Young, blogging rice farmer touts 'Kuso' way

However, this is not a problem for Hsieh Ming-chien, an electronics factory worker-turned-farmer in Taiwan's eastern county of Hualien, who has succeeded in touting on the Internet the rice he produces and has put his name on the map as a farmer blogger.

Hsieh, 28, the youngest rice farmer in Hualien, has been working the land for the last five years, splitting his time between tending his farm and blogging on the Internet.

A son of a rice farmer, Hsieh headed to Taipei to work after graduating from high school and finishing his military service.

He did not save a dime working in the metropolis and was eventually ordered home by his father to plow their own farmland. He was 23 when he became a fulltime farmer.

Hsieh did not have a smooth start. His first year's harvest was only a sixth of the normal yield — only about 2,000 kg of rice for each hectare of paddy he farmed.

That dismal result was a real kick in the pants, so he set out to learn all about the work from his dad and his elderly neighbors. Not until his third year did he finally bring in a successful harvest.

He then decided to take his business a step further by innovating, adding a modern touch to the age-old occupation by selling his rice online.

The idea came from online friends, who at first reacted with disbelief when he told them he was a farmer, Hsieh said.

To prove his credentials, Hsieh started a blog on his farming experiences, chronicling the whole process of rice farming from propagating rice seedlings and planting them out, to fertilizing and harvesting.

Believing that building a "corporate image" is important in terms of marketing, Hsieh, who was an art design major when he was at vocational high school, designed the cartoon character "Chien Chien" and branded his rice products "Chien Chien's Good Rice."

A born humorist, Hsieh has sprinkled his online diary with amusing or self-deprecating parodies and caricatures of the "Kuso style."

In "Kuso" — which literally means "sh!t" in Japanese — Hsieh makes fun of himself, reflects local farmers' ideals and plights, and describes the outrageous matters facing him and his fellow Hualien farmers in his online diary.

Also via his Web site, he keeps people informed about his products, which range from "Champion Rice" Taigeng No. 2 — a chewy and crystal-looking grain best suited to frying, "Pearl Rice" Taigeng No. 16 — chewy but soft, pearl-like rice best for sushi, to "Aromatic Rice" Taigeng No. 4 — the most popular variety among Taiwanese consumers in recent years.

Initially attracted by his novel sales method and intrigued by his diary, then later finding out that "Chien Chien's Good Rice" is actually really tasty and of good quality, online buyers flocked to him in droves.

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