The News Lens
Date: 2018/01/15
By: Nick Aspinwall

The people of Hongmaogang have faced numerous challenges since their village was

Nick Aspenwall

relocated in 2007. Now, residents work to keep their homeland’s spirit alive – and warn their threatened neighbors in Dalinpu of what lies ahead.

The proposed relocation of Dalinpu (大林蒲), a 320-year-old village in Kaohsiung’s southern industrial outskirts, is being fast-tracked in a manner that has left a large contingent of its residents feeling uneasy. Perhaps none are more skeptical than former residents of nearby Hongmaogang (紅毛港) who lived through the relocation of their own village in 2007. The two homesteads have long been intertwined, and the many Hongmaogang natives who moved to Dalinpu are now staring down displacement once again.

Some former Hongmaogang residents faced financial troubles and became homeless after defaulting on their new mortgages, expecting them to be backed by government compensation that never came. Many residents employed in the formerly lucrative local fishing industry found themselves lacking the skills to find well-paying jobs. The people of Hongmaogang, especially disadvantaged residents, “had to face economic difficulties” after relocating, says Wang Zhenyu (王振宇), director of the documentary 紅毛港家變 (“Hongmaogang Home Change”). “People felt they had lost their roots.”
[FULL  STORY]