copyright © 2022 屏菸1936文化基地 Pingtung Tobacco 1936 Culture Base . All rights reserved.
Factory Chief Director: Hello, welcome to Pingtung 1936 Tobacco Culture Base, I am the Chief Director of the Pingtung Tobacco Factory! During the period of Japanese rule, the tobacco monopoly system was implemented. This factory was built in 1936. We were responsible for buying raw tobacco leaves from the production areas, performing preliminary processing, and selling them to many overseas tobacco factories, as well as shipping them to the Shongshan Tobacco Factory in Taipei, which was responsible for producing American-style cigarettes. For the next 67 years, the tobacco factory supported the livelihoods of tobacco farmers’ families through instruction in farming techniques and the purchase of tobacco leaves. The surrounding residents came to work at the factory, bringing together the people of the area!
Under Japanese rule, Taiwan had five major tobacco production areas, namely Yilan, Taichung, Chiayi, Pingtung, and Hualien. In the 1970s, the number of tobacco fields in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung production area, known as the “Pingtung Tobacco Area,” increased to become the largest tobacco production area in Taiwan. However, since Taiwan opened up the import of foreign tobacco in 1987 and joined the World Trade Organization in 2002, the domestic tobacco industry gradually lost competitiveness when facing the low price competition from foreign tobacco industry. In addition, it is considered that smoking is harmful to health and the government’s anti-smoking policy led to a gradual decline in cigarette sales. The Pingtung Tobacco Factory also ceased operations in 2002 and entered history. In 2017, some important buildings in the factory were registered as historical buildings. After you hear the beep, I’ll take you back to the golden years of the Pingtung Tobacco Factory.
Material Section Manager: Chief, bad news. A batch of tobacco has disappeared from the warehouse!
Factory Chief Director: What! Let me think what we should do. By the way, I heard that you have a new employee, Xiao Ye who loves reading mystery novels and solving puzzles.
Material Section Manager: Yeah, he’s really good.
Factory Chief Director: Ask him to come to the tobacco lab and help, please.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Xiao Ye: Hello, Chief. I’m Xiao Ye.
Factory Chief Director: I just found out that some tobacco leaves have disappeared. I heard that everyone calls you Detective Ye, because you are so good at solving puzzles, so I’d like to ask you to help me find tobacco leaves.
Xiao Ye: I’m flattered. Although I’m new to the job and not familiar with the tobacco factory, I’ll do my best to find the missing tobacco leaves! What kind of tobacco is missing?
Factory Chief Director: On the wall are three varieties of tobacco grown in Pingtung. Burley Tobacco and Turkish Tobacco are the main ingredients used to make American-style cigarettes, but both are no longer in production. The Pingtung Plain is characterized by abundant sunlight, warm weather, and little rain and wind in the winter, which is ideal for growing Autumn Leaf. Brightleaf Tobacco is the most important variety in the Pingtung tobacco area, which is used to make American-style cigarettes and is in great demand worldwide. It is the type of tobacco leaf that vanished.
Xiao Ye: My father loves to smoke Longlife Tobacco and New Paradise Tobacco, I remember those are made from Brightleaf Tobacco!
Factory Chief Director: That’s right. It’ s the highest grade of tobacco among the yellow species and that is what disappeared. I’ll show you the tobacco grade introduction area.
Factory Chief Director: Xiao Ye, as you can see, tobacco leaves are classified into different grades according to the growth position, shape, and thickness of leaves.
Xiao Ye: Do you mean the top leaves… stem leaves… central leaves… earthy leaves… shown here?
Factory Chief Director: Top leaves refers to the leaves which are closest to the sun, while earthy leaves refers to the leaves which are closest to the soil.
Xiao Ye: So, stem leaves and central leaves are in the middle somewhere, right?
Factory Chief Director: That’s right. The tobacco leaves are also divided into thick and thin leaves. Thick leaves are subdivided into five grades and thin leaves into four grades. The highest grade of thick leaves, called “thick first grade”, must be “stem leaves” that are more than 50 centimeters long, and the leaves must be rich in oil and have no defects. The tobacco leaves that disappeared this time were of this grade.
Xiao Ye: A lot of work goes into sorting the leaves after they are picked.
Factory Chief Director: That’s right. That’s why the Agricultural Affairs Section is the busiest department from March to June each year. Usually, they need to determine who has the best tobacco leaves that year, so that they can become the collectors of our tobacco leaf specimens. After collection, the accredited colleagues firstly produce tobacco purchase grading specimen, in order that the tobacco procurement team has procurement standards.
Xiao Ye: Which tobacco farmer provided the missing tobacco leaves?
Factory Chief Director: Let’s go to “Field Notes” and ask the advisor who knows the tobacco farmers best.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Xiao Ye: Hello, are you the advisor of the Agricultural Affairs Section, Mr. Zhao? The Chief said you know many tobacco farmers. Is that right?
Advisor: Yes, the tobacco factory has a very close relationship with the tobacco farmers. Advisors visit fields on a regular basis to see the working situation of the tobacco farmers, and to report the status of leaf growth if there are any pests or diseases. I know every tobacco farmer in the area I am in charge of.
Xiao Ye: When I was a kid, I used to go to the fields with the adults to help harvest the tobacco leaves. Seven or eight families worked in a group and harvested tobacco leaves in turn. It was bustling and funny.
Advisor: Tobacco farmers must sign a contract with the Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation to obtain a planting permit. If they are willing to plant, they could be guaranteed their harvest and stable income by the corporation.
Xiao Ye: A stable income is an advantage, but I remember the grown-ups in my family always said that growing tobacco leaves is very labor-intensive and exhausting.
Advisor: Look at the wall, there is a sheet with a dozen or so procedures for cultivating tobacco leaves. Especially during the harvesting season, we had to get up at five in the morning before the dew is dry to pick the leaves. The tobacco leaves are prone to rot if stored directly, so once we got home in the evening, we had to rush into the Tobacco barn to roast the leaves. We often worked until midnight.
Xiao Ye: That’s a lot of work! So do you have a record of which tobacco farmer the missing leaves were purchased from? Did the procurement process go smoothly?
Advisor: Let me check. That batch happened to be bought with the farmer that produced this year’s tobacco leaf specimens. It is a good quality that everyone recognizes at first glance. There was no controversy.
(Announcement: Attention please. The Factory Chief Director please proceed to the Vacuum Moisturizing Machine)
Factory Chief Director: Perhaps there is new information. Xiao Ye, let’s go!
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Machinery Section Manager: Chief, we just found black shoe prints near the vacuum moisturizing machine!
Factory Chief Director: Xiao Ye, this is the manager of the Machinery Section. The Machinery Section is responsible for all the machines in the factory.
Xiao Ye: Did the batch of tobacco that disappeared go through the vacuum moisturizing machine? These shoe prints seem to go all the way to the tracks. And they seem to be stained with some kind of black substance.
Machinery Section Manager: No, the vacuum moisturizing machine is only used for tobacco imported from overseas. Because imported tobacco leaves are pressed very tightly, we put the entire barrel of tobacco leaves into the vacuum moisturizing machine and pump steam into the top of the barrel to increase the moisture content of the tobacco leaves. The air on the other side of the barrel is extracted, so that the tobacco leaves come apart easily. Then it’s sent to the tip cutter for the next step in processing. The missing tobacco leaves were produced locally in Pingtung and went directly to the tip cutter.
Xiao Ye: That’s odd. I can’t tell from this shoe print whether it’s a male or female shoe. Let’s go check out the tip cutter.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Factory Chief Director: After we purchase the tobacco leaves and bring them into the factory on a truck, the tobacco processors verify the grade of the tobacco leaves before sending them to the tip cutter. Workers place the tobacco leaves on the conveyor belt and pick out the defective ones.
Worker: Xiao Ye, do you see the six thick chains at the front of the machine? The chains flatten the leaves and the round knife at the end cuts the tobacco leaves into three sections.
Xiao Ye: Have you seen any strangers around here in the past few days?
Worker: I am a short-term worker. Although I only come to work from March to June every year, I know all the people who work here. I haven’t seen any outsiders.
Xiao Ye: Everybody is wearing a mask. How can you be sure who they are?
Worker: Right, the factory gives us masks to wear to protect against dust. There are only a few workers, and we all know each other. However, in the afternoon, we did hear a loud noise coming from the leaf threshing machine.
Xiao Ye: Thank you, Ma’am. Chief, we have to go over there and ask a few questions.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Factory Chief Director: Machinery Section Manager, please come here. We just heard that the leaf threshing machine made a strange noise this afternoon?
Machinery Section Manager: Yes, the machine broke down and we were all busy.
Xiao Ye: What was wrong with it?
Machinery Section Manager: Xiao Ye, let me explain. Tobacco ribs are the veins of tobacco leaves and tobacco blades are the tobacco leaves after the ribs were removed. There are five steps to remove the ribs. The main function of this leaf threshing machine is to separate the tobacco ribs from the tobacco blades and to sift out the dirt and impurities. The structure is divided into three parts: wind sifter, separator, and shake sifter.
Xiao Ye: What is the purpose of the separation?
Machinery Section Manager: Because the flavor of Tobacco Ribs and tobacco leaves are different. Tobacco ribs contain more nicotine and have a stronger flavor. Different ratios of ribs and leaves can provide customers with different choices. The rib removal knife cuts, the wind sifter separates the tobacco leaves from the tobacco ribs, and the separator removes the impurities. Each step of the process removes the tobacco blades from the Tobacco Ribs more thoroughly. The machine on the right side of the catwalk is the one with the rib-removal blade. Do you see the blade of the separator?
Xiao Ye: Yes, it seems to be two sets of crossed blades. These blades rotate, right?
Machinery Section Manager: Yes, the motor rotates the two sets of blades which then separate.
Xiao Ye: What is the machine with the red numbers on the left-hand side of the catwalk?
Machinery Section Manager: That’s the separator. In the afternoon, this separator broke down and because all the operating systems are connected, when one stopped, everything stopped.
Xiao Ye: The last step is shaking, right?
Machinery Section Manager: Yes, let’s take a look from the catwalk. The shake sifter is on the left-hand side at the end of the walkway. Along the way, you will see different conveyor belts bringing Tobacco Ribs and Tobacco blades to the next step of the process. The walkway is relatively narrow and be careful not to hit your head.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Factory Chief Director: Xiao Ye, we just saw the last step of the Leaf Threshing Machine is the shake sifter. The inner part of the machine has a mesh, which sifts out the excess tobacco grit and flakes through vibration. Tobacco ribs that are considered too small and useless will be sifted out at this stage.
Xiao Ye: So the tobacco is divided into three parts of tobacco blades, tobacco ribs, and waste?
Factory Chief Director: That is right. After shaking, the small Tobacco Ribs and trash are sent to the outside of the plant via a conveyor belt. Tobacco Ribs go to the tobacco rib dryer and the tobacco blades go to the re-drying machine for the next step in the process.
Xiao Ye: There are also black shoe prints near this conveyor belt, so let’s follow them and see where they go!
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Xiao Ye: The black shoe prints only go as far as here. Chief, what is this machine?
Factory Chief Director: This is the dust collector, a very important machine. The process of tobacco leaf processing, whether it is de-ribbing or re-drying, produces a lot of dusty tobacco grit and flakes. The dust collector deals with all that dust.
Xiao Ye: Like a big vacuum cleaner?
Factory Chief Director: Xiao Ye, you are very clever! The factory is full of dust when processing. After a long day of work, clothes, shoes and hats are covered with dust. The dust collector helps to reduce the dust. Xiao Ye, look, it looks like there is a piece of clothing in the corner!
Xiao Ye: It’s covered with tobacco debris. I suspect that someone wore it when working in the factory and then put on a disguise and escaped.
(Announcement: Attention please, Factory Chief Director. Please proceed to the Tobacco Leaf Rib Dryer. The Machinery Section Chief needs to see you.)
Factory Chief Director: Let’s go, let’s go!
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Machinery Section Manager: Chief, just now a worker from the Machinery Section found a strange mark on the tobacco leaf rib dryer. It might be a clue.
Xiao Ye: It is likely that the tobacco leaf thief left it behind inadvertently. What does this tobacco leaf rib dryer do, Sir?
Machinery Section Manager: The tobacco leaf rib dryer is the last step in the processing of tobacco ribs. In order to prevent the tobacco ribs from becoming moldy or over-fermented, they are sent through this dryer to undergo a smoking process numerous times to reduce the moisture content before packaging.
Xiao Ye: Where are the tobacco ribs sealed after drying?
Machinery Section Manager: After drying, workers wheel the tobacco ribs to the packaging area for pressing and packaging. 200 kg are packed into one box.
Xiao Ye: You have just talked about the processing of tobacco ribs, but how are the tobacco blades processed?
Machinery Section Manager: Tobacco blades are fed directly into the tobacco re-drying machine via a conveyor belt! Let’s go over and take a look.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Xiao Ye: This tobacco re-drying machine is so long!
Machinery Section Manager: Right, re-drying means to send the tobacco blades into the drying room again. The drying, cooling, and humidification processes give the tobacco blades their fragrance. Firstly, the blower sends in hot air to dry the tobacco blades. Then, cool air is introduced to cool the tobacco blades. After drying and cooling, the moisture level of tobacco blades is about 10%. The last humidification process moistens the tobacco blades to the levels desired by customers.
Xiao Ye: Do you remember if any situation happened when the missing batch of tobacco leaves were in the re-drying process?
Machinery Section Manager: It went very well. I happened to be patrolling the compound fumigation area this afternoon and I was watching the work in the factory from the catwalk. There seemed to be more people here today to help. The packaging was done very quickly!
Xiao Ye: More people than usual… Chief, I’d like to know more about the organization and operation of the tobacco factory.
Factory Chief Director: Then let’s go to Professional Craft. There we can learn about the organizational structure of our tobacco factory.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Factory Chief Director: The tobacco factory has four main departments: the Agricultural Affairs Section, the Machinery Section, the Materials Section, and General Affairs. The quality of tobacco leaves is influenced by every step in the process, starting from the seeds to the harvesting and roasting of tobacco leaves. The Agricultural Affairs Section serves as the first line, with advisors instructing tobacco farmers in each district on relevant knowledge and technologies. The Tobacco Buying Unit is responsible for the annual tobacco leaf specimens.
Xiao Ye: It sounds like the Agricultural Affairs Section is the gatekeeper for the quality of tobacco after preliminary smoking before it enters the tobacco factory.
Factory Chief Director: Yes, the processing of the tobacco after preliminary smoking is handed over to the Machinery Section. All the machines we just saw, as well as the piping of the buildings in the factory, are maintained by them. In the early days when there was a lot of processing, the Machine Section had to act as a foreman and supervise temporary workers as they did the processing.
Xiao Ye: I am with the Materials Division. We handle the warehousing part after processing.
Factory Chief Director: Not only the warehousing after processing. You are also in charge of the storage of tobacco prior to preliminary smoking work.
Xiao Ye: Oh yes! Also, the tobacco leaves are stored in the warehouse for two to three years after processing to allow them to ferment. In order to prevent the tobacco leaves from being eaten by the tobacco beetles, fumigation is also required before storage!
Factory Chief Director: General Affairs is in charge of the tobacco factory overall. They take care of all things, such as employee benefits and factory celebrations. Let’s go to General Affairs and take a look.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Factory Chief Director: Xiao Ye, as you know, General Affairs is responsible for the welfare of employees. For example, the tobacco factory provides dormitories for employees at a very favorable rent.
Xiao Ye: Yes, I heard that a long time ago, employees were shuttled to and from work. There used to be a recreation room where you could play ping pong and pool.
Factory Chief Director: Yes, and that’s not all. We have a nursery because many of our temporary workers are young mothers, so they can drop off their children in the morning and pick them up after work. In addition, there is also a store in the factory for employees to buy daily necessities. The employees also often go to a nearby shop to buy lunch. Over time, it has become famous.
Xiao Ye: Do we have employee trips?
Factory Chief Director: Of course! We have great benefits. We have about three employee trips a year and you can bring your dependents.
Xiao Ye: Wow! That’s great… Wait, I almost forgot I was here to find the missing tobacco! What I really want to know is which units were involved in the production of the missing tobacco leaves, especially the packaging of the leaves.
Factory Chief Director: Let me take you to the catwalk for a better view.
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Factory Chief Director: Xiao Ye, this is the entrance to the catwalk, let’s go up! Why do you look green? Are you okay?
Xiao Ye: This catwalk is quite high. I’m a bit scared. Do all the people in the Machinery Section have to come up here?
Factory Chief Director: The catwalk provides a wider view. Machinery Section employees monitor the entire re-drying process from the catwalk.
Xiao Ye: Chief, my legs are getting wobbly. Can you tell me about the tobacco leaf packaging process as quickly as possible?
Factory Chief Director: This platform next to the catwalk is the leaf feeder. The re-dried tobacco leaves are sent upward through the conveyor belt to this feeder for boxing or barreling.
Xiao Ye: The Machinery Section Manager said that there were more operators than usual in the packaging area in the afternoon and packaging was done very quickly.
Factory Chief Director: Yes, and when the packaging was almost finished, the leaf threshing machine suddenly made a noise and broke down.
Xiao Ye: I suspect that the leaf threshing machine malfunction was a diversion used to remove the packaged tobacco leaves.
Factory Chief Director: In that case, we should see if there are clues around the packager!
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Click the button above to play the audio tour
Xiao Ye: Chief, look at this board, it has “400 net weight” and today’s date on it…
Factory Chief Director: This looks like the stencil used for painting on tobacco leaf barrels! We have two packaging sizes. At first, we only used round wooden barrels. One barrel holds 400kg. Later, we began to use square boxes for stacking purposes. One box can hold 200 kg.
Xiao Ye: The stencil has “400 net weight” on it, so it’s a barrel of tobacco.
Factory Chief Director: That’s right, barrels of tobacco are firstly pressed into a presser to compact the tobacco. After being pressed several times, a lid is manually installed. Lastly, a label is painted on, indicating the processing date, tobacco grade and weight, which serves as a kind of proof of identity for the tobacco.
Xiao Ye: The tobacco we are looking for must have had this stencil information printed on the box. Chief, how did you discover that the tobacco was missing?
Factory Chief Director: It was only when someone from the Materials Section went to the warehouse to take inventory and they discovered that the tobacco leaves had never been put into the warehouse.
Xiao Ye: Just as I thought, the tobacco leaves were smuggled out of the warehouse before they could be put into the warehouse. So how do tobacco leaves get from the processing plant to the warehouse?
Factory Chief Director: Usually by forklift.
Xiao Ye: It must have been someone who is very familiar with the factory operations and knows the storage situation well enough to steal the tobacco leaves. Chief, let’s go to the Materials Section. I know who did it.
Xiao Ye: According to my deductions, the tobacco leaf should still be in the factory and you, the Materials Section Manager, are the one who hid it, right? Why are you doing this?
Material Section Manager: I didn’t think you’d figure out it was me. I heard that the tobacco factory is going to be closed soon and I was sad. I don’t want it to be forgotten. I hid the tobacco, but I just thought that if they were missing, maybe a reporter would come and report it…
Xiao Ye: After this place becomes a cultural base, more art and cultural exhibitions and activities will be held here, and the Pingtung Tobacco Factory will become a cultural asset for preservation and innovation. It will not be forgotten.
Factory Chief Director: That’s right. This is an important industrial site that records the history of the tobacco industry in Taiwan. In the future, we will provide more cultural activities that will give new life to the tobacco factory. Let’s all work together so that the story can continue.
