Getting out of the military in 1968, Hsu, who had grown up in a farm family, was about to experience the most damaging era of agricultural pollution in Taiwan, when farmers were over-using pesticides and there was an alarming and rapid disappearance of many living things: the croaking of frogs was no longer heard, the loaches that had filled the fields were gone, fireflies had vanished without a trace.
1968 年自軍中退役，在農家長大的他剛好經歷台灣農村污染最嚴重的年代，農民過度使用農藥，各種生物以驚人的速度消失：青蛙沈寂了、滿田的泥鰍沒有了、螢火蟲杳無蹤跡。