／Member of the Department of Women／

We interviewed Zeng Huimei who is a member of the Department of Women. She is a native of Atayal who was born and married in Smangus.

She is not the promoter of the co-operation system. She said “Men decided everything of the tribe before, women rarely participated in any discussions.” Therefore, when she had heard the project of "the co-operation system" at the first time, she was very surprised and did not know how to do it.

However, women who expressed their views were rarely the promoters of the co-operation system. When men were still troubled due to different opinions, women already had a consensus about the business of a restaurant. The business of the restaurant was doing well. Consequently, it gave a good business model for the co-operation system. In June 2001, they finally started to run that.

There are 18 members in the Department of Women. They are generally divided into three working groups, 6 persons for each group. At the same time, they are divided into two groups again to take rotating days off on Wednesday and Thursday because tourists are few on those days .

After implementing the co-operating system, women have more time to take a rest than before. They had been busy to manage restaurants and B & B, and to do farming. Now they just support to do farming, and they only do one of three works at once. While the working time decreases, leisure time becomes more, so women have more time to take care of her family.

She also told us “The most interesting thing in the job is chatting with each other, and learning cooking skills. In the beginning you could cook this dish whereas I could cook the other. After few years later, everyone can cook and has the best skill of cooking.”

Miss Zeng wishes her kids to take more education and do something helpful for the tribe in the future. Although she said her eloquence is bad and she is very ordinary, I think she is a part of the co-operation system and devotes to Smangus without any regret. That makes us to like the co-operating system of Smangus more and more!