海角大神

Taiwanese trade higher pay and secure jobs for slower lifestyle

The flight to rural regions mirrors a trend that began a decade ago in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Last year some 157,000 people left Taipei, the island鈥檚 biggest city and major job market. 

Kao Yao-wei was living in Taiwan鈥檚 dense capital of 2.6 million people and decided one day after 15 years to get out. He and his wife had discovered a smaller city, Tainan, while doing research for a book.

They left Taipei in 2010 and set up a crafts store with a Chinese-style book-signing ceremony room in an old touristy neighborhood on a third of the capital鈥檚 rents.

鈥淚t鈥檚 easier to live here,鈥� says Mr. Kao, formerly a mobile content developer鈥檚 assistant. 鈥淚n Taipei, everyone鈥檚 so competitive that they鈥檙e unhappy. It would be tougher to open a store in Taipei. It would be expensive and it might be hard even to find a space.鈥�

Kao鈥檚 story is becoming Taiwan鈥檚. In most of Asia, from Bangkok to Beijing, big cities pack people in from smaller ones to vie for the best paid jobs, despite high property prices and distance from extended families. In Taiwan, for most of the past century the thing to do was migrate to Taipei.

But Taiwanese are now trading Taipei鈥檚 higher pay and secure day jobs for less stressful, more personally rewarding careers in music, coffee brewing, guesthouse management, or ecologically friendly farming.

鈥淭he trend reflects a lifestyle choice, and increasingly, a business decision,鈥� says Wai Ho Leong, regional economist with Barclays Capital in Singapore.

Downshifting

About 166,000 people moved last year to Taipei, the island鈥檚 biggest city and major job market, while just 157,000 left, official statistics show. Numbers of inbound and outbound residents were roughly equal for the past decade.

Although statistics do not portray an exodus, government-run Panorama magazine notes a flight toward rural regions that began a decade ago in line with movements in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand to 鈥渄ownshift鈥� and permanently withdraw from high-stress urban living.

鈥淭hese individuals haven鈥檛 failed to 鈥榤ake it鈥� in the city,鈥� the magazine reported. 鈥淚nstead, their desire to get back to the country represents a first step on their path to settling down.鈥�

Today, the co-owner of a guesthouse outside Taroko National Park, known for its vertical canyon walls, comes from Taipei. The man behind a surfer鈥檚 B&B in southern Taiwan national park also once lived in the capital. Eco-farmers on the sparsely populated east coast may easily be 30-somethings escaping Taipei.

In the fishing village of Anping (pop. 64,000), Hsieh Ming-you is a local music celebrity. Mr. Hsieh took 12 years of recording studio experience in Taipei to his native Anping in 2000 so he could produce his own album, instead of engineering other people into stars. He now does concerts and runs a studio.

Hsieh has earned a following from performances, not from celebrity marketing as required in the capital. 鈥淚 know where to save costs and where to spend money,鈥� he says, referring to his experience in Taipei. 鈥淢y biggest wish is not to make a lot of money but that people like my songs.鈥�

Like Hsieh, many post-rat-racers made it after racking up experience in Taipei in their 30s and 40s, then taking it to places with fewer professionals. Kao鈥檚 shop in Tainan grew out of an Internet business that he and his wife had started with clients in the capital, for example.

But downshifters who leave knowledge-based work in Taipei usually must change careers for lack of employers in smaller towns. Income usually drops at first.

鈥淢y father said 鈥榟ow long are you going to play for?鈥� and I said 鈥榞ive me two years and if I haven鈥檛 broken even I鈥檒l quit,鈥欌�� says Juno Wang, a 30-something Taipei designer who relocated back to her native Tainan to open a bicycle tour guide service. 鈥淚 was at a bottleneck in my career. It was time to be a manager and that didn鈥檛 suit me.鈥�

Ms. Wang has broken even and has expanded her business, which offers tourists a new way to see the flat, decongested city of 750,000.

Improving life outside Taipei

She and fellow downshifters are upshifting qualify of life in parts of Taiwan. Island-wide, the number of rural guesthouses increased from 3,200 to 3,774 over the year ending in February. Some of the operators left Taipei to set them up, adding income to moribund small towns near scenic spots. Foreign instructors have come to help develop Taiwan鈥檚 embryonic eco-farming.

Those who relocate also may face poorer-quality health care and children鈥檚 education outside Taipei, says Ma Tieying, an economist with DBS in Singapore. For that reason Taiwan鈥檚 chief opposition presidential candidate took up their cause during her 2011-12 campaign, advocating that the government downshift some resources.

But average housing prices in Taipei are 13.1 times annual household incomes, about twice the ratio for Taiwan鈥檚 second and third biggest cities. In Taipei neighbors don鈥檛 always exchange greetings, either.

鈥淚n a coffee shop you can meet a stranger and be friends right off,鈥� says Cheng I-chia, another 30-something, who opened a cafe in Tainan two years ago after selling clothes in Taipei. 鈥淚n Taipei people go their separate ways.鈥�