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Immigrant farmer grows top-grade grapes and gives tours of Taiwan
Now for a spotlight on an immigrant farmer who is also a consummate tour guide. Duong Hue has been growing top-grade grapes in Miaoli’s Zhuolan Township for over 20 years. She gave us a tour of the farm and talked through the finer points of growing this tricky fruit. And we also got to see her in action as a tour guide. She loves to introduce Taiwan, her adopted home, to visitors from abroad. Their most memorable impression, she says, is always the warmth and friendliness of the Taiwanese people.
The paper bags hanging from these grape vines hide full and juicy purple grapes, so dark they seem to glitter. Grape farmer Duong Hue picks the giant fruit with care, mindful not to damage her soft and squishy harvest.
Duong Hue
Grape farmer
We look at the color. Darker grapes will be sweeter and ready to pick.
Grape farming is a complex process, from breeding the seeds, to trimming and grafting the vines.
Duong Hue
Grape farmer
Everything is hard work with the grapes. Because firstly, you’re always in the sun, about 12 to 13 hours a day. And that’s not all – your head is in the sun all the time, and your neck and your whole body get so achy. So you have to adjust to it.
When the grapes have been picked, they need to be hand-sorted, and the blemished fruit cut off one by one. The grapes are laid out in rows according to their color and size, to be classed and finally boxed up.
Duong Hue
Grape farmer
Grapes should be large and dark, and have some hardness, to have a better texture.
Duong’s grapes are very popular. But during the pandemic, she nevertheless gave away more than 300 boxes of grapes to five different medical institutions, as a way to express her gratitude toward frontline medical workers.
And she’s visited all of Taiwan’s most photogenic spots, not just for leisure, but also in her role as a tour guide.
Duong Hue
Grape farmer
What people see is the friendliness of Taiwanese people. Taiwan has class, and a really good heart. These are the sorts of reasons that people love to come to Taiwan, from other countries, not just from Vietnam. What’s fun about being a tour guide is serving the clients, and when they’re happy, you’re promoting Taiwan’s history and culture to other people, so they know how great Taiwan really is, how wonderful it is, because the environment is so clean.
Duong has been watering good seeds for many years, both the seeds in the ground of Miaoli, and also seeds of cross-cultural understanding and friendship between Taiwan and the world.
This story was provided by the program "We Are Family"
Funded by New Immigrant Development Fund
For more Taiwan news, tune in:
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2023-11-15
