of the present day population,
came to Ying—ting about 30 years after Koxinga's regime
was defeated by the Ch'ing government and Taiwan was

incorporated into the Ch'ing empire. In 1683, shortly after

38
the Ch'ing government gained control over Taiwan, civil-
ians from mainland China were prohibited from immigrating
to Taiwan. When this prohibition was lifted in the early
eighteenth century, though, Taiwan began to receive a
second wave of migrants who came across the Taiwan Strait
from Fukien and Kwangtung provinces, where, the pressures
of population were high and people frequently went abroad
to find themselves a more promising home in Southeast
Asia or Taiwan. Among this second wave of migrants were
the ancestors of the Ying-ting villagers.

According to Mr. T. H. Chuang, an eighty-two year
old elder and the formal village mayor, who spends most of
his retired days compiling the genealogy of the Chuang
people in Ying—ting, their ancestors were from Lung-Ch'i
County, Fukien Province. They came to Taiwan around 1710,
and first resided at Yung-kang, a place near Tainan city.
Later, when more brothers and lineage mates came from
home to join these first migrants, they moved north and
settled in Hsi-kang, a place halfway between Tainan city
and Ying-ting village. After a generation or so, when
these families had grown larger and needed more land to
farm, they moved further north to Ying-ting, where more
land was available, though it was less fertile than the
land to the south.

A few decades after the Chuangs settled in Ying—ting,
a few Ssu families arrived but they separated themselves

from the Chuangs and resided in the northeast corner of

39
the village. The settlement these Ssu people developed is
still very discrete. Although it is only less than 300
feet away from the Chuang's settlement, it is surrounded
by fields and fenced by a circle of bamboo. This bamboo-
fenced compound was named Tin—tou-Ssu, meaning the ”upper
Ssu,” in order to differentiate it from the settlement of
another group of Ssu people who moved in some years later
and settled on the southern edge of the village.

The second group of Ssu people that now live in the
southern edge do not relate to the upper Ssu of the north
nor have they ever tried to establish any fictive kinship
with them. They are a small branch of the Ssu lineage of
Chia—li-hsin. Their settlement in the southern edge of
Ying—ting started with a few small, flimsy field huts,
which they built as a resting place while guarding their
crops or tending the fields. These huts were later enlarged
and constructed into houses when the owners decided to move
out of Chia-li—hsin and settle in Ying-ting so that they
could save the trouble of coming back and forth between
their houses in Chia—li—hsin and their lands. To differ—
entiate it from the Ssu settlement in the north, this small
compound was called Nan—pien—Ssu, or ”the southern Ssu."
The initial arrival of the southern Ssu happened compara—
tively recently, about one hundred years ago. Not until
the Second World War, however, when life was hard and people
had to skip many ceremonial activities, did the southern

Ssu stop going back to Chia—li—hsin to participate in the

4O
ceremony of ancestor worship, thus terminating ritual ties

with their lineage mates of Chia—li-hsin.

IV. The Village Population and Its
Characteristics

 

 

According to the household registration records kept
at the Public Office of Chia—li township, 1060 individuals
lived in 177 separate households in Ying-ting village in
1970. As Gallin pointed out (1966:305), some information
found in the household registration records kept by various
public offices of Taiwan is questionable and sometimes
even misleading; the records of Ying-ting village are no
exception. After a house—to—house survey, I found that
there were only 842 persons living in 159 households in the
village, which was 218 persons and eighteen households less
that the official figure. Some of the people whose names
appeared in the official records were no longer living in
the village; some families that were registered as two units
were actually still living together as one household.

Reasons for such discrepancies vary. The most common
one is that the villagers do not care to take the trouble
to report changes to the Public Office. If the villagers
fail to report promptly, such changes can only be register—
ed when the government conducts its periodic checks of the
household registration; these usually take place once
every two or three years.

The population of Ying-ting was quite stable during

41

my fourteen-month study. Of course, deaths occurred and
brides married out of the village, but births and brides
marrying into the village counteracted the losses, keep-
ing the total number of residents close to 842.

Excluding those 218 individuals who no longer live
in the village but still are officially registered as
residents, Ying—ting has a pOpulation of 842 persons
living in 159 households. Thus, the average size of a
household is 5.29 persons. Those whose names are on the
records but who live elsewhere in Taiwan are mostly concen-
trated in the big cities of the island where they or their
relatives have jobs.

More than 218 people have left Ying—ting during the
last twenty years. Many villagers who moved also had
their household registration transferred to their new res-
idences. This latter group can be further divided into two
subgroups according to whether the people continue to re—
tain any significant ties with the village community or
not. The first subgroup consists of those migrants who
moved, no longer registered their names in the village,
but still have some contacts there. They retain their ties
mainly by owning property, usually land and houses, by hav-
ing family members in the village. The second subgroup
consists of those persons who moved out of the village, no
longer registered in it, and ceased to maintain any signi—

ficant link with their original home place.

42

The following table shows the numbers of households
that have moved out of the village in the last twenty years.
It divides these migrants into two groups based on whether
they still maintain any significant connection with the
village or not. As we can see from Table l, a direct cor—
relation exists between migrants' maintenance of household
registration in the village and their continued contact with
the community. There are 37 households (218 persons) that
have moved but still register in the village and also have
some property or family members (usually aged parents)
there. On the other hand, 21 households (consisting of
143 persons) have left who are no longer registered in Ying-
ting. Among them, only four households maintain connections
with the community. Two of the four have very small amounts
of land in the village and the other two have family members
still living in Ying-Ting.

As we will see in Chapter Four and again in the final
chapter, the out—migration of these villagers was mainly due
to the ecological condition of this area. The agricultural
activity was no longer able to absorb all the village pro-
duction forces. Furthermore, the recent industrial develop-
ment of Taiwan has also prompted such out-migration to a
certain extent by providing new employment Opportunity in
the city.

Several basic facts about Ying—ting's pOpulation can

be derived from the figures shown in Table 2 and Figure 4.

43

Table l

Migrants and Their Contacts with the Village

 

 

Group I Group II
Households still Households no
registered in longer registered
Ying-ting in Ying-ting
No. of households 37 (218 persons) 21 (143 persons)

 

No. of households
that have property 9 2
left in the village

 

No. of households

that have property
and family members
left in the village

18 0

 

No. of households that
have family members
(parents and/or 10 2
children) left in the
village

 

 

 

The following chart presents some other characteris-
tics of the community's population. Table 2 and Figure 4
show the age groups of the village population in 1970.
First, the village population is relatively young. PeOple
under the age of 19 account for slightly more than half
(50.9 percent) of the entire population. Second, the age
group from 0-4 years is remarkably smaller than the groups
from 5-9 and 10-14, and even smaller than the 15-19 year
group. One explanation for this phenomenon is the increas-

ing number of married women practicing birth control.

 

44

Table 2
Age Groups by Sex and Percentage of the Population

in Ying—Ting, 1970

 

 

Male Female Total
Number % Number % Number

0-4 44 5.2 42 5.0 86 10.
5-9 57 6.8 55 6.5 112 13.
10—14 68 8.1 62 7.4 130 15.
15-19 59 7.0 41 4.9 100 11.
20—24 9 1.1 32 3.8 41 4.
25-29 20 2.4 23 2.7 43 5.
30-34 19 2.3 19 2.3 38 4.
35-39 25 3.0 27 3.2 52 6.
40-44 18 2.1 24 2.8 42 4.
45-49 15 1.8 17 2.0 32 3.
50-54 12 1.4 23 2.7 35 4.
55—59 17 2.0 17 2.0 34 4.
60-64 22 2.6 25 2.9 47 5.
65-69 11 1.2 6 0.7 17 1.
70—74 5 0.6 8 1.0 13 1.
75—79 5 0.6 7 0.8 12 l.
80-over 4 0.5 4 0.5 8 1.

Total 410 48.7 432 51.2 842

x

99.

45

AGE ‘
BO-over _11
75-79
70—74
65—69
60—6A
55-59 _______.
SO-BA
us—Ag
Ao-AA
MALE 35-39 FEMALE
30-3A
25-29
20-2u
15—19
10-14

5-9

o-u

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

Figure 4
Population Pyramid by Age Groups, Sex, and Percentage
Source: Data from Table 2
Although birth control was introduced to the Taiwanese rural
population many years ago, it has only been widely accepted
by the peasants in the past few years. Another possible
pertinent factor is the increasing rural—to—urban migration,

especially the out—migration of those married couples who

46
are still of child—bearing age. Third, in terms of the
total population the sex ratio between female and male is
100:94.9 (female = 100). While most of the age groups
comply with this general ratio, the 20-24 year group dif-
fers sharply, having thirty—two females but only nine males.
The reason for such a striking difference lies in the fact
that males are subject to military draft when they reach
the age of twenty. If we had included those 27 draftees
who were serving in different services when this study was
conducted, there would have been 38 males and 32 females
in this particular group, making the sex ratio 100:118.7,
a reverse of the general pattern. This reversal does not
reflect a drastic change in the female birth rate twenty
to twenty-four years ago, though.

The girls of this age group, if unmarried, usually
migrate to the cities for jobs. If they become factory
workers, they usually live in the factory dormitory,
registering in the cities where they work. Thus, they
would be counted as out-migrants.

From a short-term point of view, draftees should
not be excluded from the village population because they
usually return to the village after two or three years of
military service. From a long-term view, however, they
should be excluded, because military conscription has been
in practice for almost twenty years and is not expected

to end in the foreseeable future. Thus, the village

47
population should continue to show a relatively small
number of males in the 20-24 year age group. This phenom-
enon has some impact on the labor recruitment for farming
tasks which will be discussed in the chapter on agricul-

tural practices.

CHAPTER THREE

AGRICULTURAL PROCESS

 

Although not all of the households in Ying-ting
live off the land, agricultural production still provides
a livelihood for the majority of the villagers. Among the
159 households living in Ying—ting in 1969—1971, 27 can
be classified as nonagricultural in occupation. In other
words, they predominantly derive their income from sources
other than agricultural activity. These include: (a) ten
households of old and retired villagers living on remit-
tances sent by their migrant sons in the cities, or on the
rents they collect from leasing their land; (b) ten house-
holds that earn their living from business activities such
as the village store, barber shops, bakeries, and peddling
fish and vegetables; (c) six households whose heads are
factory workers; and (d) one household whose head is the
principal of a public school.

The remaining 132 households derive their income
either entirely or partially from agricultural activities
(see Table 3). Therefore, a study of the agricultural
practices of the Ying-ting villagers seems to be a good
starting point in our attempt to understand their economic

activities.

48

49

Table 3

Major Sources of Household Income

 

Number of
Households

 

Farming 26

Farming 8 Wages Earned
as Agricultural Labor 63

Farming 8 Wages Earned
as Store Clerk 5

Farming 8 Waoes Earned
as Skilled Labor 7

Farming and Business A

Farming 8 Salaries Earned
as Government Worker 13

Wages Earned as Agricultural
Day Labor lh

Wages Earned as Factory Worker 6
Government Worker 1

Rent, Remittance, and

other sources 10
Business IO
Total l59

 

I. A Brief History 9f Agricultural Development
9f the Chia-nan Plain Region

 

 

Because of the climatic conditions, i.e., high temper-
atures, unevenly distributed rainfall, and a lack of suf-
ficient irrigation facilities, the entire Chia-nan Plain in-

cluding the Ying-ting village, is not suitable for wet-rice

50
cultivation. It can be used only for dry land crops such as
sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and dry-rice. No historical
record reveals when sugar cane farming and the sugar indus-
try began in this area. Since the Taiwanese originally
living in this region, however, were migrants from Fukien
Province, one of the most important sugar cane producing
areas of China, they probably brought cane farming and
sugar manufacturing technologies with them when they migra—
ted to Taiwan in the seventeenth century or earlier.

When Southern Taiwan (Ying-ting village and the
entire Chia-nan Plain included) was occupied by the Dutch
from 1624-1661, the Dutch colonial government found sugar
cane widely cultivated in the area and sugar manufacturing
already well—deveIOped. Knowing that sugar was a highly
demanded and exportable commodity, the Dutch government
encouraged the natives to plant sugar cane by constructing
irrigation canals and providing financial aids for cane
farmers. As a consequence, cane farming, well—adapted to
the natural environmental conditions anyhow, began to
develop systematically as the basic means of utilizing the
land (cf. Chen 1950:160—62).

Although the Dutch were driven away from Taiwan in
1661, the cane farming and sugar exportation system they
encouraged and helped develop were maintained and expanded
by Koxinga, who succeeded them in ruling Taiwan. By the
time the Ch'ing Empire defeated Koxinga's regime and

incorporated Taiwan into itself, sugar cane farming and

51

sugar manufacturing had become the most important enter-
prise of the area. By the beginning of the eighteenth
century, the annual production of sugar from this region
has been estimated to have reached 18,000 metric tons, an
amount worth 200,000 to 300,000 taels of silver (Chen
1950:169-70). Thus, we have good reason to believe that
in the period between the seventeenth and nineteenth
centuries, Ying—ting and other rural communities in the
general area were pOpulated by peasants who cultivated
sweet potatoes and dry-rice as their major food staples
and sugar cane as the major cash crop.

During the early phase of the Japanese occupation of
Taiwan, sugar cane farming in the Chia-nan region and
sugar manufacturing in Taiwan underwent a drastic change.
One of the Japanese colonial government's major policies
was to develop Taiwan's agriculture so as to make it the
provider of sugar, rice, and other agricultural raw
materials for the industrializing mother country (cf.
Ginsburg 1953:24). With such a policy as the general guide-
line, Japanese scientists conducted a number of research
projects to ascertain Taiwan's agricultural potential.
Among other things, they found that the Chia-nan Plain,
especially the region in Tainan County, was the most
suitable place for sugar cane cultivation provided that
(a) better varieties of sugar cane could be introduced to
the farmers, (b) modern sugar refinery could be established,

and (c) a large-scale irrigation facility could be

52
constructed (cf. The Bank of Taiwan 1956:103).

The Japanese colonial government followed these recom-
mendations literally. Starting in early 1900, it introduced
varieties of sugar cane from Hawaii and Java to the Taiwanese
peasants. It also encouraged Japanese capitalists to build
modern sugar refineries in Taiwan to replace those native-
owned and operated, old—fashioned sugar mills. Furthermore,
it initiated and completed a large-scale irrigation network,
the Chia-nan Irrigation System, as a result of the recom-
mendations of the earlier agricultural surveys. After the
completion of the irrigation system, the colonial authority
introduced a mixed—crop rotation system, reinforcing it by
regulating the irrigation water.

After the completion of the irrigation system and the
establishment of the mixed-crop rotation system, the agri—
cultural pattern of Ying—ting and the entire Chia—nan
Plain became quite formalized. It became a regulated mix-
ed-cropping region that provided sugar cane for the Japanese-
monOpolized sugar industry plus sweet potatoes and dry-
rice for the peasants' subsistence. Although the Japanese
colonization of Taiwan ended in 1945, the agricultural
pattern they implemented has remained largely unchanged
because this pattern was not directly reinforced by polit-
ical forces as such but, rather, by state control and
manipulation of the limited irrigation facility. In fact,
there has not been any large-scale improvement of the

irrigation facility in this area since the completion of

53

the Chia-nan Irrigation System in 1930. Thus, the mixed
crop rotation system has remained up to the time when this
study was conducted. To be sure, this does not mean that
there has not been any technological change in the agri-
cultural processes during the past 30 years. Quite to the
contrary, over the years peasants in this area have been
constantly introduced to new seeds, fertilizers, and farm-
ing techniques. What I wish to indicate is merely that
the general pattern of land utilization, especially as it
concerns the irrigation facilities currently available to

the peasants, has remained largely unchanged since 1930.

II. The Mixed Crop Rotation System

 

As I already indicated, the most distinctive feature
of the agricultural practices of Ying-ting village is the
crop rotation system which the peasants adOpted in order to
adjust to the government-controlled, limited irrigation
facility. In order to have a good understanding of the
agricultural activities of this area, we have to become
familiar with the rotation system, how it works, and how
it affects the peasants' economic activity.

When the Chia—nan Irrigation System was completed,
the two reservoirs could only provide water continuously
for an area of 50,000 hectares. Yet the entire cultivated
area on the Chia-nan Plain was close to 150,000 hectares.
In other words, the capacity of these two reservoirs could

Only irrigate one—third of the Chia-nan Plain on a

54
year-round basis, and only this one-third of the plain
could be used to cultivate two crops of wet-rice each year.

As a result, the Japanese colonial government was
confronted with the problem of how to allocate the limited
water resources. They had two alternatives. First, the
government could have restricted the irrigation area to
the capacity of the two reservoirs, i.e., 50,000 hectares
of land, and let the farmsteads within this area receive
water on a continuous basis, allowing the peasants to
utilize the land for wet-rice cultivation. The second
choice would be to expand the irrigation networks to every
farmstead on the Chia-nan Plain, covering the entire 150,000
hectares, and to adopt a rotation system so that each
farmstead would get enough water for wet—rice cultivation
only once every three years.

The government abandoned the first alternative be-
cause it contradicted the original rationale for building
the irrigation system, i.e., to increase the productivity
of sugar cane in the Chia—nan Plain. Should the water be
supplied only to an area of 50,000 hectares on a year-
round basis, the peasants who owned these fully-irrigated
lands would undoubtedly become full—time wet-rice farmers
and forget about the less profitable sugar cane, which
they had been growing only because there was not enough
irrigation water to turn their lands into rice paddies. In

addition to the problem of losing these 50,000 hectares of

55

land to wet-rice, the remaining 100,000 hectares would re-
ceive no irrigational improvement at all. Although there
would be no need to worry about the competition between
wet-rice and sugar cane, increased productivity of sugar
cane planted in the 100,000 unirrigated hectares would be
unlikely, despite the introduction of new seeds and ferti-
lizers. Thus, all things considered, to restrict the
irrigation water to one-third of the Chia-nan Plain would
have been detrimental to the goal of increasing the pro—
duction of sugar cane in the region. It was under such a
situation that the Japanese government decided, in 1930,
to extend the irrigation canals into every farmstead in
the Chia—nan Plain and to implement a rotating irrigation
system.

In order to distribute the water as evenly as possible,
the Japanese divided the entire Chia-nan Plain into nearly
one thousand small areas of 150 hectares. Furthermore, each
small area was subdivided into three cropping zones,
approximately 50 hectares each. Under the rotating system,
the water was supplied to one of the three cropping zones
in a given year and a farmer was allowed to use the irri-
gated land to cultivate wet-rice. As noted earlier, the
second cropping zone of each small area was irrigated on
two brief occasions and was designated for sugar cane. The
third cropping zone would not be irrigated in the same year;

thus, only sweet potatoes and other dryland crops that could

56

sustain themselves on the natural rainfall could be planted.

In the next year, the second cropping zone of each small

area (the one used for sugar cane the previous year) would

receive irrigation water for wet-rice cultivation, the

third cropping zine would become the sugar cane zone, and

the first cropping zone would become the dryland crop zone.

The entire rotation system would take three years to com—

plete its cycle.

Table 4

(For clarity see Table 4.)

The Idealized Three—Year-CrOp Rotation System

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zone I Zone 11 Zone 111
lst Year 'Will be irrigated Will be irrigated Will not be irrigated
frequently. The periodically. The The land will be used
land will be used land will be used for sweet potato or
fer paddy rice. for sugar cane. other dryland crops.
2nd Year ‘Will not be irri- Will be irrigated 'Will be irrigated
gated. The land frequently. The periodically. The
will be used for land will be used land will be used for
sweet potato or for paddy rice. sugar cane.
other dryland
crops.
3rd Year 'Will be irrigated ‘Will not be irri— Will be irrigated
periodically. The gated. The land frequently. The land
land will be used will be used for will be used for
for sugar cane. sweet potato or paddy rice.
other dryland
crops.
The rotation system described above has frequently been refer-
red to as the "sugar cane, rice, and sweet potato three-year—crop-

rotation-system.”

When it is referred to in this way, people often

57

think that each of the three crOps is being planted for the
same length of time in each of the three cropping zones dur-
ing the three-year cycle. The system operates quite differ—
ently from what its name might imply, however, because
different crops require different lengths of time to mature,
the time they occupy the land also differs. For example,
let us examine the following chart (Figure 5) and see how
the time of the three-year cycle is being allocated for the

various crops.

 

 

 

 

JFMAMJJASONDJFMAMJJASONDJFMAMJJASOND
AEAPAUUUECOEAEAPAUUUECOEAEAPAUUUECOE
NBRRYNLGPTVCNBRRYNLGPTVCNBRRYNLGPTVC
lst
SP DR SC B WR SP
Lu 4
Z
med
3 SC B WR SP DR SC
: ._
CL
gg3rd
° sc B WR SP DR sc
B -BEANS SC-SUGAR CANE
DR-DRY RICE SP-SWEET POTATO
WR-WET RICE
Figure 5

The Three-Year—Crop Rotation System as Seen
in Ying-ting, 1968-71

As Figure 5 indicates, during the three-year cycle
in each of the cropping zones, eighteen months are needed
to grow one crop of sugar cane. These eighteen months are

generally referred to as the "sugar cane year," although

 

58
they actually cover one and one—half calendar years. During
this period, the cropping zone undergoes two brief irriga—
tions, one in mid-November to early December when the cane
is two to three months Old, and the second sometime between
March and April when the cane is six to seven months Old and
the first weeding has been completed. Shortly after the
sugar cane is harvested in February or March Of the third
year, the land is planted with some short term crops. The
most popular crops being cultivated in recent years are mung
beans and a special variety Of watermelon cultivated not for
the melon itself but for the seeds it contains.1 Beans or
the "seed melon” are harvested in June, and then the field
is ready for wet—rice. Between June and October Of the
third year, the cropping zone is irrigated frequently so
that the crOp of wet-rice can be cultivated. The eight
months between March and October, when field is used for
mung beans or the "seed melon” and one crop of wet-rice,
are generally called the ”wet—rice year."

After the wet—rice is harvested, the land is pre-
pared for sweet potatoes, which are planted in late October
and harvested in April Of the following year. When the
sweet potatoes are harvested, the field is used for another
dryland crop, such as dry-rice or jute. These crops take

approximately four months to mature and are harvested in

 

1After the harvest of this melon, the seeds are col—
lected and dried. They will later be sold to candy shops
for the making of kua-tze, a special seed that Chinese are
very fond of.

 

59

late August or early September. When the land is being
used for one crop of sweet potatoes and one crop of dry-
rice or jute, the period is generally referred to as the
"sweet potato. year," although it lasts only ten months.
When the so—called "sweet potato year” is over, the whole
rotation cycle starts anew with a new planting of sugar
cane.

Because of the crop rotation system and the divi-
sion of the farmsteads into three different cropping zones,
the work schedules found among peasants in Ying-ting vil-
lage are highly diversified. Each household's work sched-
ule might differ from its neighbors' simply because its
lands are located in different cropping zones. The
peasants' work schedules in a mixed cropping village like
Ying-ting are quite different from those Of the wet-rice
farmers in central-andrmnthernlaiwan. Wet-rice farmers
usually have a rather unified work schedule, all being very
busy at the same time in preparing the land, transplant-
ing the rice seedlings, and weeding or harvesting. Also,
they enjoy together the brief slack season when no work
need be done in their rice paddies. Such a unified work
SChedule found in the full—time, wet—rice farming commun-
ities implies that although there will be seasonal under-
employment, the rice farmers must stay very close to their
farms to be able to carry out the farm work in time. If

a man can farm 0.5 chia of rice paddies and the community

 

60
has 300 chia, then there must be 600 working men in the
community for it to have a self-sufficient labor supply.

The situation is quite different in a mixed crOp-
ing village like Ying-ting village. Here the land is
divided into three cropping zones and each zone is planted
with different crops all the time. This means that the
working schedule of each cropping zone will be different.
Thus, a peasant in Ying-ting would be able to tend more
than 0.5 chia of land provided he has his land divided
into two or three Of the cropping zones and varies his
working schedules. By keeping his land in different crop-
ping zones, a peasant can tend different crops in different
months of the year, thereby minimizing the seasonal under-
employment that is so commonly found in a wet-rice farming
community.

Because of this ecological factor, i.e., the mixed
cropping system, the Chia-nan Plain region has been
constantly "pushing" out its rural populations to the big
cities Of Taiwan. This has been true not only in recent
years but also long before the industrialization Of Taiwan
gained its momentum in the 1960's and began to absorb man-
power from its rural areas.

Another phenomenon directly related to the mixed
cropping system is the greater ease in finding temporary
help in Ying-ting or other mixed-cropping villages than in

a full-time wet—rice farming community. The practice Of

 

61
the mixed crOpping system, especially the cultivation of
sugar cane—-a crop which takes eighteen months to mature
and does not require much care after it is planted—-
together with the fact that not all villagers in Ying—ting
own land in all of the three cropping zonesZ makes it
easier for villagers to find temporary help if they need
it. Since the land in Ying-ting is divided into three
crOpping zones and each zone will be planted with differ-
ent crops in any given time, peasants who own land in
different zones will have different work schedules. For
example, Mr. Chuang, who owns land in all three Of the
cropping zones in the Ying-ting small area, was very busy
harvesting sweet potatoes from his plots located in Zone 111
in May, 1970. Two days after harvesting the sweet potatoes,
he had to begin plowing his land to prepare it for plant-
ing jute. On top Of all of this work, Mr. Chuang and his
family were harvesting mung beans from their land in Zone
11. While the Chuangs were busy from dawn to dark during
those days in May, his next door neighbor, Mr. Ssu, who
only owns land in Zone I (planted with sugar cane in that
particular year), had nothing to do on his land. In a
situation like this, should Mr. Chuang need some extra

hands to help in his busy schedule he can always approach

 

 

2Among the 159 households in Ying- ting, 140 of
them own some land in the Ying- ting small area. Of these
140 households, only 42 own land in all three of the crop-
Ping zones, 34 Own land in two Of the three cropping zones,
While 64 have all their lands located in one cropping
zone

 

' ‘g;

62
Mr. Ssu or some other villager who has a similarly lax

schedule.

111. Agricultural Calendar

 

In order to describe fully the mixed-crop—rotation
system and how it affects the work schedules of the peas—
ants in Ying—ting, let us examine the work schedule of
Mr. Ssu for the period between January and December, 1970.
We have chosen Mr. Ssu's schedule because: (1) Mr. Ssu
is a full—time peasant whose income is derived from farm—
ing and raising pigs; and (5) Mr. Ssu has 1.7 chia of land,
which is almost equally distributed in the three cropping
zones. Thus, by following his work schedule, we can learn
what needs to be done in each of the cropping zones in
each of the twelve months.

Additional farm work besides that we have recorded
in the calendar has to be done in other places. For ex—
ample, when the jute is harvested in September, the skins
peeled from the stalks have to be soaked in water for
two or three days. After soaking, the useless parts of
the skin will have rotted and can easily be washed away.
Then the fibers have to be dried before the jute can be
sold to the purchasing agent of the local Farmer's Associ—
ation. Also, after the harvesting of wet-rice, the stalks
have to be dried and transported back to the house where

they will be stored and used as cooking fuel.

 

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69
Not all the peasants in Ying—ting have as busy a year
as does Mr. Ssu. Some of them have all of their land lo-
cated in Zone I and thus have a rather "slow” year. These
are the people who work on the cane harvest team organized
by the Local Representative Of the Taiwan Sugar Company.
Also, some Of them organize themselves into a team to

transplant and harvest wet-rice for other villagers.

IV. pgpgp

Although most peasant households in Ying-ting can pro-
vide the labor forces needed to tend their fields in a
routine manner, all of them need outside laborers from time
to time. First, all of the cane farmers have to hire a
sugar harvest team to cut the cane for them regardless of
whether they can do the job themselves or not. Second, many
peasant households need extra hands to do the transplant-
ing and harvesting simply because such jobs have tO be
finished in a short period Of time.

Three major ways the villagers in Ying—ting can ac—
quire outside labor forces tO help them farm are: (a) to
engage themselves in a labor—exchange arrangement with
their fellow villagers; thus, one can work for others when
one has time to spare and have others work for oneself
when such help is needed; (b) tO hire individual workers
and pay them by the day; or (c) to hire a work team and let
them take care of the farm work, such as hiring a rice-

harvesting team and paying it by the size Of the field.

 

70

Labor exchange was popular in the past. Although it
is still practiced among households closely related, either
by kinship ties or friendship, this mode of acquiring out—
side help has been decreasing in popularity. Because Of
the mixed cropping system, different households tend to
have different work schedules, thus, if a peasant enters
such an exchange arrangement with his fellow villagers and
works for them for a number Of days, chances are he may
have to wait for months for those people to work for him,
simply because he may not need any help in his fields dur-
ing the season he works for other villagers. Such "delayed
payment" was not problematical in the past because villagers
had little other short—term employment, In the past fifteen
years, however, because of Taiwan's economic development,
many opportunities for such employment are available either
in the cities or in the market towns close to the village.
Facing the choice of working for labor exchange or cash,
most people tend to prefer the latter. Thus, nowadays,
even when working for their fellow villagers, the peasants
are usually paid in cash. Since participation in a labor
exchange arrangement is no longer favored, villagers have
to hire individuals workers or an entire work team, and
when they have spare time they can, in turn, hire them—
selves out or participate in a work team for cash.

Ying—ting has many such work teams. Some have ex-
isted for a long time while others are newly organized. The

following is a brief description of these work teams as they

 

71

were found in 1970.

A. The Sugar Cane Harvest Team

When a peasant in this area signs a contract with the
Taiwan Sugar Company (TSC) to plant sugar cane, among other
things he has to agree that when the cane is ready for har-
vest, it will be harvested by a team organized by the Local
Representative of the TSC. In other words, the cane farmer
has no right to cut his own cane even if he has the ability
to do so. (Cane harvesting is an extensive Operation, re—
quiring a large group Of people working together. As a
result, the average peasant household cannot furnish the
manpower needed to do the job.

Beginning in late November or early December each
year, the Local Representative Of the TSC starts recruiting
workers for the cane harvest team. The team consists Of
the following personnel: (a) a field foreman, whose job is
to supervise the entire field operation; (b) nine male cane
cutters, who use a special hoe particularly designed for
uprooting the cane, to cut the cane; (c) twenty-seven female
workers separated into nine units, each unit assigned to
work with one male cane cutter picking up the canes he up-
roots, slashing off the leaves and cutting each cane into two
halves, and packing them into bundles; (d) four cart drivers
who join the team with their own cows and carts. They drive
the carts to the harvest ground and pick up the bundles of

cane that the female workers have prepared and assembled,

 

72

then they drive to the village railroad station; (e) four
dock workers who unload the cane from the cow carts and
reload them on the railroad trucks which are driven to the
TSC's local refinery; (f) one service boy brings water for
the workers during their breaks and carries all the neces-
sary tools and equipment to the workers.

The entire team works from December to April of the
following year and is paid by the TSC according to the
amount of cane cut and transported. In the harvesting sea—
son between 1969-70, the average wage for each working day
was NT$853 for each male cutter, NT$35 for each female
worker, NT$180 for the cart drivers and their equipment,
NT$60 for the dock worker, and NT$25 for the service boy.
Although the wages were slightly lower than the going rate
for day labor in the area, the long—term employment made
such jobs quite attractive to the villagers.

People who participate in this work team, especial—
ly the male cane cutters, usually work for the team on a
permanent basis, i.e., year after year. All of them are
relatively poor in the community. They do not own much
land and depend largely on wages they earn as unskilled
laborers when not cutting cane for the TSC. The majority
of the female team workers in the 1969-70 season were
housewives from large households. That is, they either

had their mothers—in-law take care Of their housework or

 

3In 1969-70, the exchange rate between New Taiwan
Dollar (NT$) and U.S. Dollar was NT$40 to US$1.

73
they had daughters Old enough to fill in for them while
they were working for the team during the daytime. The
Local Representative has had difficulty recruiting young
female cane cutters in recent years. In the past, when few
factories were in the area, most girls stayed in the vil-
lage and were rather eager to work for the team. Nowadays,
most of the unmarried girls of the village work in the
local factories and are no longer available as cane cutters;
therefore, the Local Representative has to hire housewives

instead Of young girls.

B. Rice Transplanting Team

The pressure Of time is very great in wet—rice
cultivation. Once the seeds are sown, the seedlings have
to be transplanted from the seed bed to the paddies within
twenty-five days. Seedlings cannot be transplanted be-
fore they are fifteen days Old, however; otherwise,they will
not have a good chance Of surviving the transplantation.
Since the young seedlings cannot be left in the seed bed
for more than twenty-five days and cannot be transplanted
before they are fifteen days old, the peasants have only
a ten-day period for transplanting. The pressure Of time
is further heightened for the wet-rice cultivators in Ying—
ting, as well as those in other areas irrigated by the
Chia-nan Irrigation System, because each small area in this
region is allocated only twenty days to receive the irri-

gation water for rice transplanting. Thus, all the

 

74

peasants who are going to plant their fields with wet—rice
have to finish their land preparation, seedling—cultivation,
and transplanting within a short period of time. This
usually causes problems for families that do not have
enough manpower. There are always some peasants in Ying-
ting, however, whose land is not in the wet-rice cropping
zone during a particular season; thus, those who need extra
hands can approach those who have time. Previously, such
help could be arranged on a labor—exchange basis, i.e.,
one day's work for one day's work, or on a cash-for-the—
labor basis. As we have pointed out earlier, though, labor—
exchange as a pattern of procuring help is no longer popular
in this area. Villagers nowadays prefer to hire on a cash
basis and be hired in the same way.

To finish his work in time, a peasant who needs help
for transplanting the rice has to make arrangements early
in the season so that he can have a sufficiently large
labor force to work for him when the water comes. If a
peasant needs five men to work for him, for example, he
has to approach each Of them and find a date suitable not
only to the irrigation schedule but also to all of his
five prospective helpers' schedules. The peasant who needs
help, then, has to allow time for arranging such schedules.
Though the task is not necessarily difficult, it neverthe—
less requires planning and negotiating. Not infrequently,
peasants must spend a great deal of time seeking out and

approaching prospective helpers.

 

 

75

A new type of work team has recently been organized
in response to the increasing difficulty of finding labor
for rice transplanting. A few years ago, two Chuang
brothers began to recruit into two rice transplanting teams
villagers who owned less land and had more time than most
to hire themselves out as day laborers. They then asked
prospective clients well in advance of the season whether
they would like to hire from them an entire team to do the
transplanting. Having solicited enough work orders, they
arranged a schedule for each of the two teams in accordance
with the irrigation schedule and the location of the paddy
fields. They would then notify the prospective clients of
the date of the transplanting so that the clients would
have enough time to get the seedlings and paddy fields ready.
The brothers set their fee according to the size of the
paddy field. For example, in 1970 they charged NT$90.00
per each 0.1 chia Of land plus lunch provided by the land—
owner, or NT$120.00 without lunch.

In 1970 two such teams worked in Ying-ting. Each
team had eleven members, one foreman and ten workers. Dur—
ing the season, they worked for their fellow villagers, and
also for peasants from the neighboring villages who had
lands near Ying-ting. The money each team earned was
divided among the workers according to the rate they had
agreed upon. Again, let us use the example observed in

1970. For organizing the team, soliciting work orders, and

 

 

76

arranging work schedules, the organizer of each team, i.e.,
each of the two Chuang brothers, was awarded 5% Of his
team's total earnings. The remaining 95% was divided among
the team's eleven members according to two different pay
rates. Each female worker was paid only three-quarters Of
what a male co-worker was paid.

Although these work teams are seasonal, only working
together for some twenty days during the rice planting sea—
son, the team tends to regroup itself each year, maintaining
a stable membership. Since their first appearance seven
years ago, only three workers have dropped out of the two
teams. One of them was drafted into the army, the second
found a job in Kaohsiung and moved, and the last one, a
female worker, married and moved to another village.

That the membership of these two work teams has been
rather stable over the past years warrants a closer look
into the interpersonal relationships Of the co-workers.
First of all, we found that, with only two exceptions, all
the workers were members Of the Chuang lineage. Second,
these workers were all from rather poor families. They
owned little land, or none at all, and needed to supple-
ment their family's income. Lastly, and perhaps most
importantly, each worker in these teams considered himself
to be on good terms with all his co-workers. All said they
were good friends or good neighbors and enjoyed the com—
panionship Of their fellow co—workers. They spent time

together even when they were not working as a team.

 

77
Ever since these two teams were formed, villagers
have had difficulty hiring laborers to work with them when
they transplant their rice. Nowadays, people either have
to hire the whole team to transplant the rice for them or

they have to do it themselves.

C. The Rice Harvesting Team

The two Chuang brothers who organized the two rice
transplanting teams also work as organizers for the two
harvesting teams in Ying—ting. The organization of the
harvesting team is quite similar to that of the transplan—
tation team, except that it has fewer female workers. Rice
harvesting is considered ”heavy” work, at least heavier than
transplanting; thus, female workers are considered less
efficient for such work. As a result, they are paid less.
A female worker in transplanting can earn three—fourths
of what a male worker earns, but if she participates in a
harvesting team, she is allowed only one—half of a male
worker's salary. Both transplanting and harvesting teams
are temporary groups, formed to take advantage of the
seasonal shortage of labor, and disbanded when the need
ends. Their memberships tend to be very stable, however.

Old teammates regroup and work together year after year.

D. The Jute Harvesting Team
In 1970 a new work team was formed in Ying—ting.
A village couple recruited nine women from the village and

began to harvest jute for those families that needed help.

 
 

 

 

78
Their job was to cut the jute and peel off the skin.
Since jute had been but recently introduced to this area,
not many villagers were planting it in 1970. SO the team
leader went to two neighboring villages to solicit work
orders,managing to sign up fourteen days Of work for the
season. When the season ended, each worker had earned
NT$650.00, averaging NT$46.00 per working day, an amount
slightly higher than the daily rate for individual female
workers.fflu3team leader and some Of the workers told me
that they intended to do it again the following year, be-
cause, according to them, the money was ”not bad" and it
had been "fun" working together as a group.

It is my Observation that the rice harvesting
teams, transplanting teams, and jute harvesting team have
been inspired by the existence Of the cane harvesting
team. The rationale for forming such groups and their
organizational pattern differ, however. By having a team
work under the supervision of its Local Representative,
the TSC assures that the total amount Of sugar cane har—
vested in any given day will match the grinding capacity
Of its local refinery. Furthermore, under the super-
vision Of its Local Representative, the cane harvested will
be properly prepared for grinding, i.e., it will have been
separated from the debris and cut tO a standardized length.
Such considerations prompt the TSC to demand that its con-
tracted cane farmers hire the harvest team. Tfluaother work

groups discussed above are organized merely to cash in on

 

 

 

79

the workers' labor.

Besides this difference in rationale, the recruit-
ment patterns of the various teams differ. The cane
harvest team contains people from different kin groups
and localities; the other work teams have members from the
same kin group or same neighborhood. At first glance,
this arrangement seems to be a rather natural phenomenon.
While a cane harvesting team consists of forty—six workers,
a rice harvesting team has only ten, making it easier to
recruit them from a single kin group or neighborhood. Yet
when I began to look into the situation more closely, I
found that the Local Representative of the TSC purposefully
tried tO recruit his workers from different kin groups and
locales. The reason becomes apparent when we understand
the job of the TSC's Local Representative. He is responsi-
ble not only for organizing and supervising the cane har-
vesting team, but also for promoting the cultivation of the
cane. He must make sure that all the land in each year's
sugar cane zone is planted with cane. Better yet, if he
can, he tries to talk the peasants into planting sugar cane
in other cropping zones as well. Because of such responsi-
bilities, the Local Representative has to maintain a good
relationship with all the peasants in the small area Of
which he is in charge. Therefore, when he recruits workers,
i.e., provides some employment Opportunity, he tries to
diSpense the limited Opportunities as evenly as possible

Within the entire village.

 

80

On the other hand, the rice harvesting and trans-
planting teams as well as the jute harvesting team are
temporary groups. Their main purpose is to make as much
in wages as possible. For a team to work efficiently, the
organizer must make sure that all the workers are on good
terms with each other. We found, therefore, that the
smaller work teams are usually made up Of close neighbors
and/or close relatives.

Because Of the existence of such work teams, it is
becoming possible for a peasant to depend largely on hired
labor tO cultivate his land. If he plants sugar cane, for
example, he really does not have too much work to do except
in the planting season. Even if he chooses to plant wet—
rice, he can engage the transplanting team to do the plant-
ing and have the harvesting team take care of the harvest.
Thus, all he has to do is attend to those minor Operations
that need to be done between these two busy seasons.4

With this situation, it has become quite possible
in recent years for many peasants to take nonagricultural
employment outside their village. They can work in a fac—
tory, office, or shop, and have their wives tend the fields.
Furthermore, they can also do some field work on the week-
ends, or at the end of the day when they return from their
jobs. For this reason, Ying-ting has many ”part-time pea-

sants." (Eighty-eight out Of 159 households are classified

 

 

4For details of work required for different crOps,
Please refer to the agricultural calendar.

 

 

 

81

as part-time peasants. See Table 3.)

V. Credit Facility

 

The credit available to peasants has an important
impact on their agricultural production. Other things
being equal, peasants in a community where credit is
easily available have more chances than others to improve
their agricultural production, e.g., to try new farming
techniques, to acquire new tools and equipment, and experi-
ment with new varieties of seeds.

Knowing that the ”moneylending club"5 is one Of the
most popular ways that Chinese peasants have had to raise
capital when they have large expenses to meet, I was very
surprised at not finding a single moneylending club nor
any "grain association” in Ying-ting and its surrounding
villages.6 Only after I understood the role that the TSC
plays in providing credit services did I stop worrying
about being given incorrect information about this matter.

To begin, let me first explain what a ”grain
association" is and why it is not found in Ying—ting,
although it frequently is found in peasant communities in
central and northern Taiwan. A grain association is usually
formed by several peasants to render mutual financial assis—
tance. Members are supposed to contribute a certain amount

0f grain (e.g., 300 catties) every six months or the length

 

 

5For details about the "moneylending club" and the
Way it Operates, see Gallin 1966:73-75.

6For details about the "grain association" and its
OPeration, see Pasternak 1972:35—36.

lIIIIIIII-___________________________________________________________

 

82
of time agreed upon. Each member takes a turn collecting
the grain the other members contribute. Ways of deciding
who will collect and when he will collect vary. Some use
a "bidding system" whereby the one who Offers the highest
interest will collect the total. Some use a drawing method
in which the winner of the draw collects. Each member can
only collect once and has to keep contributing his shares
until every member gets his turn tO collect. In a mixed-
cropping village such as Ying-ting, peasants do grow some
rice, but they only grow it periodically and in less quan—
tity than the full-time, wet—rice farmers Of central and
northern Taiwan. Therefore, Ying-ting villagers simply
do not grow enough grain to form such an association.

As to the absence Of a moneylending club, we have
to look into the types of credit services provided by the
TSC and other agencies. Once having signed a contract
with the Local Representative of the TSC, a cane farmer is
entitled to the following types of loans:

a. Production loan: for each 0.1 chia of land

 

contracted to be planted with sugar cane, the peasant is
entitled to borrow up to $550 at the interest rate Of
1.25 percent per month. Considering that the interest
rate Of private‘loans is somewhere around 2.5 percent per
month, this is one of the lowest interest rates that the
peasants can get from any source. The loan is given as
soon as the sugar cane is planted and the application

forms are filed. It must be repaid when the sugar cane is

IIIIIIIlII-______________________________________________________________L_____ ________-d

 

83

harvested sixteen to eighteen months later.

b. Fertilizer loan: for each 0.1 chia Of land

 

planted with sugar cane, the peasant is entitled to borrow

up to NT$700 worth of fertilizer. The fertilizer is given

in time for the peasant to use it in his cane fields, usu-

ally within two months after the cane is first planted.

The loan is granted without any interest and must be repaid
when the cane is harvested.

Not only is the interest charged by the TSC very
low, the application procedure is a rather simple matter
compared to applying for a loan from the local Farmers'
Association or from any commercial bank. When a cane far—
mer needs a loan, all he has to do is go to the TSC Local
Representative's house and inquire about the amount he is
entitled tO borrow. The Representative will do the neces-
sary paperwork for him. Next, he must find two fellow
villagers as guarantors to co-sign the application forms.
Once this is done, the Representative will take the forms to
the TSC local office, and the loan will be released within
a few days. Applying for the fertilizer loan is even
simpler. All the cane farmer has to do is notify the TSC
Representative that he intends to borrow the fertilizer.
Again, the Representative will do all the paper work neces-
sary to get the loan. Before the time for fertilizing
arrives, the fertilizer is shipped to the village railroad

station for the peasant to pick up.

 

84

To indicate how popular the TSC loans are, let me
point out the figures of cash loan and fertilizer loan
granted by the TSC to the Ying-ting villagers in 1970.
Seventy-nine households signed contracts to grow sugar
cane in the 1969—70 season. All of them applied for loans
and were granted them. NT$165,200 in cash and NT$260,702
worth Of fertilizers were released to these 79 households.
On the average, each household received NT$2,091 in cash
and NT$3,300 worth of fertilizer.

Besides the loans provided by the TSC, other credit
facilities are available tO the peasants in Ying—ting.

They can apply for small loans from the local Farmers'
Association or, if a large sum is needed, they can mortgage
their land to the Taiwan Land Bank. Borrowing money from
the Farmers' Association or the Taiwan Land Bank, however,
is not as easy as borrowing from the TSC. One has to have
some friends who can influence the people at the Farmers'
Association or the Taiwan Land Bank in order to receive
favorable consideration. Also, the interest rates charged
for such loans are relatively higher than those for the

TSC loan, 1.5 percent per month for the small loan from the
Farmers' Association and 1.25 percent per month for the loan
from the Land Bank.

In addition to the various credit sources from
agencies, some private sources also exist within the village
community. In 1970, four individuals in the village could

be labelled moneylenders. Each of them had capital

 

85
averaging around NT$20,000 with which to make small loans
to villagers whom they trusted. The interest rate they
charged was 2.5 percent per month, considerably higher
than that for any agency loan. In addition to these money-
lenders, a lineage fund is available to the Chuang peOple.
Private loans can be taken only for a short term, however,
i.e., for two or three months, so villagers tend to use

them only as a last resort.

VI. Extension Service

 

As in all rural communities in Taiwan, peasants in
Ying—ting have been receiving various kinds of extension
services from their local Farmers' Association ever since
it was established in the early 1900's. When Taiwan was
returned to the Chinese government in 1945, the Farmers'
Associations in various rural communities were somewhat
disrupted. With the assistance provided by the Joint
Commission of Rural Reconstruction (JCRR), however, the
local Farmers' Associations were re-established and their
services greatly expanded. Presently, the Chia—li Farmers'
Association, to which the peasants in Ying—ting belong, is
doing a fine job in helping its members improve their
agricultural enterprises. The services it provides can be

briefly described as follows:

A. Banking and Credit Service
Members Of the Association can Open a savings account

in their local Farmers' Association and are entitled for

 

 

86

various types of loans, such as the ”loan tO improve the
farmstead,” "the loan for the purchase Of new equipment,"
and the "loan for experimenting with new crops." As we noted
in the previous section, however, the loans administered by
the Farmers' Association not only have a high interest rate
but also are not very easy to come by. People who receive
loans from the Farmers' Association are usually friends or
relatives Of officials Of the association or Of elected rep-
resentatives who have some supervisory power over the admin-
isration of the association. A poor peasant who does not
know anyone at the Office or who has no connection with his
representatives has a slim chance Of getting a loan from the

Association.

B. Agricultural Extension Service

The Farmers' Association Of Chia-li Township has a
well-organized and active Extension Service Branch. Its major
duty is to introduce new farming techniques and new and bet—
ter seeds to the peasants. An understanding between the ex-
tension workers Of the Farmers' Association and TSC's Exten-
sion Station decided that the latter would concentrate on
providing services directly related to sugar cane farming
while the former would take care of other farming techniques
and knowledge. As far as I can tell, no rivalry has ever
existed between the extension workers from these two agen-
cies; they seem to work in complimentary fashion, and each

concentrating on its own tasks.

 

87
C. Consumer Service
The association has been acting as a retail agent sel—
ling articles widely needed by its membership. Items such as
farm equipment, fertilizer, insecticide, and new seeds, and
some consumer goods are sold at the local Office at a dis-

count price.

D. Veterinarian Service

Two resident veterinarians at the Chia-li Farmers'
Association provide services at prices lower than those of
private practitioners.

In addition to the services received from the local
Farmers' Association, the peOple in Ying-ting also acquire
assistance from the Extension Stations of the TSC. Under the
local station, an extension worker collaborates with the
TSC's Local Representative to achieve the following goals:
(1) TO convince as many peasants as possible to plant sugar
cane instead of rice or any other crop. (2) TO introduce new
varieties of cane to the farmers. Study groups are frequent-
ly organized to show the farmers about the nature of new
seeds and new farming tehcniques. Sometimes study tours are
formed to provide chances for the farmers to meet with the
specialists at the Experimental Station tO learn about and
discuss farming problems. (3) To serve as a communication
channel between cane farmers and the TSC. New policies are

explained during the study session and questions answered.

 

CHAPTER FOUR

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

 

As I have already indicated in Chapter Three, Ying-
ting is not a purely agricultural village in terms Of its
residents' economic activities. Out of the total 159 house—
holds, only 26 depend entirely on farming for their liveli-
hood. The rest earn either their partial or entire income
from nonagricultural activities (see Table 3, p. 49). Table
5 shows that Of the 227 male villagers between the ages Of
fifteen and sixty-nine, only 54 can be classifed as full-
time farmers. Another 42 can best be classified as part-
time farmers and part—time laborers who own some land but
cannot entirely support themselves by farming. To augment
income, they work as day laborers whenever they have time
and Opportunity. In addition to these 42 part-time day la-
borers, there are seven full-time day laborers who own no
land and earn their living entirely by working for their fel—
low villagers. Besides these 103 individual (54 full-time
farmers, 42 part—time farmer/laborers and 7 full-time
laborers) whose occupations are related to farming in
varying degrees, 114 male villagers in the same age brack—
et have occupations unrelated to farming.

Table 6 shows that Of the 254 female villagers be-
tween the ages Of fifteen and sixty—nine, 139 Of them par-

ticipated in agricultural work on a part-time basis. These
88

 

89

 

 

 

Table 5
Occupation Distributed by Age Group (Male)
Ying-ting, 1970
Age
Group 15 20 25 30 35 A0 A5 50 55 6O 65
l I | | l I l | l I l Total
Occupation 19 2A 29 3A 39 AA A9 5A 59 6A 69
Student AA 5 1 - — - - - - - - 50
Farmer 1 - 7 7 9 A S 3 6 9 3 5“
Part-time
Farmer 8 1 - 1 6 3 2 5 6 8 A 6 A2
Day Laborer
Agricultural
- _ _ _ _ 2 _
Day Laborer 1 1 2 I 7
Factory _ _ _
Worker 11 2 A 1 A A 2 1 29
School
Teacher 1 1 2 A
Government
Officer 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 10
Clerk - 1 1 1 2 1 1 - 1 - - 8
Peddler 1 - 1 1 2 - 1 - - 1 - 7
Store
Proprietor 1 1 1 1 2 1 7
Driver - - 1 1 1 1 - - 1 - - 5
Jobless - - 1 - - - - - - 2 1 A
Total 59 9 20 19 25 18 15 12 17 22 11 227
Source: Based on my own census conducted in 1970

 

90
'Tablea 6

Occupation Distributed by Age Group (Female)
Ying-ting, 1970

 

 

Age
Group 15 20 25 3O 35 A0 A5 50 55 6O 65
| l l | l | l l I I l Tetal
Occupation 19 2A 29 3A 39 AA A9 5A 59 6A 69
Student 12 3 - - - - - - - - - 15
Factory _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Worker 29 9 38
Housewife
Farmer - 11 17 17 23 21 15 17 10 8 - 139
Teacher - l - - - - - - - - - 1
Clerk - 5 - - - - - - — - - 5
Tailor - - - - 1 - - - - - - 1
Peddler - - - - - - - l - - - 1
Housewife - - 6 2 3 3 2 5 7 17 6 51
Jobless - 3 - - - — - - - - - 3
Total A1 32 23 19 27 2A 17 23 17 25 6 25A

 

Source: Based on my own census conducted in 1970

139 women can be labelled "housewife—farmers," for they spend
part Of their time doing housework and, when their labor is
needed, participate in farming either as their husbands'
helpers or as hired hands working for wages. The remaining
115 females in the same age bracket can be divided into two
subgroups according to whether they engage in any income-
lnflducing activity or not. Fifty-one full—time housewives,
fifteerl students, and three jobless females constitute the
firstisubgroup not engaged in any gainful employment. The

remainiaig forty-six females are engaged in non—agricultural

 

 

91

economic activities; some are factory workers (38 persons),
some clerks (5 persons), and one is a school teacher, one a
tailor and one a peddler.

My purpose in this chapter is to describe these non-
agricultural economic activities and to show why we find
such a diversified occupational structure in a rural com-
munity like Ying-ting. In the second half of the chapter,
I will discuss the degree to which the people in Ying-ting
participate in the local and island-wide market systems Of
Taiwan and how such integration into the larger market net—
work affects the people's attitude toward farming. As we
will see in this chapter, the villagers' economic activities
are quite complex and cannot be fully comprehended if we

confine our attention strictly to the village.

I. Occupational Structure

 

The occupations of Ying-ting villagers between the
ages Of fifteen and sixty-nine are presented in Tables 5
and 6. I have limited my discussion to this particular age
bracket for several practical reasons. Before fifteen, most
children are still in public school and, even if they are
out, their participation in economic activities is rather
limited and substantially inconsequential. As for those
Older than sixty-nine, although some Of them are still in—
volved in farming, they usually work as occasional helpers
for their sons; thus, they can no longer be considered the

major income-producing members of their families.

 

92

Tables 5 and 6 show what might be considered a sur—
prisingly large number of students in the two age groups of
fifteen to nineteen year olds and twenty to twenty—four year
olds. Of all those 141 persons, 64 are students, or 45.4
percent of the total. The percentage Of students among the
males is even higher, i.e., 49 out of 68 males, or 72.1 per-
cent Of all males between the ages Of fifteen and twenty-
four. Of the 64 students, male and female, 56 are high
school students and eight are college students. Although
most of the high school students live in the village, rarely
do any of them participate in their family's economic
activities. They spend most of their time in school, and
when they come home after school or during the holidays, they
are expected to use their time and effort for school work.
As a result, we rarely find any student doing farm work with
his parents, not even during summer vacation.

Not only do they not participate in farm work, these
students also have a rather negative attitude toward farming
as an ocCUpation. None of the students that I interviewed
intends to settle in the village and succeed his parents
as farmers. They consider farming to be a low—paying, hard-
working occupation and the farmer a powerless, poor, back-
ward,and conservative person. As a consequence of such
negative attitudes toward farming, all the educated male
adolescents want jobs in the cities as government workers,
businessmen, or clerks for private business establishments.

Most of the educated girls hope to marry somebody who is not

 

93

a farmer.1

The parents of these students seem to take their sons'
and daughters' negative attitude as a matter Of course. Far
from being disappointed with their childrens' disinclination
toward farming and village life, most Of the parents encour-
aged them to concentrate on school work so that they can get
better grades and thus have a better chance to locate a non-
agricultural job in the future.

While those who can manage to support their children
for higher education do so in the hope that their youngsters
will have a chance for an easier life and a better financial
situation, parents who cannot afford the financial burden, or
whose children fail to pass the high school entrance examina-
tion, also try their best to help their sons find a nonagri-
cultural occupation. In Ying-ting, these parents usually
send their sons to factories or manufacturing shops to work
as apprentices. As indicated in Table 5, only 15 males in
the group of 15-19 year Olds are not in school. Of these
15 nonstudents, 11 work as factory or shop apprentices or
trainees. Although such work does not pay much and is diffi-
cult, the parents hope that these youngsters will eventually
become skilled laborers or even technicians equipped with
some special qualifications enabling them to move into a
nonagricultural occupation.

1When asked about the kind of persons they wished
their daughters to marry, most village parents preferred
government Officials, businessmen, school teachers, fac-

tory workers. Only a few mentioned farmers. A village
matchmaker told me that it is easier to find a wife for a

 

 

94
A. Factory Workers

Besides these 11 apprentices/trainees, there are 18
male factory workers between the ages of 15 and 69. Among
these 18 workers, 5 work at the brick factories in Hsueh-
chia, a market town about 4.5 kilometers north of Ying-ting,
2 work at a lumber mill in Chia-li, and the rest work in
various factories in the city Of Tainan. These factory
workers all live in the village and commute daily to their
jobs either by bus or motorcycle.

Except for one, all the factory workers own and culti-
vate some land. Although they themselves have to be away
from the village most Of the time, their wives take care Of
most of the farm work, except planting and harvesting. Fur—
thermore, these men also work on the land either on weekends
or in the early part of the evening after they come home
from their factory jobs. Thus, these factory workers usually
become farmers on weekends, working side by side with their
wives. Because of the existence Of these various work teams
I described in Chapter Three, these "weekend farmers” have no
difficulty planting or harvesting their fields in time.

As indicated in Table 6, there are 38 female factory
workers. Twenty-nine of them belong to the group Of fifteen
tO nineteen year-olds. All are unmarried and are employed

at various fabric factories in Hsueh-chia, Chia-li, and

 

man earning NT$1,000 monthly salary than for a farmer owning
1.0 chia land. Although a woman might be better Off econom—
ically as a farmer's wife, she would have to work very hard.
The girls simply are not attracted to the rugged, rural life
Of being a farmer's wife.

 

95

Tainan. Those who work at the Hsueh-chia and Chia-li
factories usually live at home and commute daily tO their
jobs, while those employed in Tainan or elsewhere usually
live at the dormitory provided by their employers, coming
home for weekends or holidays. As in 1970, these factory
girls could earn a rather good wage compared to that of a
man in the village. A beginning trainee receives approxi-
mately NT$700 per month. As her experience increases so do
her wages. A girl with one year's experience can earn
NT$1,000 per month.

Two of the 38 factory girls are considered by the
mothers Of Ying-ting "model daughters" and are frequently
cited as examples for these mothers' own daughters. These
two "model daughters," one age twenty-three, the other
twenty-four, have been working for their respective fac-
tories for more than six years and have both been promoted
as section leaders, earning monthly salaries of NT$1,600
and 1,700, respectively. These two were also among the
first girls to seek employment in the local fabric fac-
tories shortly after they were established in the mid-60's.
Most of the younger girls who are currently employed found
their jobs through the introductions Of one of these two
girls.

Although some village mothers pointed out to me that
their working daughters tend to give them less money the

longer they are employed, most Of the girls do turn over

 

96
the large bulk Of their earnings to their parents. It is
understood that part of the money the girls earn will be
given to them or used to buy a dowry when they marry in the
future. Even those girls about whom the mothers grumbled,
gave their parents more than half their monthly wage. It is
true, however, that as their wages increase, the girls tend
to retain a little more money for their personal use. They
become more concerned about their appearance and spend more
money on clothing, cosmetics, and the like. Nevertheless,
the monthly salary they bring home constitutes a rather im-
portant source Of their families' income.

Thus far, all factory girls who married quit their
jobs and the 38 girls presently employed are likely to do
the same. Their reason for quitting is directly related to
the working schedule maintained by the local factories.
Workers are assigned and reassigned to different work shifts
periodically, each shift lasting for ten hours. The day
shift, from six O'clock in the morning tO four in the after-
noon, might cause some inconvenience for a housewife but is
tolerable for those who need the income. The odd hours of
the night shift, however, from five in the afternoon to the
next morning, are what discourage the girls from continu-

ing their jobs after marriage.

B. White—Collar Workers
Fifteen villagers, fourteen men and one woman, are

school teachers or government employees. All have more

 

97

formal education than the majority Of their fellow vil-
lagers. Five hold university degrees; the rest are either
high school or normal school graduates. These people are
from relatively wealthy households Of the village, for to
support a child through the prolonged period Of education
required for such professional occupations, the family must
be fairly well-to-do. A poor peasant cannot afford the
expense, nor can he afford the ”loss” Of his child's pro-
ductivity for such a prolonged period Of time.

Among the five school teachers noted in Tables 5 and
6, one is a public school principal, one is a public school
teacher, and three are junior high school teachers. None
work in the school district to which Ying-ting village
belongs, so all commute to their schools either by bus or
motorcycle. Those classified as government employees in-
clude four men working for the Chia-li Public Office, two
men employed as Office clerks at the Chia-li Farmers'
Association, two with positions at the local irrigation asso-
ciation, and two working for the local branches of the
Taiwan Sugar Company. These ten men can be classified as
low—status government employees, i.e., they do not hold
important, decision-making positions in their respective
organizations.

Although these men are little more than Office clerks,
their connections with governmental agencies and employees

cause the villagers frequently to seek their advice or their

 

98

help as gO-betweens in dealings with governmental agencies.
The villagers most frequently turn for advice and assistance
to an Old gentleman serving as the Taiwan Sugar Company's
Local Representative. Because of his position as local
agent Of the TSC, an establishment with which most of the
villagers-~as sugar cane farmers--have to deal, he has be-
come one of the most influential men in the community. His
predecessors enjoyed the same esteem, as do his fellow rep-
resentatives in the surrounding communities.

The TSC's economic significance in the villagers'
lives can only partially explain the respect the peasants
show for its agents. A closer investigation reveals that
the TSC's agents were already somewhat prominent in their
communities before they were hired by the company. In fact,
when the TSC looks for a person to be its Local Representa-
tive, it always tries to find one Of the village leaders
to fill the job. By having an influential man working for
the company, the TSC can assure itself that it will be
fairly successful in its attempts to implement new policies,
introduce new farming techniques, or even introduce new
varieties Of sugar cane. Furthermore, by employing a local
leader, the TSC strengthens its campaign to have all the
peasants plant sugar cane in their lands instead Of other
competing crops. Thus, the prominence Of the TSC's repre-
sentatives is actually a result Of the so-called snowball

effect. A man has to be a prominent figure within his

 

99

community to be selected for the position Of local agent,
and, once chosen, he becomes still more prominent because
Of the strategic position he occupies between the peasants
and the TSC. TO appreciate the influence of his position,
we should recall that the TSC is the only buyer Of the
peasants' most important crop, sugar cane, and the most
important moneylender in the general area; or, in one word,
the biggest "capitalist” controling the economic well—
being of the cane farmers.

Like the factory workers, most of the fifteen school
teachers and government employees still own and cultivate
some land. Farming is mostly handled by their wives and by
hired laborers. Occasionally, when they are Off their reg-

ular jobs, they themselves farm.

C. Clerks and Store Owners
Thirteen villagers, eight men and five girls, are
classified as clerks in Tables 5 and 6. They include sales—
girls, salesmen, store attendants, and bookkeepers employed
by private businesses and industrial firms. Two of them
work in the village; the others commute to work each day.
Seven men in the village are classified as store pro-
lTrietors. This category includes the owners of all the
Stxares and mills in Ying-ting: two grocery stores facing
63aChother across the central intersection of the village;
‘tVND grinding mills each adjoined tO one Of the grocery

StZ’Ores; two barber shops also close to the central

 

100
intersection; and a Chinese drugstore near the village
temple, whose owner is also the doctor in residence. In
addition to the seven store proprietors, the village has
eight peddlers, one woman and seven men. The woman peddler
runs a candy—and—fruit stand on the roadside; her business
is mainly from the children who pass her stand on their
way to and from school. The seven men peddlers are also
involved in the food business. Two are fishmongers who
sell in the village in the early mornings and then ped—
dle in two neighboring villages in the afternoon. Two are
vegetable peddlers who buy their vegetables wholesale
from the Chia—li food market, peddle them in the village
each morning, and then go to the Chia-li—hsin food market,
where the business starts at noon, to sell whatever they
have left in their stands. One peddler sells cooked
sausages to the students in Chia—li—hsin and also carries
a small pinball machine, playing against his customers on
a double or nothing basis. The remaining two peddlers run
home bakeries, making candy and cookies to sell to the

Village stores or peddle in six neighboring villages.

D. Skilled Laborers and Others

In addition to the occupations already described,
Y’ing—ting has five drivers and one female tailor. Three of
tlie five drivers work for a private bus company serving
Tfiiinan County and two are truck drivers for a construction

firm in Chia—li. Among these five drivers, the oldest is

101

a fifty-seven year-Old gentleman who learned to drive when
he was in the Japanese Army during the Second World War.
When the war was over, he began to work for the local bus
company. Through this man the other four drivers learned
their skill and secured their employment.

The village tailor is a thirty-nine year-Old divorcee.
Her "adopted husband” left her after three years of mar-
riage.2 Being ”abandoned” by her husband, she had to
assume the responsibility Of taking care Of her aging par-
ents and her small boy. Through her aunt's introduction,
she was hired as an apprentice in one of the Chia-li
tailor shOps where she worked for seven years. Five years
ago, she started to work at her own house. Because Of her
skill and her good manners, her business has been rather
successful; not only do villagers Of Ying—ting go to her
for service, some girls and women Of the neighboring vil—
lages come quite Often.

Tables 5 and 6 also showed four men and three girls,
between the ages Of fifteen and sixty-nine, as jobless.
Three of the men cannot work because of health problems.
The other one, in good health, simply does not want to work
and.is being supported by his wife. The three jobless girls
Etre all high school graduates who failed the college en-

tlirance examination and are waiting at home either to take
X
2An ”adopted—husband” is one who marries matrilocally,

1—-e., he moves in with his wife's parents and agrees to have
T13 least one Of his sons carry his wife's family name. He

‘155 usually from a poor family.

{IIIIIIIII-.__

 

102

the examination again or to find work.

E. Poultry and Hog Raising

In addition to the income earned from the nonagricul-
tural occupations described in the previous pages, the
raising Of hogszunlpoultry has been another important source
of income for the peasants in Ying-ting. Such income has
been on the increase during the past decade, mainly due
to the rapid increase of urban pOpulation in Taiwan as a
whole and the improvement of transportation facilities in
the area. That raising hogs and poultry has become an in—
creasingly important economic activity in Ying-ting can be
demonstrated by the following Observations. According to
the villagers, few households raised pigs ten years ago
compared to those doing so in 1970. Furthermore, my infor-
mants also indicated that those households that did raise
pigs would keep only one or two animals at a time; nowadays,

households frequently keep four or five pigs and in some

cases evenrfilueor ten, because the animals can be sold

easily.

According to my own census, 129 of the 159 households

in Ying—ting raised pigs. Most had one or two animals,
eXc:ept for twenty families keeping at least five animals at
a. time. These twenty tended to take hog-raising more
Séeriously as a supplementary source Of income than the

C“Zlherswho regarded it as part Of the rural tradition and

WEire not seriously concerned about the market price Of hogs

AdllllIIII-___

 

103
or the selection of new breeds and raising techniques.
Furthermore, these twenty families had larger than average
land holdings, the smallest being 1.25 chia, about 0.27 chia
above the average landholding in Ying-ting, i.e., 0.98 chia.
With more land they could grow more sweet potatoes, the
most important pig feed used in the area. Also, most of
these families tended to have more man—power in their house-
holds. They lived either in a stem family, in which their
parents lived with them, or in a large nuclear family which
had grown children to help tend the animals from time to
time.

My informants also pointed out that although villagers
used to raise poultry in the past, none of them had ever
tried‘haraise them in large numbers. Only seven years ago
did Ying—ting begin to have farmers keeping chickens in
enclosed coops and raising approximately 200 chickens at a
time. As Of 1970, there were five households that could be
labelled part-time chicken farmers, each raising approxi—
mately 300-350 chickens at a time. Toward the end of my
stay, a large chicken coop was under construction which
would be able to accommodate 3,000 chickens at the same
time.

Two grinding mills Opened in recent years which cater

nlainly to the villagers' need for preparing animal feed.
Chle of the mills opened in 1968, the other in 1969. Their

main business includes grinding animal feed, such as dried

 

104
corn and sweet potatoes, into powder for the customer, and
selling animal feed and animal medicines. The owners Of
the two mills also double as veterinarians, treating animals
and dispensing drugs. In fact, these two grinding mills were
founded and developed primarily because the villagers in
Ying—ting have been raising more and more animals in recent
years.

Farming, labor (both skilled and unskilled), and com-
merce thus represent the three major occupational categories
in Ying-ting village, with agriculture in the lead, employ-
ing 242 persons (54 full—time farmers, 49 laborers/farmers,
and 139 ”housewife/farmers") between the ages of fifteen and
sixty-nine. Only 54 peOple of those in agriculture, or 11.22
percent of those actively participating in income-producing
occupations, are full-time farmers. Furthermore, as Tables
5 and 6 have shown, more females than males are agricultural
workers, i.e., 139 women compared tO 103 men. In addition,
more Older people than younger participate in the agricultur-
al process, with 127 agricultural workers Older than age
forty and 115 younger. If we move the dividing line down to
age 35, the disproportion increases, with 172 persons above
age 35 and 70 individuals below.

These figures, combined with the younger generation's

negative attitude toward farming and the increasingly diverse
eConomic activities in the village, indicate that Ying—ting

543 in the process of drifting away from being a peasant

 

105

village and is becoming more and more like a suburban com-

munity where people Of different occupations reside and

where the degree Of occupational diversity is rather high.
TO expose the tendency and direction Of the changes

Ying-ting is undergoing fulfills only part Of the duties Of

an anthropological field investigator. An anthropologist

facing this social phenomenon also asks, Why such change?

Is such change occurring in all peasant communities

Of Taiwan, or is Ying-ting an exceptional case? The fol-

lowing section attempts to answer these questions and to

show why the degree of occupational diversity is so high

in a rural community such as Ying-ting.

II. The Increase pf Occupational Diversity
and Its Implications

One Of the reasons for Ying-ting's increasing occupa-

tional diversity lies in the rapid industrialization Taiwan

has been undergoing since the early 1950's. Once a country

starts to industrialize, its agricultural population de—

creases as its industrialization increases. The decrease

usually is prompted by the following factors. (a) The

demand for manpower in newly—developed or expanded industries

Creates employment Opportunities more financially rewarding

then those in agriculture. Thus, the new Opportunity serves

3&3 a pulling force extracting the man—power from the agri-

Cultural sectors of the population. (b) Industrialization

inevitably causes a gradual mechanization Of the agricultural

 

 

106

process, which reduces employment opportunities in agricul-
ture. (c) Another phenomenon that frequently goes hand in
hand with the early phase Of industrialization throughout
developing countries is an increase in population made
possible by improved public health and uplifted living
standards. The larger the rural population, the larger the
number Of people available to be diverted into the urban
centers where industry is located.

The general pattern that we outlined above is well-
documented by the population records of Ying—ting village.
According to villagers and my own reconstruction Of the
rural-to-urban migration process, 361 villagers have moved
from Ying—ting in the last two decades. Where did these
people go? Most moved to the big cities of Taiwan. True,
not all of them left to take jobs in the cities; some went
with their parents or Spouses, migrating as dependents.

Yet we have to conclude that if Taiwan were not undergoing
industrialization fewer would have moved from the rural area
to the cities.

Taiwan's recent industrial development and the indus-
trial sector's drain of man—power from the rural communities
Such as Ying-ting still do not fully explain why we find
SHJCh occupational diversity in the village. Villagers who

nloved from Ying-ting and found employment in industries or
C3'ther nonagricultural occupations in the cities might have

S<Dme impact on the economic structure of the village but

 

107

certainly would not increase the occupational diversity
within the village. The answer lies elsewhere. First,
beginning in the 1960's, small industries, such as fabric
mills, began to appear in the rural areas of Tainan County.
Twelve mills were established in Chia-li between 1961 and
1964, and five more were set up in the Hseuh—chia area in
the same period Of time. These factories provided employ—
ment opportunities for the peasants without forcing them

to move from their home villages, thus increasing the
occupational diversity of Ying-ting village and other rural
communities like it. Second, the recent industrial develop—
ment greatly improved mass transportation in the rural areas
Of Taiwan. For example, villagers in Ying-ting can easily
go to Chia-li, Tainan, Hsueh-chia by taking a bus which runs
at 30—minute intervals between six O'clock in the morning
and ten in the evening. Furthermore, the improved highway
system makes it easier for people in the rural area to
travel by bicycle or motorcycle to and from their village.
Thus, villagers can continue living in the village while
working in nearby market towns or cities.

So far I have been concentrating on the impacts of
recent industrial development, a phenomenon more or less
C3<Z>mmon1y found in the majority of rural communities Of
Tkiiwan. I have not yet discussed, however, the particular
eCological factors that might have helped prompt the

iIlcreased occupational diversity Of Ying-ting and other

 

108
villages in the same ecological area.

Because Of the area's particular environmental condi-
tions, i.e., its high temperature, unevenly distributed
rainfall, and super—imposed crop rotation system, the vil-
lagers in Ying-ting and the general area are forced to grow
sugar cane most of the time. Sugar cane is a long-term
crop which only can be harvested once every eighteen months.
Thus, the cane farmers risk facing a long period of time
without any sizeable income. TO illustrate this point, let
us examine the way Mr. Chuang, a villager in Ying-ting,
utilizes his land. A part-time farmer and laborer, Mr.
(Hulang owns 0.5 chia of land in Zone I of the Ying-ting
smalfil area, and 0.2 chia evenly divided between Zones II and
III. When Zone I became a sugar cane zone in September,
1969 , Mr. Chuang planted the land with cane. Meanwhile, the
0.1 g:hia in Zone II was still occupied by sugar cane planted
One ynear ago. Mr. Chuang then planted wet-rice in the other
0.1 cliia in Zone 111. When he harvested the wet-rice at the
end Oi? September he had 850 catties Of grain, a rather good
harvesst: according to the local standard. If converted into
its CElei value, that crop Of wet-rice was worth NT$2,590,
the Culfirent price for grain at that time being NT$2.80 per
CattY- 'This NT$2,590 would betfiueonly income Mr. Chuang
w°91d héi\ne from his farms for another five months before

the Sugarcane, then standing in the field of Zone ll,

COU1d13€5 harvested in February or March.

 

109

Should Mr. Chuang have no other income, he would have
to support his wife and three children with the NT$2,590
for more than five months. Furthermore, out of this sum,
he would have to pay his son's school tuition and buy
fertilizer for the sweet potatoes to be planted where the

rice had just been harvested. In brief, according tO Mr.
Chuang's own estimation, he would need, at the very least,
another NT$3,500 for these five months. In this situation,
Mr. Chuang could either find another job to earn the money
he needs or borrow the money and go into debt.

As a matter Of fact, Mr. Chuang has long been aware of
the financial problems involved in owning only 0.5 chia Of
land under a crOp rotation system. To augment his income,
he works at the local brick factory as a kiln attendant.
He has capitalized on the free time allowed by cane farming
or, from another perspective, solved the problem of being
urlCler-employed in agriculture. He has been able to support
his family by earning approximately NT$1,300 per month,
While still owning and managing his land.

Mr. Chuang's case is by no means exceptional. The
majOI‘ity Of the peasants in Ying-ting and in the general
area are actually part—time farmers who subsidize their farm
inComes with wages earned from nonagricultural activities.
The reason they have to do so is, of course, related to

their small holdings of land; the average farm size in

Ying‘ting is only 0.98 chia of land. In a full-time rice

 

110

farming village, however, a family of five can support it-
self rather adequately with only O.8 chia of land—-a size
slightly smaller than that of the average farm in Ying-ting.3

Although the Ying-ting villagers' small land holdings
are clearly relevant to their financial problems, the ex-
ample of the full-time rice-farming village suggests that a
second factor is contributing to their need for additional
nonagricultural employment. That factor is Ying—ting's
particular cultivation pattern--the mixed-cropping system,
a direct result of natural environmental conditions as well
as governmental policy.

Based on the above analysis, I conclude that the occu-
Pational diversity found in Ying—ting village is, at the
Very least, related to the local ecological conditions and
the unique cultivating pattern institutionalized by the

gove rnment through the regulation of the irrigation facility.

 

 

3I worked with Prof. Li Yih-yuan in a rice cultivating
COmmunity in Chuang-hua Hsien in 1965. Although the data
gollected in that field season has not been published, it
1? my impression that in that rice cultivating village, a
g1Ve-person household can support itself adequately with

~8 chia of land. This impression is collaborated by
asFernak's comparative study of a rice farming village and
a Inlxed crop rotating village in Taiwan. Although the rice
Sarming village that Pasternak studies is in Ping-tung in
Oouthern Taiwan, the mixed crop village that he studied is
Pnly some twenty miles away from Ying-ting. According to
rgsternak's findings, the average farm size in Tatieh, the
Ice village, is .77 hectare in 1968 as compared to 1.07
fictare in Chungshe, the village where the mixed crop rota-
0:011 system is practiced (cf. Pasternak 1972:16-17). In
.her words, a household in mixed cropping areas like

Slng‘ting and Chungshe would need more land to support it-
811:: than ahousehold in a rice cultivating village like
atleh or the village in Chuang-hua I studied in 1965.

 

 

111

III Market Participation

Basically, peasants in Ying—ting are cash crop pro-
dilcers. Most of the crOps, such as sugar cane, sweet
Iacrtatoes, mung beans, and vegetables are cultivated to be
:scxld.in the market. As cash crop cultivators, the peasants
liafive to participate intensively and extensively in the
nuarflket system not only to sell what they produce but also
tc> louy what they need for consumption. Except for some
190111try, vegetables, and rice, almost all of their produce
:is .sold to the middlemen, agents, or buyers in the village,
in. (Maia—li-hsin, Chia-li or other places. Thus, as far as
theeixr economic activity is concerned, peasants in Ying-ting
3113 lentirely immersed in the local and regional market net-
'W015k15.

In this section, I will examine the ways in which vil-
13£56218 participate in the market system, beginning with the
mal‘k:eting of their most important products, namely sugar

Calleb, sweet potatoes, and rice.

‘Aw The Marketing of Sugar Cane
In addition to initiating the crOp rotation system in
1S93(), the Japanese colonial authority helped many Japanese
C(yrIDOrations set up fully-mechanized sugar refineries in the
Crti€l~nan area. Since then, virtually all of the sugar
refineries in Taiwan have been owned by Japanese companies
anti equipped with the most updated machinery. The old sugar

mi11$ dominating the industry before the Japanese cohnfizatfl31

 

112

and owned by various local interest groups disappeared

Imith the advent of the modern Japanese capitalistic
erlterprise. All production of sugar was then carried on in
JDCJdern Japanese refineries. Furthermore, to protect the
eecxanomic interests of these sugar companies, the Colonial
government established a licensing policy in the early
1930's. From then on, no sugar refinery could be estab-
lgislaed without official permission. At the same time,
tflie: cane-producing areas of Taiwan were allocated to various
ccunIDanies as their "territories." Companies were prohib—
iteeél from buying sugar cane outside their allocated terri-
torfiy'; thus, the cane farmers in each area were forced to
selhl. their products to the local refinery and only that
PaI“tcicular refinery. This licensing policy and the alloca-
'tiOIl of "raw material territory" were two of the most shrewd
PITJCleflures superimposed on Taiwan's sugar industry by the
CCNICDIiial authority; the difficulty of acquiring a license
‘na41e3 it virtually impossible for any new company to be
esta‘blished, while the division of raw material territory
pIV3\Tented the possibility of any price-war in the purchas—
111g; th raw materials among those refineries already in
exiStence. Thus, cane farmers would have to sell thefrcrops
‘to tileir local refinery at a price determined by the company.

(CIE, Grajdanzev 1942:62-63).4
\

 

- 4During the period of Japanese occupation, the pricing
.29151Cy'0f sugar cane was changed several times because of the
0%3391aints of cane farmers. At first, each refinery set its

I1 price at whatever level the company deemed to be

 

113
When Taiwan was restored to the Chinese Nationalist
Government in 1945, all the Japanese—owned industries, in-
cluding the sugar refineries, were nationalized and put
under the control of the Nationalist Government. The TSC,
formally established in 1947 to manage the sugar industry
of Taiwan, was jointly owned by the Ministry of Economic
Affairs of the Central Government of the Republic of China
and the Provincial Government of Taiwan, plus a nominal
percentage of shares (approximately three percent) held by
private interests.

Although the sugar companies were nationalized, their
basic managerial policies remained largely unchanged. The
TSC was still the only sugar company in Taiwan, and its
local refineries still constituted the only cane buyers.
Thus , ever since 1947, the TSC has held a de _f_a_cto monopoly

of Taiwan's sugar industry. The only difference a cane

 

\
acfileptable. Needless to say, the profit-oriented companies
trled to keep the price at the lowest possible level. In
Fhe late 1930's the peasants were losing interest in plant-
1I}g sugar cane and the company began to suffer from insuf-
flent raw material. Finally, the colonial government
gtepped in and ordered a pricing committee to be organized
1n eVery local refinery throughout the sugar cane producing
:reas of Taiwan. Such committees were formed by the rep-
1ZfISentatives from three interest groups: the sugar company,
soe Colonial authority, and the cane farmers. However, the
a ‘Called "representatives of cane farmers" were not farmers
. all. They were the big landlords of each area and were
$iVen very little voice in the decision making process.
cous , the pricing power was still in the hands of the.sugar
bempany. The only difference was that the price, hav1ng
tien decided by these committees, was now con51dered sanc-
Ohed by the colonial government and was agreed to by the
aarmers' represenative; therefore, it would be a rebellious
Ct should any peasant protest against such prices.

 

114

farmer would have experienced in the change of ownership
the new "pricing" policy instituted by the TSC in 1950.
like the Japanese sugar company, the TSC implemented a
"sugar sharing" policy, whereby the cane farmers who supp
the refineries with raw materials would receive an "agre
percentage of the refined sugar.

The whole procedure of the so-called "sugar sharing
policy is quite complicated. The best way for us to und
stand the Ying-ting peasants' dealings with the TSC is t
follow the procedures taken in the 1969-71 season.

In June of 1969, the TSC announced its policy regar
ing the "price" it would pay for cane contracted to be p
ed in the autumn of 1969 and harvested in the spring of
1971 - Briefly, the announcement contained the following
major points:

1. It indicated the amount and interest rate of th
SO'Called "production loan" and the "fertilizer loan"
(Cf - pp.82-83) each contracted cane farmer would be en-
titled to borrow from the company.

2. It announced the percentage of sugar that cane
farI11ers and the TSC would share and the guaranteed minim
priCe of sugar. Specifically in 1969, it was announced
that cultivators would be entitled to 55 percent of the
Sugar manufactured from the canes they supplied to the

Company. The company guaranteed that each one hundred k

grams of sugar would be worth at least NT$400. Should t

 

115
Jnarket price be lower than the guaranteed price, the c
unruld be obliged to buy all the sugar from the peasan1
tlie rate of NT$400 per hundred kilograms.

3. Furthermore, it explained that the cultivatom
(ptxliged to sell 50 percent of their share to the TSC z
gJJEKranteed price. For example, if a farmer were enti1
tc) 21,000 kilograms of sugar, he would receive NT$2,00(
cersli and 500 kilograms of sugar which he could dispose
he wished .

4. It specified the types of seeds that would be
.lovvexi to be planted in the coming season.

5. It required that the cane farmers hire only 1
anti its agents to harvest and transport the canes.

Besides publishing the announcement in the local
paIDGrIs, the TSC explained its policy to the peasants 1
itES local representatives and extension workers. Afte
1P0]_iucy was made public, the local representative in Yj
lallrlched a campaign to contract all the land the compz
deCided it would need in the coming fall, thus making
tkuitl the company would have enough raw materials with
t" Vvork in the spring of 1971.

Once having signed the contract and planted their
‘Wj‘tkl cane, the peasants are no longer the sole owners
CIV3E>. They are reSponsible for any willful damage dor
1319 crop before it is harvested. They are also bound

tile contract to follow the advice of the company's age

 

116

on how to care for their crop. They have no right to decide
uflien the cane should be harvested, the TSC's local agent
decides.

When the cane is ready for cutting, the cultivators are
notified. The harvesting is done by a cane harvest team
c3r1ganized and supervised by the TSC's local agent. As soon
215 the harvesting is done, the peasants are notified of the
qilaJntity of cane taken from their land. Then the cane is
transported to the local refinery and processed together
with cane shipped in from the surrounding areas. Every
tnveqity—five days or so, the refinery stops its manufactur-
ing for two or three days, and determines the ratio between
the raw materials and the final product, based on the amount
Of cane taken in and the amount of refined sugar manufactured.
Farmers who have contributed raw materials for that particu-
lar period are notified of the conversion rate and the amount
of SUgar to which they are entitled. For example, in 1970,
the average conversion rate between sugar cane and sugar was
twelve percent. Thus, if a farmer had supplied the refinery
with 10,000 kilograms of cane, 1,200 kilograms of sugar would
have been made. According to the contract he signed with
the TSC, he would then be entitled to 55 percent of the 1,200
kilograms of sugar, i.e., 660 kilograms. In accordance with
the TSC's announcement noted earlier, however, he would not
be allowed to have the entire 660 kilograms, for he would

Still be bound by another item of the contract, namely, the

 

117

requirement of selling 50 percent of his share to the TSC
according to the price specified in the contract. In 1970,
the price was NT$400 per 100 kilograms. Thus, after sup-
plying the TSC's refinery with 10,000 kilograms of cane,
the farmer would receive NT$1,320 in cash for the 330 kilo-
grams sold to the TSC and 330 kilograms of sugar either in
kind or in coupon.5 The 330 kilograms he receives can later
be sold at the open market at any time he deems profitable.
The preceding analysis reveals how little the farmers
in Ying-ting control the marketing of their products. After
giving the TSC 45 percent of the sugar manufactured from the
raw materials they supplied, the farmers are still obliged
to sell half their share, i.e., 27.5 percent of the total
sugar made from their cane. Only a few wealthy peasants
in Ying-ting can afford to wait until free market prices
rise before they sell their share of sugar; and for the past
ten years, prices do not rise until six or seven months after
the last harvest. Occasionally, the demand for export might
increase because of unexpected international events; for

eXample, the embargo on Cuba's sugar instituted by the U.S.

5To save the cost of transportation, the TSC is willing
t0 give cane cultivators sugar coupons which can later be
'redeemed for sugar in kind. However, if the cultivator likes
to receive sugar in kind, he is allowed to take it from the
Company's warehouse. The sugar coupon can be sold in the
Open market, its price floating with the market price of
Sugar. Since the coupon has never ”bounced,” most cultiva-
tors prefer to receive coupons instead of sugar in kind
Simply because they can save the effort and cost of moving
the sugar from the warehouse to their homes.

 

118

in 1959 almost doubled the price of Taiwanese sugar in the
international market. That year, peasants who had any
sugar were fortunate because the TSC bought more sugar from
them than usual in order to meet the demand of the inter—
national market. Because of that one experience, most of
the peasants try to withhold their sugar as long as possible
hoping that another international event might boost the
price again.

Whether they withhold the sugar forzaperiod of time
or sell it immediately after receiving it from the TSC, the
villagers in Ying-ting usually do their business with two
sugar dealers in Chia-li. Since the Food Bureau of the
Taiwan Provincial Government publishes a market summary
daily on the island—wide newspaper and on the radio net-
works, the price these two dealers offer iSInHMHquthe same;
they buy at the government-suggested wholesale price. What
draws these dealers into such operations is the chance for
them to buy sugar at a low price when the market is flooded
Shortly after each harvest season, and then withhold it,
Waiting for a higher price before selling out. In a sense,
these dealers are actually capitalizing on the peasants'
1ack of withholding power, i.e., their need to sell for
QUick cash shortly after the harvest. From the peasants'
point of view, however, such dealers have made it easier
for them to sell their sugar. Otherwise, they might have to
sell to individual grocery stores.

Since the prices these two dealers offer are frequently

 

119
the same, the Ying-ting villagers do not particularly pre-
fer one to the other. In fact, they consciously attempt
to rotate their patronage between the two just to keep
their relationship with each of them on equally friendly
terms, because they never know when one dealer will re-

fuse to buy.6

B. The Marketing of Sweet Potatoes

Because Ying-ting is in an area where natural rainfall
is unevenly distributed throughout the year and where irri-
gation facilities are not adequate for continuous cultiva—
tion of wet-rice, sweet potatoes are a popular crop because
they can be successfully raised under such ecological condi-
tions. The adoption of improved seeds and the extensive use
of chemical fertilizers have greatly increased the quantity
and quality of sweet potato production in recent years. Yet
the potatoes are no longer used for food as they once were
ten to fifteen years ago. Nowadays, much of what the pea-
Sants produce is used as animal feed or sold to the market
Where middlemen or peOple in the fodder business purchase
in large quantity.

When a crop of sweet potatoes is harvested, not only
is the potato itself unearthed and collected but also its

Vines and leaves. The vines and leaves are chopped into

‘L

6Dealers tend to be rather reluctant to purchase sugar
when the price is stable. Although rare, a dealer has,
from time to time, refused to buy.

 

120

small pieces and stored in a cement tank buried underground
to lower its temperature and to prolong preservation. Later,
the preserved vines and leaves can be cooked and used as pig
fodder. The sweet potato itself is sliced and then dried in
the sun because dried slices can be more easily preserved
and then sold or ground into powder for fodder when needed.

When the harvest is greater than the peasants' animals
can consume, the surplus is usually sold to the fodder stores
in Chia-li or Chia-li-hsin. The two mills recently opened
in the village also buy raw sweet potatoes or dried potato
slices from the villagers and sell them as fodder.

The price of sweet potatoes varies from season to
season depending on the supply available in the market. As
a rule, the price is usually higher before the harvest sea-
son starts. Thus, the peasants have a strong incentive to
work hard and take care of their crops so they can harvest
a few weeks early and take advantage of the good selling
Price. Later, when the market is flooded with new supplies
the prices drop and then three or four months after the
last harvest, they rise again. Thus, if a peasant cannot
llarvest his cr0p early, he tries to withhold it as long as
Possible. This is not easy to do, however. First, the
Peasant has to have the time and labor to slice and dry all
the sweet potatoes to prevent spoilage. Second, he has to
be financially capable of withholding the commodity. As a

consequence, only a few wealthy households equipped with

 

lZl
electric slicing machines and have the financial ability can
afford to withhold the crop for later sales.

Once they have decided to sell their crops, villagers
begin to seek out the buyer paying the highest prices. This
is not a difficult task, for during the harvest season or
shortly afterwards, the most talked—about topic is always
the prices that potential buyers are willing to offer. I
have observed that when villagers are deciding to sell their
crops, the most important, if not the only, issue they
usually consider is where they can get the highest price.
The opening of the two mills in the village, however, has
enticed many of them to deal with the local stores rather
than go to Chia-li or Chia—li-hsin. If the prices offered
by the fodder stores of Chia-li or Chia-li-hsin are not
substantially higher than those of the local mills, which
is usually the case, the peasants save the time and labor
required to transport their crops by selling close to home.

Since the two local mills have been offering virtually

the same prices ever since they opened, a peasant sells to
Cuie or the other according to his personal relationship with
the two owners. The mill on the road-west is owned by the
Village mayor, a member of the fifth fang of the Chuang
lineage. Most of his steady customers are personal friends,
neighbors, or members of his political faction,7 in other

k

7Ever since local elections were introduced in 1951,
two factions in Ying-ting have been competing for control.
The membership of these two factions has changed over time,

 

122

words, the entire membership of the fifth fang of the Chuang
lineage. The other mill, directly across the street from
the mayor's is owned by a bus driver and his brother, also
members of the Chuang lineage. They belong to the third
fang, an ancient rival of the fifth fang. Thus, their
steady customers are mainly members of the third fang and
"political enemies” of the current village mayor, including
the Upper Ssu lineage and a few households of the second
fang of the Chuang lineage.

The loyalty of fang membership or political faction
alone is not strong enough for one mill to be sure it can
keep its clientele from going to the other. To continue
attracting patronage, each of the two stores allows its
regular customers to buy goods and services on credit.

Thus, kinship affiliation and faction membership, together
with the privilege of buying on credit, have worked to
fasten the patronage of most of the village households to

a particular mill in the village. During my study, about
three-fifths of the villagers were dealing with the mayor's
Store while the remaining two—fifths tended to go to the
bus driver's. A few households in the village deliberately
rOtated their patronage between the two stores in order to
maintain a good relationship with both of the owners. These
People were generally ones who could afford to buy what

they needed in cash or who were purposefully trying to avoid

 

hit one of them is made up essentially by members of the Ufird
fang of Chuang lineage and the other by members of the fifth
ang of the same lineage.

 

123

being identified with any political faction.

C. The Marketing of Rice

As dictated by the rotating cropping system, peasants
in Ying-ting can grow each year only one crop of rice in
two of the three cropping zones. As shown in Figure 5
(p. 57), within each year one of the three cropping zones
is planted with dry-rice (usually in June) and another zone
is supplied with irrigation water so that one crop of wet-
rice can be cultivated (usually in July). In other words,
only two-thirds of Ying-ting's farmlands can be used each
year for rice cultivations. Furthermore, even these two-
thirds are not used for rice during the entire year; rice
occupies the land for only three months. Thus, if all
other conditions hold constant, a given unit of farmland
utilized in accordance with the area's crop rotating sys—
tem produces only one-sixth of the rice produced by a simi-
lar unit of land used solely for rice, i.e., used for two
CrOps of rice a year.

The rice produced in Ying—ting has been inadequate
even for the villagers' own consumption. Consequently,
the community as a whole has been importing rice annually
from other areas of Taiwan. This does not necessarily
imply, however, that all the peasant households in Ying-
ting are buying rice every year. Because of the rotating
system and the uneven distribution of peasants' lands

throughout the three cropping zones, some peasants have more

 

124

land in the wet-rice zone than in the others and so produce
more rice than their families can consume. For example,
Zone II became the wet-rice zone in July, 1970. Mr. Chuang,
who has 1.5 chia of land in this zone, harvested approxi-
mately 3,000 kilograms of rice which was, according to his
own estimation, more than double the amount his seven—person
household could consume in a year. Thus, Mr. Chuang had
surplus to sell in the market.

Two types of rice sellers predominate at the market.
The first, like Mr. Chuang, has grown more rice than its
families need, so it sells the surplus. The second type does
not have an adequate supply for the entire year but sells
its rice either because it needs money for other purposes
or because it does not have adequate storage facilities.

Paralleling the two types of sellers are two selling
patterns. To begin with, it is a common practice for poor
peasants to sell their rice for cash and to search in Chia-
li, Chia-li-hsin, and Huseh—chia for the rice dealer offer-
ing the highest price. Consequently, they usually do not
1lave a steady buyer. Rich peasants, who have a large
<inlantity of rice to sell and the financial strength to
withhold the rice for a period of time, usually try to
speculate in the market.

Speculators usually proceed in the following manner.
Shortly aftertflmflafharvest, they ship rice to their favor-

ite dealers and deposit their rice in the dealer's store.

 

125

It is understood that the depositor can go to the dealer at
any time after the deposit is made and demand part or all

of their deposit, either in kind or in cash. Should they
desire cash, the dealer has the responsibility to pay ac-
cording to the market price on the date the demand is made,
not according to the price when the deposit was received.

In this arrangement, the depositor has the following advan-
tages: (a) He does not have to be bothered with the problem
of storing his rice. (b) He can withdraw any amount of the
rice he deposited either in kind or in cash at any time he
needs it. (c) He can let his deposit stand and wait for the
market price to reach its peak before asking to be paid off
in cash. On the other hand, the rice dealers also have some-
thing to gain in this process. By allowing people to depos—
it rice at their stores, they are actually collecting a
large amount of rice without having to pay for it. Because
‘Uunrareinformed of the market situation throughout Taiwan
and have extensive connections, they can sell their "free"
rice to other areas of Taiwan where the price is higher
than their own districts. In this way the dealers can

acquire a large sum of cash to use for other business pur-

Poses.
D. General Charactertistics of Market

Participation

Although so far we have dealt mainly with the processes
by which the peasants sell their major crops, the general

pattern of market participation should be clear. It can be

 

126

summed up in the following statements:

1. Villagers are very economically-minded. When they
market, they are constantly maneuvering to solicit the high-
est possible price for their products. They operate within
the limit of certain constraints, however, such as their
withholding power, the availability of transportation, and
storage facilities.

2. The majority of villagers can participate only in
local markets, their products sold mainly to agents, middle-
men, or store owners in Chia-li, Chia—li—hsin, Hsueh—chia,
or Ying-ting. Although they know that they might receive
better prices if they could ship their crops to cities such
as Tainan or Kaoshiung, their major products, sweet potatoes,
rice, and vegetables, are bulky and heavy,posing serious
transportation problems and, thus, restricting the markets
available to them.

3. In choosing an agent, middleman, or store owner with
whom to deal, the peasants are concerned primarily with
profit. Personal relationships and ties of kinship do not
play a significant role in their decision. This is not to
say that villagers in Ying-ting do not deal with friends or
kinsmen. What I am stressing here is simply that personal
relationships rarely outweigh monetary considerations. They
matter only when economic considerations are inconsequential.
For example, in dealing with village grocery stores and mills

that offer virtually the same prices, peasants allow personal

 

127
relationships and kinship affiliations to help determine
the place at which they will buy and sell.

Monetary considerations outweigh kinship considera-
tions is also found in other aspects of villagers' trans-
actional behavior. For example, labor-exchange, an
ancient mutual assistance arrangement found among kinsmen
and neighbors, has recently changed. Nowadays, no villager
will ask a kinsman to enter an exchange arrangement with him
if he knows thatlrhskinsman has a chance to earn wages by
working for someone else. Furthermore, labor-exchange is
no longer calculated simply as one-day's work-for one-day's
work. Instead, work is not considered balanced until the
cash value of each man's work is the same. For example,
plowing land for one day is not the equivalent of weeding
for a day. In 1970, the price for plowing was NT$90 per day
while weeding was NT$45. Thus, if a peasant asked his cousin
to plow land for a day, and his cousin asked him to weed in
return, he would understand that he would have to weed for
his cousin for two days in order to balance the exchange.

If his cousin did not have that much weeding to be done,
say, only one day's work, then, he would be expected to pay
his cousin NT$45 or do some other jobs valued at NT$45 to
balance the "exchange." Because of these recent changes,
labor-exchange, even among close kinsmen, is becoming less
and less fequent. More and more villagers are willing to

pay cash for the help they need and want to be hired for

 

128

wages when they have the time to work for others.

4. Credit selling and buying rarely exist beyond the
village boundary. Except for the rice deposit arrange-
ments I delineated earlier, when peasants deal with people
from outside their village, they usually ask for cash pay-
ment. Only in dealings with the village grocery stores
and mills is credit accepted. And, as I previously indi—
cated, store owners in the village are purposefully using
such credit to assure the patronage of their steady

customers.

 

CHAPTER FIVE

THE VILLAGE AS A SOCIAL UNIT

 

In this chapter I will examine the following topics:
(1) family organization, (2) marriage practices, and (3)

lineage organization. I will also investigate social in-

stitutions that unite the villagers and incorporate them
into a cohesive community.

My purpose in discussing these topics is not merely
to make this dissertation a more complete ethnographic ac-
count of Ying-ting village, but,rather,to present the fea-
tures of the most characteristic social institutions of a
(31inese peasant community so that I can isolate the unique—
Iuass, if any, of Ying-ting village--a mixed cropping com-

nlunity--when compared to villages with different ecological

adaptations.

I- Family Organizations
The term "family” is used interchangeably with the

‘telnn "household” in this dissertation. It denotes "a unit

CXJnsisting of members related to each other by blood, mar—
riage or adoption, and having a common budget and common
IYFOperty” (Lang 1946:13). As such, the family unit is the
mOst basic socioeconomic unit of the villagers' daily life.
In Ying-ting, such basic socioeconomic units appear in dif—

ferent forms with different types of organizations.

129

 

130
As in all Chinese rural communities, in Ying-ting the
conjugal family predominates, while the stem family and its
modified form, the rotating stem family, rank second. The
extended family, though still regarded by many villagers as
the ideal form, occurs rarely.
Among the 156 Ying—ting families, 87 are conjugal
(54.7% of the total number of families). These 87 conjugal
families consist of 353 individuals or 41.9% of the entire
village population. The 37 stem families (23.3% of the
total) consist of 247 persons, 29.3% of the villagers. The
32 rotating stem families (20.1% of the total) contain 190
persons, 22.6% of the population. There are only three
extended families (1.9% of the total) which include 52 per-
sons, representing only 6.2% of the village's inhabitants
(Cf. Table 7).
f\- The Conjugal, Stem, and Rotating
Stem Families
A conjugal family is frequently defined as a unit con-
Sisting of husband, wife, and unmarried children, if any
(le. Goode 1964:45). In reality, we frequently find "brokefl'
COnjugal families in which one or both of the parents are
absent either because of death or divorce, or in which
tJIere are no children. Thus, we find in Table 7 seven units
of a single member, all of whom are elderly and have lost
their spouses.

A stem family is a unit that "consists of parents,

 

 

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131

 

 

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132

their unmarried children and one married son with wife and

children" (Lang 1946:14). In Taiwan and other parts of

China, especially in rural areas, we find a modified form

of the stem family that seems to be rather popular. To

differentiate the modified form from the typical one de-

fined above, Li Yih-yuan has coined the term ”rotating

stem family" (personal communication). The so-called rota—

ting stem family exists when more than two sons are
married and a family division has already taken place. To
acxzommodate the parents, the sons adopt a system in which
thta parents, live with them on a rotating basis. An ex—
ampflle would be an old couple with three married sons among
whcnn an agreement is reached to take turns caring for their

parwents. The parents live with the family of the eldest
sori for a period of ten days, or whatever length of time
has; been agreed upon, and then, in a rotating fashion, stay
Witfll the second and third sons for the same period of time.
When the cycle is finished, it recommences with the parents
liViJig with the eldest son.

Each son is responsible not only for providing food
and ilodging for his parents when they live with him, but
also :for furnishing them with some pocket money so the

fathfiir can buy cigarettes and the like. If the old couple
bectnne ill while living with one of their sons, their care

will-'be the responsibility of that son alone so long as the

1111less is not serious and its treatment not too costly.

 

133

If the illness is serious or chronic, the expense will be

shared by all the sons.

If the sons are still living in their home village

while their parents are rotated among them, the parents
usually do not actually change their living quarters. In-
stead, they remain in their own home and simply eat in the

homes of their sons. If one of the sons and his family

has moved from the village, he can ask one of the remain-
ing brothers to take care of the parents in his behalf

anti he is expected to send money back to that brother to

(xnnpensate for his expenses. If the parents wish, they

C311 take the money and cook for themselves for the period
of 'time that is supposed to be the turn of the migrant son.
Altfliough it is very rare, I did find some cases in which
parwents went to the city to join a migrant son when it was
Iris turn and then returned to the village again when it was

ancrther son's turn.

This rotating system is also found in other Chinese
COHUnunities, both in Taiwan as well as in mainland China
(cf. Gallin 1966:144; Diamond 1969:64; Wang 1967:64-66;
and 7Yang 1945283). Some writers do not think it necessary

to Cliassify this arrangement as a particular type of house—

hOld-<:)rganization. The acknowledgement of such a rotating

System“ can cause problems in the classification of family

tYpes; For example, should we classify the three conjugal

families taking turns in accommodating their parents

 

134

as three or four conjugal families, i.e., counting the
parents as another conjugal family? Or should we classify
them as one stem family and two conjugal families, i.e.,
counting the parents with one of thetfiuxxaconjugal
families?

The first solution is not acceptable because it not
only misrepresents the facts but also is in direct contrast
to the definition of a family unit, because the parents are
IN) longer functioning as an independent economic unit; that
is, they do not have an independent budget nor any sizeable
prtxperty or income. The second solution is also problem-

atixzal; which of the three families should be classified as

‘Uie stem family? Since the parents spend their time

eqiially'among all their sons, to classify one as the stem

amid. the other two as conjugals is also misrepresenting
tflie facts. Furthermore a rotating stem family is differ-
ent: from a true conjugal family on the one hand and from
the: typical stem family on the other.

Such differences exist not only in terms of the mem-
betffllips involved but also in various other ways. For
exaUQDIe, when the parents are with the eldest son's
famiJLy, they are expected to help with various family
task53. If the father is still strong enough, he might work
in tlle field. The mother might help in the kitchen or look
aftGI? the grandchildren, freeing the eldest daughter-in-

1aWfrom her household duties and enabling her to work in

 

 

135

the field, if her labor is needed, or to shop or do other
activities she normallycouldnot do because of the house—
work. hdany housewives in Ying—ting hire themselves out
as day Ilaborers or work for other villagers on a labor—
exchangee basis only when their parents—in—law are ”eating"
with triem, or, to be more specific, only when they have
someone to do the housework for them. In some cases, the
rotatirig system even influences the diet of the son's
househoild. Usually the family will eat a little bit bet—
ter wheri the parents are eating with them, either because
the son. is showing a loving concern for his parents or
because he fears being criticized for mistreating his
Parents by providing a skimpy diet. As pointed out by
Goode, "The various forms of the household have a number
of imp1Lications for family interaction" (1964:44). As I
have obs§erved here, the form not only shapes the personal
interaCt:ions among the members of the household, but also
influent:es the pattern of labor division within the house—
hold.

FIXDm a short-term point of view, the rotating system
Seems tC) be a temporary, transitional phenomenon. When
the pattants die, the sons' families will become either
true COIljugal families or true stem families if the son's
Son has Inarried and has his own children. Yet from a
long-telun viewpoint, the rotating stem family as a social

1 ' - .
nStltution 15 an ever—present phenomenon. Some stem

¥

 

 

136

families of today might become two or three rotating stem
families in the future. Furthermore, this social insti-
tution is found not only in Taiwan but also in northern
China, and in Fukien and Kwangtung Provinces. Involving
such a wide geographical distribution and representing
such a special structural form, the rotating stem family
as a social institution demands to be recognized as an
independent family type in Chinese society. Moreover, a
more complete picture of the family life of the Chinese
peasants can be achieved by reckoning with this particular
household organization.

When the rotating stem family was first noticed,
many people familiar with Chinese family life, including
this writer, thought that it was a poor man's way to ac-
commodate his aged parents after the division of the
family, Since the traditional Chinese inheritance rule
Stipulates that all the sons have an equal share of the
family property, it also implies that all the sons have
equal reSponsibility in caring for their parents and
paying the family's debt, if any. When a rich family
diVides, the parents usually withhold a small portion of
their land or other form of property as a means of self-
Support. They can either hold the land and cultivate it
themselves or lease it and live off the rent. Or, as is
more frequently found, they can give this portion of land

to one Of their sons with the understanding that after

137

receiving this extra share, he will care for his parents

in their old age. In contrast, when a poor family divides,
since the family estate is already rather small, should

the parents withhold some of the land for themselves or
give it to one of their sons, all of the other sons would
receive even less of a share of the inheritance, making it
more difficult for all of them to live off the land. There-
fore, in a poor peasant family, the parents usually let
their sons divide all the land and property equally, with-
holding nothing for themselves. Once the property has been
divided, the fairest way to support the parents is for the
sons to take turns so that none of them are unduly over-
burdened.

Though the above statement seems to be a reasonable
explanation, it is proven to be inadequate when we look
into the data of the family property of Ying-ting villagers.
My data show that fifteen of the thirty-two rotating stem
families cannot be classified as poor families compared to
Other families in the village. In fact, eleven are con-
Sidered rather well-to—do by the villagers themselves.
EaCh of them has more than 1.5 chia of land, which sug-
gests that the rotating arrangement is not adopted solely
to avoid diminishing the share of each son's inheritance.
In Other words, other considerations must lie behind the
deCision to rotate.

According to the villagers, it is "advantageous" for

y

 

138

the aged” retired parents to rotate among their sons if they
cannot liold them together to maintain an extended family.
The paiwents do not have to work as hard as they would if
they wirthheld a piece of land and cultivated it by them-
selves. The parents also avoid the disadvantage of being
stuck Mhith one particular son and taking the risk of wear-
ing out: his favor by living with him and depending on him
all the: time. As one of the ”rotating parents” pointed out
to me, 'VBy rotating among my three sons, eating with each
of then1 for a short period of time, we maintain our fresh-
ness arud don't have to worry too much about their getting
bored writh us.”

I11 other words, when a rich family is going to be
divided. and the parents decide to rotate, it seems that
the parwents are trying to maximize their relationship with
all 0f tiheir sons by not giving one of them a larger share
ofinheritance, thus avoiding showing any special favor
or Preferrence to any one of their sons, and by not staying
With an)’ of their sons for a prolonged period of time,
thus avr>iding the chances of conflicts, especially the

Conflict: between mother and daughter-in-law.

B. The jExtended Family

Idle term "extended family" is used here to denote a
househtde unit that consists of a man, his wife (or wives)
and tch or more of his married sons and the sons' wives

and Chileren. It differs from the stem family in that it

 

 

139
has morerthan one married son in the second generation
while, 13y definition, a stem family has only one married
son in. the second generation.

IJsing this definition, I found three extended fam-
ilies irlYing-ting while I was conducting my study. These
familites constituted 1.9 percent of all the family types
in the 'village and, with 52 individuals, 6.2 percent of the
total \rillage population. Based on these figures, it is
clear tfliat the extended family, though still considered
the idenal family type by many old villagers, is not a com—
mon modxe of familial arrangement in Ying-ting.

'The three extended families are not only the biggest
families; in the village but also the richest families in
the conununity. They are considered rich because they all
Ilave lajcger land holdings than the rest of the families
and becauase they also have nonagricultural incomes. The
heads Oi? these households are all illiterate peasants,
bUt at Ileast one of the sons in each of the families has a
rather Egood education which has enabled him to secure non-
agricu112'ura1 employment, thereby diversifying the sources
and augruenting the household's income. Furthermore, the
number (3f people in these families has helped them become
relativraly self-sufficient in supplying labor for agricul-
tural tnasks; they rarely need to hire other villagers to
hEIP tirem_farm. In addition, they have been able to

Capitalize on the rather large labor forces they command.

140
For example, the rice transplanting and harvest teams de—
scribed in Chapter Three were organized and managed by two
brothers of one of the extended families. Extended fam—
ilies also frequently hire out some of their household
members to work for other villagers. Many part-time farmers
in the village hire people from these families to plow
their lands or to transport their crops simply because
these families, being rich and owning much land, have a
rather complete set of farm tools and equipment which the
part-time farmers cannot afford.

From the above, a direct correlation between the
extended family and wealth emerges. Extended families
tend to have a better chance than most to acquire and
accumulate wealth. This tendency is recognized not only
by some anthropologists who specialize in the study of
Chinese culture and society (cf. Fei 1946; Cohen 1967),
bu‘c also by the peasants in Ying—ting village. When asked
Why the extended families were relatively wealthier than
the majority of the village families, most of my inform—
ants simply attributed it to the fact that such families
have "more hands," i.e., they have more productive man—

power in their households.

II ° Marriage

One of the major characteristics of the traditional
ChlneSe marriage has been its arrangement by parents of

bOth Sides through a go-between or matchmaker. Youngsters

 

141
were to have no voice in selecting their marriage partners;
they could only passively accept the arrangement their par-
ents made for them. Arranged marriages are no longer
practiced in Ying-ting nor in the general area. If they
still occur in some parts of Taiwan, they are the exception
rather than the norm.

The so-called "love marriage," a major theme in
Chinese literature for the past fifty years, is also rarely
found in Taiwan's rural communities. Although the village's
youngsters know about this marriage pattern, and may even
be enthusiastic about it, most of them, especially the girls,
are still too shy to approach their beloved. Even if some
of them might be ”brave" enough, the social milieu of rural
Taiwan does not provide many favorable circumstances for
romantic love to develop. Though the older generation
tolerates its youngsters' ventures, such affairs never fail
to become the topic of neighborhood gossip. And should
SUCh an affair fail to result in marriage, the girl involved
Would have a black mark on her reputation which might be an
Obstacle to her future marriage. Furthermore, village boys
and girls have few opportunities to develop serious love
relationships within the sphere of their daily activities.
With their lives predominantly confined to the village and
its SuI‘rounding area, they find few boys or girls from
Which to choose; most of them belong to the same lineage or

bear the same surname. Besides, most of their activities

 

... .._".-
_ .......

142

cannot <escape the eyes of their fellow villagers. In short,
thougll'youngsters in contemporary rural Taiwan are longing

for thta so-called love marriage, the social milieu in which
they'iiind themselves simply does not provide many opportun-

ities :Eor romantic love to develop.1

A. The lModified Arranged Marriage

IXS a compromise, a modified form of the arranged mar-
riage lias evolved and has become the most popular way of
contrat:ting a marriage among the present-day peasant com-
munitiees of Taiwan. The modified arranged marriage works as
folloums. When a boy reaches his mid—twenties and has com-
Pleted Inilitary service, his parents begin to seek a wife
for hinl. Usually, the parents first ask the boy if he has
a girl :Eriend. If the answer is yes, and the girl fits
the corusiderations of the parents, they will then offer to
Send a ggo-between to the girl's family to propose. Although
Inost of 'the village boys do not have girl friends, they may
have a (:ertain girl in mind about whom they will tell their
parents ‘when asked. Again, if the girl fits the parents'
reqUiI‘ements, i.e., is from a decent family, is in good
health, has no record of bad "deeds," is diligent and

Capable, of doing housework, and comes from a family whose

economjlz standing is comparable to their own, then the
\

()f all the marriages in the village, five are love
gee, i.e., the couple married out of its own initi—
I‘without being ”introduced" by parents or other kins-
'These love marriages, however, were initiated in the

or in places outside of the village.

marria
ation
men .

Cities

III-I--___

 

 

 

 

143

parents will usually go along with their son's wish by send-
ing a matchmaker to the girl's family.

From the girl and her family's point of view, a good
candidate is a young man who is: (a) lou shih, i.e.,
mature and sincere; (b) without any bad habits, such as
heavy drinking, gambling, or having a poor reputation with
girls, and (c) working at a job other than farming. Nowa-
days, most of the village girls prefer to marry a man who
has a NT$1,000 monthly income than a man who has 1.0 chia
of land.

If the boy does not have any particular girl in mind,
his parents try to locate a suitable girl for him. Some of
them go to a professional matchmaker, while others simply
let their intention be known among their kinsmen and
relatives, hOping that they may know some girls or someone
who has a girl with the suitable qualifications.

When a matchmaker locates the prospective wife, he
serves as the go-between in future arrangements. When a
friend or relative suggests a girl, he or his wife is
usually asked to perform the role of go—between. In either
case, the go—between makes sure that the girl has not been
engaged and does not presently have a boy friend, and that
she and her family are ready to consider a marriage. If
these preconditions are satisfied, the go-between will
begin to persuade both sides, trying to show the merits of

each to the other. Although listening to the go-between,

 

 

144

both sides will try to gather information about the other
on their own, if they are serious about the matter. They
will inquire among relatives, neighbors, and friends who
know the boy or girl and his or her family.

Once both families are satisfied with each other's
background, the boy's and girl's photographs are exchanged
so that the youngsters can have a look at the prospective
spouse. At this point, they can voice their own opinions.
Usually, the young people are quite concerned with the
looks of their potential mate. If they are not pleased
with the other's looks, the whole arrangement may be called
off, and the search for a spouse recommenced. If both
youngsters are pleased, then a ”date" is arranged for them

to see each other in person. The date, called tui k'an

 

(i.e., to see each other) by the villagers,usually occurs
at a public place suchzusa movie house, restaurant, or
place that serves soft drinks and fruits. The sole purpose
of the date is for the youngsters to have a better look at
each other so that they will not be fooled by the photo-
graphs. Rarely is any conversation held between them under
such circumstances. Usually, they dress in their best and
try secretly to get a good look at the other.

If neither has any objections after Eui klan, then
the "eight characters," i.e., the horoscope of the boy and
girl are exchanged. Each family either takes the horoscope

of the prospective spouse to a professional diviner for

.11 II‘ II ‘Il'l III I 1

 

145
analysis to determine whether the proposal is in accordance
with the heaven's intentions, or simply puts the eight
characters on the family altar for three days. If no ill-
ness, misfortune, or physical disturbance occurs in the
family during this time, it is taken as an omen of super—
natural approval. If the eight characters of both sides
match, a proposal is formally made by the boy's family
through the go—between. Negotiations regarding the trans—
fer of gifts and the approximate date of the wedding are
also carried out through the go-between.

At the engagement, substantial gifts are sent to the
girl's family in the form of clothing, an engagement ring,
jewelry, cash, food, and engagement cakes, which the girl's
family distributes among its kinsmen, neighbors, and
friends to announce the engagement. In return, the girl's
family sends cakes of different kinds together with
bananas, a few items of clothing, and a ring for the boy.
The cakes and fruits are then distributed among relatives
and friends to announce the boy's engagement.

After the engagement, the boy is free to see his
fiancée at her home and, perhaps, take her out to the city
or to the market town for a motion picture or the like. It
is during this period that the engaged couple first have
their chance to know each other and try out the romantic
love about which they so often read, hear, or view in the

motion pictures or television shows. In some cases, the

 

146

girl gets pregnant during this period. Such an ”accident”
is tolerated so long as the two are already engaged and
will be married before the pregnancy becomes conspicuous.

The wedding usually occurs several months after the
engagement. Since Chinese marriage rites have been well—
documented in both Gallin's and Diamond's works (Gallin
1966:207—215; Diamond 1969:55-59), and since the general
pattern they describe holds for Ying-ting, I will omit a
discussion of wedding rituals. Between the betrothal and
the wedding, however, the dowry and the so-called ”bride
price” are determined. I would like to single out the
custom of dowry-giving and discuss its social implications
in the following section for it has some relation to the
changing socioeconomic conditions of rural Taiwan in recent

years.

 

2During the last twenty years, 115 brides have married
into Ying-ting. Thirty-five of them gave birth to their
first child within 8 months of the wedding. Considering
that the people's attitude toward sex during the engagement
period was rather positive, i.e., there were no social sanc-
tions against those girls who became pregnant during their
engagement, and that engagements are rarely broken, we must
recognize that Chinese and western social assumptions about
engagements differ. Furthermore, in Ying-ting as well as in
many rural communities of Taiwan and mainland China, should
a man's fiancée die before the two are formally married,
before he can marry another girl, he has the obligation to
"marry" his deceased fiancee first. This spiritual marriage
usually takes place on the day of the actual marriage of
the living couple, or shortly before. But, only after the
man has married his deceased fiancee can he marry his living
bride. During the spiritual ceremony, the deceased fiancée
is usually represented by a spirit tablet. After the spirit-
ual marriage, the deceased fiancée is considered the man's
deceased wife, and her spirit tablet is kept in and worship-
ped by her husband's household. These facts warrant a

 

147

B. The Dowry and Its Implications

Although the contents of various dowries differ in
quality and quantity, some basic items commonly included in
dowries in the Tainan area are: (a) the bride's clothing
and her personal items, ranging from a private bath pan to
cosmetics and some clothing and jewelry for the bridegroom;
(b) linens and bedroom furniture; (c) kitchenware and cook-
ing utensils; (d) bicycles or motorcycles; (e) a radio
and/or television set; (f) family heirlooms and some cash.
It is clear from this list that the dowry is mainly pre-
pared for the new couple's personal use, e.g., clothing
and jewelry, and for their future conjugal family, e.g.,
bedding and kitchen utensils. Of importance to note is
that no bride would be married nowadays without bringing
some dowry with her to her new family. In other words,
the dowry is considered an indispensable part of the mar-
riage. No matter how poor a girl's family may be, they
must give her a minimum set of household equipment,
clothing and jewelry to take to her new home.

Just as the parents of the girl have the obliga-
tion to prepare a dowry so that they can marry off their
daughter properly, the boy's parents have the responsi-

bility to pay a bride price to the girl's parents. In

 

rethinking of the Chinese engagement: is it considered the
first phase of a marriage contract as the term is commonly
understood in Western society, or does marriage in Chinese
society actually start at engagement? Such questions can
only be answered with more data and will not be treated in
this dissertation.

 

148

some cases, the bride's parents will use the bride price to
prepare the dowry, but they are expected not only to spend
for the dowry all the money received as the bride price but
also to add something extra. The general practice in Ying—
ting in recent years is for the father to add to the dowry
the same amount of money he receives as the bride price.
When Mr. Huang, a rather poor peasant in Ying-ting, received
NT$12,000 as a bride price from his eldest daughter's
fiancée's parents, he was very worried, for he believed
that he was obliged to provide a dowry worth, in goods and
cash, NT$24,000. Being poor, he was forced to borrow money
from his friends in the village. When asked why he couldn't
merely use the bride price for the dowry, thus saving him-
self from going into debt, Mr. Huang said, ”I don't want to
give my daughter a bad start in her married life. If she
goes over there, to her husband's household, without bringing
anything, she will be looked down upon; I would be looked
down upon. And, even my neighbors in this village will
criticize me for being stingy. Also, as you know, my
daughter has been working for five years now, and she gave
most of her wages to us. Now that she is getting married,
if I don't give her some dowry she is going to be very dis-
pleased.”

Mr. Huang's is not an exceptional case, and his
determination to match the bride price and spend all on the
dowry is rather typical. Although he was poor and had to

borrow money to do it, none of his relatives and neighbors

 

149
seemed to disapprove of his decision. As Mr. Huang's
brother-in-law explained, "He has to do it. Too bad that
he has to borrow money, but there is no way for a man to mar-
ry his daughter off without giving her some money!”

The preceding incident can, perhaps, be more clearly
understood if placed in the context of significance of a
dowry. Chinese ethnographies have pointed out again and
again that tranditionally in China, men were the only family
members to jointly own family property. When the family
estate was divided, all the property was distributed among
the males. Daughters and wives were their father's and
husband's heiresses only in rare cases, for instance, when
the parents had no son or had failed to adopt a son. Further-
more, the ethnographies have also pointed out that although
the law changed after the revolution of 1911 and daughters
became as legally eligible as their brothers to inherit
their parents' property, the traditional practice of male
inheritance has not changed, at least not in the rural areas
of China (cf. Lang 1946:44,115).

Based on my observation of the practice of dowry-
giving in contemporary tural Taiwan, I think the above
statement, that only the male members of the family are con-
sidered co-owners of the family estate, is no longer appli-
cable. Lang's observation is true only if we equate the
right to claim the family estate with the right to inheri-

tance at the time of family division. It can no longer be

 

150

sustained if we take a broader interpretation of the phrase
"the claim over the joint family estate." For if we exam-
ine carefully the custom of dowry-giving and recall the
strong social sanctions pressuring the bride's parents to
provide a sizeable dowry, then we can conclude that a
daughter does have some claim on her natal family's estate.
The differences between a daughter's claim and her brothers'
exist only in the timing and the size of their claims. Un-
like her brothers, a daughter receives her share of the
family's estate when she marries and leaves her natal fam-
ily, while her brothers usually acquire theirs when the
family is divided. The second major difference is that

a daughter's share, received in the form of dowry, is
usually smaller than that of her brothers.

The argument that since the dowry is given to the
daughter when she marries, it should only be considered a
gift from her parents is irrelevant to my basic point. I
am asserting that a daughter, at least nowadays, does expect
to be given some of her family's property, although her
share is frequently smaller than those of her brothers.
From what we have seen in Mr. Huang's case, a dowry cannot
be considered a gift in the usual sense of the word. A
gift-giver has the privilege of deciding the quality and
quantity of his gift. Mr. Huang and others involved in
dowry-giving practices in present-day rural Taiwan are more
restricted than such gift—givers. They must prepare a cer-

tain number of items for their daughters, and the value of

151

the entire dowry is virtually decided by the groom's par—
ents when they ”pay" the bride price, as we have noted in
Mr. Huang's representative response.

Some villagers pointed out to me when we were dis—
cussing dowries and related customs:

Nowadays, girls are very bold. In the old days

no girl would dare to ask or even show her

attitude regarding her dowry. They took what-

ever their parents gave them. But things are

certainly different now. Girls of today not

only will show what they want, sometimes they

even dare to argue with their parents for not

giving them enough dowry.

Although I do not have historical documents to verify the
above statement, it seems to me a fair account of the pres-
ent situation. It is rather safe to say that the attitude
toward dowries has changed from seeing them as a gift to
the marrying daughter to seeing them as the marrying
daughter's share in her natal family's estate.

The explanation for the change in attitude can only
be found in the changing economic roles that girls play in
contemporary rural Taiwan. In the old days, say thirty years
ago, although unmarried girls did have some participation in
their family's economic activities, their contributions were
mainly in the form of attending to housework and helping
their fathers and brothers with the farm work. Today, how—
ever, the girls not only do what their mothers and grand-
mothers used to do, they also hold various types of wage-

earning jobs. For example, as noted in Chapter Four, 85 per-

cent of the unmarried girls in Ying-ting have some kind of

 

 

152

job from which they earn a regular wage, most working for
the weaving and knitting factories in the nearby market
towns. Since these girls give the bulk of their wages to
their parents, it should not be too surprising that they
have a more demanding attitude regarding the dowry they
receive. It is also understandable that the parents, after
receiving their daughters' wages for a prolonged period of
time, would feel more obliged to provide their departing

daughters with a good dowry than they once might have.

III. Lineage Organization

 

Before presenting the details of lineage organization
and the roles that lineage plays in community life, I will
group the Ying-ting villagers according to their surnames
and lineage memberships. The heads of the 159 households
living in Ying-ting bear sixteen different surnames. The
following table shows the numbers and percentages of the
major surname groups.

The "Other Surname" category in Table 8 comprises
groups having less than three households. These minorities
include two households each of the following surnames: Lin,
Chang, Tseng, Kou, and Hsu; plus one household each of Huang,
Hung, Lai, Yei, Wang, and Wei. The Ssu people are divided
into two subgroups because they belong to two different
lineages. It is believed that there is nothing in common

between them except their surname.

 

153

Table 8

Numbers and Percentages of Major Surname Groups
in Ying-ting, l970

 

Number of % of Total Number of % of Total

 

Surnames Households Households Persons Population
Chuang l03 64.7 542 6h.4
Ssu Upper 20 l2.6 l27 15.]

Southern 9 5.7 53 6.3
Chiu 5 3.l 2l 2.5
Chen 3 l.9 19 2.2
Wu 3 1.9 ll-l 1.7
Other 16 10.1 66 7.8
Surnames
Total l59 l00.0 8h2 l00.0

 

As it is seen today, Ying-ting is a multi-lineage or
"multi-tsu” village. A study of the genealogies of the
Chuang and two Ssu lineages, however, reveals that most of
thehouseholdsbearing other surnames are affinal kins of
either the Chuang or the Ssu people. They or their ancestors
moved into the village either as adOpted husbands who mar—
ried Chuang or Ssu women matrilocally or as stepsons fol-
lowing a mother who remarried into the village. For example,

the five households of Chiu people are descendants of an

 

154

adopted husband who married a Chuang woman matrilocally

and, taking her surname, moved into Ying-ting four genera-
tions ago. That marriage resulted in three sons and the
youngest was allowed to bear the surname Chiu to continue
his father's descent line. After three more generations,
that Chiu household had multiplied into five households.

The households of Lin, Hsu, and Tseng as well as those of
Chen and Hung all found their way into Ying-ting by the same
social mechanism, except that the Chen and Hung families are
descendants of the adopted husbands of Upper Ssu people.

The Chang, Wu, and Wang forebears came into the village
under different circumstances. Their ancestors arrived as
stepsons who followed their remarried mothers but retained
their original surnames. Wei, Kou and Huang are in yet
another category. They moved into the village not too long
ago, during the generation of the present household head,
mainly because they acquired farms in the Ying-ting area.

Although Ling-ting village is populated by three lin-
eages and a number of households that bear different sur—
names, from the above analysis of the genealogical data, it
is clear that this village was first populated mainly by
the Chuang and the Upper Ssu lineages. Later on, the
Southern Ssu moved in from Chia-li-hsin and started their
compound with a few farm huts on the SOUthGTfl edge of the
village. As time went by, Ying-ting acquired more families

of varying surnames in the ways described above.

 

155

A. The Chuang Lineage, Its History
and Organization

As noted in Section III, Chapter Two, the ancestors of
the Chuang people came to Taiwan around 1710, shortly after
Taiwan was incorporated into the Ch'ing Empire. First,
three Chuang brothers migrated from Lung-chi County, Fukien
Province, to seek their fortunes. They landed in Tainan
and worked for peOple in various places before they finally
settled in Ying-ting. After these three brothers and their
families had settled, they sent for the rest of their family.
Their parents arrived along with five more sons. This
family group, the parents and eight brothers, were consid—
ered the founding fathers of the Chuang lineage of Ying-
ting. The father, Chuang Tsong-te, was eventually commem-
orated as the founding ancestor of this lineage.

As they multiplied, the Chuang people decided to build
an ancestral hall in Ying-ting instead of sending represent—
atives back to Lung—chi to participate in the annual cere-
mony of ancestor worship. The construction started in 1818
and was completed in 1819. The hall was named Chin-shiu-
t'ang, after the name of the ancestral hall in Lung-chi,
Fukien. A tablet designed to represent all the ancestors
of the Chuangs was set up. Another tablet for Chuang
Tsong-te and his wife, and one tablet for each of the eight
sons of this founding ancestor, were also placed in the

newly completed hall.

 

156
When the Chin-shiu-t'ang was built, a piece of land

adjacent to the hall was set aside as the tsu—kung-t'ien,

 

i.e., the ancestor's land or ritual land. Whether this land
was purchased with lineage funds or donated by some lineage
members is unknown. We do know, however, that the land,
about 3.5 chia in size, was designated as the corporate
property oftfimalineage and any profit from it was to be used
for‘Uuemaintenace of the ancestral hall and for conducting
worship ceremonies.

A board of elders was formed with one representative
from each of the eight fangs (branches or sublineages). The
board's functions include the management of the lineage
property and the supervision of the annual ceremony of ances—
tor worship. Rules regarding the management of lineage
property and the rotation of leadership in the worship cere-
mony were also worked out. It was decided that each fang
should take turns managing the ritual land and conducting the
ceremony on an annual basis. For example, when it is the
first fang's turn, the elder of this fang, who represents his
fang in the board of elders, has to arrange the leasing of
the ritual land to his own fang's members and collect the
rents from the tenants according to the rate fixed by the
elders of the lineage. He uses the allowances to prepare the
ceremonial sacrifices and conduct the worshipping on three

different occasions: ching-ming—chieh (a festival for wor-

 

shipping at the graves), chung—chiu—chieh (the moon festival

 

 

157

or mid-autumn festival), and tung-chih (the winter solstice

 

festival). Furthermore, he has to keep records of all the
rents he collects and the expenses for the ceremonies and
give a formal report to the board of elders and all of the

lineage members who participate in the tung-chih ceremony.

 

When his duties end on the eve of the New Year he transfers
the managerial responsibility to the elder of the second
isms.

Originally, it was agreed that members of each fang
should have priority in renting the ancestors' land while
their elder was in charge of the lineage's affairs. In case
any difficulty arose in finding enough tenants from the fang,
the elder—in—charge would have the privilege of leasing the
surplus land to members of other fangs, but never to any
person outside the lineage. This management system was
abolished by the turn of the century because of the increas-
ing difficulty of finding tenants willing to rent on a short-
term basis. Under this system, tenants could rent the
ritual land only for one year, when their fang's elder was
in charge. Another seven years would pass before their elder
was again in charge and they could again rent the land.

Under such circumstance, tenants were reluctant to take as
good care of the land as an owner or a long-term tenant

would because before they could enjoy their investment of
fertilizer or irrigation and drainage construction, their

one—year lease would expire. Thus, the condition of the

 

158

ritual land deteriorated, its productivity getting lower
every year due to lack of care. Finally, the land reached
the point where it was no longer profitable to rent for
agricultural purposes. Consequently, some fangs of the
lineage had difficulty finding enough tenants when they were
in charge.

Another factor that might also have prompted the
change of the old management system was the planned construc-
tion of a highway by the Japanese colonial government at the
turn of the century. The highway was to run through the
center of the village, necessitating the demolition of four
houses. The owners of these houses asked their lineage
elders for permission to rebuild on part of the ritual land
so that they would not have to move away from the lineage
settlement. Since the land was already quite difficult to
lease, the elders rented the owners the southwest corner on
a permanent basis, thus saving themselves the trouble of
finding new tenants every year. They made the rent slightly
higher than that for leasing the land for farming.

With this precedent--ritual land rented on a permanent
basis--and with the increasing difficulty of leasing the land
for cultivation, the land soon was leased to a number of
lineage members on a permanent basis. These long-term
tenants now had the right either to cultivate the land or to
use it as a housing site. Because of this change in the

management rule, Chin-shiu-t'ang was able to retain its land

 

 

159

holding intact when the Nationalist government launched the
Land Reform Project in the 1950's. Becausetflfiaritual land
adjacent to the Chin-shiu-t'ang was no longer classified as
farm land but as construction land, it was not subject to the
Land Reform Act.

The rent that the Chin-shiu—t'ang collects from its
tenants has always been sufficient to cover ceremonial ex-
penses. For example, between 1960—70, the annual income
averaged NT$6,000 while the annual ceremonial expense was
approximately NT$2,000. As a result, the board of elders,
especially the elder—in-charge, always has a sizeable fund
under its control. The usage of these lands and its impli-
cations will be discussed later in this chapter.

As indicated earlier, the Chuang lineage is subdivided
into eight branches or, as the people themselves call them,
fangs. These eight branches, descended from the eight sons
of the founding father, are far from equal in size. Because
of migration, among other reasons, the fang members still
residing in Ying-ting vary from zero to 261. Below is a
table showing the number of persons and households of each
fang in Ying—ting in 1970.

As is seen in Table 9, the third and fifth fangs con-
stitute the majority of the Chuang lineage. The first fang
is represented bycnflqrcnuaindividual, the second by two, and
the fourth by no one. The reasons behind such uneven repre—

sentation vary. The first fang left the village some 150

 

 

160

Table 9

Numbers of Persons 8 Household of Each Branch
of the Chuang Lineage in Ying-ting, l970

 

Branch (fang) No. of Persons No. of Households

 

The lst £222. 1 l
The 2nd £222. 2 2
The 3rd fgflg_ 261 46
The 4th igflg_ 0 0
The 5th fgflg_ 188 38
The 6th £222. 3l 5
The 7th f§£g_ 8 2
The 8th fgflg_ 51 10
The Chuang Lineage 542 103
as a group

The Entire Village 842 159

 

years ago. At that time, the entire area was still sparsely
populated. Though most of the land was controlled by a few
big landlords, some of these landlords had difficulty finding
tenants to cultivate all of their lands. Chuang li, a mem-
ber of the first fang, and his family were invited to rent a
piece of land owned by a landlord of Ma-tou, a market town
approximately seven kilometers west of the village. Sincethe
land was four kilometers northwest of Ying-ting, too far to
walk on a daily basis, Chuang 1i and his sons built fieldlnns

near their rented farms and moved their families to the new

 

 

161
place. Later Chuang li's fang members and their families
joined him to work for the landlord. Their new settlement,
pioneered by Chuang li, was named Chuang-li-liau, literally
”Chuang li's huts." As time passed, Chuang-li—liau became
a village in itself and is now mainly populated by members
of the first fang of the Chuang lineage and a few house-
holds of other surnames. The only first fang member living
in Ying-ting when this study was conducted in 1970 moved
back from Chuang-li-liau to Ying—ting in 1962 to open a
drugstore in the village and has since been practicing as
a Chinese doctor in the village.

Though the first fang moved from Ying-ting quite some
time ago, it still participates in all the lineage activ-
ities in Ying-ting. The elder of this fang still belongs
to the board of elders and assumes his duty as elder-in-
charge when it is the first fang's turn to take charge of
the lineage affairs.

The second fang is involved in a similar situation.
Most of its members moved to Ta-wan, a village north of
Ying-ting, some fifty years ago because they acquired lands
in that area and found it inconvenient to walk back and
forth. Like the first fang, the second fang is also still
actively participating in lineage affairs.

In 1942, a family of the fourth fang migrated to
Taitung, a city on the southeaster coast of Taiwan about 320

kilometers from Ying—ting. A few years later, all of the

 

 

162
families of the fourth fang joined them. This group no
longer maintains its ties with its lineage mates in Ying-
ting and is no longer represented on the board of elders.
However, since its migration was a rather recent event,
the villagers still refer to eight fangs or branches when
they talk about the lineage's organization.

The seventh fang, represented by only two households,
has been "weak" since the lineage was founded in Ying-ting.
Its members failed to reproduce enough male descendants to
make it as pOpulous as the other fangs.

The third and fifth fangs are not only the largest
branches of the lineage, they are also the wealthiest.

Most of the rich families in Ying—ting belong to either of
these two fangs. As in most Chinese rural communities, the
wealthiest families in Ying—ting are usually also the most
influential families of the community. Theyznxaequippped
with both the economic resources and the social connections
that are so vital for leadership positions in rural commun-
ities like Ying-ting. Because their fangs are the strongest
and contain most of the wealhy and, hence, influential fam-
ilies, the leaders of the Chuang lineage as well as of the
entire village have always been members of these two branch—

85.

B. The Two Ssu Lineages
Ying-ting has two Ssu lineages. The one concentrated

in a discrete locale of the northwest corner of the village

 

163
known as the Upper Ssu; the one residing on the southern
edge of the village is called the Southern Ssu. Though
they beartflmasame surname, the two lineages have no gene-
alogical connection. In addition, they have never made
an attempt to work out any kind of fictive relationship

to tie them together.

1. The Upper Ssu lineage. The Upper Ssu lineage

 

consistes of twenty households with 127 persons, making up
15.08 percent of the total population of the village. These
twenty households live together as a tighly-knit group,
keeping themselves separate from the other people of the
village. They live in their own compound at a discrete
distance from the main settlement of the village where the
Chuang people concentrate (see Figure 2).

Although no complete genealogical record exists that
can provide us with a clear history of this group's migra-
tion, the Upper Ssu people believe they are descendants
from a common ancestor who migrated from Lung—chi, Fukien,
the same county from which the Chuang's ancestors came. By
reconstructing their genalogy, I was able to connect all
of these twenty households to the man they believe to be
their founding father. According to their oral history,
their founding father settled in Ying-ting shortly after
the Chuang pioneers did, sometime in the second or third
decade of the 1700's.

The twenty households of the Upper Ssu do not

 

164

represent all of the living descendants of the founding
father. A few households whose whereabouts are unknown
appear in the genealogy. They moved from Ying-ting at
least four generations ago and apprently moved separately,
not as a group like the first fang of the Chuang lineage.
In contrast to these early migrants, a few families and
individuals who moved to the city in more recent times
still maintain their relations with the people living in
Ying—ting.

The Upper Ssu lineage has no ancestral hall like that
of the Chuang people, nor does it own any corporate proper-
ty. A small, old, one—room house stands in the center of
the settlement and is believed to have been built by the
founding father. It has been kept by the Upper Ssu peOple
as a lineage shrine in which they have placed tablets
representing the founding couple. Though a lineage shrine,
it looks no different from those houses left behind by
people who migrated to the city without any plan of return-
ing to the village. It is in sore need of repair. As a
result, its significance would probably escape any visitor
chancing to see it. No matter how shaky it looks, however,
the house is cleaned twice a year shortly before the death
anniversaries of the founding couple so that it can be used
for worshipping. No codified procedures exist for such
worshipping ceremonies. Every household simply sends a

representative, usually a woman, to place dishes of food on

 

165

a table in the shrine. Each representative worships indi-
vidually. The ceremony I witnessed was not much different
from an ancestor worship ritual carried out at an individual
household in rural Taiwan, except more people participated
in the Upper Ssu ceremony.

Although at first glance the Upper Ssu people seem to
be rather loosely organized, they have a stronger sense of
”we-group" than the Chuangs and the Southern Ssu. Their
group solidarity might result from their geographical iso—
lation from the other villagers and the compactness of
their settlement. Furthermore, being a "minority group” in
a multi-lineage village like Ying-ting, the Upper Ssu people
seem to have realized that, if they are going to exist in
the village without being encroached upon by the Chuangs,
they have to act as a highly united group. Their unity
has been amply demonstrated ‘thme after time in the village
elections. They have been voting as a block enmn‘ since
local elections were introduced in the early 1950's, always
casting their votes uniformly to support whomever their
lineage leader has wished to support. As a result, their
small number of votes carry weight. They managed to main-
tain a coalition with the third fang of the Chuang lineage
and trade their votes so that one of the Upper Ssu people
was elected village representative to the Farmers' Associa—
tion. The total number of votes of the Upper Ssu alone

could not have won the seat. Only through trading with the

 

166

third fang peOple in elections have the Upper Ssu gained

the extra votes needed to elect their own candidates.

2. The Southern Ssu. The Southern Ssu consists of

 

nine households and 53 persons. They are a branch of the
Ssu lineage of Chia-li-hsin. As I noted earlier, the
Southern Ssu came to Ying-ting because their ancestors ac-
quired land in the area and decided to move from Chia—li—
hsin for the sake of convenience. According to the elders
of the group, their ancestors moved approximately one hun—
dred years ago. Because the Ssu lineage of Chia-li-hsin
does not have an ancestral hall nor any lineage-wide
activity, the Southern Ssu people as a group have no con-
nection with their lineage mates in Chia—li-hsin. They do
acknowledge their relations with the lineage, however, and
some of them maintain ties withlchiin the other village.
Like the Upper Ssu people, the Southern Ssu have no
ancestral hall nor do they own any corporate property.

Also like the Upper Ssu, they maintain a k'ung t'ing

 

where the tablets of the first couple who moved to Ying—
ting are housed and where the worshipping ceremonies occur
twice a year on the anniversaries of the founding husband's

and wife's deaths.3

 

3A k'ung t'ing is defined by Gallin as the ”central
room in a house; used for ancestral worship and other
festive functions; often a kind of family room." (Gallin
1966:314).

 

 

167

C. The Social Roles and Functions
of Lineage Groups

The Chuang lineage is the most prominent of the three
lineages in Ying-ting. It is the largestIMH:only in terms
of its member households but also in terms of completeness
of its organization. It has an ancestral hall and a sizeable
corporate property which, unlike most of the land holdings
of the other lineages elsewhere in Taiwan, has been main—
tained intact through the Land Reform Act promulgated by
the government in the early 1950's. It also has a board
of elders formed by representatives from each of the exist-
ing fangs_which manages the corporate property and oversees
the worship ceremonies. In a word, the Chuang lineage seems
to have all the material background and organizational
feature that a strong lineage ought to have, still, when I
began to examine the role this lineage plays in community
life, I found it mostly restricted to one ritualistic activ—
ity, the lineage-wide worship ceremonies at the ancestral
hall. Furthermore, few people attend the ceremony, which
is quite simple and has no codified procedures. ffluaonly
group action the Chuangs perform outside the ceremonial
sphere is a moneylending service.

Because of its landholdings, the Chuang lineage has
a sizeable annual income which has been more than enough to
defray ceremonial costs. Over the years, they have been
able to accumulate NT$40,000 which they deposited at the

Farmers' Association to earn interest. Lineage members are

 

 

168

entitled to borrow money from these corporate funds. They
must approach the elder-in-charge and ask for the loan.
When permission is granted, the money is withdrawn from the
Farmers' Association and interest charged according to the
rate the savings would have earned. Because the interest
rate of the Farmers' Association is always lower than that
of private loans, members are at an advantage when borrow-
ing from the lineage funds, and so they are constantly
competing for loans.

As it turns out, however, the lineage fund has become
a "cash reserve” benefiting primarily the elders who repre-
sent their respective fang in the elders board and thus have
control over the fund. The record shows that during the
past fifteen years those who borrowed the money were mainly
the elders themselves and their immediate families. The
elders who borrow frequently do so not out of a desperate
need but as a way to make money grow; they borrow at a low
interest rate and then either invest the money in their
economic pursuits or lend it to other villagers and charge
a higher interest than they are paying. As a result of
this monopoly by the elders, the lineage fund fails to serve
needy members and has become a ”sore spot” for the lineage.
Most of the members are unhappy with the elders' actions
and, consequently, are reluctant to participate in events
the elders promote. Gradually, the lineage's organization,

its property, and its activities have become the privilege

 

169

and responsibility of the handfull of persons who make up
the elders board.

Gallin (1966:129—37) and Diamond (1969:72) have docu-
mented that lineages in rural Taiwan have lost many of their
social roles and functions compared to the lineages in
Fukien and Kwangtung described by Freedman (1958: Chapters
1 and 9). Some scholars think that one of the most impor-
tant reasons for this loss is that most of the lineages in
Taiwan do not own any corporate property, or the property
they may once have owned has been minimized or uprooted by
the Government through Land Reform Act (cf. Diamond 1969:
72). The Chuang lineage in Ying-ting presents a contrast-
ing case. As shown above, the Chuang lineage has all the
material well—being a strong lineage ought to have, yet it
still has lost most of the social roles and functions a
strong lineage used to fulfill in traditional Chinese rural
society.

Gallin claims that the decline of lineage functions
in Taiwan is due not solely to the lack of corporate prOp-
erty ownership but also to changes of the larger society
in which each lineage finds itself (1966:129-37). The sit—
uation in Ying-ting supports Gallin's interpretation.

To illustrate this point more fully, I will briefly
review the social functions a strong lineage was believed
to have been performing in the rural areas of southeastern
China before the turn of this century. Chinese special—

ists probably would all agree with Hsiao's delineation of

 

170

the social functions of lineage (in Hsiao's terminology,
”clan”) organization:

While different clans stressed different types of

activities, . . . the following were the most

frequently undertaken: (1) compilation and revis-
ion of genealogical records; (2) ancestor worship
and the institution of the ancestral hall, ritual
land, and ancestral graveyards; (3) material
assistance to clan members; (4) education of young
clansmen; (5) punishment of misconduct and settle—

ment of disputes; and (6) self-defense" (1960:333).
Of the six major functions listed by Hsiao, all except the
first two would generallylmeconsidered functions usually
performed by the local government of a modern national
state. In other words, in traditional China, lineages
were not only ceremonial groups or purely kinship organiza-
tions but also local administrative units which performed
the functions of social control as well as public works that
related to the welfare of the local inhabitants.

What, then, were the roles of local governments in
southeastern China before the turn of the century? Any
student of Chinese studies probably would agree that the
imperial Chinese central government used to abstain itself
from interfering with the local affairs of its rural com-
munities. The maintenance of peace and order, education,
public works,zuulconstructions were all left to the vil-
lagers themselves. Thus, peasants living under the tradi—
tional imperial government had to organize themselves in

certain ways and through such organizational efforts to

accomplish those social functions that were so vital to

 

171
the well-being of their community life. The conclusion
follows that the diversified sociopolitical functions of
lineage organizations in rural China were directly related
to the nature of the imperial Chinese government. Lineage
organizations were social institutions based on kinship
affiliations and territorial bonds, developed and elabor-
ated upon by the Chinese rural populations to meet the needs
of maintaining an orderly community life. If this percep—
tion is correct, we have reason to expect that lineage
organizations and their roles will change when changes
occur in the national political structure, especially in
its administrative system at the local level.

As far as Ying-ting is concerned, the history and
organizational features of the Chuang lineage indicate
that this lineage had a rather "good start” in the early
phase of its development during the period when Taiwan was
still under the control of the Ch'ing Empire. Its organi-
zational strength and activity apparently began to decline,
however, during the Japanese colonial period; and they
finally plunged to their lowest level during the last two
decades.

What had happened to the sociopolitical structure of
the rural area around Ying-ting during that period roughly
from 1900 to the early part of the 1950's? In a nutshell,
what happened was a change in the local administrative
system and an increasing penetration of governmental appar-

atus into Taiwan's rural communities. For example, in the

 

172

first decade of the century, Ying—ting, like the other
rural communities in Taiwan, became an administrative vil-
lage under the jurisdiction of a township government. The
government appointed a village chief as head administrator
of village affairs and made him responsible for reporting
to the township administrator and following his directives.
The government also established a police station that same
decade to maintain peace and order in the rural area. In
1920 Ying-ting had its first public school, supported and
supervised by the Japanese colonial government. More and
more public works, such as irrigation facilities and road
construction and maintenance, were also taken over by
governmental agencies, first under the Japanese colonial
government and later, when Taiwan was restored to the
Chinese in 1945 under the Nationalist Chinese Government.
As governmental agencies began to move deeper and wider
into almost every major aspect of the peasants' community
life in rural Taiwan, the roles occupied by lineage organ-
izations became increasingly restricted to the ceremonial
Sphere, i.e., the cult of ancestor worship.

The Land Reform Program promulgated by the Nation-
alist Chinese Government in the early 1950's, also had a
profound impact on lineage organizations. Unlike the
Chuang lineage of Ying-ting, most lineages in rural Taiwan
were forced to sell their landholdings during the Program,

and, consequently, lost their corporate property--such

 

173

property being one of the most important factors contrib-
uting to lineage activity and solidarity.

This program also affected the general sociopolitical
structure of Taiwan's rural communities. It forced land—
lords to sell their lands to former tenants. As a result,
most landlords lost interest in community affairs, some
leaving the area entirely and resettling in the big cities.
These former landlords, as a class, were the ones who
usually assumed the leadership roles in the rural areas.

So their withdrawal from community affairs caused lineage
organizations as well as some other rural associations to
suffer a loss of leadership (cf. Gallin 1966:117). Again,
we have witnessed another social factor originating from

a change in a national policy which had also prompted the
decline of lineage organizations in rural Taiwan during the
last two decades.

In addition to the social factors discussed above,
lineage organizations in Ying-ting and many other rural
communities in Taiwan have also been eroded to a certain
extent by the introduction of local-level elections and
the subsequent development of political factions in vil-
lage communities. Ever since the Nationalist Government
introduced the election of village mayor and other local
offices in 1951, two political factions have existed in
Ying-ting. These two factions, one headed by a member

of the third fang of the Chuang lineage and the other by

 

174

a man of the fifty fang, have been fighting each other in
every election for the control of village politics. They
compete for the offices of both village mayor and village
representative to the Township Council and Farmers' Assoc-
iation. While they are primarily supported by their close
kinsmen, the two faction's leaders have been trying to
recruit followers from other kin groups. For example,
during the 1968 election, the fifth fang faction had the
support of the sixth and eighth fangs and the third fang
faction had the support of the seventh fang, the two Ssu
lineages, and some people belonging to the "other surnames”
group. The leaders of the two factions waged so many
mutual attacks that they would not even speak to each other
after the election. Being the leaders of their own fangs
these two candidates were also the most influential men in
the Chuang lineage. Yet, because of their political strug-
gle, they seemed to forget that they were lineage mates.
Squabble and mutual criticism replaced the discussion and
pleasantry once heard in meetings of lineage elders. As a
consequence of such antagonism, lineage elders' meetings
were eliminated after 1969. Thus, lineage organizations
as local sociopolitical institutions have been further
underminded by the recent development of political factions.
The above description of the weakening of the Chuang
lineage in Ying-ting can be applied to lineages in other

parts of rural Taiwan because the sociopolitical changes,

 

175
affecting the Chuangs, i.e., the Land Reform Program, the
extension of administrative apparatus, and the deveIOpment
of political factions, are also found in all other rural
villages of Taiwan (cf. Gallin 1966:272-74; 1968:397-98).
What I am intending to do here, however, is not merely to
indicate that a lineage organization-—the most important
sociopolitical institution found in traditional Chinese
rural communities-~15 now in the process of declining, but,
rather, to use this as an example to emphasize that a clear
understanding of the role of any peasant community's social
institutions can only be achieved if we examine the local
and the national sociopolitical systems. Without the
knowledge of the national sociopolitical system of tradi-
tional China, we would have some difficulty in explaining
why lineage organizations were so well—deveIOped and played
suchzivital role in rural communities in the past. Like-
wise, without knowing the recent socipolitical changes of
Taiwan we would not be able to comprehend why lineage or-
ganizations are declining and becoming merely ceremonial

units.

IV. The Village as a Social Unit

 

 

We have already learned from the previous section
that Ying—ting is a multi-lineage village. Under such
circumstances, lineage membership as such cannot be used
as the organizational framework for the entire community.

Lineage sentiment alone cannot be used to generate the

 

176

community-wide feelings that might be important for certain
community—wide activitis. Therefore, if Ying-ting is a co-
herent village, and it is, there must be some social insti-
tutions that promote the sense of "we-group” and generate
group solidarity. This section will explore such social
institutions and show why the lineage organizations can no
longer be used as effective sociopolitical units in a rural
community such as Ying-ting.
A. The Village Temple as the Focus

of Village Organization

The people of Ying—ting are very proud of their temple,
the Chia-fu temple, because it has a rather long history
and is beautifully constructed. Furthermore, the goddess
enshrined in it is believed to be quite powerful and respon—
sive to the villagers' requests. Villagers from Ying-ting
as well as from villages in the surrounding area frequently
go to the Chia—fu temple to worship the goddess and ask for
guidance.

According to some village elders, the temple was built
in 1721. In that particular year, a villager known by the
name of Wu Chih-chwan donated a large sum of money and asked
his fellow villagers to help him build a temple. Within a
few months, enough contributions were collected for the
temple to be constructed. With the concensus of the peOple,
a statue of the Goddess Kuan-yin was enshrined and the tem-

ple was formally named the Chia—fu temple.

 

 

177

Seventy years after the temple was built, a devoted
villager named T. F. Cheng donated another large sum of
money and asked his fellow villagers to make contributions
to buy some property for the temple. As a result of that
fund-raising, the temple was endowed with ten chia of land
and four fish ponds. A seven-member committee and a
rotating "pot master” system were set up to assume respon-
sibility for temple affairs. Since then, the temple has
been renovated and refurnished several times, most recently
in 1954, after a large sum of cash was received from the
sale of seven chia of its land.4

After the land sale in 1953, the temple still had
three chia of land and four fish ponds. The land and ponds
are leased out to Ying-ting villagers for cultivation, and
the rent collected is put into the temple's fund for cere-
monial expenditures and maintenance. In addition to the
rents, the temple also receives cash donations from its
worshippers from time to time. Such private donations add
up to a handsome amount over the years. For example, be-
tween 1965—70, Chia—fu temple received an average of
NT$9,100 annually.

Since it was built by public funds, the temple and
its estate are considered to be the common property of the

Ying-ting villagers as a group. Each household is a member

 

4Under the Land Reform Act promulgated by the Nation-
alist Government, no individual or institute can own more
than three chia of land. Therefore,the temple was forced
to sell seven chia of its holdings to its former tenants.

 

178
of this corporate unit. As I mentioned earlier, however,
the temple is directly administered by a pot master, sel-
ected annually, and a permanent executive committee of
seven members. These committee members are elected on the
basis of one man from each of the seven sections that com-
prise the village (cf. pp. 21-23 and Figure 2). Each of

the seven committee members is referred to as the tou chia,

 

i.e., the headman, of the section he represents. They hold
their positions as long as they live or as long as they
care to serve.

According to Mr. Tseng, the current temple keeper and
one of the Spirit mediums of the village, and some other
knowledgeable villagers, when the temple acquired its estate
in the late eighteenth century, some kind of organization
was needed to manage the temple's newly-endowed property,
and to take charge of the ceremonial activities. Since the
temple was considered common property it was decided that
representatives from each neighborhood of the village would
constitute the most appropriate organization. Thus, the
village was artificiallj'divided into seven sections, each
having more or less the same number of households, and each
electing a representative to serve on the temple's committee.

Before the division was finalized, different Opinions
were voiced on how to divide the village. Some suggested
using lineage groups as the section units, while others
preferred to use fangs (i.e., sub-lineages). It was finally

agreed, however, that the sections should be based on

 

179

neighborhood groups instead of kinship affiliations. By so
doing, each section could consist of more or less the same
number of households; thus, no section would be conspic-
uously larger or smaller than the others. As a result, the
villagercommunity was divided into seven sections,each con-
taining roughly ten households when the system was first
established.

Today, these sections are: (a) the Upper Ssu section,
which coincides with the Upper Ssy lineage; (b) the Southern
Ssu section, mainly those households that belong to the
Southern Ssu lineage plus a few households of the third
fang of the Chuang lineage; (c) the Other Surnames section,
which contains those households with surnames other than
Chuang and Ssu; (d) the Upper Road-East section, which
includes the entire sixth fang and a few households of the
Chuang lineage; (e) the Lower Road-East section, which has
some members of the fifth and the entire seventh fang of
the Chuang lineage; (f) the Upper Road—West section, which
includes the Chiu households and some that belong to the
third and eighth fangs of Chuang lineage; and (g) The Lower
Road-West section, completely made up of third fang peOple
of the Chuang lineage.

By having the entire community divided into these
seven neighborhood sections, and by using the temple as the

focus, the Ying-ting villagers have made a social network

that can incorporate all the different lineages and surname

 

180

groups into a single unit. Furthermore, as it turned out,
the dividing lines of such neighborhood sections cut across
lineage and sub-lineage boundaries so that people can down—
play lineage differences when it is necessary to mobilize
the entire village as a group for certain common tasks.

The Chia-fu temple is tended daily by a hired keeper.
His duties include burning incense in the mornings and
evenings, cleaning the temple, and doing other sanitary
work. The actual administrative power is in the hands of
the committee members. As a group they supervise the
temple prOperty and decide the major expenditures of the
public funds. The pot master, chosen annually on a rota—
ting basis from one of the seven sections serves as the
ceremonial host. His major responsibilities include such
matters as setting up benches for meetings, setting up
stages for shows in front of the temple, providing the
offerings on various festival occasions, and collecting
"head money” from the villagers should the administrative
committee decide that more public funds are needed for
certain temple affairs.

The pot master is chosen each year on a rotating
principle. For example, if the present pot master is
from the Southern Ssu Section, the next pot master is sel-
ected from one of the other six sections. In the third
year, the pot master is chosen from one of the remaining

give sections. When the seven-year rotating cycle is

 

181
completed, each section has the chance to be selected to
furnish a pot master once again in the next seven-year
cycle.

Once it is decided, through the divination blocks,
that the pot master should be chosen from a particular
section, a list of the names of all the heads of households
in the chosen section is presented to the goddess. Divin-
ation blocks are cast for each name on the list and when
the list is completed, the one receiving the highest num-
ber of points is the pot master for the coming year. The
position of pot master does not entail any power nor much
prestige. The person chosen, however, is considered to be
favored by the goddess, and he and his household will be
still more favorably protected or blessed by the goddess
if he serves his position well.

Besides having a village-wide membership and equal
participation by all village households, the temple also
serves as the focus of village solidarity in the follow-
ing ways:

1. The temple as a source for financial aid. Because

 

 

of its public fund, the temple has been able to provide
loans to some Ying-ting villagers. Currently, the temple
has two types of loans. The first is administered under
a quota system. An equal amount is allocated to each of
the seven sections. In 1970, villagers in each section

were entitled to borrow up to NT$10,000. The money is

 

182

assigned to the tou-chia of each section who is responsible

 

for lending it to the membership households within his sec-
tion and collecting interest from the borrower. Should the
allotment not be sufficient to meet the demand for loans,

a system of drawing lots is generally used to decide who
will be lucky enough to get the loan. Should the allotment
be larger than the demand, the remaining capital can be

returned to the public fund or, if the tou-chia is willing,

 

can be lent to someone from a section needing extra money
for loans. The interest charged for such loans is the same
as that charged by the credit bureau of the local Farmers'
Association, both are lower than that of private loans.
Therefore, it is rather rare for the allotment not to be
lent out completely.

The second type of loan administrated by the temple
can best be characterized as a ceremonial loan. The amount
of the loan is small, and people who take it do not think
the money itself will solve their financial problems.
Rather, they consider it lucky money indicating that the
goddess is protecting them and their family and that their
farming or business adventures for the coming year will be
successful.

The ceremonial loans are given out in the following
fashion. On New Year's Day and on the birthday of the
goddess, several bamboo poles are set up in front of the

temple. On the end of each pole is a box of firecrackers

 

183
with fuses hanging out. According to the height of the
boxes, different amount of money are assigned to each
pole. The higher the box, the larger the amount of money
it represents. On New Year's Day in 1970, for example,
five poles were set up. The highest one represented
NT$1,000. The four others represented NT$800, NT$600,
NT$400, and NT$200, respectively. Villagers interested in
getting the lucky money buy strings of firecrackers, light
them, and throw them at the box. They aim the firecrackers
at the fuses hanging from a box so that when they explode
they can light the fuses and cause the firecrackers inside
the box to explode. When a villager manages to do this,
which usually takes a good many tries, he is entitled to
borrow the money represented by that box for a year without
any interest. Because such money is considered lucky money,
and because it takes a certain skill to explode the box
with an exploding string of firecrackers, many villagers
compete for these ”loans.” The noise of exploding fire-
crackers often lasts the entire morning on these two

occasions, making it sound more like a festival.

2. Kuan—yin as the guardian sf the community. The

 

 

 

 

village temple serves as a focus of village solidarity not
only by serving as an activity center and providing financial
aids but also by generating community solidarity psycho-

logically. Like other peasants in rural Taiwan, the

 

184

people in Ying-ting believe that the deity enshrined at
the temple is an emissary sent from Heaven to supervise and
protect them. They believe that the deity commands five
supernatural armies to guard the peOple and the village
from all evil spirits. These five armies are stationed at
five different ”camps." The ”central camp” is located
right in front of the temple; the four other camps are lo-
cated at the four corners of the village settlement and
are named the North, South, East, and West Camp, respect—
ively. In return for such protection, the villagers are
expected to support the supernatural soldiers with food
and money. The supplies are provided on the first and the
fifteenth days of each lunar month. On these two occasions,
each household is expected to bring food to the temple at
the time set up by the pot master, usually in the early
evening before supper. Each household sends someone,
usually women or children, to carry the food in a ritual
basket to the temple. When they arrive, they put the basket
in the courtyard in front of the temple. Then a ceremony,
which one writer has labelled ”appreciating the soldiers”
(Jordan 1972:51), is performed. A village priest presides
over the ritual in the temple. He represents the entire
village in offering food and money to the soldiers for the
services that they have been providing to the villagers.

One of the conclusions that we can draw from the

materials presented in this section is that the village

 

 

 

185
temple as a social institution provides a framework for the
entire community to be integrated into a cooperative unit.
It pulls the people from different kinship units into the
temple community and serves as a social mechanism to promote
interlineage relationships by providing common interests,
e.g., the belief that the village is protected and super-
vised by a group of supernatural soldiers. Such a belief
not only requires the villagers to participate in some
village-wide ritual activities, but it also makes them aware
that they are mutually responsible for each other's welfare.
Should anyone fail to observe the ritual, he might annoy
the deity and make it less willing to protect the community
or even cause supernatural punishment. Thus, in a way,
suchbelief does generate the villagers' interests in each
other's behavior and conduct and eventually increases the

intensity of their sense of ”we-group."

 

CHAPTER SIX

THE IMPACT 95 CONTROLLED IRRIGATION SYSTEM
AND OTHER NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

 

 

 

As indicated in Chapter One, this dissertation is de-
signed to be a trial application of the cultural-ecological
approach to the study of a Taiwanese mixed-cropping village.
In the previous chapters I have presented ethnographic in-
formation about the village so that I now can ascertain the
degree to which the mixed-crOpping system, first implemented
by the Japanese Colonial Government in 1930 and then contin—
ued by the Nationalist Chinese Government, has affected other
aspects of the village's sociocultural system.

Ideally, the best way to carry out an analysis of
the impact of the mixed—cropping system would be to pre-
sent a detailed description of life in Ying-ting before
1930, i.e., before the Chia-nan Irrigation System was com-
pleted and the mixed-cropping system was implemented, and
then to contrast the past with the community's present
situation. It would also be valuable to compare the
Ying-ting peOples' ways of life with those of other Tai-
wanese peasant communities sharing the same cultural back-
ground but having different types of productive activities.
Such a comparison would help us detect and isolate those
social institutions directly related to and/or affected by

186

 

187
the mixed-crOpping system.

Such an ideal procedure is not completely attainable,
however. The difficulty lies in the limited information
available about the history of this village and others in
the same ecological area. All that is available are some
very general sketches about the local agricultural practic-
es. We know, for instance, that before the completion of
the irrigation system, wet—rice could not be successfully
cultivated and that most of the land was used for dryland
crops, such as sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and dry-rice.
Agriculturally, the area was less developed and its produc-
tivity lower than that in northern and central Taiwan where
natural rainfall was, and is, rather evenly distributed
throughout the year and irrigation facilities were already
somewhat developed. We are also told that sugar manufac-
turing was one of the area's most important cottage indus-
tries as early as the seventeenth century when this part of
Taiwan was colonized by the Dutch (cf. Chen 1955:3-8).

Aside from the generalities mentioned above, we
really do not have much general information about this area
let alone specific data directly relating to the community
in question. Thus, it is rather difficult to do a before-
and-after comparison of the effects of the irrigation sys-
tem and the mixed~crop rotation system. On the other hand,
we do have well-documentedethnographicinformation about
Taiwanese peasant communities in which the mixed-crop ro-

tation system is not practiced. Thus, it is possible to

 

188
compare Ying-ting village with those non-sugar cane farming
communities and try to discover the sociocultural features
specifically related to Ying—ting's particular mode of ag-
ricultural production.

Before I make such a comparison, however, I will
present a hypothetical reconstruction of what might have
happened to Ying-ting if the Japanese Government had simply
provided the irrigation facility without directing its
utilization. Although this is pure Speculation, it provides
a baseline against which I have matched actual ethnographic
findings; and in matching the facts with hypothetical recon—
structions, I have discovered discrepancies. After present—
ing these discrepancies in this chapter, I will discuss the
factors which limited or modified the expected impact of

the irrigation system.

I. The Possible Impact afi the Chia-nan Irrigation

 

 

 

System-—a Conjectural Reconstructionl

 

Repeatedly, it has been demonstrated that social re-
lationships of peasants and peasant communities are affected
by the types of irrigation facilities available to them at
different times and places (cf. Orenstein 1964; Pasternak

1968, 1972). Thus, it is reasonable to speculate on what

 

1Although basically this section is a conjectural
reconstruction of the possible sociocultural impacts of the
irrigation system, it is based on many studies of Chinese
peasantry. Therefore, it should not be considered as pure
Speculation but rather as a picture of what was likely to
have develOped under other conditions.

 

189
could have happened to the community organization of Ying-
ting and other villages in the area had the Japanese
Colonial Government constructed the Chia-nan Irrigation
System in 1930 and refrained from regulating its usage.
What impact would the provision of such a large irrigation
system have brought to Ying-ting and the general area?
A. The Possible Impact on the
Social Organization

As indicated in Chapter Three, the capacity of the
Chia-nan Irrigation System is only sufficient to irrigate
one-third of the farmlands in the plain. Thus, if the
government had not regulated the distribution of the lim-
ited.irrigation water, the most probable consequence would
have been a heated competition for the water among commun-
ities and peasant households within each community. Ying-
ting, only 40 kilometers from the Wu—shan-tou Reservoir,
would be favorably located for tapping the water compared
to communities further away. Proximity to the reservoir,
however, would not automatically guarantee that the people
in Ying-ting would get as much water as they wanted when
they wanted it. The villagers would have to organize
themselves to accomplish certain tasks in order to get the
water they would need.

What would the villagers have to do in order to get
the water? First, there would be the technical require-
ment; they would have to construct or expand and modify

irrigation canals and ditches so that the water in the

 

 

190

main canal could be channeled to the fields where it was
needed. Second, they would have to work out some way to
reach an agreement with the neighboring communities regard-
ing how each village would use the water. Third, within
their own village they would also have to work out some
schedule or rules to regulate each individual farmer's

use of the water after it had been channeled into the vil—
lage's territory.

In order to accomplish any or all of the above, the
villagers in Ying—ting would have to organize themselves
so that: (a) enough manpower could be mobilized to con—
struct the irrigation works in a coordinated way; (b) the
village as a group could negotiate with other communities
regarding the inter-village distribution of irrigation
water and, finally, (c) the internal distribution of water
could be made in an orderly fashion.

Assuming that what I have stated above is a logical
inference of what would have to be accomplished, the next
question to ask is: what kind of social institution would
the villagers in Ying-ting have been most likely to use
when faced with the need to organize themselves? Given
the fact that peasants in the area are migrants from
southern Fukien where the lineage organization was highly
deve10ped and the sentiment for agnatic kinship was
strong, it is likely that the people would have activated

or intensified their agnatic ties and their lineage

 

191
organization to create the organizational framework needed
for those cooperative tasks.2

A strong lineage organization could provide the
leadership necessary for organizing and coordinating public
works such as the construction and maintenance of small
irrigation canals and ditches. Furthermore, by having a
strong lineage constituted by a large majority of the vil—
lage population, the Ying-ting villagers would also have a
potentially strong, organized military unit. It is a well—
documented fact that when Chinese settled in a frontier
area where governmental control was neither strong nor ef—
fective, they tended to organize themselves into a cohesive
lineage group to protect themselves (cf. Potter 1970:136-
37). In Ying—ting's case, the lineage group could be util—
ized as a military unit to defend the villager's right to
use the irrigation water and to cope with any possible en-
croachment by the peOple of other communities.

Up to this point I have discussed only what might
have happened to the village as a unit. What about the
intervillage relationships? Given that the people in the
area would have to compete for the limited irrigation

water, and assuming that each would try to maximize his

 

2 . . . . .

ThlS inference 15 not a purely logical exerc1se of
my own. In fact, M. Freedman, who specializes in the study
of Chinese lineage organizations, made the same kind of
inference when he was trying to explain why strong lineages
are more frequently found in southern China than elsewhere.
He suggested that lineages could establish a landed eco—
nomic base by jointly carrying out land reclamation pro-
jects such as irrigation (cf. 1966:61).

 

192

share, it is quite reasonable to infer that there would
have been a great deal of inter-village competition and
conflict over the water, at least in the early stage of
the irrigation system's completion. The inter-village
conflicts could easily have resulted in feuds and wars
between villages, especially between neighboring villages
that had to draw their water from the same irrigation
canal. In southern China, when lineage organization was
strong and governmental control rather weak, feuds and
wars between lineage groups were common. Of course, the
causes of such feuds were diverse. According to Hsiao,
however, ”by far the most important and perhaps the most
frequent cause was the disputes over the enjoyment of
water right or control of flood water" (1960:419).
Intervillage warfare cannot be carried on constantly,
however. From a long-term point of view, the people might
eventually have realized that fighting not only failed to
solve the conflict it also disrupted their daily activities,
threatened their safety whenever they left the village, and
interrupted their agricultural activities. If they had
realized these major disadvantages, they might then have
begun to search for some social institution that could
resolve their conflicts, or some system for distributing
the limited water resource so that armed conflicts could
be minimized or completely avoided.

To carry such logical inferences one step further,

 

193
the next question would be: what kinds of social organi-
zations would the people form to resolve inter-village
conflicts? Based on our knowledge of traditional Chinese
social organizations, we can postulate two possible insti-
tutions. First, the people could work out some fictive
genealogical ties which would organize the various local-
ized lineages into a clan. Second, they could develop some
form of religious organization to unite the people from the
different communities through common beliefs. For example,
in K'un Shen, a fishing community a few miles from Ying-ting,
Diamond found that ”the strongest organizing force in the
village was its main temple," which incorporated three of
its neighboring localities into a single community unit
(1969:78).

So far,I have briefly discussed what might have
happened to the village's social organization and its inter-
village relationships in its attempts to deal with the
potential problems created by the introduction of the
irrigation system. I will now turn to household organiza-
tionzuuipursue the same kind of reasoning, i.e., would the
provision of the irrigation system have affected the
peasant's household organization? In what way?

Based on data collected from fifty-nine Indian vil-
lages, H. Orenstein found a statistical confirmation of
his hypothesis that "villages which have more irrigation

are the ones which have a lower percentage of jointfwflliei”

 

194

He further argued that ”irrigation often accentuates the
importance of cash crops and a money economy. Where income
is primarily for direct consumption, the joint family stores
its produce in one unit and uses it when needed. But when
a large part of income is in cash, its joint use becomes
complicated, and it is a fact that a number of joint famil-
ies are divided because of quarrels over the disposition of
money income" (1956:318—19). Although he considers(hxmstehfls
stress on the divisive effect of irrigation and cash income
on the joint family to be rather restrictive, Pasternak
points out that there is some correlation between irrigation
and the size of Chinese peasant families. Citing John L.
Buck, Pasternak shows that the joint family was more fre-
quently found in northern China where most of the crOpping
areas were not irrigated than in southern China where about
half of the cropping areas were irrigated (cf. Pasternak
1972:53). Thus, although they do not agree on details,
Orenstein and Pasternak concur that a negative correlation
exists between the availability of irrigation and the fre-
quency of joint families. To be more specific, both indi-
cated that the provision of irrigation facilities to
peasants has a divisive effect on the peasants' joint
families.

Without disputing the validity of Orenstein's and
Pasternak's positions, I would suggest that not only the

irrigation facility itself but also the manner in which it

 

195

is acquired might have an impact on the peasants' household
organization. I contend that if an irrigation facility were
constructed, maintained, and regulated by a governmental
agency, and the peasants themselves had no voice in decid-
ing the ways in which the water was to be distributed, then
the provision of irrigation might have divisive effects on
the joint family in the ways suggested by Orenstein. On the
other hand, if the irrigation facility was built and main-
tained by the peasants themselves without governmental inter-
ference, or if the water made available to the peasants was
inadequate for each farm household's needs, then it would
be advantageous for the peasants to maintain a joint family
from which a large labor force could be mobilized to take
care of the irrigation vwndqs and to compete for and safe—
guard the limited water source. Thus, if the Chia-nan Ir-
rigation System had been ”given” to the peasants for their
maintenance and distribution, the joint family might well
have become the predominant form of household organization
because it would have been the most effective social insti-
tution under those ecological conditions.

Given the completion of the Chia-nan Irrigation
System in 1930, assuming the absence of governmental regu-
lation of its water, and acknowledging the available
Chinese ethnographical information, I postulate that the
following social phenomena might have occured: (a) in terms

of household organization, the number of joint families

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dfivdfilIan...II.€.I.:...i.IW,.. .. ...I I : . 1,1. I TI « .. I. I I ,

  

196

among the peasants might have increased. (b) In terms of the
village's social organization, the lineage organization or
some other type of large kinship unit, even a fictive one,
might have developed and intensified to become the most
important social group of the village community. (c) In terms
of inter—village organization, a clan organization or a
religious association, such as a temple organization, might
have evolved to maintain peace and order among neighboring
villages.
B. The Possible Impact on the Agriculgural
Process and Other Economic Activities

As stated earlier, before the completion of the
irrigation facility in 1930, the entire Chia-nan Plain of
which Ying-ting is a part, could only be used for dryland
crops. Changes in agricultural practices became a certainty
when the irrigation system was completed. Before I inspect
the changes that actually occurred, however, I will again
post a hypotehtical Situation as I did in the previous
section: what might have happened to the agricultural prac-
tices and other economic activities of the Ying—ting people
if the government had not implemented the crop rotation sys-
tem and had Simply allowed the peasants themselves to decide
how to use the newly-completed irrigation facility?

Since rice has been the favorite food staple of
peOple in southern China, it is rather safe to say that once

irrigation was made available, the peasants in Taiwan would

 

 

197

have cultivated wet-rice which would have given them a much
higher yield than dry rice or other dryland crops. Because
the irrigation networks completed in 1930 could not supply
water to the entire plain on a year-round basis, however,
the cultivation of wet-rice would not have been a sweeping
phenomenon. In fact, two-thirds of the farmlands in the
plain could not have been irrigated in any given year, nor
would each farming community necessarily have had even one-
third of its land irrigated each year, since the peasants
would have probably been competing for the water. Those
communities that were living closer to the reservoir, those
constructing better irrigation ditches, or those having a
more effectively organized plan for distributing the water
would have had more of their farmlands irrigated than the
others.

Since I am not interested in the impact of irriga-
tion on the entire Chia—nan Plain, I will narrow the focus
to Ying-ting. Because it is approximately 40 kilometers
south of the reservior and has the main canal running
through the northern half of its field, Ying—ting would
have been in a relatively advantageous position for attain-
ing irrigation water. More than ten farming communities
would have been using water from the canal before it reached
Ying—ting, however, so the village's supplylunnebeen some-
what restricted. Although it is difficult to estimate the

amount of water that would have been available, Ying-ting

 

 

198

would have had enough to irrigate approximately one—third
of its fields, i.e., about 50 hectares. Working with the
above estimate, we can now explore its effects on Ying—ting's
agricultural practices. To begin with, we can assume that
the limited amount of water would probably have been chan-
neled into the fields located north of the village, those
closest t0'flu3main canal. We can also be quite certain that
these newly-irrigated fields would have been used primarily
for wet-rice. The rest of the land would have been culti—
vated in more or less the same fashion as it had been before
the construction of the irrigation system; sweet potatoes
and sugar cane would have remained the dominant crops.
Although the limited irrigation made available
would not have caused a complete change, its impact certainly
would have been manifested in time. The irrigated lands
might have undergone a change of ownership. Since their
value would undoubtedly have increased, each peasant house—
hold would have wanted to acquire some of the land so it
could cultivate all the rice it would need. Yet the average
peasant would probably not have been able to afford the
lands; they would have been bought by landlords and wealthy
peasants. Some landlords, however, would probably have
leased the lands rather than cultivate them on their own.
Therefore, we could also expect an increased tenancy rate
to accompany the gradual concentration of ownership into

the hands of a few landlords.

 

 

199

Another eventual consequence of irrigation would have
been a decrease in the total output of sugar cane from the
area. Before irrigation, virtually all the lands in the
area were used for dryland crOps, such as sugar cane and
sweet potatoes. After irrigation, part of the land formerly
used for cane fields could be made into rice paddies. This
transformation would have occurred not only in Ying-ting but
also throughout the entire region.

The decrease of sugar cane production in turn would
have affected the sugar industry, the most important cottage
industry of the area. Less raw material would have been
available for making sugar. As a result, one or both of
the following conditions might have developed: (a) The
industry would have suffered a cutback in production. (b)
The owners of the sugar mills would have taken measures to
counter the diminishing supply of raw material in order
to maintain their industry. The first situation would most
likely have occurred in the years immediately following
the completion of the irrigation system. Since two—thirds
of the farmlands in the Chia-nan Plain could not have been
irrigated, peasants would have continued planting some
cane, so the sugar industry could have been maintained.

The owners of the mills, however, would never have been
certain of the amount of raw materials they would receive
each year. A look at the actual operation of the irriga—

tion system would explain the reasons for this inevitable

 

200

problem.

The irrigation water made available to the peasants
in the area is released from the Wu Shan T'ou reservoir.

The volume of water stored in the reservoir varies according
to the amount of rainfall the area annually receives. In
the years when the rainfall is above average, the reservoir
usually has more water to release than usual, and it releas-
es it more frequently; therefore, more land in the entire
area than usual is irrigated. In the years when the natural
precipitation is less than average, the reservoir has less
water to release and less land than usual is irrigated.
Since the cultivation of wet-rice is virtually impossible

in this area without a steady supply of irrigation water,

a fluctuation in the availability of water means a variation
in the amount of land suitable for wet-rice. Assuming that
the peasants would have planted as much wet-rice as condi-
tions allowed, the more water, the more rice, and the less
cane. When less water was available, more cane would have
been planted.

Under these conditions, the sugar manufacturers would
have had to take some action to stabilize the supply of raw
materials if they had wanted to maintain their industry as
a viable enterprise. One of the most effective measures to
accomplish such a goal would have been for them to acquire
a large amount of land. By making themselves or their

companies big landholders, the manufacturers could have been

 

 

201

certain that at least their own lands would be used for the
production of sugar cane. If they had used this measure,

a gradual and steady tendency toward the concentration of
land in the hands of a few large sugar manufacturers could
have easily resulted. If this had occurred, depending on
the financial strength of the manufacturers, either of the
following two consequences could have followed: (a) Some
kind of plantation system would have developed in the area.
After losing their lands to the capitalists, peasants would
either have had to migrate or become plantation workers.

(b) If the manufacturers did not have the financial strength
to run and maintain a plantation, they might have leased
land to the peasants under the condition that the tenants
would plant a certain amount of sugar cane each year. Either
way, the introduction of the irrigation system would have
served as a triggering mechanism inducing a drastic change
in the economic and social aspects of community life in the
area.

These expected changes, i.e., the cultivation of wet-
rice as a new crOp, the reduction of sugar cane production,
and the possible reactions of the sugar manufacturers, would
in turn have induced changes in other aspects of the
peasants' lives. I feel it unwise to continue to extend such
hypothetical reconstructions, however, because the more we
do so the further we move from the "cultural core” (Steward

1955:37) of this area. We would soon be dealing with a

 

202

great number of variables, which would certainly make our
reconstruction a more difficult task and lessen the chances
for the hypothesis to be correct. I will now examine,
therefore, what actually happened after 1930 and determine
the discrepancies between the reality of the Situation and
my hypothetical reconstructions, so that I can try to dis-
cover some answers to account for the differences.

II. The Actual Impact sfi the Chia-nan Irrigatiaa
System--aa Historical Reconstruction.

 

 

 

 

When Japan acquired Taiwan in 1895, her major plan
for the deve10pment of the new colony could be summed up in
two words: agricultural Taiwan. Under such a guideline,
the Colonial Government wasted no time in carrying out this
economic policy. Soon after its occupation, it sent teams
of agricultural experts to different sections of the island
to study the agricultural conditions and potentials. A
special investigation of the future outlook for the develop-
ment of the Taiwanese sugar industry was entrusted to Dr.
Ianzo Nitobe, who eventually presented a report in 1901. In
his report, Dr. Nitobe recommended, among other measures,
that the irrigation facilities of the Chia-nan Plain be ex-
panded so that more and better sugar cane could be produced
(cf. Gradjdanv 1942:58). Based on this recommendation, the
construction of the Chia-nan Irrigation System was launched
in 1920 and completed ten years later.

After the irrigation system was completed, the

 

203

so-called "sugar-cane, wet-rice, sweet potato mixed—crop
rotation system" was implemented which, in turn, changed

the area's agricultural practices. Although the irrigation
construction did not turn the plain completely into a

sugar cane cropping region, as far as the Japanese authority
was concerned, it had achieved its primary goal. It had
increased the production of sugar cane but had not irrigated
the plain to such an extent that wet-rice could become the
major crop.

The Chia-nan Irrigation System was a government pro-
ject. All of the construction, including the building of
the reservoirs, canal networks, and even the ditches that
connected the farmlands with the canal, were done by work

teams organized and supervised by government agencies.

 

3At first glance, the construction of the irrigation
system seems to be: detrimental] to the Government's inten-
tion of increasing the sugar cane production in the area.
By providing the irrigation water, the government was let—
ting one-third of the Chia-nan Plain be used for wet-rice.
Thus, in a sense, the completion of the irrigation system
reduced the area cultivated with sugar cane. However, the
irrigation system not only supplies water to the rice zones
each year, it also provides periodical irrigation to the
cane fields at the same time. Such occasional irrigation,
not available before the irrigation system was completed,
greatly increased the unit production of sugar cane. Ac—
cording to C. S. Chen's calculation, in 1920-21 each hec-
tare of cane field could only produce 25,482 kilograms of
sugar cane on the average, while after the irrigation water
was supplied in 1930, the output was increased to 68,325
kilograms per hectare. Therefore, although the size of the
cane fields was decreased, the provision of periodical
irrigation and better seeds drastically increased the
unit productivity and the total output of sugar cane from
this region (cf. Chen 1950z7).

 

 

204

Peasants were not involved in the planning or the construc-
tion, except those who worked as wage laborers in the
construction crews. Once the construction was completed,
the control of the water's distribution and the maintenance
of the irrigation networks were in the hands of the officials
of the Chia-nan Irrigation Association, which was made up
mainly by government officials, a few big landlords, and some
representatives of the sugar manufacturers. Therefore, the
construction process and the maintenance of the system did
not stimulate the peasants to develop any kind of social
institution as I projected would have happened if there had
been no government organization. All the peasants had to do
was to pay a fee levied according to the amount of their
landholding. Therefore, the impact of the irrigation system,
as far as the Ying-ting villagers were concerned, was limited
to the establishment of the mixed-crop rotation system and
the economic changes the system inevitably caused.
A. The Institutionalization of the
Crop Rotation System

When the irrigation system was completed, the rigid
control of the irrigation water left the peasants no choice
but to follow the agricultural schedule prescribed by the
allocation of water. As indicated in Section II, Chapter
Three, during the three—year crop rotating cycle, peasants
can plant only wet-rice when their lands are supplied with

the irrigation water. They have to plant sugar cane the next

 

 

205

year when the land is irrigated periodically. After the
cane is harvested, they have to plant sweet potatoes and
dry-rice because no irrigation water from the networks is
suplied to their fields.

Although the government has claimed that peasants
are free to use their land for any crop they would like to
grow, the control of the irrigation water has been a very
effective measure in regulating, actually dictating, the
so-called crOp rotation system. Although most peasants
would like to plant wet—rice all the time, the crop cannot
be grown when there is not sufficient irrigation. When the
land is being periodically irrigated, the peasants do not
have to use their land for sugar cane farming; they are,
theoretically, free to use if for sweet potatoes or other
dryland crops (wet—rice is out of the question because per-
iodical irrigation is insufficient for its cultivation.)
But, the return from sweet potatoes is usually smaller than
that for sugar cane and the work is more complicated; there-
fore, sugar cane is frequently chosen during this period.
When the sugar cane is harvested it marks the last phase of
the rotation cycle, and no irrigation is given during this
year; thus, only sweet potatoes and dry-rice can be planted
because they are two of the crops that can more or less be
successfully grown without any irrigation except natural
precipitation.

By now it should be rather clear that the completion

 

206

of the irrigation system and the implementation of the rota—
ting irrigation schedule had brought about a high conformity
to the crOp rotation system, which, in a sense, took away
the peasants' freedom to decide the usage of their own land.
In the meantime, it gave the Japanese-owned sugar companies
a fairly stabilized supply of sugar cane because, based on
the rotation system, the companies could forecast how many
hectares of land would be planted with sugar cane each year

and make their production plans accordingly.

B. The Change of Land Ownership

Another actual impact of the irrigation system and
the rotation schedule was the shuffling of land ownerships.
When the "small area" system was established, the fields
owned and cultivated by Ying-ting villagers were made into
one ”small area” named the ”Ying-ting Small Area” by the
Irrigation Association. Like other ”small areas," it was
subdivided into three cropping zones. When the dividing
lines of the cropping zones were drawn, the only concern
the officials in charge had was to equalize the size of the
three zones at 50 hectares each. As a result, many villagers'
lands were located in only one cropping zone. This posed a
rather serious problem for full—time farmers. Having all of
their lands in a Single cropping zone under the rotating
irrigation system meant that they would have to plant the
crops, and only the crops amenable to the irrigation sched-

ules of that particular year. For example, if a farmer had

 

207

all his lands in Zone I and it was designated the sugar

cane zone for a particular year, he would have no other
feasible choice but to plant all his lands with sugar cane.
Since sugar cane takes eighteen months to mature, he

would have no income from any of his land during this per-
iod. He would alSo have to depend on the market for all

the food his family would need during this period. Further-
more, when the sugar cane was growing, it would have required
little attention. Thus, if all of his lands were planted
with sugar cane, he would face a long slack season and suf-
fer the consequence of seasonal underemployment.

Under the rotating system then, it was advantageous
for a full-time peasant to have his lands divided into the
three zones as evenly as possible, because he could then
diversify his cropping practices and use his labor forces
efficiently. As a matter of fact, the Japanese authority
foresaw this potential problem and launched a campaign to
encourage peasants to exchange lands with their fellow vil-
lagers (Yanaihara 1957:133). Consequently, there was a
shuffling of land ownership among the peasants in the area.
This was accomplished not only by a process of direct, vol-
untary exhange, but also through the process of selling and
buying lands. Unfortunately, I do not have a record Show-
ing how such an exchange process actually took place in
Ying-ting. The land records I was able to obtain in 1970,

however, can illustrate the advantage of having lands in

 

208

each of the three cropping zones. As shown in Table 10, of
the 26 households classified as full-time peasant households,
i.e., those depending solely on farming for their income,

22 have lands distributed in each of the three cropping zones.
Of the 41 households that derive their major income from non-
agricultural sources, most of them either have no land at

all or have land in only one of the cropping zones (19 of
these 41 households have no land, and 21 of them have lands
located in one cropping zone). Clearly, all farming house—
holds that wish to snunmfijl themselves solely from agricul-
tural activities have to have land distributed in all of

the cropping zones. Therefore, we are not too far off the
target in saying that when the Chia-nan Irrigation System
and the rotating irrigation schedule were being implemented
there was a shuffling of land ownership mainly because of

the peasants' need to maintain some diversity of their agri-
cultural practices and to make best use of their labor

forces.

C. The Increase of Occupational Diversity

The information presented in Table 10 suggests another
consequence of the irrigation system and the rotating crop-
ping practice--the increase of occupational diversity. AS
I indicated earlier, when these systems were being imple—
mented, the government encouraged peasants to exchange their
lands among themselves so that more of them could have lands

in each of the cropping zones (cf. Yanaihara 1957:133).

 

Major Sources of Household Income and the Distribution of
Landholdings in the Three Cropping Zones in Ying-ting, l970

 

209

Table l0

 

 

Distribution of All Land Land Dis- Land Dis- Owns
Landholding Located tributed tributed No
in One in Two in Three Land Total
Major Cropping Cropping Cropping
Sources of Zone Zones Zones
Household Income
Farming 0 4 22 0 26
Farming 8 Wages
Earned as Agri- 34 23 6 O 63
cultural Laborer
Farming 8 Wages
Earned as Skilled 5 l l O 7
Laborer
Farming 8 Wages
Earned as Store 2 2 l 0 5
Clerk
Farming and Business 0 0 4 O 4
Farming 8 Salary
Earned as Govern- 2 3 8 0 l3
ment Worker
Agricultural 7 0 0 7 14
Laborer
Factory Worker 5 0 O l 6
Business 4 l 0 5 10
Government
Worker 0 0 0 l 1
Rent, Remittance
8 Other Sources 5 0 O 5 l0
Totals 64 34 42 I9 l59

 

210

My land records show, however, that some Ying-ting farmers
failed to acquire lands in all of the zones and faced sea-
sonal underemployment when their lands were planted with
sugar cane. Assuming that most villagers would try to
maximize their economic gains, it is likely that these
underemployed peasants tried to find income from nonagri—
cultural sources. Consequently, their search would have
increased the occupational diversity of the village popu-
lation.

Again, I do not have the actual historical record
showing the extent to which the village's occupational
structure was diversified as a result of implementation
of the irrigation system. An examination of the present
occupational structure as discussed in Chapter Four and
presented in Table 10, however, shows a high correlation
between having nonagricultural sources of income and not
having lands in all of the cropping zones. Of the 70
households that have incomes from nonagricultural sources
(this includes all the sources listed in Table 10 except
”farming" and "farming and agricultural labora),only 14
of them have land in the three cropping zones.

This correlation is strengthened by examining those 14
households that seem to be an exception. All of them
own more than 1.15 chia of land. In other words, they are
relatively well-off in terms of the size of their land-

holding and can still support themselves by the income they

211

earn from farming alone. Their nonagricultural activities
can be considered as attempts to diversify the economic
basis of their households. This has been a common pattern
for upwardly mobile families in Chinese rural communities.
Well-to-do peasants frequently are quite willing to invest
in the education of their sons so that the sons can have

a chance to acquire a nonagricultural occupation, thus
expanding and diversifying the economic basis of their fam-
ilies. Therefore, the nonagricultural occupations of the
fourteen families are not so much directly related to the
particular agricultural pattern of the area as they are
examples of the upward mobility of wealthy peasants. Fur-
thermore, the types of nonagricultural occupations that
characterize these well-to—do families differentiate them
from peasants forced to seek nonagricultural employment in
order to support themselves. The former usually hold pro-
fessional or semi-professional jobs; the latter usually
find work in non-skilled labor or service occupations. For
example, in eight of these well-to—do families, one of their
family members is a government employee; in another four,
one of the members is a businessman. Regardless of the'
implementation of the rotating cropping system then, these
fourteen families would have had some of their family
members enter a nonagricultural occupation. As relatively
well-to-do peasants, they have the financial resources and

social connections to send some of their children to school

 

212

for higher education or find them semi-professional jobs.

If there had not been the rotation irrigation and
cropping system and the consequential seasonal underemploy—
ment in agriculture, however, the remaining 56 households
that now hold nonagricultural occupations would not all
have sought and held their nonagricultural employment.
I was told by many peasants in this group that their family
members who now hold nonagricultural positions were more
or less forced to seek such employment. Although most of
them were glad and proud that they had acquired their non—
agricultural jobs, they indicated that if things had not
been as "bad,” they wouldIKH:have tried to find nonagri-
cultural occupations. It is in this particular sense that
I say that the particular agricultural pattern of Ying-ting
has significantly diversified the village's occupational
structure.
III. Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, and K'un Shen--

a Comparison sf Three Taiwanese
Peasant Communities

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this section I will briefly compare Ying-ting and
two other Taiwanese peasant communities, Hsin Hsing and K'un
Shen, to Show that their different ecological adaptations
have little impact on their sociocultural systems. These
three peasant communities have a great deal in common des-
pite the fact that Hsin Hsing is basically a wet-rice
cultivating village and K'un Shen is a fishing community. We

will see that the only significant differences we can detect

 

213

in these three communities are the ones directly related to
their different economic activities.

The information on Hsin Hsing is based on Gallin's
study (1966) of the village conducted in 1957~58, while that
on K'un Shen is drawn form Diamond's (1969) study carried
out in 1961-62.

A. A Brief Introduction to Hsin Hsing
and K'un Shen

Hsin Hsing is an agricultural village on the west
coast of central Taiwan. It is about 150 kilometers north
of the Chia-nan Plain on which Ying—ting is located. In
1958, there were 657 persons registered in 115 households
as Hsin Hsing residents (Gallin 1966:29). Of these 115
households, 90 were actually engaged in farming and were
totally or partially dependent on income from agricultural
sources (Ibid:107). Like the people living in Ying—ting,
K'un Shen, and many other Taiwanese villages, Hsin Hsing
villagers are the descendants of migrants who came across
the Taiwan Strait from southern Fukien in the late eighteenth
century. The most important crop cultivated by the Hsin
Hsing villagers is wet-rice. Two crops of wet-rice and one
crop of wheat, sweet potatoes, or some other crop are culti—
vated each year (Ibidz48—49).

K'un Shen is located fourteen kilometers southwest
of Tainan, approximately 38 kilometers southwest of Ying-

ting. It is a community of more than 3,000 inhabitants.

 

 

214

Its most important economic activity is sea fishing
(Diamond 1969:11). Based on Diamond's sampling of one sec-
tion of the community, 146 households and 970 persons, the
majority of the adults (185 males and 146 females) listed
fishing as their major source of income. Many households
in K'un Shen have other sources of income, however. Some
have factory jobs, some are day laborers, and a few hold
various white-collar or professional jobs (Ibidzll). A
few households in K'un Shen also do some farming but farm—
ing, according to Diamond, is "limited to sweet potato

and brushwood used as fuel, and both of which are for house—
hold consumption” (Ibidzl8).

Of course, we cannot present too much information
about these two villages in this context. However, the
information presented above is adequate to serve aszipoint
of departure. From the above we know: (a) The people liv-
ing in Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, and K'un Shen are all descend-
ants of migrants from south Fukien. In other words, their
forbears came over to Taiwan with the same cultural back-
ground. (b) The basic economic activities found in these
two communities are quite different from that of the
Ying-ting village. Hsin Hsing is basically a rice farming
village while K'un Shen is a fishing community and Ying—

ting is a mixed-cropping village.

 

215

B. Kinship and Family Organization in
Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing and K'un Shen

1. Lineage organization. I will begin the comparison

 

by focusing on what are generally believed to be the most

distinctive features of Chinese society; the patrilineal kin-

ship organization and the family system. As indicated
earlier, Ying-ting has three lineages, one comprising the
majority of the village population (i.e., 64.4 percent).
This lineage, the Chuang, also has all the material attri-
butes, such as corporate land holdings, an ancestral hall,
and the genealogical records, that a strong lineage organ-
ization usually has. Despite these attributes, the Chuang
lineage in Ying—ting is a far cry from the strong lineages
in traditional China (cf. Liu—Wangzl959). It no longer
serves as an agency of social control and it no longer is
the basic social framework used to coordinate its members'
activities. This is not to say that the lineage organiza-
tion has ceased to exist or has completely lost its social
functions in Ying-ting. For one thing, the lineage organ-
ization, as found in Ying-ting today, is still function—
ing as a ceremonial group, through which the ancestral
worship ceremonies are organized and conducted.

In brief, lineage as a social institution still
exists in Ying-ting, but most of its traditional, socio-
political functions have been lost. Occasionally, attempts
have been made by peOple contending in local elections to

activated lineage sentiments. However, lineage membership

 

216

by itself can no longer be counted on to automatically de—
liver people's support. It can only be used as a base upon
which other relationships can be developed and people's
allegiance secured.

The same situation has been observed both in Hsin
Hsing and K'un Shen. Gallin points out that ”in Hsin Hsing
the EEE: in terms of its actual activities, is very clearly
a ceremonial group" (1966:134). He has also observed that
some member families of the Hsin Hsing village EEE did
occasionally band together in village sociopolitical activ-
ities (Ibidzl35).

In K'un Shen, the deterioration of lineage organiza-
tion is even more evident. The lineage organizations (which
Diamond also calls EEE) "function mainly as religious cults,
which have become potentially open to those outside of the
descent system--membership is not strictly limited to those
tracing descent from a common ancestor“ (Diamond 1969:68).

Although the people of Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, and
K'un Shen are from an area of China where lineage organiza-
tion and its sociopolitical functions were highly elaborated,
the lineages in these three communities are quite different
from those in their homeland. What is responsible for the
decay or lacl: of development of lineage organizations in
these rural communities of Taiwan? It cannot be directly
related to the types of economic activities of Taiwanese

peasants, because until 1950, the general pattern of economic

 

217

activity on both sides of the Taiwan Strait was largely the
same, i.e., a subsistence economy. Yet, the lineage organ—
izations in Taiwan had already eroded to a certain extent
by 1950. Therefore, the answer must lie outside the rural
community. It seems to be the change of the political sys—
tem in Taiwan that brought about the decay of the lineage
organizations or prevented their development.

We know that in traditional China, lineage organiza-
tions were most elaborate and active in places where the cen-
tral government's control was weakest (cf. Potter 1970:
135—36). In such areas, peasants had to depend on themselves
for protection from outside encroachments and for regulation
of their community's internal affairs. Thus, lineage organ-
izations acquired important military, political,economic,
and social functions in addition to their ceremonial ones.
Logically, then, if other conditions are equal, in areas
where the governmental control is strong, the peOple will
have little incentive to maintain a strong lineage organiza-
tion because its sociopolitical functions would have been
taken over by the government. This seems to be exactly what
happened to the lineages in Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, K'un
Shen, and other Taiwanese communities. Ever since the
Japanese consolidated their control over Taiwan in the late
nineteenth century, their administrative apparatus had
descended to the village level and assumed most of the socio-

political functions lineages had been performing. Needless

 

 

218

to say, this created a severely adverse effect on lineage
organization. Moreover, when the Nationalist Chinese Govern-
ment took control of Taiwan in 1945, and changed the admin-
istrative system, the influence of governmental control on
the rural population intensified. Lineage organization has
been further eroded by the recent changes in the socio-
economic conditfons of Taiwan. For example, the Land Re-
form Program promulgated in 1952—53 prohibited lineages from
holding corporate estates which virtually annihilated their
financial base.

To return to the point of my discussion, what I have
shown above is that despite the different productive activ-
ities found in Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, and K'un Shen, the line-
age organizations in these three communities have either
deteriorated or never had the chance to become highly devel-
oped primarily because of the sociopolitical systems in which
they have existed. In Fukien, before 1949, the national
administrative apparatus never really penetrated to the local
level. Communities in Taiwan, however, were first pene-
trated by the Japanese Colonial Government in the late nine-
teenth century and then by the NationaliSt Chinese Govern—
ment in 1945. Both of these governments made it a policy to
incorporate rural communities, such as the three villages
I am discussing, into the national political system to make
the rural pOpulation more responsive to national policy.

In the beginning of this chapter, I postulated that

 

 

219
if the government had let the peasants in the Chia-nan area
regulate the distribution of irrigation water by themselves,
the lineage organizations in Ying-ting might have been acti-
vated and intensified to meet the needs of administrative
tasks. Such is not the case, however. The government's
agencies regulated irrigation, and the lineages in Ying-
ting missed a chance to become strong and effective social
institutions.

The same situation can also be postulated for the
lineages in Hsin Hsing. As in Ying-ting, irrigation, the
most important factor for successful agricultural production
is controlled by a semi-official irrigation association.

If the Hsin Hsing villagers had been left to manage and

maintain their own irrigation facility,it is likely that
they would have activated and intensified their lineage

(322) organizations to meet the needs of maintaining the
irrigation facility.

Thus, although ecological conditions (in this case,
the irrigation facility and its maintenance and regulation)
could have provided a chance for a social institution (the
lineage) to emerge and develop, sociopolitical conditions
(the state's administrative policy) eliminated the chance.
Specifically, the particular ecological conditions of Ying-
ting and Hsin Hsing could have encouraged strong lineage
organizations, thereby making these organizations somewhat

different from those in Taiwanese communities with different

 

 

220
ecological systems, such as K'un Shen. The national polit-
ical system, however, diverted the potential ecological con-
sequences, so the lineage organizations in these three com-

munities have shared the same fate.

2. Family organization. Having examined the lineages,

 

I will now turn to the family (household) organization.
DeSpite the fact that most villagers in these three commun-
ities consider the extended family to be their ideal, the
conjugal family (which Diamond refers to as the "nuclear
family”) is the most prevalent type in all three villages.
In Ying-ting 87 of its 159 households (or 54.7 percent) are
conjugal. In Hsin Hsing, 66 percent of the households are
conjugal. In K'un Shen, of the 146 households surveyed

by Diamond (about one-third of the total) 89 were nuclear
families (61 percent), 45 were stem families, and 12 were
what Diamond labels ”more complex families” (Diamond 1966:
104). Diamond also observes that in the entire K'un Shen
community, "the majority of villagers live in households

of nuclear families, or variants on the nuclear family,

or in a stem family" (1969:63).

The high percentage of conjugal families in these
three villages is also found in other Chinese peasant com—
munities. Writers on Chinese rural society have often
noted that peasant households are small and primarily con-
jugal. Although many Chinese peasants still subscribe to

the Confucian ideal of the extended family, few have

221

managed to realize the ideal.

Many theories have been formulated by Chinese anthro-
pologists to explain why peasants have failed to form ex-
tended families. Of all of them, the one proposed by Fei
drives close to the heart of the issue. According to Fei,
given both the type of technology that Chinese peasants
have and the small size of their farms, the extended family
as a social institution, does not increase the efficiency of
their productive tasks nor does it offer more economic
advantages than a conjugal family. Thus, the peasants are
not willing to try to maintain the extended family and
face the problems it can involve, such as conflicts between
siblings and strife among in—laws (Fei 1939:170-71). Fei'S
argument supports the contention that when a certain socio-
cultural institution stemming from the elite sector of the
population fails to be ecologically adaptive in a peasant
community, it will not penetrate into the peasants' ways
of life, or it will not,at the very least, be accepted by
the majority of the peasants.

To show that the extended family is not an ecolog-
ically adaptive institution, or to Show that its advantages
are frequently overpowered by the conflicts it brings with
it, let us look at the issue from another angle. What are
the advantages an extended family can generate? First of
all, it gives the family a good name, a position of

prestige, because it represents the fullfillment of a

 

 

222

culturally defined ideal. Second, it provides chances for
cooperation among adult siblings in their economic pursuits.

Will these two advantages be completely lost when the
extended family is divided or a potential extended family
is not allowed to become one by early division? No, not
completely. AS I observed in Ying-ting, Gallin in Hisin
Hsing (1966:145) and Diamond in K'un Shen (1969:63), after
a family divides, the brothers usually live in close prox-
imity to one another, and "since they are both relatives and
neighbors, such families may also continue mutual aid and
cooperate with one another in everyday tasks” (Gallin 1966:
145). In other words, given the settlement pattern, the
division of an extended family or the prevention of a
potential extended family does not necessarily entail the
loss of the chance for the borthers to c00perate with each
other. In fact, it is my observation that borthers tend to
cooperate somewhat better after they have been divided and
each has his own household, for the division usually removes
potential conflicts.

I can summarize my discussion of family organization
with the following: (a) Despite their different economic
activities, peasants in Ying-ting, Hsin Hsing, and K'un Shen
cherish and subscribe to the Confucian ideal of the extended
family. They have the same ideal because they share in
the same Great Tradition and have the same desire to imi-

tate the elite style of life;in this case, to have the type

 

 

223
of family that the Chinese gentry have. (b) Although they
all subscribe to this cultural ideal, few live in extended
families. I have tried to explain this phenomenon by
pointing out that the advantages an extended family offers,
i.e., family fame and the chance for sibling cooperation,
are either overshadowed by its built-in potentiality for
conflicts or found in another context, i.e, by having the
siblings live close to each other after the family division.
C. Production Organization and Occupational Structure
in Ying—ting, Hsin Hsing, and K'un Shen

Since each of these villages has a different economic
basis, it is to be expected that their production organiza-
tions and occupational structures will differ. The purpose
of this section is to examine these differences and to indi—
cate the extent to which the unique economic basis of each

village has affected its production organization.

1. Production organization. Although K'un Shen is

 

a fishing village while Hsin Hsing and Ying-ting are
agricultural communities, households are the most important
economic units in all three villages. In K'un Shen, one
household usually ownszuuloperates a fishing raft or cul-
tivates a fish pond. In Hsing Hsing and Ying—ting, the
members of a household usually provide most of the labor
required for their farms' daily tasks. However, some

productive tasks demand additional help or special equipment.

 

 

224

It is through these requirements for extra-household help
that differences among the three villages emerge.

In K'un Shen, when villagers engage in beach seining
to catch sardines and mullets during the winter season, they
must organize themselves into Work teams larger than ordi-
nary household units. With beach seining, "a large working
force is required for this net—-at least fifty persons to
haul from the beach, and another five persons on a raft to
Spread the net on the water” (Diamond 1966:51). For fishing
the mullets in the winter season, rafts are usually organ-
ized into teams to accomplish different but complementary
tasks (Ibid:52). Although it is not clearly indicated,
judging from the context, these work teams are organized on
a voluntary basis by households closely associated with one
another.

In Hsin Hsing, farmers frequently need extra laborers,
usually to help cultivate rice. These laborers are commonly
hired on a cash basis or through a labor-exchange arrange-
ment for plowing the fields, transplanting the rice, and
especially for harvesting the rice. The additional laborers
are hired primarily from the peasants' own village or the
immediately surrounding areas. As a rule, those villagers
who have little or no land of their own are the ones to work
for other villagers for the wages. Moreover, there are rice
harvest teams, each made up by ten persons that hire them-

selves out solely for the purpose of rice harvesting (Gallin

 

225

1966:64—65).

Hsin Hsing's farmers and K'un Shen's fishermen have
sole authority, at least theoretically, in deciding how many
helping hands they need, whom they want to hire or work
with, and the wages they are willing to pay. They not only
have the right to make such decisions, they also have the
right to expect to be satisfied with the work done by their
hired helpers or fellow workers. They enjoy, at least nomi—
nally, the right to supervise the work done by the hired
workers.

What has been said about the voluntarily organized
work teams found in Hsin Hsing and K'un Shen can also
describe the rice cultivation workers of Ying—ting. As has
already been shown, however, Ying—ting is not primarily
a rice—cultivating village like Hsin Hsing; it grows other
crops such as sugar cane, and it is in the cultivation of
sugar cane that differences emerge in the ways that pro-
duction units are organized. AS described in Chapter Three,
to assure that the amount of sugar cane harvested each day
will match the grinding capacity of its local refinery, the
Taiwan Sugar Company has made the cane farmers agree to let
a.sugar cane harvest team, organized and supervised by the
l.ocal representative of the Company, harvest the cane
LDIanted by each individual farmer. In other words, the cane

jfairmers in Ying-ting have no right to decide when their

c:1¢ops shall be harvested or which persons they would like to

. ”wrath—F, . z.
. .ui,

 

 

 

226

hire to help them harvest. Although they are responsible

for footing the bill of the labor costs, cane farmers have
lost all their rights in deciding the rate of wages and in
organizing and supervising the harvest team working for them.

Clearly, when a villager in Hsin Hsing and Ying-ting
engages non-household members to work for him in the rice
fields, he does so primarily because his household cannot
supply all the laborers he needs or because he does not have
the necessary equipment. On the other hand, when a cane
farmer in Ying-ting hires the cane harvest team to work for
him, he does so not primarily because he lacks manpower and
equipment, but because he is forced to by the Taiwan Sugar
Company's determination to maintain efficiency in its local
refinery's operations.

Since all the cane is harvested solely for the purpose
of making sugar, it is of vital importance that the cane be
harvested when it has the highest sugar content. In other
words, the timing of the cutting will decide, to a very
large extent, how much sugar can be made from the cane. Thus,
from the Company's point of view, it would be wasteful to
let the farmers cut their own cane at their convenience.
jFurthermore, the refineries would have trouble operating if
eaach farmer could decide his time for harvesting. Some days

‘tliey could be stacked with more cane than they could grind,
tvliile other days they could receive less cane than they

Iieeeded to keep the machinery working. Therefore, to protect

 

 

227

 

its own interests, the company took from the peasants the i
right of cane harvesting.
The discussion above shows that not only do differ—
ent productive tasks require different types of labor organ-
izations but also that the ways in which crops are utilized

require particular labor arrangements.

2. Occupational structure. Although I have labelled

 

Ying—ting as a sugar cane farming village, Hsin Hsing as a
.rice cultivating village, and K'un Shen as a fishing village,
their economic activities are not as limited as these name

tags might suggest. In Chapter Four, I detailed the rather

 

diversified occupational structure of Ying—ting. Even with
a set of rather broad categories, I found that the major
sources of the 159 households' incomes could be divided in—
to eleven categories and that five of the eleven were
completely unrelated to farming (see Table 3).

The same occupational structure is found in K'un Shen,
though its diversity is less than Ying—ting's. Based on the
sample that Diamond took from one section of her village,
the occupational list contains the following categories in
addition to fishing: "fish sellers,” "merchants and ped-
dlers,” ”farmers," ”factory or shop jobs," ”day laborers,”
and various kinds of "white-collar or professional jobs"
(1969:11). Furthermore, Diamond points out that most
:Eanfilies in the village depended on incomes from several jobs.

At first glance, Hsin Hsing appears to have an even

k

 

 

228

less diversified occupational structure. Of its 99 resi—
dential households, 90 are classified as farming families.
However, the reality is more complicated than the high per-
centage of farming families suggests. Gallin has pointed
out that agriculture provides only 65 percent of the vil-
lage's income; the rest comes from nonagricultural sources
(1966:35). What are these sources? We are told that due
to the rapid population growth, the people do not have
enough land to support themselves, and that "there has been
little development of any kind of important local industry"
in this area (1966:37). As a consequence, peasants in Hsin
Hsing have to migrate to the cities to find employment which
will supplement the inadequate income of their agricultural
activities. It is because most of the nonagricultural
incomes in Hsin_Hsing is earned in the cities by migrants
that the village's occupational list is so limited.

From the information reviewed above, I conclude that
as far as occupational diversity is concerned, no critical
difference exists among these three villages. Of course,
it is true that the details of these villages' occupational
lists differ to some degree, but the fact that none of these
.peasant communities has a simple economic gasis remains
:indisputable. Having established this fact, I will now dis—
<:uss the factors leading to the relatively high occupational

Cliversity in the three villages. As I willsflunvin the

:fRDllowing paragraphs, this shared diversity has been prompted

¥

 

229

by different, or at least partially different, factors in

each village.

a. Ecological factors. As I have indicated in Chap—

 

ter Four, Ying-ting's rather high occupational diversity

is partially related to its local ecological conditions,
i.e., the natural environment and the resultant farming pat-
tern. Because two of the three major crops culitvated in
Ying-ting are either of low cash value, i.e., sweet potatoes,
or take a long time to mature, i.e., sugar cane, the peasants
have been forced to seek other sources of income to support
their families during the long Slack season when their lands
are occupied by sweet potatoes and sugar cane.

Fishermen in K'un Shen also have a rather long Slack
season during which they cannot actively engage in their
major income—producing activity—-fishing. According to
Diamond, "the fishing season begins in the tenth lunar month
(late November) and continues into the third or fourth lunar
month. There is little fishing done during the summer, be—
cause of typhoons and unsuitable prevailing winds” (1969:12).
Thus, for Six months fishing cannot be actively pursued in
K'un Shen because of the local ecological conditions. Most
(of the fishermen have to find other sources of income dur-
:ing this slack season (cf. Ibid:20).

Although other factors exist, Ying-ting's and K'un

ESIIen'S long slack seasons should be considered one of the

IDIVime factors forcing the villagers to find additional

 

 

Z30

income-producing activities. It is in this particular sense
that I can say that the ecological factors of the two com-

munities have an impact on their occupational structures.

b. Demographic factors. Along with the ecological

 

factors, Taiwan's increasing population also seems to have
had an impact on the diversification of the occupational
structures in the rural communities. During the past few
decades, the population of Taiwan has increased to more than
twice of its original number. In 1945, Taiwan had a popula—
tion of Six million. By 1965, the figure had jumped to
12,628,000. The drastic increase was an island—wide
phenomenon, happening not only in the urban centers but also
in the rural communities. For example, Gallin has observed
that "the population of Hsin Hsing was sparse in the early
part of the twentieth century. There seems to have been a
substantial population increase in the relatively prosperous
late 1920's and 1930's, and especially in the postwar period
after the social order had been re—established” (1966:29).
Although I do not have figures from Ying-ting that
correspond exactly to the years 1945 and 1965, the general
trend undoubtedly would also be found there. In 1950, the
\rillage had a population of 947 persons; in 1970 it had 842.
£\t first glance, these figures seem directly to counter the
IDCDint I am trying to make. However, over these twenty
)féaars, 361 villagers moved from Ying-ting migrating to

\fralfiious cities in Taiwan. Thus, if we add these 361 persons

 

 

 

231

to the actual residents of Ying-ting in 1970, the total
population of the village would have been 1,203 instead of
842. In other words, over these twenty years the village
would have had an increase of 256 persons.

According to the data published by the Joint Com-
mission on Rural Reconstruction (1966), Taiwan's agricul-
tural land did not increase in proportion to its population's
increase. In 1950, Taiwan had an agricultural population
of 3,998,000 which rose to 5,738,000 by 1965--an increase of
43.52 percent (3,998,000=100 percent). On the other hand,
Taiwan had a cultivated area of 870,000 hectares in 1950,
which was expanded to 890,000 hectares in l965-—an increase
of only 2.3 percent (870,000=100 percent). Since the in—
crease in population was not accompanied by a proportional
increase in arable land, more and more peasants in rural
Taiwan, such as those in Hsin Hsing and Ying-ting, must have
experienced a problem of the diminishing availability of
land (cf. Gallin 1966:35). As a consequence, more and more
peasants would have had to either migrate to urban centers
to seek nonagricultural jobs or stay in their villages and
have some of their family members find nonagricultural
sources of income in the immediate area. Demographic pres-
sures, then, must have had a certain influence on the occu-

pational structures of all Taiwanese rural communities.

c. Industrial development as a factor. Although the

 

population's expansion prompted peasants in rural communities

 

 

232

to seek nonagricultural employment, their success in such
attempts depended upon the available opportunities. The
rapid industrial development of Taiwan in the past two
decades provided those opportunities.

Generally speaking, industrialization draws peasants
from their communities to the big cities where industry and
other businesses are expanding. For example, in 1958, ap-
proximately one hundred Hsin Hsing villagers were either
working or doing business in Taipei (Gallin 1966:121-22),
and, by the end of the 1960's, the number of Hsin Hsing
migrants in Taipei had jumped to 446 persons (Gallin 8
Gallin 1974:343). Likewise, over the last twenty years,
361 Ying-ting villagers have migrated either to Kaoshiung,
Taipei, or Tainan to assume various jobs. In some cases,
industrialization can alsolxnhngopportunities to rural com-
munities, enabling the peasants and their family members
to find jobs without having to move from their villages.
Since I am mainly concerned with the increasing occupational
diversity within the rural communities, I will concentrate
on the opportunities "brought” to the peasants.

Ever since the late 1960's when the weaving industry
began to expand, an increasing number of factories were
established in Chia-li, Hsueh—chia, as well as Tainan, all
()f which were within commuting range of the Ying-ting vil-

Zlagers. Thus, once the villagers could find non-agricultural

6Employment and retain their village residence, their

 

 

 

233
village's occupational list changed to a certain extent. For
example, most of the 29 male and 38 female residents in
Ying-ting who were classified as factory workers (see Table
5 and Table 6) would not have gotten their jobs in there
had not been industrial development in areas close to the
village. The same situation seems to have happened in K'un
Shen. According to Diamond's sample, though only eight
women were listed in the official household record as hold—
ing factory jobs in the city, "this figure is [not]
accurate; a sizable number of unmarried girls now take low-
paying factory jobs" (1969:11).

Of the factors examined above, the demographic and
the industrial seem to be more pertinent than the ecologi—
cal in explaining the increase in occupational diversity
and the out-migration in Hsin Hsing village. With Ying-ting
and K'un Shen, all three factors seem to be relevant. To
be more Specific, given the ecological condition that we
found in Ying-ting and K'un Shen, i.e., a rather long slack
season during which villagers would not have any sizable
income, Ying-ting and K'un Shen could be expected to have a
higher occupational diversity than Hsin Hsing. This would
have been the case if the population of Taiwan had not
increased so drastically and there had not been such rapid
industrial development in the last two decades. It stands
to reason that, other things being constant, the ecological

factor alone would have been strong enough to force some

234

farmers from Ying-ting and fishermen from K'un Shen to seek
seasonal employment outside their main productive activities,
because when a Ying-ting villager has his field planted with
sugar cane and cannot have any sizable income until the crop
is harvested eighteen months later, he has to do something

to support himself and his family. Similarly, when a fisher-
man in K'un Shen is unable to go out to fish during the
typhoon season, it is likely that he would be forced by the
need of subsistance to seek some other lines of work.

If the above discussion is left to stand, then I can
conclude my comparison of the occupational structures of
these three communities as follows: (a) As it is seen today,
there is no remarkable difference in the degree of occupa-
tional diversity found in the three villages. (b) Their
high occupational diversity is caused by slightly different
factors, however. In Hsin Hsing, the demographic and indus-
trial factors are most responsible for such development,
while in Ying—ting and K'un Shen, in addition to these two
factors, the ecological factor, i.e., the long Slack season
and its consequential underemployment, seems to have signi-
ficant influence in forcing villagers to seek supplementary
income from time to time. (c) The differences in ecological
conditions among Ying—ting, K'un Shen, and Hsin Hsing could
very well have been manifested in different occupational
structures, however, these potential differences were over-

come by the changes that happened to Taiwan as a whole,

 

 

235

particularly its drastic population increase and rapid in-
dustrialization. Both of these changes have had an impact
on all of the peasant communities in Taiwan and have in-
creased the occupational diversity in virtually all of them.
This island-wide phenomenon has eliminated one of the po-
tentially unique consequences of the particular ecological
conditions found in Ying-ting and K'un Shen and has made
the occupational structures of the three villages virtually

alike, at least in terms of their diversity.

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

 

With the ethnographic information I have collected from
Ying-ting village, I have attempted (a) to Show how this par-
ticular peasant community's ways of life has been affected by
the socioeconomic policies of the state; (b) to ascertain the
extent to which the particular productive pattern, ixa, mimxh
crop rotation system, has affected the community's life; and
(c) to explain why the mixed-cropping system has had such a
superficial impact on other aspects of the sociocultural con-
figuration of Ying—ting village.

I have dealt with the first task by showing how the
Japanese Colonial Authority, through the control and regula-
tion of the irrigation facility, made Ying-ting and other
villages in the area become sugar cane producing communities.
I have noted that when Japan took over Taiwan in 1895, she
had a well-constructed economic policy for developing her
newly-acquired colony. The policy was to make Taiwan an ag-
ricultural country so that it could supply the agriculgural
products needed by the growing industries of Japan. Under
this general guideline, the Chia-nan Plain, of which Ying—
ting is a part, was designated the sugar cane producing area.
To promote cane production, new seeds and modern farming
techniques were introduced to the peasants by various gov—

ernmental agencies and extension services. Moreover, acting
236

237
upon the suggestions of some Japanese agricultural experts,
the colonial authority started to improve the irrigation fa-
cility for the entire Chia-nan region, hoping it would
greatly increase sugar cane production.

Since the Chia-nan Irrigation System was built not to
improve the general agricultural condition as such, but rath—
er specifically to increase sugarcxumaproduction, certain
measures were taken to prevent the peasants from utilizing
their newly-irrigated lands for wet—rice, or crops other than
sugar cane. Thus, the "small area” and the rotation irriga-
tion schedule were designated and implemented. Accompanying
the "small area” and rotation systems was the so-called
”three-year-crop-rotation-system.” Once this system was im-
plemented, more than half of the cultivated land in the
Chia-nan Plain had to be used for sugar cane every year sim-
ply because of the controlled irrigation facility.

Ever since the mixed-crop rotation system was institu-
tionalized, the agricultural pattern of Ying—ting has been
fixed. Peasants have lost the freedom of choosing their own
crOps. In spite of their needs, peasants have been forced
to foresake rice and plant their lands with sugar cane in
the years when the irrigation water is withheld from their
lands.

The institutionalization of the mixed-crop rotation
system not only has eliminated the peasants' freedom to

decide how to cultivate their lands, but also has triggered

 

 

 

 

 

238

a chain of other sociocultural consequences. For example,
it has affected some aspects of the peasants' economic be-
havior. For one thing, the peasants have been forced to
participate more intensively in the market system. As cash
crop producers, they have to sell all their cane to the
sugar company and buy most of what they need from the mar-
ket. The rotation system has also had, as I will Show, an
indirect impact on the local politics of the villages in
the area.

Being cane farmers, the peasants in the area have
to maintain a good relationship with the sugar company be-
cause the company is the only source to which they can sell
their cane. Furthermore, as I have already discussed in
Section V, Chapter Three, the company represents one of the
major sources from which peasants can acquire various loans
and assistance. For example, in the season between 1969-70,
the company provided NT$165,200 in cash and NT$260,702
worth of chemical fertilizers to 79 Ying-ting families who
had planted sugar cane. In addition to being the only
agent buying sugar cane and one of the most important
sources for low interest loans, the company provides exten-
sion services, such as the introduction of new seeds and
new farming techniques. In brief, a good relationship with
the sugar company is a necessary condition for the financial
well-being of the cane farmers in Ying—ting.

Peasants do not deal with the sugar company directly,

239
however. They deal with the company's local representative.
Any request they have, either for loans or technical assist-
ance, must be made to the local representative first and,
through him, to the company. Besides having such a strate-
gic position between cane farmers and the sugar company,
the local representative is also given the authority to
organize and supervise the operation of the cane harvest
team (see Section IV, Chapter Three, for a detailed descrip—
tion of the cane harvest team). Thus, the local representa-
tive has the right to hire some 40 laborers to work for the
company for three to four months each year. Although such
jobs are not permanent, they are highly desirable for
peasants needing supplementary income because they offer
relatively high wages and last for a prolonged period of
time.

Since they occupy such vital positions, the local
representatives of the Taiwan Sugar Company have become the
most important figures in their villages. Of the fourteen
villages that I visited in the area, including Ying-ting,
the local representatives were usually also the mayors,
village representatives to the township council, or the
most powerful people running local affairs behind the scene.
In one word, they were the leaders in local-level politics
in the sugar cane producing region.

The reason these local representatives have succeeded

in achieving such leadership positions is directly related

240

to the sugar company's desire to control the farmer's socio-
political lives. By supporting and encouraging its local
representatives to participate in their villages' political
activities and become leaders in their villages, the company
gains quite a few advantages. First, as political leaders,
‘Uue representatives can serve as communication media through
whom messages and directives can be related to the peasants
in a rather effective way. Second, the representatives'
prestige helps the company in its annual campaign to promote
sugar cane cultivation. Third, Since such local political
leaders Share the company's interests, the company can be
sure that cane farmers will not be able to organize them-
selves effectively for bargaining over its pricing policies
or for making any other demands the company does not wish to
entertain. What we see here can be considered as a rather
shrewd operation plannedznuiimplemented by the sugar company
to expand its control over the social life of the peasants.
And, the existence of this particular type of leadership

can be understood only in the entire ecological context of
the area.

I have also attempted, in this study, to determine the
extent of impact this area's agricultural pattern has on
other aspects of the peasants' community life. In doing so,
I have made a brief comparison of Ying-ting with two other
Taiwanese peasant communities, each with distinctive economic

basis. From the comparative analysis, I have concluded that

241

the mixed-crop rotation system practiced by the Ying-ting
villagers has only a rather limited effect on the socio—
cultural configuration of their community. The only signi—
ficant differences are‘qunadirectly related to productive
activities and the special types of persons who have become
leaders in local level politics.

Are there any significant differences in the occupa—
tional structures, family and kinship organizations, and
other aspects of the social systems of these three villages?
Before the comparison I was expecting to find some for,
operating in the framwork of a cultural-econological ap-
proach, I thought the villages' distinctive ”cultural
cores” would create such differences. As I related in the
previous chapter, however, few significant differences exist
in the occupational, familial, and social realms of the
three villages. Although sugar cane farming in Ying-ting,
which has required the peasants to seek additional income to
supplement their livelihoods, could very well have made the
village's occupational structure somewhat more diversified
than that in the other two villages, the recent demographic
and industrial developments in Taiwan have made it necessary
and possible for most Taiwanese peasants to seek nonagri—
cultural income. Therefore, one of Ying-ting's potentially
unique features has been overshadowed by changes in the
larger society.

No differences exist among the three villages in

242
their family and kinship organizations. I have noted that
the conjugal family is the predominant family type in all
of the villages. Also, I have indicated that lineage organ-
izations, though still existing in all three villages, are
in the process of decaying, having lost virtually all of
their sociopolitical functions and are now operating only as
ceremonial groups.

These similarities in family and kinship organizations
can only be attributed to the following causes. The eco-
logical differences of the three villages are not strong
enough to necessitate any change in family and kinship organ—
izations. In some villages where local ecological conditions
might have favored a strong lineage organization, other
social factors, such as the intervention of official admin—
istrative apparatus into the local level and the recent Land
Reform Program, have worked to wipe out such chances for the
lineages to develop into strong and cohesive social organi—
zations. As I have hypothetically noted in Section 1,
Chapter Six, the extended family and the lineage organization
in Ying-ting could have developed.if,upon the completion of
the irrigation system, the government had not interfered with
the distribution of the irrigation water. But such a chance
did not materialize since the Japanese government set up a
rigid schedule to rotate the irrigation water and reinforced
it with the strong arm of its administrative and police

agencies.

243

Other causes that might also account for the lack of
differences in the family and kinship organizations of
these three villages are their cultural backgrounds (all are
descendants of migrants from southern Fukien), and their
having existed under a strong central government for more
than a century. They Share in the same Chinese Great
Tradition, and they have been experiencing the impact of the
recent socioeconomic changes in Taiwan as a whole. The
virtually identical sociocultural milieus in which these
peasant villages have been existing, then, have reduced
their respective uniquenesses to such an extent that only
the most basic cultural institution, i.e., the productive
pattern which is so directly influenced by the conditions
of natural habitat, still manifests itself to a certain de-
gree.

Finally, I will briefly suggest this study's implica-
tions for peasant study in general. Using Ying-ting as an
example, I have Shown that the peasant community and its
ways of life are constantly being influenced by their
adaptation to two sets of "environmental conditions.”

First of all, as an agricultural community, it has to
develop a productive system that will most efficiently pro-
duce those crops it can either consume or sell in the market
in exchange for needed goods and services. Needless to say,
such adaptive process will shape the peasants' life styles

to a certain extent. Second, a peasant community is

244

constantly under the influence and control of the larger
sociopolitical system commonly referred to as the state.
The socioeconomic policy the state develops and implements
in its rural areas certainly requires changes in the peas-
ants' ways of living as they try to meet the demands of
the state.

AS I have shown with Ying-ting's case, the state's
policy not only can affect the sociopolitical aspects of
the village community but also can crystallize the produc-
tive patterns of the people. Through the regulation of the
irrigation facility, both the Japanese Colonial Government
and the Nationalist Chinese Government, have ”dictated”
the mixed cropping system to the people in Ying-ting and
the general area.

With the information presented in this dissertation,
I have also documented and reaffirmed a well-known but
frequently forgotten anthropological principle: that the
peasant community and its culture cannot be studied and
fully understood as an isolated, self—sufficient system.
Moreover, I have also shown that even the productive sys—
tem-—that part of the sociocultural system most directly
related to the local environmental conditions of the
community--cannot be fully comprehended solely within the
local environmental framework.

Furthermore, this study clearly indicates that the

"new" cultural-ecological approach (cf. pp. 3-4) is a

 

245

sound and fruitful research strategy for the study of
peasantry. It directs the researcher's attention to the
local environmental conditions of the peasant community in
question as well as to the national sociocultural institu-
tions that are constantly influencing the peasants' lives.
Also, it seems to me that this approach is especially per~
tinent for studies of contemporary peasantry because most
of them are undergoing rapid sociocultural changes. Such
changes, more often than not, are planned and implemented
by the governments of various countries. Thus, to under-
standznulpredict the probable impacts such planned changes
will bring to peasant communities, the researcher has to
have a theoretical framework that can account not only for
local environmental conditions but also for the general

character of the national institutions.

 

 

APPENDIX

246

Appendix One

 

a Glossary sf Chinese Words Used as the Text

 

Romanized Chinese
Words

 

cheng

chia

chiu-shiu-t'ang

ch'ing-ming—chieh

chung-chiu-chieh
fang

hsien

huia-shuo

kan-tien-tian

kuan-yin

kua-tze

k'ung-ting

lao-shih

li-min-tai—piao

 

Chinese Characters

 

 

English Translation

 

Township

Unit of land. Each
chia equals 2.396
acre.

Name of the ances—
tral hall of the
Chuang lineage of
Ying-ting.

A festival for wor-
shipping at graves.

Moon festival.
Branch

County

Meeting place.
Land that depends
on natural rain-
fall for its ir-
rigation.

Goddess of Mercy.

Preserved water—
melon seeds.

Central room of a
house, used as a
family living room
as well as the
family shrine.

Sincere, mature.
Village representa-

tive to the township
council.

 

 

247

Romanized Chinese
Words Chinese Characters English Translation

 

 

 

ti-i-chuang ch'ou f .,- i Literally translated
yen ch'ui feng. %§’ ifig’i it means: "There are

ti- erh- chuang, tai- qflf’L-m 1f“: three most foolish
nfi jen ch' ui- tung— the things a man can do:

feng. _ chung ‘% #A/{X )iL‘ to smokeoa cigarette

ti-san-chuang- Without inhaling. To

kan-che jang- huo— che- Zfigfi fgfi fi‘ take a girl out for

tai—chu-pang. an evening walk With—
-9 out doin an thin
5%y‘fi’fi-t kg to her. ind,ymostgof
all to plant sugar
cane and let the
Company buy them by
truck loads without
being able to say
anything about the

price."
tou—chia Efiék The host, the person
in charge.
tsu ‘jjé Lineage.
tsu-k'ung-tien 1:3 ’4? €57 Ancestral land.

tui—k'an jifi"éf To see each other

face to face.

tung-chih 8 i Winter solstice
festival

 

 

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248

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