TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 66-year-old Chen Chin-fa (陳金發) is a familiar sight to many as he leads his ox at dawn along Provincial Highway 11 to plow farmland near an Air Force base in Taitung City.
Chen said he prefers working with oxen instead of gas-powered farm machinery. This is why he purchased an ox to pull a cart and plow fields eight years ago for NT$120,000 (US$3,750). During their years together, the farmer and his ox work silently, relying on the tug of a rope for communication, per UDN.
Whenever there is a noise, mostly tourists asking him for a photo he obliges. When they ask him the name of his ox, he tells them his ox is “nameless,” as he feared giving it a name would draw him closer to his beast, making it more difficult for him to command it to work.
Chen keeps his ox well-fed, clean, and clad in shoes made from hemp rope whenever it walks along the highway.
Tourists think the shoes are to protect the ox from hot asphalt, but Chen says he and his ox typically leave for work when the sun is still low on the horizon and the temperature is still cool. When it’s too hot in summer, both Chen and his ox rest in the cool shade of a shelter and leave work for another day.
Chen and his ox both have a gentle demeanor, representing a bygone, unhurried era. Another ox in nearby Beinan Township travels to the fields in the back of a truck, per the China Times.
Chen says oxen like his were once in abundance in Taitung County. Such oxen are more durable than water buffaloes, which need streams and standing water to cool them off in the hot summer.
When their work is done each day, the farmer and his ox walk silently back along Provincial Highway 11. The only disturbance is tourists looking back upon a quieter way of life.