Shedding light on Gukeng coffee industry

Sun Wang-tien, an officer with the department of agricultural economics as part of the Gukeng Township Office, was cited as saying that he haphazardly stumbled across the 41-year-old memorabilia, seemingly ordinary accounts of history.

He said that his sole intention in releasing the short documentary is to share with local epicures the long-forgotten memory of Taiwan as a coffee growing nation.

The footage, dated 1968 with unidentified artists, are titled, “Coffee Production in Yunlin” and “An Evolving Yunlin.”

One of the clips lasts a mere 88 seconds, yet it vividly chronicles young women on coffee farms almost half a decade ago wearing their wide-brimmed conical straw hats, nimbly picking coffee berries and gathering the fruit in woven bamboo baskets lying by their feet.

The harvest is gently placed into gunny sacks and delivered to the coffee factory in Douliou City, where berries are washed, dried, roasted into beans and ground. The clip ends with a bald middle-aged man packaging the ground coffee and sealing cans labeled “Taiwan Coffee.”

Although the man in the black-and-white film has long passed away, his son Chang Jing-ke is currently still running the Shanghaikuan Coffee Manor in Gukeng.

Sun added that he also unearthed a 1929 document written in Japanese issued by the office of then Governor-General of Taiwan to address the Taisho emperor's wish to officially proclaim coffee as an indigenous product of the island.

The Taisho emperor's particular fondness for Taiwanese coffee was allegedly widely known, Sun said.

Sun explained that the document is the earliest record that attests to Taiwan as a center for coffee production and revealed that the first coffee arabica planted were imported from the Philippines by British merchants.

According to County councilor Hsieh Su-yia, the documentary could be seen as a celestial sign, as efforts to develop the Gukeng coffee industry has been stymied in recent years.

With the opportune release of the poignant footage, Hsieh hoped nearby coffee farms and businesses as well as the annual coffee festival held later this year in October will be given a much needed booster shot.

She also looks forward to Hebao Mountain's former status as a coffee landmark being once again affirmed.

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