Traditional Farming Customs

In 1978, another very important development in Taiwan was the introduction of the use of mechanical farming techniques. The whole society was changing in an effort to westernize everything. We could feel the changing momentum. While the old traditions still dominated what we saw, the new things were starting up everywhere. Later they called this period of three years the “launching of financial flying”. Taiwan was to become a very prosperous place. But this summer, we still saw the old methods of harvesting rice. No mechanical automation was used. The farmers still dried the rice straw on the side of the road for future uses. And at the end of the harvest, they still celebrated with a free public local show, which everyone was invited to enjoy. Included was a big celebration meal near the full moon time of the year! The entire traditional celebrative event was called “BaiBai” (拜拜）.