Ms Chang Bao-Wen moved to Mucha as a teenager. She liked strolling in the lanes and chanced upon a site for sunning string noodles. She wondered what these beautiful white silks were and was highly elated at the fact that these were string noodles which she liked eating very much. After she became a teach, Ms Chang, who dedicated herself to indigenous studies, always bears in mind the sight of the string noodles sunning site. Each year, in the activities intended to help her students know more about their hometown, she bring them to the string noodles workshops, in the hope that the kids will cherish this important special local product and craft of Mucha.

1. Could you tell us what the scene of serried string noodles workshops looked like?
I moved to Mucha as a teenager. In those days, I liked rambling in the lanes and found by chance at the roadside some white silky threads, like cloth, or curtain. After some inquiries, I was told that those were string noodles, which I liked eating very much, thus I began to take notice of this industry. At that time, there were so many string noodles workshops in Mucha that the sight of string noodles spread out in the sun was fairly spectacular. What's more, I also saw groups of kids playing at the sunning site, picking string noodles, which constituted the special scenery of Mucha of the time.

2. Now the string noodles business has declined. What do you think of it?
The urban development and the lack of apprentices to learn the craft have undermined the business of traditional handmade string noodles and foreshadowed its decline. In the old days, the land in Mucha was cheap and yielded plenty of tea which facilitated production of tea oil string noodles, a good choice of food for the busy workers. Nowadays, people are fussy about food and unwilling to eat string noodles every day even though they like this food, and the limited output of string noodles has constrained the development of new products. On the other hand, the soaring land price of the nearby areas has tempted many people to cash in by selling their workshops. Therefore, the decline is unavoidable. I wish that you may work hard on this study to at least leave something for the descendants, so that even though we may no long see any string noodles workshop here in the future, the natives can still be aware of this traditional industry through your study.

3. Are there any other string noodles workshops in Mucha?
There used to be many, maybe more than ten workshops, but now we hardly see any other than the Liu Xie Chang Factory, not even the machine-made noodles factories. We have to search the region carefully to know the status quo.

4. Why do the teachers always have the students visit the string noodles workshops?
As I mentioned just now, a native “shall know about his/her hometown.” Since the prosperity of Mucha string noodles of the time was no myth, and we can still watch this traditional craft today through inheritance, the kids should lose no chance to know more about this land and to make clear what our hometown used to be. Moreover, at present Liu Xie Chang has no problem with inheritance, but tomorrow is fraught with uncertainty, as making string noodles is a laborious job. Thus, no one knows how long the business of handmade string noodles can sustain and you, as the prospective pillars, should acquire more knowledge about it. That is why I have high expectations for you, as your study is very important.