Many years ago, Taiwanese singer and composer Lin Sheng Xiang, who hails from Meinong, wrote the song “After a long time a strange place becomes home”. It was intended for the immigrant women in his hometown who were learning Chinese in literacy courses. The lyrics describe the emotions and inner struggles of Southeast Asian women who leave their home country to make a living in a strange place abroad.

Lê Thị Ngọc Ân recalls how scared and panicked she was back then when Lin asked her to perform the song in Chinese at its debut. “I had just arrived in Taiwan, was just beginning to learn Chinese. I just couldn’t memorize the lyrics, it was so hard,” she says smiling.

Very much like described in the song, Lê was constantly asking herself where she could have a future. She did odd jobs wherever she could find one to support her family. But when her husband died suddenly four years ago, she decided to go for it and rented a plot of land with a business partner to grow water snowflake and be her own boss.

Lê Thị Ngọc Ân (Right) (Source: Chien-Ying Chiu)

From temporary jobs to starting a business

Meanwhile, Lê has rented or manages land of more than 10 jia (about 97 hectares) where she grows water snowflake in ponds. Her farm ships 270 kilograms of produce per day to the market. Despite being the boss, Lê still works hard more than 10 hours a day, planting new water snowflake, washing, and cleaning the harvested green stems.

Over the past two decades, tens of thousands of Southeast Asian women, mainly from Vietnam, have married Taiwanese men in rural areas where they have become pillars of the local society. They do not only take care of their own families and actively participate in village life but also often create new opportunities in depopulated, over-aged rural communities.

Chung Ching-hui, secretary general of the Meinong Farmers’ Association, has noticed that virtually all so-called “millionaire farmers”, meaning those with an annual revenue of more than NT$1 million (US$32,000), are immigrants from Southeast Asia. “If it wasn’t for these hard-working new immigrants, farming, especially water snowflake, would hardly be feasible.” In Taiwan, which has seen several waves of immigration in its history, people who arrived legally after 1987 to marry a Taiwanese spouse, mainly women from China and Southeast Asia, are called “new” immigrants.

Water snowflakes, a high-priced vegetable that is mostly planted by new immigrants and foreign labors. (Source: Chien-Ying Chiu)

Statistics by the Meinong Farmers’ Association show that more than 90 percent of water snowflake grown in Taiwan is produced in Meinong. With an area of 200 hectares under cultivation, the annual production value stands at NT$300 million.

Chang Cheng-yang, principal of Chi-Mai Community University in Meinong, has observed the local waters snowflake business for quite some time. The aquatic plant with the tiny white flowers, whose scientific name is Nymphoides hydrophylla, used to grow in the wild in Meinong’s Chungcheng Lake. In the 1970s Chung Hua-chen, a local farmer, remembered that he had seen people harvest the stems of the plant for food when he was a child. That inspired him to dig ponds to grow water snowflake commercially. Meanwhile, the domesticated wild vegetable has become a staple in Meinong’s Hakka cuisine and is eaten across Taiwan.

At an average price of NT$100 per kilo, water snowflake fetches a comparably high price which can rise to NT$300 during the Lunar New Year season. The farmers’ association’s Chung explains that at least one worker is necessary to tend to one hectare of water snowflake fields. With 200 hectares under cultivation, a total of 200 farm workers would be needed to meet demand.

But under current hiring rules, the farmers’ association can only hire 40 agricultural workers from abroad, a quota that is far below the number needed to alleviate the labor shortage. Applications must be filed via the Council of Agriculture which then must seek approval from the Ministry of Labor. 

Lê Ba Hạnh grows water snowflake and sells seafood

Why is finding workers so difficult given that water snowflake is such a cash crop? Huang Tzu-wei, the man in charge at Han’en Farm, is familiar with the situation. "The technical threshold in water snowflake cultivation is not high. But since planting and harvesting cannot be mechanized you depend completely on manual labor. The Taiwanese are not willing to work at least ten hours a day,” notes Huang.

For migrant workers the situation is different. They work hard three to five years, saving up money, and then return to their home countries to buy land and build a house. They are very motivated because they have set a clear goal for themselves.

Huang’s wife is Lê Ba Hạnh from Vietnam, whom he met years ago as a coworker when they were harvesting water snowflake side by side. The couple raised more than NT$50,000 to start their own business from scratch. Today they have about 85 hectares under cultivation, shipping 480 kg of water snowflake to the wholesale market every day.

Lê who is from Vietnam’s coastal Bạc Liêu province clearly sees the vegetable’s economic value. She notes that water snowflake guarantees a steady production since it can be grown and harvested year-round. Workers make NT$1800 per day which is an attractive wage for new immigrants and migrant workers alike.

Lê uses her personal connection in the Vietnamese community to recruit people back home in Vietnam, bringing them legally to Taiwan with the help of the farmers’ association. This has helped stabilize the workforce on her farm.

She has also established a second company which trades in seafood from Vietnam and provides shrimp fry for the aquaculture sector.

Lieha Phang makes NT$60,000 per week with cherry tomatoes

Phang whose ancestors are Hakka people from China’s southern Guangdong Province came to Meinong from Belitung Island in Indonesia in 1994 when she married into a Meinong farmer family. Phang speaks Chinese fluently. After her marriage she helped her mother-in-law work in the fields, but the farming income was just enough to get by so that they were not able to accumulate any savings.

Therefore, Phang began to grow orange grape tomatoes 17 years ago. Early on the tomatoes did not grow well and were affected by disease. But Phang got herself expert advice and continued to refine her cultivation methods. She usually gets up at 4 a.m.  and finishes work at noon.

Phang works an area of around 500 square meters, producing 6,000 to 12,000 kg of orange grape tomatoes annually. Since she cooperates with individual stall owners at the fruit and vegetable wholesale market, she enjoys a stable income.

“When the harvest is good, I make NT$50,000 to NT$60,000 per week. We can live an entire year on the income from six months of work. As long as we grow tomatoes all get sold,” she says excitedly. She is proud that her tomato business enabled her to raise three kids.

When the first Southeast Asian women immigrants arrived in Meinong some 20 years ago, the locals were not enthusiastic about the newcomers, worrying that they would become a burden on society.

Lieha Phang. (Source: Chien-Ying Chiu)

New immigrants boost Taiwan’s agricultural output

Meanwhile, these entrepreneurial women have proven that they are quite the opposite. They have children, helping to boost Taiwan’s chronically low birthrate and rejuvenating over-aged villages. Open to new ventures and alert to new trends, they save up money to invest in technology. They use their social capital wisely, building trade relations and people-to-people contacts with their home countries. And their agricultural startups are behind Meinong’s success as Taiwan’s major water snowflake cultivation area.

Aside from being mothers, wives, and daughters-in-law, Lê Thị Ngọc , Lieha Phang and Lê Ba Hạnh are first of all indispensable members of Taiwanese society.

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Translated by Susanne Ganz
Uploaded by Ian Huang