Planning for Shanlin

Kaohsiung’s Shanlin District (杉林區) is located in the direction of Xiaolin Village (小林村) on Route 21, bordering Moonlight Mountain (月光山) in Meinong (美濃) District. Shanlin District is not as well-known as the neighboring districts of Meinong, Qishan (旗山), or Jiaxian (甲仙), and following the Morakot disaster, the district was chosen by The Tzu Chi (慈濟) Foundation to build 1000 homes in a permanent housing village; it is this building complex that Shanlin District has become known for in the outside world.

In what was already a deprived area that lacked job opportunities, the loss of land and large population influx brought about by the Morakot disaster has made it even tougher for local people to make ends meet. Originally, squash was the main agricultural crop in the district, and so a group of residents decided to promote ‘gourd art’ as a way of raising the reputation of Shanlin District.

The advantage of the idea is that locals can continue growing gourds and other squash varieties, while at the same time creating new job opportunities in gourd processing and preparation work. In addition to gourd art pieces having a higher market value, plain gourds that used to sell for NT$20-30 can now fetch NT$50-100 when dried - gourd art work can fetch anything up to NT$300,000.

Planning for Shanlin
URL:https://www.peopo.org/news/220887

(以下是中文對照)
打響杉林

高雄市杉林區，位於通往小林村的台21線上，與南邊的美濃隔著一座月光山，名氣遠不如緊鄰的美濃、旗山、甲仙，八八風災後，慈濟在杉林興建一千多戶永久屋，反而成為杉林給人們的印象。原本就十分貧脊、缺乏工作機會的杉林，面對遇上莫拉克失去土地而遷入的大量人口，必須更努力生存下去。杉林本以種瓜果類農作為主，有居民希望推廣葫蘆(葫瓜)藝術，來打響杉林的名號。好處是可讓農民繼續種植葫瓜等農產品，材料處理需要幫手，也可創造就業機會，加上藝術品的高附加價值，一個葫瓜賣到市場上大概20塊到30塊，可是處理成乾果的時候，變成50塊，2、300塊不等，到藝術創作之後，甚至有作品賣到30萬。