For each of dozens of trees there are tons of interesting stories, facts, references, from indigenous uses of leaves and flowers to chemical composition and on to new research into medicinal applications. My job was to absorb this very dense information and to create a story out of it that I could convincingly tell in my own words. Obviously I left out all the complicated chemical-aromatic details: some terms I would not even be able to remember… I am also not very good at memorising the long list of diseases that the leaves, fruits, bark etc. of these trees could cure (remember, it is ‘healing island!’ written by an aromatherapist).

That meant I had to look for additional material to talk about. It was fascinating to dive deeper into the local cultural stories, and learn how important plants have always been for the indigenous people of Taiwan such as the Bunun, Paiwan and Atayal. There are accounts of Dutch colonisers of 400 years ago and of the mainland Chinese pirates and officials soon after; of scientists that worked on the determination of species and gave them names throughout the centuries; of course there is the Han people that became the dominant population and brought their own knowledge and customs; I read riveting stories of British and Canadian explorers and missionaries, like the book by George Mackay, who is well-known locally; not to forget Japanese anthropologists and botanists who pushed Taiwan into the modern times, but then also took away so much of the indigenous peoples (land, rights, dignity, customs), just like the Dutch and the Chinese before them. Through the lens of trees and plants you will see a rich panorama of this island’s botanical, cultural and ethnic variation.

Next week the next two episodes will be broadcast, as far as I know. Then every two weeks two new episodes of a total of 12 will be shown. They will also go online through various channels later on.

Each episode lasts about 10 minutes.

Link to the Taiwan Plus day-to-day programming:

For Chinese readers/speakers: