I was born in Yunlin County, where the number of deaths has exceeded births for 16 consecutive years. The population has been declining since 2008. This reflects a trend where young people, after finishing school, do not stay in Yunlin. Instead, they head to cities like Taipei or Taichung for job opportunities and a more vibrant lifestyle.
A friend of mine faced the dilemma of not finding suitable employment opportunities in her hometown after graduating from university. She hoped to find a job related to her profession in Yunlin County, but job opportunities there were limited. She had to leave her hometown and seek better career prospects in Taipei. Such stories are not uncommon in Yunlin County, as many young people confront similar dilemmas.
Taiwan faces an increasingly severe demographic challenge. The population is concentrated in urban areas, while rural areas are grappling with labor shortages and an aging population.
To tackle the issue, the National Development Council announced the Regional Revitalization Policy in 2019, aiming to encourage proactive thinking at the local level to boost regional industrial development. The goal is to attract younger people back to rural areas, promote internal migration within Taiwan and alleviate the excessive population concentration in cities.
The regional revitalization policy has been in place for six years, and the government has invested a significant amount of money, yet there have been no major results. Most young people still choose to work in cities. Successful projects are highlighted by the government, but more often they have fallen short, and the underlying issues remain unresolved. Why are young people unwilling to return to their hometowns? Is it due to flawed policies, or are there other factors at play?
Policies designed to address immediate social issues tend to be reactive. The current approach is more proactive, focusing on setting goals and a vision for what needs to be accomplished in the coming years. However, these policies still prioritize short-term interests and lack continuity. When a project ends, there is often no one to continue the work. Most rural residents focus on just getting by. The poor do not have the luxury of focusing on regional development.
Autonomous community organizations and enterprises are typically less powerful and have less resources. The government sector tends to have plenty of resources, but often lacks long-term planning and continuity, focusing solely on immediate and achievable goals. Cross-sectoral collaboration remains mostly theoretical and idealistic and is rarely put into practice.
Long-term and sustainable development of a region requires community engagement to be succesful, and complemented by support and assistance from the public sector.
However, issues in Yunlin County have led me to question whether Taiwanese genuinely care about the nation’s welfare. Would young people continue to move away from their hometowns in pursuit of higher salaries and better living conditions? Are the hyped slogans just blueprints that would never be achieved?
What is happening in the private sector is instructive. Corporations prioritize economic development over environmental concerns, resulting in pollution and damage to the environment.
Do Taiwanese sincerely love their homeland, or are they primarily concerned with accumulating wealth over the deeper welfare of the nation? Successful policy implementation might not be sufficient to arrest the decline unless Taiwanese begin to truly value their home.
Before we make the place, we need to love the place.
Wei Jung-shu is a student in the Department of International Affairs at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages.
The government and local industries breathed a sigh of relief after Shin Kong Life Insurance Co last week said it would relinquish surface rights for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) to Nvidia Corp. The US chip-design giant’s plan to expand its local presence will be crucial for Taiwan to safeguard its core role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and to advance the nation’s AI development. The land in dispute is owned by the Taipei City Government, which in 2021 sold the rights to develop and use the two plots of land, codenamed T17 and T18, to the
Taiwan’s first case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed on Tuesday evening at a hog farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), trigging nationwide emergency measures and stripping Taiwan of its status as the only Asian country free of classical swine fever, ASF and foot-and-mouth disease, a certification it received on May 29. The government on Wednesday set up a Central Emergency Operations Center in Taichung and instituted an immediate five-day ban on transporting and slaughtering hogs, and on feeding pigs kitchen waste. The ban was later extended to 15 days, to account for the incubation period of the virus
The ceasefire in the Middle East is a rare cause for celebration in that war-torn region. Hamas has released all of the living hostages it captured on Oct. 7, 2023, regular combat operations have ceased, and Israel has drawn closer to its Arab neighbors. Israel, with crucial support from the United States, has achieved all of this despite concerted efforts from the forces of darkness to prevent it. Hamas, of course, is a longtime client of Iran, which in turn is a client of China. Two years ago, when Hamas invaded Israel — killing 1,200, kidnapping 251, and brutalizing countless others
Art and cultural events are key for a city’s cultivation of soft power and international image, and how politicians engage with them often defines their success. Representative to Austria Liu Suan-yung’s (劉玄詠) conducting performance and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen’s (盧秀燕) show of drumming and the Tainan Jazz Festival demonstrate different outcomes when politics meet culture. While a thoughtful and professional engagement can heighten an event’s status and cultural value, indulging in political theater runs the risk of undermining trust and its reception. During a National Day reception celebration in Austria on Oct. 8, Liu, who was formerly director of the
RSS