On the rocky shores of Magang, a remote village in New Taipei's Gongliao District, 72-year-old Wu Feng-chiao works tirelessly against the crashing waves. She pulls up handfuls of brownish-purple seaweed, known locally as "stone flowers" (shi hua). Wu is one of the last remaining hainu—or "sea women"—in Taiwan who continue the traditional practice of foraging for marine algae.
Seaweed harvesting along Taiwan's northeastern Pacific coast is both physically demanding and hazardous. Wu, who has been doing this for over fifty years after learning the trade from her father as a teenager, regularly carries sacks of wet seaweed weighing up to 25 kilograms over slippery, uneven rocks. "The seaweed grows around big rocks, and when there are large waves, you have to move away quickly or you can get hurt," she explains.
Once the algae is harvested, it is spread out to dry in the sun. The drying process takes about four days, during which the seaweed changes color. It is then washed multiple times and boiled to extract a jelly-like substance known as agar-agar. This jelly is processed into a refreshing drink. A 300-gram batch of dried Gelidium algae can produce around 50 bottles of agar-agar cooler, which sell for about $1.30 each.
The hainu tradition is a cultural vestige of the Japanese colonial era. While it shares similarities with the famous haenyeo matriarchal free-divers of South Korea, Taiwan's sea women forage along the shoreline and do not dive deep underwater.
Today, the future of this unique coastal tradition is highly uncertain. Only four hainu—all in their 70s or older—regularly harvest seaweed in Magang. The practice is threatened by demographic shifts, as younger generations leave the remote village for city life. In addition, the seaweed has become unusually scarce recently, and land developers are increasingly encroaching on the peaceful coastal village.
To combat these challenges, residents established the Sandiaojiao Cultural Development Association in 2018. The association aims to protect Magang's traditional stone houses and keep the hainu heritage alive. Despite the physical toll and the threats to her village, Wu has no plans to stop. Whenever the sea is calm, she feels drawn back to the water, hoping that younger women will eventually join her to keep the tradition from disappearing.