Chen Wen-yu (陳文郁), supplier of nearly 25 percent of the world’s watermelon seeds, died on Dec. 7 at the age of 88.
A funeral service for Chen, who developed the world’s first seedless watermelon in 1962, is scheduled to be held tomorrow in Greater Kaohsiung.
Chen earned the name the “Watermelon King” because he produced more than 200 varieties of watermelons during his 44-plus years in the business.
Photo: Hsieh Wen-hua, Taipei Times
“My goal is to create the world’s most delicious watermelon,” he once said. “If you taste such a watermelon, you will not seek other watermelons.”
Born and raised in a rural village in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康), Chen was very aware of the hardship farmers experienced and decided when he was 14 that he would study agricultural technology to help improve farmers’ lives.
With funding from the US Agency for International Development, he pursued advanced studies in horticulture at Chiba University in Japan. He later returned to Taiwan and founded the Kaohsiung-based Known-You Seed Co with his friends in 1968.
The name “Known-You” can be transliterated as “friends of farmers” in Mandarin.
Chen’s company focuses on developing new varieties of watermelon seeds, but has also created more than 500 new vegetable and flower varieties.
“It takes good seedlings to produce good varieties. We provide farmers with good seeds to help them reap better harvests,” he said.
These seeds “are provided to farmers in Taiwan and around the world,” the company said in a statement after Chen’s death.
The company has a seedling farm in the US and branch offices in China, India and several Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Thailand.
Chen also set up a foundation to help improve local farmers’ welfare and funded the establishment of a hospital in Myanmar to provide free medical services for farmers there.
In recognition of Chen’s contributions to agriculture and farmers’ welfare, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last year conferred on him the Order of Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon.
Chen was also featured on the Discovery Channel in 2006 as one of six most influential Taiwanese.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS