The following story came from Mr. Hung, an organic fruit farmer near the Huei-Sun NCHU Experimental Forestry. Although the truth of the story still needs to be verified, it was entertaining and well-told. So, I decide to share this story with the readers.
Originally, the Hakka meant to plant Ka-Tang tree 茄苳 (Bischofia javanica Blume) not the Wu-Tong tree 梧桐 (or Phoenix tree, Firmiana simplex). Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree is a trophy-like tree because of its excellent wood quality for making furniture. It was said that if a family grows just one Ka-Tang tree, the family can marry a daughter with a complete set of dowry made of the wood of the Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree.
The Hakka ends up planting Wu-Tong 梧桐 tree instead, thinking that the wood in Wu-Tong 梧桐 tree is similar to that in Ka-Tang 茄苳tree. They planted Wu-Tong trees not just few locations, but the whole Miao-Li County, the mountain range in Taichung County and part of the mountain range of the Chang-Hua County. It turns up the wood quality of the Wu-Tong 梧桐tree is far inferior to that of the Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree. According to Mr. Hung, Wu-Tong 梧桐 tree is good only for farming the mushroom.
The Hakka blames the mistakes to the Japanese technicians. However, if the story ends up here, it is not interesting. The Hakka did finally discover that the Wu-Tong tree grows beautiful white flowers. In April, those flowers fall and covering the ground with the snow-white color. The Hakka finally discover a money making machine in those seemingly useless trees. Every year in March and April, there was big promotion for the so-called Tung Blossom Festival 客家桐花祭that attracts million of tourists.
I was in one the festivals at San-Yi village in early May. There, I have seen thousands of Japanese tourists.
P.S. In writing this story, I also got the help from Ms. Yachi Huang of NCHU organic farm market. She helped me find information on the Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree.
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