Troubled Seas
Ongoing story about the Taiwanese people's troubled relationship with the sea that envelops the small island comprised of mostly Chinese refugees. With an American lifeline beyond fierce typhoons to the east and Chinese invaders to the west, the young Taiwanese generation face the same dilemma their parents and grandparents avoided as tensions escalated. Should they push forward toward American allies or turn back to reunite with the Chinese communist superpower?
A young Taiwanese surfing culture embracing American influence in the east is contrasted with abandoned fishing villages in the Taiwan Strait just miles off the coast of China. I retraced the immigration of my father to his hometown of Wuqiu, a tiny military island just off the coast of China where my grandparents fled to from China during the communist revolution as fishermen.
The Wuqiu Islands sit not just on China’s doorstep but also at the frontline of what could be the next major global conflict—yet the location remains unknown to most Taiwanese people, let alone the world. Identified as the first target of a Chinese attack during the 1996 missile crisis, the remoteness and perceived irrelevance of Taiwan’s Wuqiu Islands puts the rural community at the very forefront of the tensions between Taiwan and mainland China.
