Taiwan Farming Households

Reflections of vermilion roof tiles ripple across the still pond, where a figure fishing under an umbrella and a farmer casting a net compose a tranquil vision of rural life beside a village homestead. In its origins, such ponds formed naturally in low-lying lands through years of accumulated rainwater, later becoming symbols of prosperity.

In 1932, Taiwan stood at the threshold of agricultural, industrial, and commercial modernization. Through this work, Chen Cheng-Po gazes back at the transformations of his native agrarian society. Rather than fixating on the horizon, he deliberately centers the curving lines of the pond, drawing the viewer’s attention toward the laboring figures mirrored on its surface. The sweeping curves of swallowtail roof ridges echo the pond’s arc, infusing rhythm into an otherwise serene scene.

The vigorous brushstrokes of trees and grass piles suggest a restless undercurrent. Here, the Confucian tradition of scholarship is placed in harmony with the labor of common folk, revealing a cultural ecology in which knowledge and work, the sacred and the secular, coexist within Taiwan’s rural society.