台湾小农经济的现代变迁：一个关于东势水果经济的个案研究

Abstract

For half a century the rapid growth of a fruit economy has been a major feature of Taiwan’s countryside. However, its importance has been overlooked in the mainstream narrative of rural history, which focuses on rice. This case study of Dongshi shows that peasants quit planting rice and turned to crops with higher market value, like fruit, not necessarily because they sought higher profits, but rather because of the pressure of long-term poverty, which forced peasants to change crops to increase family income. I call this transition “making a living through commercialization.” From this perspective, commercialization has helped peasants avoid proletarianization. Because of their presumption that it is difficult for a traditional peasant economy to survive in modern capitalist society, neither modernization theory nor dependency theory can adequately explain why Taiwan’s peasant economy has been able to progress toward such a lively, diverse fruit economy. Combining a historical sociology perspective with ethnography, this article focuses on the historical experience of Dongshi—a famous fruit-producing area—and analyzes how cultural emotions and community factors affected peasants’ economic choice of “changing to a different type of crop.” This article points out that the rise of the Dongshi fruit economy is not a question of enterprization, but rather is the outcome of the interaction of familial responsibilities, grassroots social networks, and other social and cultural conditions inherent in the peasant economy. 水果经济的高速扩张，是台湾农村近半世纪以来的显着特征，然而在以稻农为叙事中心的主流农村史中，果农的重要性被严重低估了。由于预设传统的小农经济难以适应资本主义变迁，无论是现代化理论还是依赖理论，都无法妥善解释为何台湾的小农经济能够催生出活泼的多样性水果经济。本文希望结合历史社会学视野和田野民族志研究，聚焦台湾知名水果产区东势的历史经验，探究文化情感和社区等因素如何左右了农民“转作”的经济经济选择。东势的经验显示，农民放弃稻米而转作市场价格更高的水果，不一定是为了追逐更高的利润，也可能是在农村贫穷化的长期趋势下，被迫以商品化的手段提高家庭收入。我称这个过程为“谋生型商品化”。就这个层次而言，农村商品化程度的提高反而避免了农村的无产化。本文希望指出，东势水果经济的崛起不是某种农村企业化的转化，而是小农经济在家庭责任、草根人情网络等农村固有的社会文化条件交互作用的产物。 (This article is in English.)