00:00Life in Jiayi County relies on water.
00:08It nurtures the verdant forests and thriving tea fields.
00:12But too much water can also bring destruction,
00:15like the typhoon rains that washed out the rail tracks on Alishan.
00:20Fortunately, Jiayi County has a solution,
00:23the Zhengwen Reservoir.
00:25At 17 square kilometers,
00:27this is Taiwan's largest body of water.
00:30It not only helps tame the floods,
00:32it also irrigates fields and powers homes.
00:36Today, it's an ecotourism hotspot.
00:39Visitors can catch fish and feed them to black kites.
00:43And on a tiny island, you can witness a curious spectacle.
00:57What's so special about it?
00:58You only need to play a song by Princess Ye Wei Mian
01:02for it to come out.
01:10You play a little Pavarotti, the pigs come running,
01:13you feed the pigs, they're happy.
01:16We're happy, we take pictures.
01:19Unique.
01:20Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
01:25When the government built the reservoir in the 1970s,
01:28they put restrictions in place to protect the water.
01:31Nearby residents had to stop farming
01:34and were forced off their land.
01:36But former village chief Wu Yihao
01:38came up with a unique idea to revitalize his community
01:42and put to use some of the hundreds of thousands
01:45of tons of driftwood brought by Typhoon Moorkot.
01:49When I hear that sound, I feel like I've found my soul.
01:53I feel like if there's music here,
01:56if there's a melody,
01:58I think it's beautiful.
02:00But how do you continue the beauty?
02:02I thought about it and I wanted to make a zither.
02:12What do you think of our zither?
02:14We made a zither with driftwood.
02:16I can't tell it's driftwood.
02:18It feels like it's from a shop.
02:23The art of making violins originated in Italy in the 1500s.
02:27But a group of about 20 people, led by a skilled artisan,
02:31is lovingly crafting them here on the shores of Tseng Wen Reservoir
02:35and infusing them with the sounds of Taiwan.
02:38We use local wood.
02:41Taiwan has a rich variety of wood.
02:47In other countries, for example,
02:50we use cloud mountains.
02:52Cloud mountains are also found in Taiwan.
02:54Since we've brought a good craftsmanship from the West here,
02:58I believe that with the accumulation of time,
03:01we can continue to produce,
03:03and I think we can create more unique cultures
03:07that belong to Taiwan.
03:11The villagers aren't just learning how to make the violins,
03:14they're learning how to play them, too.
03:16And that's inspired others from near and far
03:19to embrace this shared musical dream.
03:2274-year-old Zhang Yongbao is from nearby Tainan City.
03:26He moved to the village expressly to learn how to make and play the violin.
03:31You have to learn it slowly by yourself.
03:36It's like taking care of your own child.
03:40When you can play the violin,
03:44it really feels different.
03:47The impact of the violins is resonating beyond the instruments
03:51and the people who make them.
03:53The former village chief has turned the community center into a hub
03:57where visitors can enjoy music and play the violin.
04:01It's also encouraging more young people to return to their hometown.
04:32It's hard to imagine that these instruments were created from driftwood
04:36that washed down from the mountains because of a storm.
04:39But it's not just about the music,
04:42it's about the community that they're building with these
04:45and about how it's helping them to reimagine the future.
04:48The village is so proud of its violin makers
04:51that they hold an annual music festival on the banks of the reservoir
04:55to showcase their talents.
04:57And they've designed a museum
04:59to display hundreds of instruments made right here in Dapu village
05:03and the stories of the people who made them.
05:06Devon Tsai, Joseph Wu, Peachy Zhuang, and Andrew Ryan for Taiwan Plus.
05:11Coming up in Part 5 of our trip to Jiayi County,
05:15we visit the world's largest structure shaped like a high-heeled shoe.
05:19What's it doing glamming up rural Taiwan?
05:22We'll have the answers in our series finale.
05:29.
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