Nongdaoren 农岛人

I shall never forget the day when the province officials came and declared we were to be moved from the island. My father along with other farmers refused to move, which led to the government sent the military to force us to move. Because of my fathers rebellious actions against the relocation, he was sent to prison with the other farmers.

— Wei Chen

Related Locations

• Nongdao 农岛

The Nongdaoren 农岛人 originates from Nongdao 农岛, a small island between two mountain islands. The island has only one settlement of same name, and has always been a farming island. For the people, the outside world only existed when it was presented to them, or when the occasional island bumping happened, where visitors from nearby islands comes for a visit. The only time anyone was leaving the island was either by island bumping or if someone could afford taking the hot air balloons or Qibolin 齐柏林.

While being a small island with a population little short of 200, it still had a school so most Nongdaoren 农岛人 has basic education. At the time of harvest and sowing the wheat, Nongdaoren would be busy with religious ceremonies and rituals to make sure the harvest will be bountiful.

One of the rituals is the tulongbao 兔笼包, that with its name means to protect the earthen dragon, and a serving is sacrificed to the earthen dragon in order for the dragon to bless the crops. The tulongbao 兔笼包 is a steamed bun with rabbit meat. Rabbit and earth can sound similar, while the casket in which the dumplings are steamed in, sounds similar to dragon, and the word for bun sounds similar to protect. It is during these ceremonies that the entire village comes together to eat dinner and celebrate their work in the fields.

After the government issued the relocation of Nongdaoren 农岛人, many were suddenly displaced in islands they had never even seen before. Many were not transferred to the same island, some were sent to a settlement just outside Shangyun 上云, and others to a small refugee settlement on Zhengzhidao 政治岛, where many other refugees from either other displaced island population had been moved to, or the ones that had survived the falling islands catastrophe.

With these many refugees and the lack of food due to the Famine in the north, where Zhengzhidao 政治岛 is situated, the local food tradition of Nongdao 农岛 has been impossible to maintain.