Mid-Ride Jump: From Tango to Cha-Cha: Unexpected Journey in Dulan Farmhouses

Midway Jump: The Tango and Cha-Cha of Dulan Mountain Life

This is not a comfortable pastoral escape, but a spiritual exile—a challenge thrown down against modern alienation, the wilderness, and fate itself. Chiang Kuan-Ming once stood at the forefront of his era, capturing Taiwan's historical turning points through the lens of a documentary director. Yet, after spending the better part of his life caught in the relentless velocity of urban pace and intellectual pursuit, he chose to "jump off midway" through life, resolutely abandoning everything to retreat to Dulan, Taitung. With no safety net and no savings, he threw himself into abandoned farmhouses and collapsing mountain terrain. Armed with nothing more than a chef's knife and an unyielding imagination, he embarked on a survival and creative adventure as tense, rhythmic, and arresting as a tango or a cha-cha.

Structured in seven acts like a profound symphony, the book weaves together physical labor, the brute fury of nature, and existential introspection.

Acts 1–3: Baptism in the Wilderness and the Drifter's Fortress The story opens with a staggering "ruin wager." Facing a landslide-ravaged ruin and altars thick with dust, the author undergoes a brutal physical baptism amid mud and sweat. Pushed to the brink by howling typhoons and debris flows, he fights side by side with his loyal canine companion, staring down the destructive and regenerative forces of nature. From hauling driftwood along the shore to single-handedly constructing his own "Robinson Crusoe castle," this building process is far more than physical construction; it is a total rebellion against material civilization. Woven through these trials are raw, profound dialogues with writer Meng Dongli. By the glow of late-night hearths, amidst the void of desire, they touch upon the most fundamental loneliness of human existence.

Acts 4–7: The Waterway's Veins and the Kitchen Revolution As life settles into a new rhythm, the author faces even harsher trials—scaling sheer cliffs, stringing steel cables across deep ravines with a winch, and repairing hundreds of meters of water pipes that pulse like the mountains' veins. In the depths of solitude and grueling labor, he experiences a Thoreau-like awakening, finding the courage for an "impossible dream" echoing the strains of Man of La Mancha. Finally, the stage shifts to the PASA Kitchen, forged from an old pavilion. Here, cooking is elevated into an improvisational revolution. From legendary slow-braised pork trotters to explosive, wild-crafted dishes, he puts the philosophy of "slow food as slow life" into practice. Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" finds its most visceral, flesh-and-blood validation within the walls of a mountain farmhouse.

This is an epic of solitude, labor, desire, and freedom. It is not merely a book to be read, but a compelling invitation to every soul exhausted by the concrete jungle—an urge to jump off the train midway, and rediscover the weight of life and the rhythm of freedom amidst mountain gales and the faint, glowing embers of a charcoal fire.