The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 14 | Issue 8 | Number 3 | Article ID 4882 | Apr 15, 2016

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Recovery from “Betrayal”: Local Anti-Nuclear Movements andParty Politics in Taiwan

Shuge Wei

Abstract

This article investigates the history andcontemporary development of the local anti-nuclear experience in Gongliao district, Taiwan.It traces villagers' intricate relations withpolitical parties, their frustration with thedecision making process, and efforts to sustainlocal anti-nuclear momentum at a time whenthe anti-nuclear movement was in decline. Byexploring local villagers' three decades of anti-nuclear efforts, this article focuses on theirchange of tactics, networks and ideologies, andexplains how these changes had happened. Itargues that local anti-nuclear activists playedan important role in transforming an anti-nuclear movement from a party-led activity toan issue-based protest independent of partycontrol. The transformation was facilitated bythe deepening of a place-based consciousnessamong local activists.

Key Words

Anti-nuclear Movement, Informal Life Politics,Locality, Grassroots Activism, Taiwan, Gongliao

Introduction

The Chinese lunar New Year was still monthsaway, but the residents of Gongliao district,who for years had fought plans to construct afourth nuc lear power p lant in the i rneighbourhood, were in a festive mood. On 27October 2000, the Minister of the ExecutiveYuan announced that the newly-electedgovernment led by the Democratic ProgressiveParty (DPP) would suspend construction of theplant. Villagers popped bottles of champagne

and set off fireworks to celebrate the historicalmoment. The leader of the locally organizedYanliao Anti-nuclear Self-help Association,ChenChing-tang, wept for joy at the news.Unable to find words to express his gratitude,village head Chao Kuo-tong promised to erectcopper statues of the DPP top leaders next tothe gods and goddesses inside the local Mazutemple to commemorate their "moral politics."1

However, no one would expect that this veryjoyful moment was to be the tipping point ofthe anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan and thelocal anti-nuclear villagers' relationship withthe DPP. As it transformed from an oppositionto a ruling party, the DPP increasingly focusedon political stability rather than reform. Despiteits pro-environmental profile before theelection, it began to dilute its formercommitment to environmental protection tomake overtures to the business community.Facing pressure from its political competitor-the Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party, KMT)-and from domestic and internationalcorporations, the party soon abandoned plansto cease construction of the nuclear powerplant. The reversal subjected the anti-nuclearmovement to a precipitous decline.2 Thepromised copper statues were never erected;joyful tears of activists turned to distrust andgrievances. How did the Gongliao villagersembark on this anti-nuclear journey? What wastheir relationship with party politics and howdid they recover from disillusion with the DPPleadership in the anti-nuclear movement?

The anti-nuclear movement constitutes animportant social movement in the history ofdemocratisation of Taiwan. Its ongoingdevelopment continues to influence power

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dimensions in Taiwan's contemporary politics.Yet most of the literature has examined themovement from the perspective of the state andinstitutional change. Local activists' anti-nuclear journey only receives scholarlyattention when it enters the realm of formalpolitical practices, such as election campaignsand parliamentary debates.3 The long-termdaily struggle in local areas, which was difficultto mould into smooth and continuous narrativesof a social movement, remains neglected andscantily documented. Indeed, the anti-nuclearpursuits visible in formal political arenas areonly the tip of the iceberg of the movement.Political demands, tensions, practices, as wellas mobilisational and policy strategies spreadwidely and invisibly through the social fabric atthe local level before merging into visible streetprotests.4 Politics, as Tessa Morris-Suzukiargues, is a transformative process. The effortsof grassroots communities to organizethemselves in response to challenges to theirlivelihood, which she termed "informal lifepolitics," deserve careful consideration. Theynot only reveal but also influence the changingforms of political power.5 Robert Weller alsoemphasized the importance of local communalties beyond formally organized institutions inshaping political developments in Taiwan.6

Without knowledge of local experience, it ishard to understand how anti -nuclearmovements in Taiwan developed from a party-led movement to an independent one; and howcommunities were reconstructed when partisanpolitics created divisions among neighbours.

This article investigates the history andcontemporary development of the local anti-nuclear experience. It traces local villagers'intricate relations with political parties, theirfrustration with the decision-making process,and efforts to sustain local anti-nuclearmomentum at a time when the national anti-nuclear movement was in decline. By exploringlocal villagers' three decades of anti-nuclearefforts, it focuses on their change of tactics,networks and ideologies and explains how

these changes occurred. This approach isinspired by McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly's call toconsider social movements as dynamicprocesses rather than static opportunitystructures.7 It also attempts to consider theelement of culture and emotions in the studiesof social movements, which have conventionallyfocused on po l i t i ca l resources andopportunities. It argues that local anti-nuclearactivists played an important role intransforming anti-nuclear movements from aparty-led activity to an issue-based protest freeof party domination. The transformation wasfacilitated by a deepening of the place-basedconsciousness of local activists. Before 2000,villagers perceived Taipei as the centre of theanti-nuclear movement and Gongliao as asubordinate locale to provide political support.After 2000, villagers started to consider thelocal space as the primary location to pursueanti-nuclear activism. The transition involvedattempts to integrate local memories andfeelings into the national anti-nucleardiscourse. Such a change was a result of locals'frustration with partisan politics. The deepengagement of external groups with the localcommunity also encouraged locals to seek analternative route to politics.

Scholars have examined the notion of place inthe agenda of social change. The challenge liesin drawing the boundary when bringing localspace into discussion: whether the place isviewed as an "open and porous" space thatderives meaning and representation from thenation and the global world,8 or a distinctiveentity free from marginalisation imposed fromthe outside. This article shows how, undercertain circumstances, villagers' sense oflocality may be transformative. Gongliaovillagers, through a painful process, graduallyacquired what Arif Dirlik called a sense of"groundedness" of the locality. This approachemphasizes the "fixity of places and thelimitations set on the production of place by itsimmediate environment."9 It accentuatesecological aspects of place and calls attention

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to "what is to be included in the place fromwithin the place," particularly control over theconduct and organisation of everyday life. Suchan understanding transformed the tactics ofprotest with deep implications for Taiwanpolitics.

Grassroots Anti-Nuclear Activists' Route toPartisan Politics

Gongliao district is located in the east corner ofTaiwan around 40 kilometres from Taipei city.In 1984 local fishermen and farmers learnedthat the state-owned Taiwan Power Company(Taipower) would build a fourth nuclear powerplant (4NPP) north of the local Fulong beach.Nuclear power was no longer a new source ofenergy for Taiwan. The first two nuclear powerplants had been built close to the northeasterntip of Taiwan (Shimen District and Wanlitownship) in the late 1970s, and a third one onthe southwest coast (Hengchun township) inthe early 1980s. Completed in the period whenpeople were not yet aware of the implicationsof nuclear power, none of them had stirredsocial protests.

Back in the early 1980s, the Gongliao villagershad little knowledge of the potential danger ofnuclear power. They were more concerned withthe government's unfair expropriation of theirland and property for the power plant'sconstruction.10 Learning from the local fisheryunion that the price of fish had dropped sharplyin the vicinity of other nuclear power plants,fishermen near Gongliao worried that the samefate would befall them.11 Concerns for theirlocal economy motivated villagers to appeal tothe government to reconsider the nuclearpower project. The high risk under theKuomintang's authoritarian rule deterred localvillagers from reaching out for politicalsupport. Protests were organized in an ad hocmanner without long-term guidelines.

Meanwhile, the tangwai was vocal inchallenging the KMT's nuclear power policy.The tangwai (literally "outside the party") was a

general term for the political opposition beforethe formation of the Democratic ProgressivePar t y (DPP) i n 1986 . I n the 1980s ,environmental pollution became a key focus ofthe group. Utilizing progressive publicationssuch as Life and Environment and New Trend,the tangwai addressed a large number ofenvironment-related issues that had beenlargely censored in KMT-control lednewspapers. They believed that environmentalproblems, which involved the relations amongnature, individuals, business, and the state,were political issues, and that the end of theKMT dictatorship was essential to reduceTaiwan's environmental hazard.12 Despite thetangwai group's efforts to incorporate villagersin their political pursuit, it failed to attractgrassroots protesters. Before the lifting ofmartial law, any cooperation with theopposition would easily incur governmentsuppression. The local villagers were not readyto challenge the rule of the KMT as the tangwaihoped. Yet silence did not suggest consent tothe state's nuclear power policy. Anxiety overnuclear risks was aggravating, particularly dueto academics' efforts to spread nuclearknowledge among the local villagers.

Having been trained in science in the West,particularly in the United States, academicsand intellectuals were privy to information onradiation leakage such as the Three Mile IslandIncident of 1979. Their knowledge aboutnuclear hazards directly challenged Taipower'spromise of nuclear security. But debates aboutthe validity of nuclear power were mostly heldamong small groups of engineers andbureaucrats, instead of trickling down to thelocal level to strengthen the Gongliao villagers'appeal.13 The political hurdles that lay betweenlocal villagers and academics began todisappear after the abolition of martial law in1987. No longer satisfied with the "gentlemen'sdisagreements" among urban-based scientists,scholars started to travel to Gongliao andeducate villagers about the risk of nuclearenergy. They explained the scientific evidence

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in plain language and communicated with themin local dialect. Their localized strategy waseffective in winning villagers' trust.14

Compared to the Tangwai group/DPP,intellectuals were much more receptive to localvillagers. They enjoyed high reputation amonglocals who embraced the tradition of respectingscholars and intellectuals. The knowledge theybrought to the local area constituted the sourceof power and authority that villagers could relyon to strengthen their anti-nuclear case.Meanwhile, warnings on the risk of nucleartechnology were not foreign to local ears. Eldergenerations educated during Japanese colonialrule (1895-1945) had access to Japanesematerials on the tragedy after the atomicbombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Scholars'messages simply enhanced the existingindigenous concerns that the 4NPP not onlythreatened the local economy but villagers'health and life. The Chernobyl nuclear poweraccident in 1986 further enhanced villagers'fears of a nuclear disaster.15 Although villagersat first did not dare to openly attend thelectures, rather "overhearing" scholars'speeches from a distance, information aboutthe hazard of nuclear power still quickly spreadacross Gongliao.16

Public seminar on the use of electricity inGongliao, March 1988, by Liao Ming-hsiung, collected by Wu Wen-tung

Vi l lagers eventual ly confronted thegovernment's nuclear policy by establishing theYanliao Anti-nuclear Self-help Association(YASA) in March 1988. According to local anti-nuclear activists, the decision to act wasprompted by a sham policy seminar organisedby Taipower. With the endorsement of localofficials, on 1 March 1988 Taipower staff cameto Aodi primary school to inform residentsabout nuclear power. Concerned villagers wentto the seminar only to discover that it was nomore than a lottery for attendants. Prizesincluded large electronic appliances, such astelevisions and refrigerators. Taipower's"generosity" attracted many attendees. Yetissues such as safety, impacts on marine life,and land expropriation remained unaddressed.The second day, news spread in the nationalmedia that Gongliao villagers had warmlywelcomed Taipower's plans to construct anuclear power plant in their neighbourhood.Irritated by Taipower's deception and contemptfor local feelings, villagers decided tomobil ize. 1 7 Five days later, YASA wasestablished. 1500 villagers attended theestablishment conference.18 Villagers intendedto send a clear message to the state that localswere prepared to organize to resist the state'snuclear policy.

Informal and communal ties played animportant role in mobilizing the locals,particularly those revolving around the temple.As centres of local identity, temples oftenserved as political bases for the localcommunity. They offered the local movementpowerful moral support, and often provided keyfinancial resources if they could be won over.19

Before the establishment of YASA, Wu Tien-fu,a staff member of the Renhe temple (a Mazutemple) had sought divination from the localgoddess Mazu, and received the message that"the fourth nuclear power plant would be built,but not operate."20 Although villagers puzzledover what this really meant, the message fromMazu constituted a moral sanction from thegod. This greatly boosted local confidence. On

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12 March, YASA organized its first publicprotest: collecting Taipower's gift calendarsfrom villagers they put them in flames in frontof the local Mazu Temple.

The event was remembered as the ir"declaration of war" against the state's nuclearpower policy.21

YASA collecting Taipower calendars,March 1988, by Liao Ming-hsiung,collected by Wu Wen-tung

YASA kept a rather flat organization structure.Apart from a head and two sub-heads electedby its members, the association had nointermediate layer between the bottom and thetop. The leaders of the association served thecommunity on a voluntary basis, receiving nosalary from the group. To prevent dominationby a single leader, YASA members elected theirhead every year and no head was allowed tolead for more than two years. To be qualified asa YASA leader, one should not hold anygovernment position. This was to maintain theassociation's autonomy from the state.22 Yettaking a leadership position in YASA meantassuming political responsibilities and risks. "Itwas a very tiring job," Lin Fu-lai recalled, "evenmy family phone was tapped during the time Iwas the head."23 Wu Wen-tung also told me that

the police regularly checked his householdregistration book (hukou) three times a day asa political harassment when he led the localanti-nuclear protest.24

Before an activity, local liaisons would visiteach household to invite villagers in person."Human contact" was emphasized as a way ofshowing respect as well as strengthening thebond of the community.25 The association wasfinancially supported by membership fees andlocal fund-raising. Most funding came fromlocal donations collected at the annual Mazutemple fair on 16 March in the lunar calendar.26

As former YASA leaders recalled, YASA usuallycollected about four hundred thousand NewTaiwanese dollars in the temple fair every year,sufficient to cover YASA's expenses for a year.27

To make the budget transparent to the public,YASA usually provided a full record of itsannual spending in its newsletters.28 The flatand transparent management posed a sharpcontrast to the hierarchical and opaquebureaucracy of the government. It alsoincreased YASA's credibility and reputation,which were key to attracting popular support.

The anti-nuclear campaign changed the localpolitical landscape. For decades, local politicsin Taiwan were notable for factionalism. Thelack of local connections after the KMTretreated to Taiwan led the party to co-opt localelites via patron-client networks. The partyusually cultivated relations with severalfactions at the same time and tried to maximizepolitical benefits by striking a balance throughtheir contention.29 Before the late 1980s, localpolitics in Gongliao were dominated by the OldFaction (Jiupai) and the New Faction (Xinpai).30

When YASA was established, Gongliaotownship was governed by a New factionmember Wu Ching-tung, who tended to followthe central government's position on nuclearpower. This deterred other New Factionmembers from joining YASA, creating thepotential for the Old Faction to dominate theassociation.31 Yet involvement by the New

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Faction was crucial, not only because of thenecessity to rid YASA of factional divisions, butalso because their participation could help easetensions with local officials and provide links toresources under their control, such as thefishery union and temple managementcommittee.32 As a result of these pragmaticconcerns, Lien Ta-ching, a New Factionmember, was appointed as YASA's first head.To balance Lien's influence, ChenChing-tang,an Old Faction member, was installed as one ofits sub-heads.33 Although the division betweenthe Old and New factions lingered for a while,members of both factions started to join YASA,as the anti-nuclear movement grew stronger.34

This eventually dissolved the boundary betweenthe two factions and united the communitybehind the common anti-nuclear cause.

However, not long after YASA had freed itselfof factionalism, it became involved in a largerpartisan struggle between KMT and DPP. Withanti-nuclear intellectuals as the broker, localactivists started to form an alliance with theDPP. In 1989, YASA joined the TaiwanEnvironmental Protection Union (TEPU) as itsnortheastern branch. Led by a group of anti-nuclear academics, TEPU worked as anumbrel la organisat ion to coordinateenvironment-related movements throughoutthe island.35 It not only connected YASA to anation-wide community of environmentalists,but led YASA on the track of partisan politics.Many of local leaders were DPP politicianswhose protests were supported by the party. In1989 alone, fourteen members of TEPU joinedelections for legislators and city councillors, allof them being DPP politicians.36 Lin Chun-yi,one of the TEPU pioneering anti-nuclearscholars, for example, joined the DPP in 1989.37

Later, he famously proclaimed that "anti-nuclear is anti-dictatorship," thereby linkingthe nuclear issue with the DPP's political goalof challenging KMT authoritarian rule.

Influenced by scholars, YASA leadersgravitated to the DPP's leadership, many

switching their political identity. Before 1994,the head of YASA was either a KMT member ora non-party independent. Although affiliationwith the KMT was often a pragmatic measureto gain benefits within the system rather thanan indication of political loyalty, YASA leaderswere still keen to sever this affiliation so as tomaintain their political integrity. The foundingleader of YASA, ChenChing-tang, moved fromthe KMT to the DPP in the mid-1990s. Wu Wen-tung, who had led YASA as a non-party memberin 1994, also joined the DPP in the late 1990s.Since 1995, YASA has been led exclusively byDPP members. (See Table 1) The change ofparty affiliation was a declaration of theircriticism of KMT environmental policy and theirbelief in the DPP's promise of change.

Table 1: Party affiliation of the head of YASA38

Number Name Tenure Party Affiliation1 Lien Ta-ching 1988-1989 Nil (New Faction)2 Lien Ta-ching 1989-1990 Nil (New Faction)3 Chiang Chun-he 1990-1991 KMT4 Chiang Chun-he 1991-1992 KMT5 Chen Ching-tang 1992-1993 KMT6 Chen Ching-tang 1993-1994 KMT7 Wu Wen-tung 1994-1995 Nil8 Lin Fu-lai 1995-1996 DPP9 Chao Jui-chang 1996-1997 DPP10 Chao Jui-chang 1997-1998 DPP11 Chen Ching-tang 1998-1999 DPP12 Chen Ching-tang 1999-2000 DPP13 Chen Ching-tang 2000-2001 DPP14 Chen Ching-tang 2001-2002 DPP1516

Wu Wen-tungWu Wen-chang

2002-20102011-

DPPNil

Local anti-nuclear resources were quicklyabsorbed by the DPP to become a main sourceof support for its local election campaigns.Under the DPP's leadership, the anti-nuclearprotests transformed into anti-dictatorship andanti-corruption campaigns, aimed directly atthe KMT. With the slogan "vote out pro-nuclearpoliticians," Gongliao villagers supported YuChing, a veteran of the anti-nuclear activists, tobecome the head of New Taipei County. As aDPP member, Yu's inauguration ended decadeso f KMT monopo ly o f the county andcompounded the division between central andlocal governments with respect to nuclear

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policy. He resisted the KMT government'snuclear plan by refusing to issue constructionpermits. Branding the nuclear power plant"illegal," he called on Taipower to removeunauthorised buildings in Gongliao.39 Tostrengthen his anti-nuclear position, hesupported activists who organized a localreferendum in 1994 in Gongliao. Among the58% turnout, 96% voted against construction ofthe power plant. Although Taipei declared thereferendum lacking legal validity, Yu'spersistent anti-nuclear gesture greatly boostedthe morale of local grassroots activists. Itreaffirmed the idea that the DPP was a reliableparty that would lead the anti-nuclearmovement at the grassroots to challenge theKMT's pro-nuclear policy. As Chen Shi-nancommented, allying with the DPP back thenwas a rational choice for local grassrootsactivists:

We need a national party to haveour voice heard. The issue ofnuclear power will only be noticedby people outside the villagethrough parliamentary debatebetween po l i t ica l part ies .Otherwise who will pay attentionto the view of Gongliao villagers,who are considered an uneducatedviolent mob?40

However, the grassroots movement did notalways benefit from alliance with the DPP. In1991, with tacit approval of local countyleaders of the DPP, Gongliao villagers builtbarricades at the designated construction siteto combat the KMT government's persistentefforts to construct the fourth nuclear powerplant. On October 13, when police officers triedto dismantle the barricades, peaceful proteststurned into violent confrontation, leading to thedeath of a police officer. The tragedy swayedpublic opinion. What used to be seen as a"green and peaceful" environmental movement,turned into "anti-nuclear violence."41 Both the

KMT and the DPP refused to take responsibilityfor the tragic consequence, leaving thegrassroots to bear the brunt of publiccriticism.42 The accident, which became knownas the 1003 event, dealt a heavy blow to themorale of local anti-nuclear activists. For awhile, the Gongliao villagers were under closesurveillance. Anti-nuclear villagers wereinterrogated by the police, while key leaders ofYASA were thrown into jail. Gongliao peoplewere thereafter known as a "violent mob," alabel that cast a shadow over the locals formore than a decade.

Meanwhile, YASA leaders also realized thatsupporting DPP candidates in elections oftendivided grassroots anti-nuclear activists. As WuWen-tung complained:

If the candidate we supported wonan election, it was a loss for us.The elected one usually prioritizedthe party line over the anti-nuclearc a u s e a f t e r j o i n i n g t h egovernment. If our candidate lostthe election, however, we lost evenmore, since he would blame us fornot helping enough.43

Indeed, various political tensions between localand central political groups were concealedunder the umbrella of the anti-nuclear cause.While local grassroots activists considered anti-nuclear power the goal of their protests,politicians regarded the protests as a means toascend the political ladder.

The DPP evinced less interest in the anti-nuclear cause in the mid-1990s. In 1996, theDPP and the New Party proposed to re-considerthe bill ending the construction of the 4NPP.With little chance to win, the DPP made asecret deal with the KMT to trade their votesfor other political concessions. The deal wasleaked to the grassroots anti-nuclear activistswho rallied outside of the Legislative Yuan and

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divided the anti-nuclear camp.44 Some criticizedDPP members as "collaborators under the guiseof the anti-nuclear cause."45 Others continuedto support the party but blamed the KMT forpolitical manipulation. Sensing that grassrootsactivism could become uncontrollable, DPPleaders readjusted relations with the grassrootsafter the assembly. Instead of perceivingcooperation with the grassroots movement asequally important as parliamentary elections,they recalibrated their strategy to make theformer subordinate to the latter.46

Despite complications within the alliancebetween the local grassroots and the DPP, thetwo remained bound together in the anti-nuclear cause. Anti-nuclear protests hadintertwined with the DPP's party politics andbecome an integral part of the party's strugglefor ascendance. The party provided grassrootsprotesters with political access, while thegrassroots movements guaranteed votes for theDPP in elections. For them, it was more amatter of replacing pro-nuclear officials withDPP members. As a villager claimed, "when thevillage leader, the township leader, the mayorand the president are all our men [DPPmembers], we shall see the realization of ouranti-nuclear cause."47

Also, villagers genuinely perceived the solutionlay in the streets of Taipei-beyond the localarea. Organizing local villagers to travel toTaipei to participate in protests and publiccampaigns became YASA's main tasks in the1990s. YASA leaders were unconsciouslyfollowing the hegemonic consensus that Taipeiwas the centre of the anti-nuclear movement.Gongliao thus remained a marginal areabeyond the concern of most urban-based elitesand politicians. The physical environment ofthe locality as well as the immediate socialexperiences only became valuable when itmerged with the political discourses in thecentre.

"Betrayal" of the DPP

The year 2000 presented a great opportunityfor the anti-nuclear movement to achieve ameaningful result. In March, Chen Shui-bian,the leader of DPP, won the highly competitivepresidential elections. His victory ended overfifty years of Kuomintang rule, a party whichhad taken over Taiwan following the defeat ofJapan in the Pacific War and established itsheadquarters on the island after losing themainland the Chinese Communist Party in thecivil war (1946–1949). Despite the KMT'sachievements in fostering economic growth inTaiwan, people were restive under the party'sauthoritarian rule as well as its cronyism withbusiness tycoons, local factions and organizedgangsters. The electoral loss of the KMTsignalled a popular desire for progressive socialreform.48

Chen's victory of Chen greatly boosted themorale of anti-nuclear activists. They organizedan anti-nuclear demonstration right beforeChen's inauguration to urge him to deliver onhis anti-nuclear promise.49 Upon inauguration,Chen referred the case of the nuclear plant tothe Ministry of Economic Affairs for review.The process was cut short after ChangChun-hsiung, the newly appointed Minister of theExecutive Yuan, announced the end of thefourth nuclear power plant project. After morethan a decade of support for the DPP, localsfinally saw the construction of 4NPP halted.

However, Chang's announcement promptedsevere protest from the Legislative Yuan(parliament) dominated by the KMT. In theabsence of a consensus between the Executiveand the Legislative Yuan, the case was sent tothe Council of Grand Justices (Taiwan'sSupreme Court) for review. Refraining frommaking a judgment on nuclear policy, thecouncil concluded that Chang's order lackeddue process, have failed to seek prior approvalfrom the Legislative Yuan. Chang submitted thebill to the Legislative Yuan only to have itvetoed. After a pause of just one hundred days,construction of the fourth nuclear power plant

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was reactivated.

Gongliao villagers were devastated by thesechanges, frequently referring to DPP politiciansas "liars" and "betrayers."50 Chao Jui-chang, alocal anti-nuclear leader, experienced beingsandwiched between the DPP leaders and localvillagers.51 Unable to find a channel to releasetheir frustration, villagers vented theiremotions against local anti-nuclear leaders. Theformer head of YASA, ChenChing-tang, a frailold man, received repeated telephone calls andvisitors to his home, chastising the DPP'sunpredictable policy and complaining aboutlocal leaders' cooperation with them.52 YetChen himself was struggling to recover fromthe DPP's change of policy. Scandals whichexposed attempts by DPP leaders to securepersonal profits by making arrangementsbetween Taipower and subcontractors furthertarnished the party's reputation.

The former anti-nuclear alliance linking localgrassroots organization, the DPP and externalscholars started to dissolve. After the transferof power, some prestigious environmentalistscholars were integrated into the DPPgovernment as leaders of the EnvironmentalProtection Administration. A cabinet-levelNuclear Free Homeland CommunicationCommittee was also established to raise publicawareness of nuclear risk. The increased scopeand depth of institutional participation reducedthe incentive to seek anti-nuclear solutionsthrough social movements. Meanwhile, thescholar-led TEPU was more lenient toward theDPP than Gongliao villagers. Most of TEPU'sleaders attributed the DPP's change of nuclearpolicy to the non-cooperation of KMTlegislators. Few questioned the sincerity of theparty's anti-nuclear stance. They believed thatgiven the situation, the DPP had done all itcould, and that cooperation with the party wasthe most effective way to advance their anti-nuclear goals.53 This view was not shared byGongliao people. Disheartened by the failure ofthe DPP to deliver on halting the project,

vi l lagers expressed l i t t le interest inparticipating in anti-nuclear demonstrationsorganized by TEPU.54

Anti-nuclear movements declined after 2001.While in 2000, the United Evening News andthe United Daily carried 667 articles about anti-nuclear issues, the number dropped to 458 in2001 and plummeted to 149 in 2002. Thepaper's coverage of anti-nuclear topicscontinued to decline from 2004 to 2010, withonly some 40 articles about nuclear issues eachyear. (See Table II)

Table II: United News' reports on "anti-nuclear"issues, 2000–2010

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010Number ofreports 814 525 160 153 58 73 78 44 33 53 32

Source: collected by author based on theUnited News' database, searched by keyword"fanhe"

Indeed, nuclear protests had become a clichéthat failed to attract the public. Fewer peoplecontinued to participate in programs organizedby YASA. Due to the small number of members,the annual assembly of the association had tobe cancelled in 2002. As a villager recollected,Gongliao was overwhelmed by a sense ofdespair. "Even Chen Shui-bian was unable tostop the nuclear project as a president; whathope do we have?" "Those [DPP members] whochanted anti-nuclear slogans the loudest then,reap the most political benefits now." "DPPpoliticians are just like their KMT counterparts.They only care about their political interests,not our anti-nuclear cause."55 Villagers avoidedtalking about anti-nuclear issues, as ifforgetting was a way of healing.

Suspicions about the local protesters began togrow among the public. Some regarded thelocal protests as another "not in my backyard"movement that prioritized local over nationalinterests. Others suspected that the localGongliao people were simply intent on reaping

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government subsidies through their protests,although they had already enjoyed the bestwelfare compensation anywhere in Taiwan: freeprimary school education, free school lunches,a handsome premium of accident insurance forevery villager, free 200 kw supply of electricityfor each household, and various scholarshipsfor local students to attend college.56

Indeed, government subsidies to the villagersweakened the moral foundations of the localgrassroots movement and divided local anti-nuclear activists. Many villagers withdrew fromthe anti-nuclear front after receiving the socialbenefits. A few of the most radical activistsrefused Taipower's favours, insisting that giftseroded local anti-nuclear morale.57 The subsidydeepened distrust between anti-nuclearactivists and local authorities. As a YASApetition letter to the DPP chairman recorded,officials of Gongliao County and the localfishery union were ready to suppress radicalanti-nuclear activists on grounds that theydisrupted social peace.

"For local officials, anti-nuclearwas a measure to squeeze personalbenefits from Taipower…. Fightingfor a decade under KMT rule, weh a d n e v e r b e e n l a b e l l e d"environmental hooligans" astoday . How pathet ic ! Howpathetic! " 5 8

Children of the more radical activists werereported to be isolated by their classmates inschool.59 As Taipower increased recruitmentfrom the local area, some veteran anti-nuclearleaders were also blamed for hypocrisy when itwas found that their relatives had acceptedjobs with the company. The anti-nuclear causethat had once united the local community, nowdivided it. Yet the divide was not surprising tolocals, since it only made visible previouslyhidden tensions within the anti-nuclear cause.The result was misunderstanding among the

general public of the fact that local peopleopposed the nuclear power plant. Nevertheless,it was outside social activists who wereprepared to instigate conflict in society andpushed the anti-nuclear line hardest.60

The aging of the protest leaders also plaguedlocal anti-nuclear movements pursued in thecourse of a generation. Although a decades-long social phenomenon ought not to bereduced to biological generations, it isundeniable that the rhythm of birth and deathand the change of physical interactions affectsthe trajectory of a social movement.61 For awhile, the key task of YASA was to helporganize funerals of former leaders.62 Whileveteran activists were aging, the village waslosing young generations to the metropolis.How to recover from the downturn of anti-nuclear movements? How to attract supportfrom the general public, and young people inparticular, for a cause that had become apolitical cliché?

Recovery from "Betrayal"

The decline of the anti-nuclear movementnevertheless provided an opportunity forgrassroots activists faithful to the anti-nuclearcause to regain leadership and autonomy in themovement. As the movement lost its politicaladvantage after 2001, local and central interestgroups that used to take advantage of themovement for other political benefits quicklywithdrew their resources and support.Although this dealt a heavy blow to YASA, italso enabled "pure" anti-nuclear activists whodeeply cared about the locality to resume YASAleadership.

Gongliao grassroots activists sought toseparate themselves from party politics. Havingworked closely with DPP over the past decade,local activists found their protests dominatedby political leaders. For years, villagers wereencouraged to present their case using thevocabulary provided by politicians and

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academics. While the anti-nuclear movementbrought the village's plight to the public eye, italso deprived it of its true identity, reducing itto a political token imbued with the sense ofconfrontation and anger. The village existed inthe public imagination only because of thenuclear power dispute. Its land, people, theireveryday lives and emotions, were all eclipsedby the violence involved in the protest. Whenthe campaign subsided with the DPP'sascendance to power, Gongliao and its anti-nuclear case were quickly forgotten. Fordecades, the streets of Taipei were perceivedby the locals as the centre of their protests. Yetby protesting in Taipei, locals had extractedthemselves out of their own cultural context,occupied a space where they originally did notbelong. The activists felt the need to return totheir local community for new sources of moralauthority. The authority was embedded invictimized villagers and their physical andcultural surroundings. An intimate contact withthe locality constituted the basis of collectiveidentity.

The place-based consciousness neverthelesswas not acquired over-night. It took root amonglocal activists through a long-term interactionbetween the local community and externalgroups. The Green Citizens' Action Alliance(GCAA) had played an important role indepoliticizing local identity and cultivating aplace-based consciousness among locals.Established as TEUP's Taipei branch, GCAAsplit with it in 2000 because of different viewson relat ions with the DPP. The GCAArepresented a younger generation ofenvironmentalists who were intolerant of theDPP's deviation from its environmentalpromise. While the TEUP since 2000 was moreintent on seeking a solution to the nuclearpower problem by expanding participation informal policy-making processes, the GCAAadhered to a bottom-up approach, believing thevitality of social movements lay with grassrootsactivism.63 Indeed, GCAA developed at a timewhen nativism became a new ideology for NGO

leaders who sought independence from partypolitics. Originally motivated by a demand forcommunity reconstruction in the mid-1990s,nativism, with the attention to local autonomy,face-to-face dialogue between activists andconcerned local people, has been accepted byvarious social groups as an effective way toachieve real democracy.64

The GCAA evinced deep sympathy with locals'frustration with the DPP and believed the localsdeserved public respect:

In the past decade, we kept seeingGongliao people travel to Taipei tojoin various street protests andreturn in d isappointment .Politicians and public elites comeand go, yet no one cares about thevillagers who have been emaciatedout of fatigue….Gongliao does notex ist only for ant i -nuclearpurposes. We need to find thefuture orientation for local people.And in order to do so, we mustreturn to the locality for energyand inspiration.65

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Poster of How Are You, Gongliao

One of the key leaders of the GCAA, Tsui Su-hsin, spent six years making the documentary,How Are You, Gongliao? Released in 2004, thefilm, for the first time, presented the anti-nuclear movement from the perspective ofGongliao villagers. Revolving around the 1003event, Tsui challenges the commonly assumed"violent mob" image of local people andpresented them as victims who were desperateto protect their homeland from a brutallyimposed state policy. Such a discourse reversedthe conventional moral judgement of the caseestablished by the mainstream media. Itauthenticated the brutal violence involved inthe local protest as a purer form of justiceabove law. Tsui's documentary was widelyscreened domestically and internationally.Within the first year of its release, she hadreceived over 1,300 postcards from audiences,particularly college students throughoutTaiwan who expressed support for thevillagers.66 Released at the time when the anti-nuclear movement was at low ebb, thedocumentary kept the issue within publicconsciousness. An experience once exclusive to

elder Gongliao villagers had become a sharedmemory passed onto the youth.

Newly established connections with outsideyouth deepened the villagers' understanding ofthe significance of the locality. It freed themfrom constant denial of the past andestablished among them a confidence of thelocal cause. While the DPP government madeno effort to console Gongliao villagers after thesetback in 2001, the GCAA approachedvillagers, shared their frustration and retrievedthe locals' anti-nuclear memories. After 2001,Gongliao became a destination of pilgrimagefor ardent anti-nuclear activists and aneducational centre for university activists. AsWu Wen-tung recalled, every year universitystudent clubs (shetuan) visited Gongliao. Somestudents, frustrated with the decline of socialmovements during Chen Shui-bian's rule, cameto the township to share their distress withparty politics and to seek inspiration.67 Throughexchanging ideas with the social groups,villagers came to the realisation that localspace should no longer be subordinated to thepolitical centre in Taipei. The physicalenvironment, the history of local people, thehardship they have been through as well astheir continuous anti-nuclear commitment indaily life constituted a strong moral powerbeyond the locals' expectation.

To further strengthen the local place as thebase for disseminating anti-nuclear ideas, YASAleaders considered community building as theirnew focus. In 2005, Wu Wen-tung, then thehead of YASA, together with a few primaryschool teachers, established a communitynewspaper, Gongliaoren (Gongliao people) inan attempt to reconstruct a common identityamong the locals which had been lost in thedecade-long anti-nuclear struggles.68

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Gongliaren, No. 71, p.3

Gongliaoren featured local natural resourcesand the everyday lives of villagers. While themainstream media portrayed local villagers asangry demonstrators in the streets who wereready to block traffic or confront the police, thepaper returned the vi l lagers to theirgeographical and social context and portrayedthem as humble and diligent people, toilingaway to maintain their livelihood. It should benoted that primary school teachers, aconservative group, were formerly absent fromthe anti-nuclear movement. Yet they wereattracted to it because they were genuinelytouched by YASA leaders' strong commitmentto the local community. One of the key editors,Lin Wen-tsui , acknowledged that thealternative way of protecting the local areainstead of street protests echoed her similaraspirations: "A softer approach works better forme and I believe it is equally powerful."69

Another editor, Wang Ching-e, also found itimportant to awaken villagers' consciousness ofplace: "the more we knew about the localstories, the more strongly we felt the urge toprotect it from a potential nuclear disaster."70

While the paper started to attract villagers'attention, local officials also showed interest inproviding financial support for the paper. Yeteditors insisted on protecting the paper'sindependence from political infiltration.71

Information gathering was another way foractivists to enhance the position of the locality.Retreating from the streets of Taipei, villagersdeveloped a scheme of "on-the-groundsupervision" (zaidi jiandu). They collectedinformation on the harm 4NPP had brought tothe local environment and daily life. Believingthat the local sand beach was shrinkingbecause of docks built by the power plant,villagers measured the level of sand regularly,and documented their results in photographsand detailed reports.72 Through informal socialgatherings with plant workers, villagers wereprivy to the information about engineers'change of the original construction plans andsubcontractors' cheating on materials.73 Thelocally acquired information was distributed toother communities by lectures organized bysocial organizations. This challenged themainstream media's accounts and provided analternative source for public understanding ofnuclear power issues.

Cultivating a shared lived experience was oneof the important tactics that local activistsadopted to mobilize outsiders, particularlyyoung people. Here, "lived experience" stressesthe importance of bodily sensations of materiallife in contrast to the experience we inheritfrom a secondary medium.74 The experience ofthe elderly, no matter how vividly it wasrepresented on the screen, was an abstract andvirtual presentation removed from its originalsocial and natural context. A more concretebond between the youth and local spaceneeded to be established through personally

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acquired experience. And physical immersioninto a local environment was conducive tobuilding a tangible sense of connection and thecare for local affairs and concerns. Indeed, thelocal environment created a habitus thatcultivated informal associations among people.The associations, as Robert Weller stated,would provide small reservoirs of social capitalthat can multiply when political situationschange.75 Where environmental movementselsewhere tended to aspire to "thinkingglobally, acting locally," the Gongliao activistsstressed the importance of "thinking locally" asthe prerequisite for acting in a larger scale.

For years, YASA endeavoured to invite peoplefrom other parts of Taiwan to visit the villageand considered it a measure to promote anti-nuclear ideas. This plan correlated with thecommunity construction (Shequ yingzao) policyintroduced by the central government in the1990s.76 Although there is no clear evidencethat YASA's program was part of the localcommunity construction project, the policygreatly reduced political hurdles for YASA topursue its plan. 7 7 The improved localinfrastructure as a result of the policy alsofacilitated YASA's program. In 2002, theMinistry of Communications introduced atourism scheme that renovated the ancientCaoling trail passing through Gongliao. Takingadvantage of the scheme, YASA organizedhiking activities along the trail. Instead oftaking people to the popular local tourismspots, YASA was keen to nurture a sense ofintimacy between the outside visitors and thelocal land and its people. It guided visitors deepinto the village, to walk along the ridges offields and observe local villagers' workingamong the green paddies.78 Walking itselfbecame a process of communication betweenparticipants and the local space. Theexperience compounded by stimulation ofmultiple senses created a narrative andmemory beyond what media could convey in atwo-dimensional paper or screen. Villagers whowere cognizant of local history, religious beliefs

and natural resources volunteered as guides.For a remote village whose history and recordsrarely appeared in urban libraries or publicreadings, the local guides' accounts togetherwith the visitors' personal observations oftenhelped to form their initial understanding of thearea. To enrich participants' understanding ofthe locality and to establish a bond between avisitor and the village was exactly what theorganizers wished to achieve. As a YASA leaderexplained, "Once they realize the value of thelocal area, they will inevitably care about itsfuture."79

The annual Hohaiyan Rock Festival providedYASA another opportunity to cultivate a sharedlived experience. Initiated by independentmusic groups and the government of the NewTaipei County in 2000, the festival grew intothe biggest music festival on Taiwan. Thefestival required no entrance fee, fancyclothing or elaborate decorations. Such a plainstyle attracted thousands of young people.Although the festival had little to do withGongliao's anti-nuclear pursuit, the fact that itwas held at the Fulong beach right next to theconstruction site of the fourth nuclear plantinevitably drew public attention to the localnuclear problem. Realizing that the popularityof the festival constituted a promisingopportunity to promote anti-nuclear ideas, WuWen-tung approached the GCAA forassistance.80 The GCAA was careful not tocause distaste from the public who came toGongliao primarily for fun. It first approachedthe music bands who were "opinion leaders" inthe festival and tried to influence their views onthe local anti-nuclear by inviting them to watchTsui's documentary.81 A band entitled 929openly expressed their anti-nuclear stancebefore their performance in 2004, and this setoff ripples of anti-nuclear appeals amongsingers and music producers in subsequentfestivals. In recollection, 929 membersconfessed that they initially came to the festivalwith the simple goal of winning an award. Yetafter witnessing the damage to the local

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environment and chatting with villagersbackstage, they realized that an award wasmuch less important than raising theaudience's awareness of the shrinking beachunder their feet, the pollution of the sea, andthe potential nuclear hazard caused by thepower plant under construction nearby.82 Thesinger Wu Chih-ning, based on his experiencein Gongliao, composed "We Don't Want NuclearPower Plants," which became a famous anti-nuclear song repeated in various anti-nuclearcampaigns.

The anti-nuclear issue gradually transformedfrom a political cliché into a popular culturalicon linked with the notion of "independentthinking," "love of homeland," and "rebellion"appreciated by the youth. In addition to theHohaiyan music festival, CGAA started theannual "No Nukes" Anti-nuclear concert on thelocal beach which has continued since 2009. A"No Nukes" marching band composed byveterans of the wild strawberry studentmovement was formed in 2010. The bandsought to boost local villagers' anti-nuclearmomentum by showing support for the localcause. It also sought to "open a new realm ofpolitical discussion through music andperformances."83 Indeed, local space hadbecome the focal point for anti-nuclear activiststo gather and experiment new movementstrategies. The creative activities organized byNGOs changed the cultural context anddiscourse of the anti-nuclear movement-from amovement involving suffering, hardship andviolence to an event featuring fun, creativityand independence. Engagement with localactivism also constituted a source of politicalpower that strengthened CGAA and otherindependent groups' leading position in theanti-nuclear movement when politicalopportunity arose.

Revival of the Anti-Nuclear Movement

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011sounded a grim warning to Taiwanese society

about the hazard of nuclear power. Living onan island that also sits in a seismic area, theTaiwanese strongly related Japan's disaster totheir own concerns for the safety of nuclearpower. "What if the Fukushima nuclear disasteroccurred in Taiwan" became a question thatkept haunting the imagination of theTaiwanese. On 9 March 2013, over 220,000people throughout the island marched in thestreets protest ing the government'sdevelopment of nuclear energy in the largestanti-nuclear demonstration in Taiwan.84 Yet theFukushima Incident only changed people'sperception on what to protest, not how to do it.

Anti-nuclear Demonstration, March 2011

Post-Fukushima protests have many distinctivefeatures developed during the dormant periodof the movement. First, the DPP lost leadershipin the anti-nuclear movement. While DPPleaders tried to relaunch the party's visibility inanti-nuclear demonstrations immediately afterthe Fukushima Incident, younger generationsof activists evinced distaste for DPP's presenceand coined the slogan "NPP4 is a joint ventureof both the green and blue camp" in protest.85

(see F igure 5) 8 6 Dur ing the 9 Marchdemonstration in 2013, DPP members wereinstructed by Su Tseng-chang, chairman of theparty, not to show the party flag, possiblyunder pressure from NGO leaders who opposedsubordinating the anti-nuclear movement to

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partisan struggles. Indeed, anti-nuclear groupswere no longer allies of political parties. Theyconsidered themselves part of the "citizenmovement," transcending division of blue andgreen camps. Independent NGOs, particularlythe GCAA, became the new leaders of themovement.

Second, more and more artists and celebritiesin entertainment circles joined post-Fukushimaanti-nuclear activities. Their engagementturned the protests, which once focused onsuffering, rage, and self-sacrifice, into acultural carnival of youth. Protests in the formof pop concerts, poster design competitions anda petition of popular stars have replaced thetraditional street demonstrations and sit-ins.The element of fun and leisure which used tobe excluded or marginalized in the anti-nuclearmovements has become an indispensable partto attract the participation of youngergenerations who would otherwise be put off byconventional street protests. Compared to theold generation of anti-nuclear protesters,artists emphasize the power of "softness" andemotions in political combat.

These distinctive features were not a suddeninvention after Fukushima but were formulatedduring the so-called dormant period in the firstdecade of the twentieth first century. Ming-shoHo, in assessing why Taiwan generated thestrongest anti-nuclear sentiment in East Asiaafter the Fukushima Incident, argued that theoutreach of activists after 2001, the risingsocial protests after Ma Ying-jeou took office in2008, and the DPP's inability to lead themovement attributed to the revival of the anti-nuclear movement.87 Yet the locals' anti-nuclearexperience and their new way of framing anti-nuclear actions should not be neglected. Theirdecades-long anti-nuclear journey provided theurban activists with a new perspective andlanguage to repackage the movement. Duringthis process, the local village also transformedfrom a marginal locale to the centre of themovement. Local space constituted a source of

authority and authenticity for the anti-nuclearcause. GCAA's long-term engagement withlocals provided it the credibility to play aleading role in the new wave of the movement.As Tsui maintained, "no one has everquestioned our [GCAA] anti-nuclear intentions,because we have been through the mostdifficult days with the local people."88 Thenetwork between locals, urban artists anduniversity clubs formed during the last decadealso constituted the social basis of the currentanti-nuclear movements.

As a result of sustained public protests, the MaYing-jeou government, in April 2014, decided toseal off the 4NPP's first reactor and haltconstruction of the second one, which wasninety per cent complete. The future of thepower plant will be decided by a nationalreferendum.89 Locals started to correlate thiscurrent development with Mazu's messagethirty years ago, that "the fourth nuclear powerplant would be built, but not operate." Indeed,locals are unsure about the eventual fate of the"big monster" (da guaishou, moniker of 4NPP)in their neighbourhood. Yet the strong anti-nuclear sentiments from civil society resonatewith their anti-nuclear efforts that havesustained the rise and fall of the movementitself through years of setbacks and victories.

Conclusion

Local anti-nuclear protests were closely linkedwith partisan politics before 2000. Despitevillagers' awareness of local interests, localityfor them was st i l l an abstract not ionsubordinated to the political imaginationcentred on the state and the party. Local anti-nuclear resources were quickly absorbed intopartisan struggles between KMT and DPP inthe 1990s. Chen Shui-bian's victory in thenational election, however, failed to halt theconstruction of 4NPP. Due to the lack of aparliamentary majority and the DPP's decisionto seek support from business leaders, theparty often conceded to the latter's demand for

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development in a tug of war betweenenvironmentalists and the corporate world.90 Torecover from the "betrayal" of the party,villagers returned to the local community toseek confidence and strength. Inspired byGCAA, they sought to free themselves from theframework of partisan politics, and convert theanti-nuclear movement into a cultural issue bycreating a new image and interpretation of thelocal anti-nuclear movement. They focused onattracting young people to the local area andnurturing their lived experience as the basis fora common identity. Instead of appealing to thepublic's "rationality" with the vocabularyprovided by politicians and academics, theysought to evoke outsiders' emotions andfeelings based on their engagement with thelocal area.

Indeed, the change of direction was inspired byvillagers' renewed understanding of localspace, as well as the political imagination of"centre" and "periphery" in their anti-nuclearjourney. Before 2000, villagers believed thatthe centre of their protests lay in the streets ofTaipei and success of their protests was closelylinked with DPP victory in local and nationalelections. Disillusionment with party politics,however, galvanized them to reconsider thevalue of local place. The local environment aswell as its history, social conditions andeveryday l i fe-style was the source ofinformation and knowledge that redefined themoral ground, the context in which peopleconsidered nuclear power issues and thelanguage activists used to mobilize publicsupport. Indeed, local place had providedinvisible cultural resources different from whatthe political opportunities and institutionscould offer. While the political map of Taiwanhas long been dominated by the divisionbetween the Blue Camp led by the KMT and theGreen Camp led by the DPP, place-based

consciousness provided an alternative way forsociety to re-imagine and approach politics.

Shuge Wei is a postdoctoral research fellow ofthe Australian National University, currentlyworking under Prof. Tessa Morris-Suzuki'sproject "Informal Life Politics in East Asia." Shereceived a PhD from the Australian NationalUniversity and an M.A. from HeidelbergUniversity in Germany. Her research interestsinclude grassroots movement in Taiwan andChina, China's international propaganda policy,Chinese media, Sino-foreign relations duringthe inter-war period, and party politics of theKuomintang government. Her recentpublications include "Beyond the Front Line:China's Rivalry with Japan in the English-Language Press over the Jinan Incident, 1928"in Modern Asian Studies and "News as aWeapon: Hollington Tong and the Formation ofthe Guomindang Centralized ForeignPropaganda System, 1937-1938" in Twentieth-Century China.

Related articles

Mei-Chih Hu, Renewable Energy vs.Nuclear Power: Taiwan's energy future inlight of Chinese, German and Japaneseexperience since 3.11Andrew DeWit and Sven Saaler, Politicaland Policy Repercussions of Japan'sNuclear and Natural Disasters inGermany

* This study is part of the Australian ResearchCouncil Laureate Project "Informal Politics inthe Remaking of Northeast Asia: from Cold Warto Post Cold War" led by Prof. Tessa Morris-Suzuki. I deeply appreciate the support of ourresearch group and comments from the editorand the anonymous reviewer.

Shuge Wei is a postdoctoral research fellow of the Australian National University, currently

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working under Prof. Tessa Morris-Suzuki's project "Informal Life Politics in East Asia." Shereceived a PhD from the Australian National University and an M.A. from HeidelbergUniversity in Germany. Her research interests include grassroots movement in Taiwan andChina, China's international propaganda policy, Chinese media, Sino-foreign relations duringthe inter-war period, and party politics of the Kuomintang government. Her recentpublications include "Beyond the Front Line: China's Rivalry with Japan in the English-Language Press over the Jinan Incident, 1928" in Modern Asian Studies and "News as aWeapon: Hollington Tong and the Formation of the Guomindang Centralized ForeignPropaganda System, 1937-1938" in Twentieth-Century China.

Notes1 Xie Yun, "Fanhe chenggong," United Evening News, 30 September 2000; Li Shuren,"Gongliaoren fang bianpao qingzhu," United Evening News 27 October 2000.2 Ming-sho Ho, "Weakened State and Social Movement: the Paradox of TaiwaneseEnvironmental Politics after the Power Transfer," Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 14, No.43 (May 2005): 340; "Taiwan's State and Social Movements under the DPP Government,2000–2004," Journal of East Asian Studies, No. 5 (2005): 401–425.3 Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, "Environmental Movements in Taiwan," in Yok-shiu F. Lee andAlvin Y. So (eds.) Asia's Environmental Movements (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1999); Ming-shoHo, "The Politics of Anti-Nuclear Protest in Taiwan: A Case of Party-Dependent Movement(1980–2000)," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3 (2003); Pan Hui-Ling, "Taiwan fan Hesiyundong lichen zhi zhengzhi fenxi " [Examining Anti-fourth-Nuclear-Power-Plant Movement inTaiwan], (Master thesis, National Taiwan University, 2007).4 Benedict J. Kerkvliet, The Power of Everyday Politics: How Vietnamese PeasantsTransformed National Policy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).5 Tessa Morris-Suzuki, "Invisible politics," Humanities Australia (November 5, 2014): 53–64.6 Robert P Weller, Alternative Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan (Oxford:Westview Press, 1999).7 Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2004), 12, 15.8 Doreen Massey, Space, Place, and Gender (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1994).9 Arif Dirlik, "Place-based Immagination: Globalism and the Politics of Place," in Place andPolitics in an Age of Globalization, Roxaan Prazniak and Arif Dirlik ed. (Lanham: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, 2001),22.10 Wu Shengfu, head of Renli borough, interview by author, 17 December 2014.11 Cheng Shu-li, "Shehui yundong yu defang shequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi weili,"(Social Movement and Community Transformation: A Case Study on the Anti-NuclearMovement in Gongliao), (master's thesis, National University of Taiwan, 1995), 93–94.12 Ming-sho Ho, Lüse minzhu: Taiwan Huanjing yundong yanjiu (Greeen Democracy:Environmental Movements in Taiwan) (Taipei: Qunxue chubanshe, 2006), 59.13 See Robert Weller and Hsin-huang Hsiao's discussion on the importance of Western-

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educated academics in the early environmental movement in Taiwan, "Culture, Gender andCommunity in Taiwan's Environmental Movement," Environmental Movements in Asia, editedby Ame Kalland and Gerard Persoon, (Curzon Press, 1998).14 Ming-sho Ho, "The Politics of Anti-Nuclear Protest in Taiwan," 688; also see Ho's discussionon the transformation of intellectuals from "man of ideas"(linian ren) to "man of politics"(zhengzhi ren), in "Taiwan huanjing yundong de kaiduan: zhuanjia xuezhe, tangwai, caogen,"(The origin of environment movements in Taiwan: intellectuals, Tangwai and grassroots)Taiwan shehuixue, Vol.2, (December 2001): 97–162.15 Lin Fu-lai, chair of Renhe temple committee, interview by author, Gongliao, 17 December2014.16 Chao jui-chang, head of Zhenli borough, former head of YASA, and Chen Shi-nan, formerhead of Gongliao township, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014.17 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014; WuWen-tung, former head of YASA, interview by author, Gongliao, 17 December 2014.18 Wu Wentong, interview by author, 17 December 2014.19 Robert Weller and Hsin-huang Hsiao, "Culture, Gender and Community in Taiwan'sEnvironmental Movement."20 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014; LinFu-lai, interview by author, 17 December 2014. Many personal and institutional blogs alsodocument the divination. See hereand here.21 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014; WuWen-tung, interview by author, Gongliao, 17 December 2014.22 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author 17 December 2014.23 Lin Fu-lai, interview by author 17 December 2014.24 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author 17 December 2014.25 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author 17 December 2014.26 YASA's charter, The Eighth Conference Newsletter of YASA, 3 October 1995, 8.27 Chao jui-chang and Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, Gongliao, 16 December 2014;YASA's financial report of 1995, The Eighth Conference Newsletter of YASA, 10.28 The Eighth Conference Newsletter of YASA.29 Chen Mingtong, Paixi zhengzhi yu Taiwan zhengzhi bianqian Factional politics and the change of Taiwan political

environment] (Taipei: Yuedan chubanshe gufen youxian gongsi, 1995), 5–10; Joseph Bosco, "Taiwan Factions: Guanxi, Patronage, and the State in Local Politics,"

Ethnology, Vol. 31, No. 2 (April 1992): 157–158.

30 See the origin of Xinpai and Jiupai in Gongliao, Cheng Shu-li, "Shehui yundong yu defangshequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi weili,"68-71.31 Wu Wen-tung, interview, 17 December 2014.32 See detailed discussion on the factional division between Xinpai and Jiupai, in Cheng Shu-li,"Shehui yundong yu defang shequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi weili," and ChenChien-chi, "Zhengzhi zhuanxing zhong shehui yundong celue zizhuxing: yi Gongliao fan Hesiyundong weili" (Strategy and Autonomy of Social Movements in Political Transition: A CaseStudy of the Anti-Fourth Nuclear Power Plant Project Movement in Gong-Liao) (master'sthesis, Soochow University, 2006), 57–58.33 Wu Wen-tung, interview, 17 December 2014.34 See Cheng Shu-li's detailed research on tensions between the Old and New factions withinYASA. Cheng Shu-li, "Shehui yundong yu defang shequ bianqian: yi Gongliao xiang fan Hesi

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weili."35 Origin of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, TEPU website.36 Wu Ju-ping, "Sheyun tuanti canxuan youqu xianxiang," United Evening News, 25 November1989.37 Yang Tung-ching, "Lin Chun-yi jiaru Minjindang," United Daily, 11 May 1989.38 Source based on Chen Chien-chi, "Zhengzhi zhuanxing zhong shehui yundong celuezizhuxing: yi Gongliao fan Hesi yundong weili," 58. Data after 2000 is collected by authorbased on interview with Wu Wen-tung, 17 December, 2014.39 Li Lung-kuang, "Fanhe suodi kaishi chuzhao," United Evening News, 2 February 1990.40 Chen Shi-nan, interview by author, 17 December 2014.41 United Evening News, "Yanzheng qianze fanhe baoli," 4 October 1991.42 United Evening News, "Dajia dou bubi fuzeren?" 5 October 1990.43 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.44 Ming-sho Ho, "The Politics of Anti-Nuclear Protest in Taiwan," 702.45 Peng Wei-ching et al., "Fanhe da fanhe, zijiaren duima," United Daily, 19 Oct 1996, 4.46 Chen Su-ling, "Minjindang yu fan Hesi" United Daily, 22 Oct 1996, 4.47 A local villager's blog article "Wu he menghuan ershi nian".48 On the different policies of KMT and DPP see Richard C. Bush, Untying the Knot: MakingPeace in the Taiwan Strait (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2005), 164–198.49 Kulao Report, "Fanhe tuanti 513 da youxing jishi baodao," 13 May 2000.50 Hsu Tsu-yi, "Fanhe gongliaoren bu youxing," 14 February 2001, United Evening News, 2.51 Chao Jui-chang, interview by author, 16 December 2014.52 "Hesi fugong Gongliao Zhengli cunzhang gantan xingzhengfu zhengce fanfu," 15 February2001, 18.53 -Nuclear-Power-Plant movement in Taiwan," (master's thesis, National Taiwan University,January 2007), 71.54 Hsu Tsu-yi, "Fanhe gongliaoren bu youxing."55 See a Gongliao villager's blog, "Wu he menghuan ershi nian".56 Shen Ming-chuan,"Fugong? Taidian zhuguan: huikuijin jiang hufu," United Evening News,15 Jan 2001.57 Yang Kuei-ying, interview by author, Gongliao, 14 June 2013.58 YASA's public letter to Hsieh Chang-ting, 13 December 2001, collected by Wu Wen-tung.59 "Wu he menghuan ershi nian".60 Ibid.61 Karl Mannheim (edited by Kurt H. Wolff), From Karl Mannheim (New Brunswick:Transaction Publishers, 1993), 365.62 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.63 Tsui Su-hsin, interview by author, Taipei, 11 December 2014.64 Ya-Chung Chuang, "Democracy in Action: The Making of Social Movement Webs in Taiwan,"Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 24 (3): 247.65 Tsui Su-hsin, "Gongliao sheng yu si: Gongliao de fanhe yundong jilu," (master thesis to ShihHsin University, 2001 June), 10.66 Kangxi Gongmin Bao, Vol. 3, April 2011, 7.67 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.

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68 Ibid.69 Lin Wen-tsui, editor of Gongliaoren, interview by author, Gongliao, 18 December 2014.70 Wang Ching-e, editor of Gongliaoren, interview by author, Gongliao, 20 December 2014.71 Wu Wen-tung, interview by author, 17 December 2014.72 Yang Kuei-ying, interview by author, Gongliao, 14 June 2013.73 Wu Sheng-fu, interview by author, Gongiao, 17 December 2014.74 "Lived experience" was borrowed from Brad Weiss's concept of "lived world" which hecoined to describe the way the Haya people of north-eastern Tanzania inhabit and experiencetheir environment. See Brad Weiss, The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World:Consumption, Commoditization, and Everyday Practice, (Durham and London: DukeUniversity Press, 1996). Also see Tessa Morris-Suzuki's emphasis on the importance of the"lived world" in shaping our political identities, in "For and Against NGOs: The Politics of theLived World," New Left Review, No. 2 (March-April 2000): 63-84.75 Robert Weller, Alternative Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan(Colorado: Westview Press, 1999).76 For more on the origins of the community construction policy, see Huang Li-ling, "Xinguojia jiangou zhong shequ juese de zhuanbian: shequ gongtongti de lunshu fenxi," (TheTransformation of Community in the Construction of a New Nation: Analysis on CommunityBuilding) (master's thesis, National Taiwan University, 1995).77 "Community construction policy" was absent from the vocabularies of my informants whenthey recollected their anti-nuclear experience.78 Gongliaoren, 27 Jan 2011, 1.79 Wu Wen-tung, interview, 17 December 2014.80 Ibid.81 Tsui Su-hsin, interview, 11 December 2014.82 Blog article "Chuantou xuanxiao kanjian Gongliao".83 Blog article, "Fanhe de zuori jinri yu mingri," 9 September 2010.84 Apple Daily,"Quan Tai da youxing,"10 March 2013.85 Tang Ya-wen, Lin Zheng-Zhong, "Wo ai haizi, buyao hezi," United Daily, 21 March 2011.86 Source.87 Ming-sho Ho, "The Fukushima Effect: Explaining the Resurgence of the Anti-NuclearMovement in Taiwan," Environmental Politics, Vol. 23, No. 6 (May 2014).88 Tsui Su-hsin, interview, 11 December 2014.89 "Taiwan Halts Fourth Power Plant," Wise: World Information Service on Energy.90 Ming-sho Ho, "Weakened State and Social Movement: the Paradox of TaiwaneseEnvironmental Politics after the Power Transfer," Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 14, No.43 (May 2005).