Taiwan Today

Kinmen's people are coming to terms with a radically changed role for their islands 15 years after the lifting of martial law.

Kinmen writer Yang Shu-ching describes his first experience of proper, in 1979, as a visual shock. "When I saw the lights of , I asked myself, 'What is this place?'" Yang recalls. "In Kinmen, all the lights had to be covered at night; I had never seen the lights of thousands of households before I came to . That was when I came to realize that my hometown was a war zone."

At that time, and nearby islets under the control of the Republic of China (ROC) government were under martial law, but as a frontline island only 10 kilometers from People's Republic of (PRC) soil, Kinmen was a special case. Another Kinmenese, activist Wong Ming-chih, says he subscribes to the view that if the implementation of martial law in Kinmen was 100 percent, "it could only be counted as 3 percent in ." After martial law was lifted elsewhere in the ROC on July 15, 1987, it remained in effect on Kinmen. Although Kinmen has enjoyed significantly more freedom in recent years, the islanders' longer experience of martial law continues to differentiate Kinmenese from Taiwanese.

On the Frontline

Toward the end of 's civil war, as the Chinese Nationalist (KMT) government began withdrawing forces to in mid 1949, they fortified garrisons on . Communist forces had been planning to occupy the island before launching a final assault on proper. Early on October 25, 1949, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) landed at Kuningtou and two other beaches on Kinmen's northern coast. After 56 hours of close combat, 17,000 invading PLA troops were killed, captured or missing in action, and PLA forces retreated.

The victory at Kuningtou laid the foundation for the current status quo between and . For decades after 1949, 's military tacitly acknowledged that it could not and would not attack proper without first defeating Nationalist forces at Kinmen. Thus, defending Kinmen was seen by defense planners from to the Pentagon as tantamount to defending all of the ROC.

Kinmen and Matsu, another group of islands just off 's coast, continued to be flashpoints for conflict between PRC and ROC forces throughout the 1950s. In 1954, Chinese authorities declared they must "liberate" , and the PLA initiated a nearly yearlong shelling assault on the heavily fortified islands. backed down only after the let it be known it was willing to respond with nuclear weapons.

Gesture of

On August 23, 1958, the PLA once again began to shell Kinmen and Matsu in a gesture of defiance against the for its continued support of the ROC. Nearly 700 people were killed on Kinmen during the 44-day bombardment as the islands were pummeled with more than 450,000 shells. To this day, spent shells from the bombardment are used to make "Kinmen steel" knives. On October 6, 1958, the ROC and PRC agreed to a ceasefire, but shells filled with propaganda leaflets continued to fly between the mainland and Kinmen every other day until the severed diplomatic relations with the ROC in 1979.

During and even after the martial law era, life in Kinmen was austere and harsh compared with proper.

Wong recalls that even balls used for sports were numbered and controlled when he was a schoolboy. "We were not permitted to own basketballs," he says. "The policy was meant to deter us from swimming to aided by a ball's buoyancy." Kites and radios were also banned, since they might be used to send and receive signals from .

Just as the lights in made an impression on writer Yang Shu-ching, they also shed light on a strange new universe for Wong, who studied in after graduating from middle school. "For me, it was like another world," Wong says. "In Kinmen, everyone had to be off the streets by 10 [p.m.]." He says the curfew in Kinmen remained in effect until 1992, when martial law was finally lifted there.

Wong was also taken aback by the presence of payphones when he first moved to proper. He had never seen one in Kinmen. "My friends and I would call one another from phone booths to see if they really worked," he recalls. When they confirmed that they could connect to one another directly--without being screened by a military operator as they would have been back home--they were astounded.

Huang Cheng-yun of Kinmen, 75, used to be a member of the island's self-defense militia. Membership was mandatory for all residents. Huang says, "We were trained to help the military with supplies and transportation." During the 1958 bombardment, he says every militia member was on call day and night. They were not paid for their service. They even had to supply their own food when providing assistance to the military.

But despite the inconvenience and additional obligations military governance imposed on Kinmenese, Huang notes a positive side to the military presence. "We depended on soldiers for our livelihood," he says. His family ran a grocery store in Kinmen and most of their customers were military men.

Wong refers to the period before martial law was lifted in Kinmen as "one country, two systems," and insists that Kinmen and residents were treated as second-class citizens. He and two friends, Chen Jhen-jian from Kinmen and Wing Ching-ming from , were prohibited from returning to their hometowns after they staged a protest against continued martial law on offshore islands. The trio held their first protest in , in August 1987, one month after martial law was lifted in the rest of the ROC. They continued to stage periodic demonstrations, culminating in a rally of more than 200 people symbolically staged on August 23, 1989. Wong says demonstrators got a positive, even enthusiastic, response from the general public. "We were cheered on by passersby," he says. "I believe it was because they understood our request was reasonable."

The protests continued until finally, on November 7, 1992, the government put an end to martial law in Kinmen and .

Author Yang Shu-ching remembers celebrating the landmark with then county magistrate Chen Shui-tsai and others by setting off a 1,000-meter string of firecrackers. Yet Yang says many residents were unmoved. "People became numb after living under military control for so long," he observes.

Documentary director Dong Cheng-liang says the idea of democracy does not exist yet in Kinmen. He calls his hometown "a pond of dead water," lamenting that "Kinmenese became narrowminded; living under military governance all their lives made them incapable of understanding what was wrong in their lives," he says.

Tsai Huei-min, the head of 's Graduate Institute of Environmental Education, holds a different point of view. "Their affection and nostalgia for their home far outweigh their political awareness," Tsai says. "They had been oppressed by the government, but they chose not to dwell on animosity and moved on."

Wider Perspective

Tsai, who has conducted research on Kinmen for the past 15 years, says that historically, Kinmenese had a wider global perspective than their neighbors in proper. "Kinmen has always been closely connected to the world," she explains. "Kinmenese started to travel and emigrate to many parts of Southeast Asia as early as the 1840s, much earlier than the rest of ."

In early 2001, direct links opened between Kinmen and Matsu and selected locations in 's . After the lifting of martial law, policy watchers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait began speculating on when transportation, mail and trade links between the ROC and could be normalized. These were called simply the "three links," so the small-scale lifting of restrictions between offshore islands and were dubbed the "mini three links." Tsai says, the mini three links "brought Kinmenese back to the world stage."

Regular ferries currently sail 10 times daily from Kinmen to in . The ride takes about 40 minutes in each direction. Huang says the mini three links have made traveling to an easy and relaxing day trip. He sometimes goes to to buy daily necessities, taking advantage of lower prices there.

Wong considers Kinmen to be freer than proper today in terms of travel and trade, but the impact of 43 years of martial law still affects Kinmen on a deeper level. "People's minds have become rigid," he says. "The suddenness of liberation caught them off guard." He thinks time is needed for Kinmenese to break out of the mindset of being under military control, and notes that while freedom can be granted easily, freedom of thought develops gradually.

Dong, who has shot 20 documentaries depicting life in Kinmen during and after martial law, hopes to "make some ripples in the pond of dead water" with his work by challenging the current mindset. "Our people lack the courage to stand up for themselves and be their own bosses," he says. Dong is determined to give Kinmen a "stern wake-up call." His Liberate the Battle Zone (2003) follows two naked women as they wander through Kinmen's battlefields. Dong understands the film makes most Kinmenese uncomfortable, but he hopes his extreme approach will prompt islanders to think more freely.

Looking Forward

Kinmen County Magistrate Lee Chu-feng sees the imposition of martial law in the past as necessary for national security. Looking forward, he thinks the rooting of democracy is an important part of  Kinmen's development. He says, "We Kinmenese must decide our own future now." He thinks redeveloping Kinmen into a military area in the future is simply not an option. The current priorities for Lee are to remove all remaining land mines in Kinmen and to expand the tourism industry.

NTNU's Tsai sees Kinmen as a microcosm for the human condition. After the fighting stops, she says, "people eventually have to begin communicating and connecting." She thinks Kinmen's transformation from a battlefield to a free port at the vanguard of opening links to is a fitting transition. "Instead of taking bullets for , Kinmen should serve as a cultural bridge to link and in the years to come," she says.

Geography: An island group consisting of Kinmen Island, Little Kinmen and more than a dozen islets, 10 kilometers east of Xiamen Harbor in China's Fujian Province; 275 kilometers west of Taiwan proper

Area: 2

Population: 80,200 (September 2007)

Main crops: Sorghum, wheat and yams

Arable land: 36 percent

cover: 23 percent

County magistrate: Lee Chu-feng, New Party

Languages: Mandarin Chinese (official), Holo (Taiwanese)

Points of interest: , , Kinmen Liquor Factory

The first documented settlement of the , also known as , was during the Jin dynasty in the 4th century. The islands were known as Wuzhou when they became part of during the Song dynasty in the 11th century. In the 14th century, during the Ming dynasty, Kinmen got its current name, which literally means "golden gate."

Kinmen became part of the Republic of China in 1911, when the Qing empire was overthrown. When invaded in 1937, the islands became Japanese territory until the end of World War II. Kinmen only became associated with when KMT forces set up a heavily fortified garrison there in 1949 to act as a buffer between communist-controlled and proper.

Life in Kimen was dominated by the military throughout the martial law period (1949-1992), but the area is now firmly identified as a gateway to and a tourism destination. It is the home of and an important stopover for migratory birds, two features that enhance its tourism prospects.

Write to Audrey Wang at awang@mail.gio.gov.tw