The document describes a proposed project to connect younger generations in Taiwan with elders and farming traditions. As Taiwan industrialized, many children grew up disconnected from farming practices. The project aims to use online games popular with teenagers to teach basic farming knowledge and motivate them to participate in real-life farming with elders. This experience would give children a deeper connection to elders and their homeland in an effort to preserve traditions.

1. project report 332011 Asian Smart Living Summer School32
Taiwan transformed from an agrarian society into an industrial one in the 1980s.
Children born in the cities during this time became complete strangers to farming.
As a result, they experienced a generation gap between themselves and their
grandparents who spent most of their life farming. This is the reason why the
younger generation rarely has a sense of belonging to their hometowns, land and
culture. Based on this phenomenon, we hope to create a bridge that connects
children or teenagers to the elders. Using online games that are highly attractive
among teenagers to trigger motivation and interest, the games will allow
teenagers to understand basic farming knowledge. The game-playing experience
will then transform into a real-life version so that the children or teenagers could
join the elders farming, working and harvesting. This experience will give children
and teenagers a deep connection to their elders and to their homeland.
1. How to use tradition to allow young ones to learn from the elders.
2. How to make the young ones identify with their hometowns and want to
learn from the wisdom of the elders (tradition).
3. How to connect the young ones with elders and with the land.
Co-farming
Mentor / Jong Ho Lee (Korea)
Coach / Mia Chang (Taiwan)
Mentoring Assistant / Ching Wen Peng (Taiwan)
Team members / Tom Hsueh (Taiwan), Sang Lin Huang (Taiwan),
Hwa Shin Lee (Korea), Janna RanTanen (Finland) & Angela Tay (Singapore)
TEAM22011 ASIAN SMART LIVING SUMMER SCHOOL

2. project report 352011 Asian Smart Living Summer School34
DEFINE
After finishing the three-day immersion tour,
we wrote what we observed and what we
thought on post-its to be shared with the
group. We answered questions, such as: What
would the Neverland be like for these people?
Please describe in different adjectives.
Another example was: Did anything you saw
or experience over these three days come close to your idea of a Neverland? How
so? After this exercise, we used an Empathy Map to write down our perspectives
on the subject we were most interested in using the categories of see, hear, do,
feel, pain and gain. All the results were collected and combined with other post-its
for the next step.
In one question after another, we gradually
narrowed down our thinking to reach a
preliminary consensus and to make groupings
from the bottom up. We then used voting by
giving one person three votes to choose the
issue we found most important or interesting.
We endeavored to describe and explain our
decisions in order for us to reach a consensus. Next, we used the decided-upon
issue for everyone to write down the POV (point of view) they were interested in.
At this point, we decided that the topic we wanted to focus on would be“tradition”,
and specifically how to bring about a connection in the younger generation
to their to hometowns, the land, and to the elders. Ultimately, we wanted the
younger generation to spontaneously carry on the fruits of the elders’wisdom.
On the first day of the discovery tour, we were
given a half-day Zen experience at Dharma
Drum Mountain that brought balance to
our bodies, minds, and souls. It also taught
us how to experience the wonderful feeling
of Zen in our daily lives. On the second day,
we spent the delightful day with residents
of Yishanli, not far from Dharma Drum Mountain. We farmed, dined and studied
together with the elders of the community. The residents there were deeply
connected with each other and the land. On the third day we went to Xinpu in
Hsinchu to explore the remnants of a town that was once very prosperous. We
learned that the persimmons grown there could not only be used in cooking, but
also used in dyeing cloth. It was an enlightening experience.
DISCOVER

3. project report 372011 Asian Smart Living Summer School36
“Tradition”is a very big topic, especially when
students are from different countries, different
fields, and with different academic and
professional directions. As such, we decided
to work from our observations of the three-
day immersion tour to find an event we all
experienced to use as common ground. Before long, we decided to focus on the
one-day experience in Yishanli. Though Yishanli is a lauded and carefree village,
we only saw elders in the community and farms with no the younger people.
How could we let the young people passionately identify and connect with their
hometown and not want to escape to the cities?
First, we must arouse their interest. To accomplish this, we used an online game
combined with the concept of the most popular Facebook game“Happy Farm”.
This not only would interest the young people but also help them learn the rich
farming heritage. After reaching a certain level, they could then advance to the
“reality game”which would entail farming and harvesting with the elders. We
believe that once the young people went through the experience, they would be
interested in farming and would have a deep connection to the elders.
Here, we had to establish the rules for the online game and reality game, create
the conceptual model, and use role-play to depict the procedures of using the
conceptual model. During the production process, we had to make sure nothing
was left out at each step or if anything was illogical or could be improved.
DEVELOP
DELIVER

4. ROLE PLAY
SERVICE VALUE
SCENARIO
A project between children and elderly communities!
Key words: Interaction, Bridging Generations,
Environment, Organic
Put your seeds into the soil.
Once the seed is ready, let's go
to the farm!
Let it grow for 3 weeks and,
Play "Angry Farmer"!
Put planter box into the soil.
Pack the soil and water the
plant.
Let's go to the farm to plough
the field.
Come back regularly to the
farm to visit us!
Harvest time! Prepare and cook
traditional dishes with your
elderly farmers!
Learn to respect
Give chance to
experience
Have interest
Learing Fun
CONCEPT
Co-farming as a Service - connecting elders and kids.
The system is a service we provide to school
kids as a learning tool so that children can
learn and Interact with elders. It can bring
the younger generation into the community,
closer to the elders, and understand their
ulture.
OLD NEW
LINK
FINAL
PRESENTATION