Our Story
We Started with a Place — and Gradually Built a Way of Working
PLUWFUN did not begin with a complete platform or a finished business model.
It grew through repeated work with communities, young people, local businesses, travellers and cultural practitioners.
Over time, one thing became clear: what needed to be designed was not simply another event, but relationships that could continue after the event ended.
The Brand Began with “Together”
PLUWFUN did not begin with a name and then search for something to do.
The name emerged after repeated work with travellers, young people, farmers, small businesses, and local partners.
We needed a way to describe one recurring question:
How do we bring people together through place?
How can travellers enter local communities more meaningfully?
How can small businesses, local produce, and stories become visible?
How can young people who want to stay and build something find one another?
That idea became a name:
PLUW represents being together.
FUN represents experience and participation.
PLUWFUN means coming together to experience the tribal community.
That idea continues to sit underneath everything that followed — travel, digital participation, local economies, and sustainability.
People meet people first.
CHAPTER 01
At First, We Started with Events Too
We began with activities, local travel, cultural experiences and community connections.
Each event could bring new people into Fuxing.
But eventually we started asking: when everyone goes home, what remains in the place?
An event can be successful and still leave very little continuity behind.
That question became the first turning point in how PLUWFUN works.
CHAPTER 02
From Running Events to Supporting People
The question gradually changed from “What event should we organise next?” to “Who wants to keep building something here?”
Young people became more than participants. They began developing proposals, creative work, experiences, education, music and local services of their own.
The future of a place is not built by giving young people more activities. It grows when they gain the ability to build something of their own.
CHAPTER 03
Culture Needs to Be Entered, Not Only Explained
A story on a panel is not the same as understanding a place.
So local stories began returning to real landscapes, routes, food, people and everyday spaces.
People walk. Listen. Eat. Meet. Explore. Then digital tools help the journey continue.
First, let the body enter the place. Then let digital tools extend the understanding.
CHAPTER 04
Digital Is Not the Destination
Membership, missions, booking, local rewards and digital exploration are useful only when they lead back to real places and real relationships.
A QR code does not matter simply because someone scanned it. It matters if the scan leads to a story, a place, a local business, a cultural experience or another person.
Digital is a bridge that brings people back to place.
CHAPTER 05
From Participation to Evidence
As digital tools began bringing people into local places, another question emerged: how do we know what actually changed?
Page views are not enough. Registration numbers are not enough. And sustainability should not be reduced to one impressive ESG number.
So PLUWFUN began separating observed outcomes, local economic participation, cultural and youth activity, modelled environmental estimates and evidence still awaiting verification.
The goal is not to produce more numbers. It is to understand what actually happened.
CHAPTER 06
Practice Began to Stay in Place
Recently, the work at Jiaobanshan moved one step further. We began asking: if there is no commercial show and no event budget, will music still happen in this place?
Zhang Yifan took the first step. He did not wait for a large programme. He prepared equipment himself. When an instrument was missing, he borrowed one.
Then the Jiaobanshan Visitor Center gradually became a weekend music practice space that people can apply to use.
This follows the way PLUWFUN has grown: someone believes first. Someone starts. A place takes shape. A method becomes shareable. Then the next person can join.
CHAPTER 07
Starting in Fuxing Does Not Mean Staying Only in Fuxing
The methods developed in Fuxing are gradually entering exchanges with other places in Taiwan and across Asia.
But international work does not mean leaving the local behind. The further we go, the more clearly we need to know where we come from.
What we hope to share is not simply an event format, but a place-based way of working: People → Place → Experience → Digital → People Again.
STILL BUILDING
We Are Still Building
PLUWFUN is not a finished answer.
Some experiments work. Some need to be redesigned. Some outcomes can already be evidenced. Others still require time and verification.
But one belief has become clearer: places do not simply need more projects. They need relationships that give people a reason to return.
So we continue from Fuxing — with young people, local businesses, cultural practitioners, travellers, organisations, schools, government and partners who want to work in this way.