Former talent agent Sun Te-jung (孫德榮), who represented boy band 5566 and celebrities such as Show Luo (羅志祥), Ming Dao (明道) and Joe Chen (陳喬恩), has given up the bright lights and has spent the past year farming organic fruit and vegetables, after recovering from a major illness.
Wearing a bamboo hat and a pair of rubber shoes, Sun is up at the crack of dawn every day to plow and weed his “promised land” in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).
“I am a fully qualified farmer now,” he said, adding that the hands that used to foster talent are now caked with dirt.
Photo: Sean Chao, Taipei Times
Sun’s life took a complete turnaround following a serious illness that forced him to close his agency and retire from the entertainment industry.
Sun said he does not miss the scramble for fame and celebrity and prefers the simple and quiet pleasures afforded by the farming life.
“People used to obey me, but now I have to obey the demands of fruits and vegetable cultivation. You cannot negotiate with nature. Nature allows no laziness. Vegetables do not grow well if the plots are not weeded every day, and they over-ripen very quickly if you miss the right time to harvest them,” Sun said.
A batch of carrots grew misshapen because he did not prepare the soil properly and failed to remove all the rocks in the plot, he said.
“Nature is very profound. It told me in this way that I did not work hard enough,” he said.
He used to pride himself on the success of celebrities he helped to stardom, but he is now at his happiest giving away his produce to friends and relatives, he said.
“If I had not been to hell and back, who would believe that my life has become what it is?” he said.
Sun often delivers fresh vegetables to 5566 band member Jason Hsu (許孟哲), whose father has been suffering with cancer for the past 10 years, Sun said.
In return, Hsu often helps out at Sun’s farm and distributes homegrown produce with other band members who also live in Neihu, including Wang Ren-fu (王仁甫) and Tony Sun (孫協志), Sun Te-jung said.
“It’s like going back to ancient times when things were bartered,” Sun Te-jung said.
Other farmers with plots near his farm did not expect him to achieve much at first, betting that he would not last 10 days as a farmer, Sun Te-jung said.
He said he is thankful to sports therapist Chiu Chao-fang (邱召帆) — more commonly known as Master A-pang (阿龐師) — who lent the farmland to him and helped him to turn over a new leaf.
He has come to understand the hard work that farmers do, he said.
“It is very difficult to make a career [out of farming], so it is something I regard as a healthy hobby,” he said.
Although he had a successful career booking shows for artists, “I lose money farming, but I have found friendship and warmth instead,” he said.
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