The East Rift Valley National Scenic Area Administration, Tourism Bureau, MOTC (hereinafter referred to as the Administration), held the “Paddy Field Painting Festival - Harvest Party” at Hualien Dongli Cycling Station (Old Dongli Railway Station) on January 9, 2021, and invited well-known tribal artist Yosifu to create an artwork for the Earth based on the theme, “The Gift from the Mountain”. The making of the field painting started in August 2020, and after nearly half a year of effort, which included arrangement, cultivation, planting seedlings, care, growth and heading, the harvest was celebrated today at the Harvest Party.
The event kicked off with a lively drum performance given by Bloco Força, followed by the traditional ritual practice, “cannon firing in celebration of harvest”, igniting the mood in harvest celebration. The guests and participants were also invited to walk into the paddy field together and wave colorful scarves, transforming the place into a colorful paddy field. Through continuous filming by time-lapse camera, all the participants became part of the growing process of the colorful paddy field. They also had a last glimpse of the magnificent work, “The Gift from the Mountain”, before reaping. An agricultural produce bazaar, DIY activities, clown magic and balloon shows and straw games were also included. The most special activity was “rice threshing”, where the old farmers who planted the rice led the participants into the paddy field to experience reaping and threshing by using a threshing machine. The participants then stored the rice which they painstakingly reaped, into bottles and took home beautiful memories. All the adults and children had a great time during the event.
The Administration held the “Creative Paddy Field Painting Competition: The Gift from the Earth” from November 9th to December 3, 2020, inviting participation by elementary school students from all schools in Taiwan. Differing from traditional drawing competitions, this event limited the use of colors to only 4 (symbolizing 4-color paddy field). The restriction on the use of colors did not limit the children's creativity; instead, it encouraged an unlimited creation of paintings. It received nearly one thousand entries, from which 50 were selected after going through preliminary selection and online voting. During the Harvest Party, visitors voted for the top 5 works in the categories of popularity and creativity, respectively. Paddy artist “Yosifu”, who is based in the United Kingdom, was the judge of the competition. Yosifu said that the theme of the competition, “Creative Drawing”, encouraged the children to unleash their imagination. Hence, he chose the most creative work and awarded it “Yosifu's Special Award”, which was given out by Director Kuo.
