Tonghua season

We are just coming out of the tonghua season.  The tonghua, or paulownia, is the flower of a tree which grows in the mountains outside of Hsinchu.  The paulownia produces great wood and this was why the Japanese planted the trees during the colonial period.  The tree is actually pretty unassuming except for during a few exceptional weeks in the spring when it comes out in cascades of flowers which turn entire mountain sides white.  When the petals fall to the ground it looks like it’s been snowing.

The tonghua has special importance to the Hakka people.  The Hakka are Han Chinese but they speak their own distinct language and they have a unique history.  Hakka means “guest” and the Hakka are travellers.  They have spread out over large areas in southern China; they live in Hong Kong, in Canada, and all the butchers and tanners in Calcutta, India, are Hakka.  Hsinchu and surrounding areas too are predominantly Hakka.

When the Hakka people first came to Taiwan only the worst pieces of land were available to them.  Many of them ended up in the mountains, working in the Japanese-run forest industry.  Their lives were hard and they were considerably poorer than the regular Taiwanese.  In the spring, however, the tonghua trees took pity on the woodcutters and their families, showering them in flower petals.  The flowers inspired poetry, but also hope and a sense of resistance. The powers of flowers.