Analyze

Formosa's current economic and cultural significance is closely tied to Taiwan's history of industrialization. Wang Yung-ching and his brother Wang Yung-Tsai founded the Formosa Plastics Corporation and Group in Kaohsiung in 1954. Wang Yung-ching grew up under Japanese occupation, earning a living by selling and delivering rice as a young boy, and later operating his own rice shop as a teenager. He later transitioned to the lumber business and benefited from market liberalization following the end of Japanese colonial rule (Lin 2016). Despite losing one of his mills during World War II, Wang received $800,000 from USAID, which he used as capital to establish Formosa Plastics (Shah 2012). Wang went on to become one of Taiwan's wealthiest individuals and was widely known as the "god of management" until his death in 2008 (Huang 2008).

“Chen’s promise to meet low-carbon green energy goals sounds like lies to the people who are familiar with the debate that took place in 1987 between Yung-ching Wang, the founder of Formosa Plastics, and Ding-nan Chen, Chief of Yilan County. It was about whether or not the construction of Formosa Plastics’ Sixth Naphtha Cracker Plant should be in Yilan County. Chen expressed concern from a bioregional perspective. He was reluctant to welcome polluting industries such as naphtha cracker parks. He and others were more interested in establishing so-called chimney-free industries in order to maintain the region’s local and unique bioregional value (Wu and Wu 63). Due to Chen’s environmental imagination, Yilan County continues to have clean water, air, and land today,6 and it contrasts markedly with Yunlin County, where Formosa Plastics’ Sixth Naphtha Cracker Plant is located (Wu and Wu 52).” (Chang, 2023, p. 168)

“Poems in Wu and Wu’s book contain strong appeals to principles of environmental justice and equality. In a poem titled “Protest at the North,” Ken-cheng Lee alludes to the fact that cancer cases in Yunlin County are typically blamed only on individuals’ consumption of tobacco and alcohol. He writes, “Head for a place that decides our destiny/that place is called Taipei ... Illness, cancer, they said: smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, it is our bad habit, / no proof of industrial pollution. / Head of county, village mayor, local representatives / sell our health, soul, dignity for their local development” (38).” (Chang, 2023, p. 169)

“The petrochemical industry in Mailiao in Yunlin County uses excessive amounts of water. The bioregions of Changhua and Yunlin Counties are complex marine and estuarine ecosystems and both are experiencing shrinking water supplies. Both share the same ocean currents, wind systems, and greater weather systems.” (Chang, 2023, p. 170)

“After the founding of the Formosa Petrochemical Mailiao Plant in 1994, Yunlin became a deeply compromised bioregion. It and the nearby townships of Mailiao, Taisi, Dongshih, Lunbei, and Sihhu were threatened by high concentrations of dioxin pollution. Dioxin is a substance that can disrupt endocrine and other hormonal sex changes in men and increased risk of breast cancer in women [...] Cancer and other diseases that are caused or exacerbated by environmental pollution are “political not because either subject—bodies or environment—is inherently political, but rather because of the silence and secrecy surrounding the overlapping intersections of these subjects.” (Chang, Chiung-fang)” (Chang, 2023, p. 169)

“Moreover, the town and region of Taisi, once known for its oyster farming, now suffers from coastal erosion as well as declining fish populations, which is due to acidification of the oceans. The adjacent town of Mailiao was once filled with fish farms and now is comprised of an industrial park, concentration camp like dormitories for Thai and Filipino laborers, the KTV chamuro (a tea house, karaoke bar, and a place where prostitution may clandestinely occur), and betel-nut stalls (Wu and Wu 66). Financial compensation was given to Mailiao in return for the building of Sixth Naphtha Cracker Plant. Although Taisi does not receive any compensation (Wu and Wu 70), cancer does not bypass Taisi and adjoining towns. Research indicates that local residents in Mailiao and Taisi are exposed to high levels of pollution from the Sixth Naphtha Cracker Plant (Wu and Wu 49–50).” (Chang, 2023, p. 169)

“As the petrochemical industry expanded, the Taiwanese government’s slogan—“Energy Efficiency and Carbon Reduction”—has become for many Taiwanese people a joke, for they consume more energy than they produce. When Bao-lang Chen argued that the Eighth Naphtha Cracker Project would differ from Formosa Plastics’ Sixth Naphtha Cracker Plant because low-carbon green energy goals would be met, Chia-yang Tsai retorted that this would not reduce the pollution from the plant (“Chia-yang”). Tsai and other individuals involved in the anti-Kuokuang campaign were especially concerned about the impact of the petrochemical industry on the coastal fisheries in Taichung, Changhua, and Yunlin.” (Chang, 2023, p. 168)

“It is important to understand the history of economic and industrial development in Taiwan and the role that the petrochemical industry has played in this history. According to Mingyi Wu, American investment as well as public and private capital in Taiwan gave birth to two giant monsters, Taiwan CPC and Formosa Plastics, which subsequently devoured the island’s future (“Preface” 3).” (Chang, 2023, p. 168)

Pastoral poetry: https://brill.com/view/journals/ijts/4/1/article-p101_101.xml?casa_toke…

In the 2013 exhibition and catalog When the South Wind Blows, local village leaders and visual artists documented life after the arrival of Formosa’s Sixth Naphtha Cracker Complex in over 100 stark black and white images (Huang and Chen 2018). The exhibit at the Museum for Natural History in Tainan featured a recreation of the Taihsi village’s layout, with projectors displaying the petrochemical complex, in order to relay the human tragedies occurring in the village (Huang and Chen 2018). Geographer Huei-Ling Lai (2021) further noted that the exhibition renders visible how the community articulates its relationships to place, representing themselves as victims of pollution, declining agriculture, an aging population, and silencing of community opposition by Formosa Plastics.

Taihsi residents have more recently begun to organize a community-led solar power initiative. As Lai (2021, 667) argues, scholarship on community energy projects tends to overlook the importance of place relations, either by exclusively on quantification of energy, or explaining implementation processes by relying on an abstract ideal of civil society. The Taihsi campaign, in turn, shows that local geo-histories – from colonial relations to Formosa’s ‘good neighbor’ policies – are integral to understanding the unfolding of energy transition in the village. The introduction of community energy provided the community with a new framing and articulations of a vision for just transition (Lai 2021, 679). From the local perspective, the community energy initiative appeared as a form of compensation for systemic neglect and a way to gain independence from energy systems that are deeply entangled with petrochemicals. However, Lai (2021, 681) emphasizes that this new self-understanding was often at odds with the goals of Taipei-based NGOs and policy makers, ranging from the community energy initiative’s governance models, the use of revenue, as well as local class and economic barriers.