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| Category |
Local
specialties |
| Description
of "Our Community" |
| Balung
is located at the central part of Northern Transverse
Road, Fuhsing Township, Taoyuan County. The word Balung
means ¡§juniper¡¨ in Atayal. The Upper Balung area
in Balung is 1220m above sea level, and the residences
are mostly Atayal descends. The produces of peaches
and sweet persimmons, and the consequent attractions
of tourists are the main sources of financial income.
L¡¦ra (Lalashan) is situated in the Upper Balung region.
The word ¡§L¡¦ra¡¨, meaning ¡§ looking into the distance
from the most beautiful mountain¡¨ in Atayal, was
used for that one could see the beaches of Ilan, Hsindien
City in Taipei County, Hsinchu county, Mt. Dabajian,
as well as all the surrounding picturesque sceneries
when standing on the summit of Lalashan. Moreover,
as Lalashan Natural Conservation Area has the ¡§largest
juniper group in South East Asia¡¨, it is renowned
in the realm of giant-tree tourism, and has also gained
the name of ¡§the place where there are most oxygen
in Northern Taiwan¡¨. There are always tourists throughout
the year. Throwing away the busy urban life for a
moment and having a stroll in this area is certainly
a fabulous enjoyment in life.
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| Giant
woods in Lalashan
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Atayal
people |
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| Summary
of Our Project |
| ¡§Qwirux¡¨
means peaches in Atayal, which is what Lalashan is
most famous for. There must have been so many hard
works and efforts in order to reach today¡¦s standing
from nothing. We hope that through this project, people
will have more understanding in terms of the mental
and material changes before and after peach cultivations,
as well as the difficulties encountered during cultivating,
and the expectations for the future. Moreover, it
is with anticipation that people will know more about
the value of peaches.
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| Peaches
of Lalashan
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Peach
farmers |
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| Our
Computer and Internet Access |
In
the school, we have a computer room that is open for
community uses. The 18 computers for student use are
all connected with Ethernet regional internet, and
through optical fiber they are able to access to TANet.
In addition, there is one computer in each classroom,
so that it is very convenient for us to do some searches
between classes. However, since our community quite
often has troubles of power failure, or power failures
caused by Typhoons, the happening of disconnection
from the internet is not rare. Sometimes when we notice
that there are not signal indications on the cell
phone, then we know that the computers must be disconnected
from the internet. As for the students, although only
few of them have a computer at home, it is usually
not connected with the internet. For this reason,
the school computer room is often open in the night
for student or community residences to use. There
are even students who stay after school or travel
all the way down hill to the school from the uphill
in the night, just for learning how to use computers.
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| Problems
We Had To Overcome |
| 1. |
We
have introduced the special product of Lalashan,
peach, in our project. Unfortunately, peaches
are a fruit of summer, thus we were not able
to take photos of peach blossoms and the fruits.
Then again, thanks to the provision of photos
from some students¡¦ parents, that we are able
to provide a complete set of photos for the
viewers. |
| 2. |
From
September to early October, due to Hurricane,
the roads were destroyed. Although the power
supply was resumed, the optical fiber network
was not in operation until the roads were
fixed. In mid-October, the network failure
in school occurred often, and it would take
at least one day to fix it. Thus, it was quite
difficult for us to collect data on the Internet.
We then focused on discussing the project
topic and work division, and collected the
data until the network was back in work.
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The
connecting road for the tribe was broken
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School
field was full of cracks
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| 3. |
For
our interviews, we needed to go to certain places
for meeting our interviewees. However, there
was only one car among the teachers, and quite
a number of students. Thus we quite often needed
to drive two times just for taking all the students,
or helps from the parents. There was one time
when we had to go downhill for the interview
with Professor Pi of Christian Chun Yuan University.
Due to the lengthy distance to travel, we had
to spend a night away. Thanks to the helps from
Hope Agent Development Association and the principal,
that the whole trip was smooth and accomplished.
Once again, we sincerely give them our appreciation. |
| 4. |
We
had to interview many people for this project,
including, Mr.
Song-Ming Chen (Taya), the elder of the
tribe, Professor
Shi-Ming Pi of Christian Chun Yuan University
MIS Department, Mr.
Chen-Hui Chen(A-sin), parent of a student,
Mr.
Cheng-Jhun Lin (Yako) of the Network Tribal
Marketing, and Mr.
Rong-Ming Chen (Lebing), the Father of
Lalashan peaches. Although they were busy
with work and had little spare time, they
were enthusiastic, and made time in the morning
or at night to arrange interview with me.
We thank you.
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Group
photo with Prof. Pi
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Peach
farmers are applying fertilizer |
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| 5. |
During
the interview with Grandpa Rong-Ming Chen,
he used Atayal language or Japanese. Although
our Atayal was not quite fluent, fortunately
we had Mr. Chuan-Fa Chen giving us his support
by interpreting for us. We hope that we will
keep passing on our language, because language
is something that can best represent a culture.
The death of a language means the definite
death of the culture. Thus, we must treasure
this precious cultural asset, and let it be
passed on to generations after generations. |
| 6. |
Due
to special reasons, sometimes not all of us
could attend to the interviews. However, the
interviews were always taped through V8 video
cameras and audio recorders, which enabled
members who were absent to obtain the information
acquired on the day, catch up with the progress,
and share with the rest their opinions.
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| Learning
to use digital video camera |
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Interviewing
the peach farmers |
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| 7. |
Special
thanks to Hope
Agent Development Association.
Its sponsorships allowed us to smoothly dealing
with financial matters and to have sufficient
equipments during the visits. In addition,
we give thanks to Principal Hsiao, Members
of the community, and the staff members of
the exhibition, the assistances allowed us
to overcome difficulties and obstacles. Your
helps made us feel warm. Once again, we give
you all our greatest appreciation from our
hearts.
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| Our
Project Sound Bite |
| 1. |
Through
the construction process of the Cyberfair project,
we obtained many skills and knowledge. Not only
we learned many computer and digital equipment
skills, we also learned to appreciate the characteristics
and special products of our homeland more. It
proved that in order to produce peaches that
worth praises, hard works and sacrifices are
essential. |
| 2. |
¡§Team
work produces power¡¨. Every one of us played
an important role. The team could be easily
affected even when one of us did not try his/her
best. Therefore we were all earnestly learning
and doing our best. Although everyone has the
responsible areas of jobs, we helped one another,
and formed a co-operative working pattern. This
is also the reason for the positive relationships
and strong bonds between us. |
| 3. |
Through
many visits, we met many senior members of the
community, and experienced the friendliness
and hospitality from Atayal people. It was by
then we realized how wonderful our hometown
is. It not only has beautiful sceneries, clean
air, but also juicy peaches and people full
of congeniality. |
| 4. |
The
coming of IT era and the advances of internet
technology have enabled us to communicate and
learn from people in every single part of the
world through the internet. What¡¦s more, they
have also allowed us to introduce the beauty
of Lalashan and the peaches to friends all over
the world. |
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