My People

228 Weekend

Ready for some mountain time with us?

It was my first time organizing a big group event after meeting JD.
I barely ask to see friends, let alone organizing a mountain weekend for 7 people.
I just had the urge to share this special place with my people who would appreciate it as much as me.
It turned out to be such a very special weekend.
And I’m pretty proud of myself for making it happen.
Let me tell you more about it.
We first went up with Guga and Kun, whom we share the beach house with.

The magic balcony

where you just stare at the view for hours

First things first.

Let’s go for walkies.

The first day was a bit cloudy and very misty.

Compared to the jade green in summer,
Bamboos are dark slate gray in winter.
Especially after the fire,
everything seems darker.

Walking in the brunt bamboo field

Let’s go check out the ginger field!

This is the tree that was guarding a ginger field.
All the gingers were gone, dug out from the ground.
Perhaps it was harvested?

Same tree from October, 2020.

How it used to be a lush ginger field.

JD’s delicate artsy photo

Boys’ fun

He said this was a motion shot but I couldn’t recognize the flying dust at first. (讓他帥一下好了)

Second day

Louis, Sara and Wanyu came join us.
Louis even brought a drone to capture the scenery.
This is my first time seeing the cabin from an aerial view.
The black parts are where bamboos were harvested and burned afterwards.

This is our fairy friend, Kun.
Hello, nice to meet you.

Group Walkies.

We were going to a waterfall but accidentally walked into a private owned campground,
which is the same name as the waterfall.
We missed the entrance to waterfall because trees and signs at entrance were cut down.
This pathway was quite beautiful, but the campground owner explained us the direction for too long.
I just couldn’t wait to turn back and visit the waterfall.

After walking back for 10 minutes, we finally entered the right trail and headed to waterfall.

Sara was so excited that she felt the green leaves were illuminating and she was holding a red leaf in her hand already.

Kun’s face said she couldn’t wait for more slippery walks.

Guga had fun seeing Kun suffer.

Louis looked fascinated in deep forest.

Wanyu was agile like a monkey with all her arms and legs.

Everyone was not intimidated by the rotten bridge at all.

Arriving at waterfall, we climbed onto the big rocks a bit.

Then, sitting in the middle of waterfall with gentle winter sun,

listening to water sound

and watching birds fly for a while.

I was breathing in extra lot,

trying to absorb and breathe in all the goodness.

After walking all the way down to waterfall,
it’s time to walk all the way up back to cabin.

Me: We are almost at entrance.
(5 minutes later…)
Me: Sorry, I lied. There’s still a long way to go.
Kun: It’s ok. I already lost faith in you.
(Zero sense of direction in me)

Back at cabin

After everyone recovered a bit from the walk,
it was time to set up our tents.
But we needed to put away this huge tarp that the other group were using before us.
This tarp belongs to parents and their friends.
It was a ridiculous mission to put it back.
I tried to help but I only made it worse.
Thank god I had friends who could help.
I really think it’s not necessary to use a tarp that blocks beautiful sky when it’s not raining.

Within 30 minutes, everyone set up their cozy room for the night.

I think Kun’s excited… about the hotpot tonight.

Before dinner, let’s sit tight and enjoy sunset first!
JD only cares about his new ax and looking at it with love.

Literally, no joke.

Kun + Wine = Heaven

Let me show you more what heaven looks like.

Drone pics by Louis <3

I always feel in heaven when Guga and Kun in kitchen.

South African boy knows the fire.
but he still used tinder to light the fire.

He said he didn’t need tinder at beginning,
but asked for tinders in my pocket in the end.
I’m glad he did.
That’s how we met.

Snow Moon

It was only one day away from full moon.
The orange moonlight was so bright that you couldn’t see many stars.

Everyone makes unique fire.
Everyone’s fire art looks so different.

Deep and dark time

At the end of the night, Wanyu reminded us to reflect on the real meaning of 228. We now normally know it as a national holiday, an extra day off that only exists in Taiwan. We forget to take a few seconds to appreciate what we have in Taiwan now.

After WW2, Taiwan was given back to Republic of China (ROC) when Japan surrendered to the Allies. After 50 years of Japanese colonial rule, intentional separation from mainland China and Japanese education, Taiwanese people had become hugely different from people in mainland China and couldn’t stand high-handed and corrupted KMT government. Compared to Japanese government’s efficiency, KMT government was useless, doing all the illegal things, including arbitrary seizure of private property, economic mismanagement, rapes, random shootings and exclusion from political participation. KMT government was busy dealing with inland problems and not having much energy to deal with the problems in Taiwan, so they just wanted to suppress voices in Taiwan with repressive martial law.

228 massacre (二二八事件) was an anti-government uprising. The massacre was estimated to be between 5,000 and 28,000. It marked the beginning of the White Terror. Over the span of 38 years of White Terror, tens of thousands of other Taiwanese went missing, died, or were imprisoned, mostly well-educated elites. The incident is one of the most important independence movements in Taiwan's modern history.

It was our unique history that created our freedom and democracy nowadays. Reflecting on 288 makes me think of what’s happening in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, middle east countries and many other Asian countries. Human rights are universal, but most of the people’s human rights are violated. It breaks my heart and makes me want to protect what we have more. Our freedom and democracy should never be traded or sacrificed for anything else. They are more than money. Money can’t buy freedom and creativity.

These are just my thoughts.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Share this with someone who might enjoy it!
Looking forward to hearing from you.
I will see you again next time.

Photography: Kun, Guga, Wanyu, Sara, Louis, J-D
Editing: Tricia