Read "Island of Chimneys" | May you and I keep the glimmering light in the dark night

Jun 18, 2022

The first time we heard about the book " The Island of Chimneys: The 20,000 Days We Coexisted with Petrochemicals " was at a reading meeting a few years ago. A friend then suggested reading "The Island of Chimneys" and the photobook " South Wind ", but at that time I did not actively look for books to read, even though I knew that this topic might be closely related to the small village where I grew up; Is it as embarrassing as the residents living next to the petrified beast? Or, vaguely, I don't really want to face these "facts"?

Until the beginning of this year, I was fortunate to participate in the "Reporter" sponsor conference. In addition to deciding to increase the meager regular quota to support the local independent media , I also got the book "Smoke". When I was ready, I swept away the dust accumulated on the book, calmed down and read slowly.

When faced with a book on a specific topic, I always feel that I need to be in a proper state of mind and body to read it "at ease". Only in this way, when the words intersect with any familiar faces, smells, and sounds in my mind, I had the courage to continue reading " without numbness ".

The numbness is because "hegemony" has already become a daily sight, passed down silently from generation to generation; whenever I look down a few hundred meters from the window of my residence, the row of high-voltage electricity towers stretches westward like a guard. At the same time, there was a sound in my ear. One day, out of curiosity, I approached under one of the huge "guards", and the disturbing sound of electric current hit the eardrum, as if reminding me that the closer the distance, the more Show your own insignificance.

"The end of the high-voltage electricity tower is Liuqing ." The senior said, with a look of incomparable melancholy on his face; at the same time, the petrified beast also snatched away the water of tens of thousands of acres of fertile fields, and under the ground we can't see it, The pipeline built by the state must fulfill its mission; and farmers have since taken on the infamy of being the murderer of "subsidence of the ground."

In the past few years, when I returned to my hometown to settle down, I got close to the land, talked to my elders, and even went to the "site"; the process of tracing "facts" was like a jigsaw puzzle, with my hometown as the center and extended to Taiwan Island, and even the world , these are the missing pieces of education in the previous system; Wu Zongying, a young man who lives next to Kaohsiung Taishe Industrial Zone, once said, "I have absolutely no idea that the Taishe Industrial Zone will move to the factory along with Wuqing. Five years can make a lot of things forgotten.” (p. 345)

This makes me think, maybe before going after the facts, what we should ask is:

 Why don't you know? What kind of environmental awareness is our society or educational scene teaching the next generation?

class and silence

When the south wind blows in summer, the chimneys in the distance are "dense" all year round. Which village's window will be closed this time?

For Oyster Nong Lin Jinlang, who lives in Taixi Township, Yunlin, can he breathe a little at this moment? In the bitter winter, the south wind was indeed a luxury for him to imagine, as he once said (pp. 173-174):

"The small creatures in the ocean are extremely sensitive to changes in the environment. They will tell you all these changes in the language you can see. The environment cannot be imagined; its symbiotic relationship with us can only be experienced on the spot."

Only oyster farmers know about the ecological changes of oysters, but who is willing to listen to it? It turns out that industries also have classes. He asked me (the author Xu Zhentang): " Where does agriculture and fishery rank in the class of industries? " We were silent for a long time.

And silence, not only happened in Oyster.

In August 2015, seventy-four residents of Taixi Township, Yunlin decided to file a pollution injury lawsuit against Formosa Plastics Liuqing; in court, the Formosa Plastics lawyers group proposed that the plaintiff must point out "which chimney" emitted "what kind of chimney". Hazardous substances”, inhaling pollutants with “how much concentration” at “when and where” ; Hong Jiacheng, a lawyer appointed by the Taixi villagers, couldn’t help but retort: “This may not even be done by gods!” (page 139)

I've always felt that this is very similar to what victims of sexual violence do in court , where both have to struggle to maintain the image of the "perfect victim" and "specifically" come up with how to be victimized.

The situation of power asymmetry also extends from the court to the out-of-court, when the rebates of big companies cause local divisions, and most plaintiffs still have to bear huge financial pressure. Peng Paulo, an associate researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also pointed out (page 143):

Existing plaintiffs have been unable to tell their experiences of being victimized because of their deep trauma and the death of their relatives one after another .

Open up to who?

Xu Chuncai, a fisherman living in Taixi Village, Changhua, mentioned the fact that in recent years, due to factors such as the lack of water in the Zhuoshui Stream , he has not been able to catch eel fry, he said (pp. 178-179):

"Sometimes we have to be open to the ocean." There are always times when the ocean may not be smooth. Just like people, we must be considerate of each other.

This reminds me of the old version of the household registration book at home, with the four characters "Farming for generations" written in delicate handwriting; when someone in the family suffers serious agricultural damage due to natural disasters, they always resignedly say: "It is impossible to survive. Ah, we just love watching Uncle Tian eat."

Learning to face impermanence is probably the first lesson that people who have been begging for food from nature for many years must learn. However, are there larger political and economic factors behind the apparent cause and effect? When front-line agricultural and fishery workers choose to "open the door" to certain uncontrollable factors, do they (without knowing it) also accidentally "lightly let go" of some wrong decisions made by those in power in the past Woolen cloth?

In 2013, in order to make the new three light of CNPC in Kaohsiung Forest Park "smooth on the road" , the industrial zone of the Ministry of Economic Affairs held a closed-door meeting of experts and scholars. The final conclusion was that the government together with "experts and scholars" proposed: "Although the cancer risk of new three light is greater than 100 1 in 10,000, but still within a reasonable range of 'acceptable' .” (p. 394)

The word "acceptable" means the government, experts and scholars are "opening the door" to the heavily polluting petrochemical industry; the residents of the Linyuan District are once again "gently put down".

In a sacrificial system, the interests of some are generated and sustained by sacrificing the lives of others (life, health, routine, property, dignity, hope). (page 396)

Those who were sacrificed were concealed in impoverished and remote villages far from the political and economic center (Liuqing in Mailiao, Yunlin), or "dignified sacrificed" under the banner of national economic development (Ten Great Society of the 1970s, Linyuan Petrochemical Industrial Zone). (page 396)

Those who issue orders and formulate policies are in Taipei, while the environmental refugees embedded in the sacrificial system are located in the central and southern parts of Taiwan. (page 396)

plunder, invincible

In 2015, in Kaohsiung’s Houjin community, despite “people as the strongest capital”, Wuqing successfully closed its factory after twenty-five years of struggle, but its hometown has already become the country’s largest polluted site . Can the injured land be reclaimed in the next one? Twenty years to come back to life is still undetermined.

In the following year (2016), President Tsai Ing-wen proposed the " New Southbound Policy ", which sought to consolidate friendly countries through " economic reciprocity ". In the name of Formosa Plastics, which set up factories in the central coast of Vietnam, due to the discharge of toxic cyanide and other waste water, a coastal pollution incident of more than 200 kilometers broke out. The fishermen lost their livelihoods overnight, and about 200,000 people were affected—— In international news photos of the street protests, people held up signs reading " Formosa Stop Poisoning The Sea ", while a 22-year-old Vietnamese youth was sentenced to seven years in prison for his online reporting.

Since then, "Formosa" has lost its proud identity, and has fallen into a cloud that cannot be shaken away, like the "water vapor" that the four hundred chimneys at the end of the turbid water puff every day, sour and sour. Smelly, almost suffocating.

if everything stopped here

Since the 1960s and 1970s, the petrochemical industry of the island has been nurtured from the cradle by the mothers of the party and the state. Until the early 1980s, the then executive director Sun Yunyan tried to promote industrial upgrading and invested in low-polluting petrochemicals with high value. However, in 1984, the In February, Sun retired from politics due to a stroke; his successor, Yu Guohua, "successfully kept" the petrochemical industry as a vested interest.

If everything stops here, then there will be no construction of the Fifth Light and Sixth Light, and there will be no struggle and pushback of the Seventh and Eighth Light ( Guoguang Petrochemical ) in the future. (page 28)

At this moment, I think of the grandma who lives in Taixi Village, a large urban and rural area in Changhua. She said in the one-minute speech video that was wildly reposted:

Every time I think about the future fate of our Taixi villagers, I think of the disappearing seabirds.

Taken at the sea exit of Taixi Village, Dacheng, Changhua, the chimney in the distance is where the Formosa Plastics Six Light Factory is located.

A few years ago, I went to the sea outlet of Taixi Village, Dacheng, Changhua, perhaps because it was winter, and there was no obvious sour smell in the air; There are other figures, but between heaven and earth, it seems that I am the only one left, and not far behind, the trickling stream that slowly flows westward is the turbid water stream.

Not afraid of the biting cold wind, I took off my shoes, rolled up my trousers, stepped on the mud at low tide with bare feet, squatted down to observe the countless holes on the surface, and occasionally saw a few crabs rushing in and out; like a child, I couldn't help but stretch out my hand Play with the mud and sand under your feet, trying to feel the familiar touch similar to the soil in your hometown.

The sunset is about to set in the distance.

I closed my eyes and imagined what it used to be like before the petrified giants in the south appeared.

And the future, I dare not think about it.

but,

Even in the darkest times, people still have the right to expect light, and light comes not so much from theories and ideas, but from the glowing gleams of ordinary people. When the sparks see each other, each flame is brighter because they see each other and expect to reflect each other. — Hannah Oran, "Group Portraits in the Dark Ages"

May you and I keep the glimmering light in the dark night.