Matsu--The Stuff of Legends

At the end of March this year, a trade group from Matsu set off from Fu-ao, an ROC open port under the "three small links," and sailed directly to the port of Mawei in Fujian Province on the mainland. There the group attended a "business welcome meeting" put on by the mainland authorities in Fuzhou and participated in various friendship activities.

This was the third group of private citizens from Taiwan to travel to the mainland directly from a Matsu port since the "three small links" were initiated.

The next evening, the ROC armed forces in Matsu held air defense exercises. As the sun sank into the ocean, flares were sent skyward in the area around Peikan, and Nankan shook with the sound of big guns, whose blasts gave a neon glow to the sky. Yet, if not for the troops in battle array, one could have easily come to the mistaken conclusion that these were fireworks set off to beckon back home the business delegation that had left a few days previously.

Matsu, which has long been accustomed to combat readiness, has become adept at navigating the mix of peace and hostility that characterizes cross-strait relations. Chang Peng-chu, the ROC political warfare director for the Matsu area, points out that when the clear days of summer arrive in June, the high command will order the forces on Matsu to conduct open battle exercises. This will send several messages: On the one hand, with visitors present, it will show that the era of Matsu being an off-limits military area is over. On the other hand, it will let the locals know that the ROC armed forces are still determined to ensure the security of the island and that they have nothing to fear from the three small links.

When the lights go on at night in Niuchiao Village, the soft glow beckons to visitors from afar.

The first opening under the three small links was to allow religious pilgrims to go to Fujian Province directly from the mainland. On January 2, the first group left to much fanfare, with expectations that these new ties would bring all kinds of exchanges and economic opportunities. But in the three months since, there haven't been huge flotillas of boats coming and going. In fact, when you ask people on Matsu streets about the "three small links," they often quip in a deadpan style: "What links?" It's clear that the links are more important to politicians than they are to the people.

Wu Mao-sheng, as a member of the water police, has an up-close perspective on these issues.

"Customs, quarantines and other procedures related to importing goods from the mainland deter many people. As a result, smuggling hasn't decreased with the advent of the three small links. The difference is that now the water police are getting tougher on the petty smugglers, so the risks of punishment have increased. Meanwhile, because there are no regularly scheduled boats for passengers, people continue to smuggle themselves across as well." He notes that as of the end of March, only one boat has legally traveled from Matsu to the mainland (apart from the boats accommodating special large groups). Yet two boats have been caught trying to smuggle people across.

Wu explains that those leaving for the mainland are going for business, or otherwise they've bought property or have a wife there and need to make regular trips. With more vigilant patrols by the water police but without regularly scheduled legal journeys, people have been grumbling.

Matsu legislator Chao Erh-chung, who first suggested that the "three small links" be included in the "Offshore Islands Development Act" last year, worries that Matsu is at a disadvantage vis-a-vis Kinmen, because Matsu's population and land area are low and those who travel to Taiwan from the island are mostly government employees. The ability of the private sector in Matsu to push development of the three links is limited, he says, noting that it was quite an accomplishment just to bring about the maiden voyage. "We are relying on ourselves and going slowly, one step at a time."

Chao says that thus far Matsu's biggest related achievement was signing what is known as the "Matsu-Mawei Pact" with the private "Mawei, Fuzhou Economic and Cultural Exchange Center."

"The central government has only established a legal mechanism for the three small links, but they haven't been actively pressing for cooperation between the two sides. So you can talk about 'links' until you're blue in the face, but the two sides aren't really going to be connected. We've just got to go ahead and develop the links ourselves and come to an understanding with the other side about how to deal with all those devils in the details." Chao notes that the mainland has gone from refusing, to not rejecting, and now to cooperating. The Matsu group has already worked out with the mainland authorities such issues as those involving docking rights, what types of people are permitted to go, and permit procedures, as well as overcoming the mainland's previous insistence that groups must come and leave as a group, and on the same boat.

The central government, balancing various considerations, has displayed caution, but the three small links do provide a development opportunity for Matsu of a kind that only comes along once a century or so. It may be the only economic bright spot for the island in the years after the ROC and PRC both join the WTO, so it's no wonder that the people must take a proactive approach so as to make the most of it.

The military presence in Matsu has become a tourist attraction. The photo shows members of the amphibious forces out for a jog.

Lienchiang County Executive Liu Li-chun has just welcomed a visiting delegation from the mainland. Although he has reservations about ROC elected representatives smuggling themselves into mainland China, he admits that with the initiative shown by them the three small links "are starting to taste sweeter and sweeter."

"Matsu doesn't steal the spotlight like Kinmen," Liu notes. "We understand that our population is small, our economic resources limited, and our transportation problems intractable, so we are willing to take a longer view and allow considerations about the three small links to return to the issue of building infrastructure for the offshore islands." If suddenly the nation really wanted to make Matsu the transfer point for all people and goods across the Taiwan Strait, he fears that the island couldn't bear it. But Matsu could become a logistical base. The more than 10,000 Taiwanese businessmen in Fuzhou and Mawei could send their children to attend schools built specially for them in Matsu, which would in turn uplift education and culture on the island.

With regard to cross-strait trade, Liu Li-chu says that Matsu ought to model itself on a little convenience store, rather than a huge department store. "The good thing about getting rid of the business tax and customs tariffs is that the two sides will be able to do small-scale trading here, allowing Matsu to become a free-trade zone in the Taiwan Strait. This would provide a tremendous boost to the island's economy. In this way, the establishment of the full-fledged three links wouldn't threaten the island's economy.

While the three small links is no panacea for Matsu's long-term development problems, the policy is benefiting the island right now: "One-third of all ROC money given to Taiwan's outer islands goes to Matsu despite its lack of population and area. Although Matsu lags far behind Kinmen and Penghu in terms of infrastructure, if the ROC allows gambling there, as is being considered, then this, in conjunction with the three small links, will definitely help.

"The consensus in Matsu is that improving transportation and encouraging tourism of the best kind is the way for the island to go," says Tsao Yi-hsiung, a Lienchiang County legislator. With Matsu getting a lot of attention right now, it might as well "grab the short term gain in order to obtain the most long-term benefits."

The Yuntai Music Hall Association is composed of individuals from all over Matsu who work to collect local operas and folk songs. They hope to bring about a renaissance of the traditional local culture.

Transportation has long been the biggest headache for the people of Matsu. It's also the biggest obstacle toward developing tourism on the island.

Currently, the island is largely dependent on airplanes and boats. But because the lay of the land is so hilly, the runway at Peikan Airport is only 890 meters long, too short to install an instrument-based landing system. Pilots have to fly by sight, and the only planes from Taiwan that can land here are the 37-seat DASH-8-200s owned by Uni Air. In fog or heavy rain, the airport, which has been the site of two plane crashes, has to close.

As for traveling by sea, the Taiwan-Matsu route is plied by boats that hold 500 passengers. Yet these old boats can't go out when the sea is rough. On the day of a scheduled journey, passengers have to call first and ask whether the boats are sailing that day. It's very inconvenient.

"When even transporting people is so difficult, you can forget about shipping out local goods," says Kao Ming-chung, whose Paoli Hsuen shop specializes in making such local delicacies as Matsu cakes. This is the main reason why Matsu's local products are still virtually unknown elsewhere in Taiwan.

The local government is aware of the problem and considers improving transportation to be its most pressing task. County Executive Liu notes that there are plans to obtain new boats and that a new airport is under construction. Just months after the three links were first implemented, there are still some bottlenecks, but Liu assures us that over the next half year, transportation difficulties will be resolved.

An extension of Peikan Airport's eastern runway to 1000 meters should be completed by July, at which time it will be able to handle 50-passenger DASH-8-300 planes, which are owned by various domestic airlines. What's more, a 1000-meter runway should open at a new airport in Nankan in March of 2002.

With Matsu no longer on the frontlines of military confrontation, the number of troops should continue decreasing from the more than 10,000 that used to be stationed here to only a few thousand. To replace this economic pillar of support, people in Matsu are looking for tourism to bring long-term benefits. Although they've encountered plenty of obstacles this year, the people of Matsu have turned a liability into an asset by regarding this period as a time to plan more carefully.

Liao Yuen-lung, the head of the Matsu National Scenic Area Administration, formerly worked in the ROC Tourism Bureau. Observing the people in Matsu, he has come to some insights about their confidence.

"Matsu has some obvious tourist draws," Liao says. "For ecotourism, there are the virgin stands of timber, and the Chinese crested terns, those 'legendary birds' that have caused such a stir. What's more, the military facilities here are even denser than those seen on the border of north and south Korea, and the traditional eastern Fujianese fishing culture is quite different from the southern Fujianese culture seen in Taiwan, Penghu and Kinmen. Then there are the religious buildings and the well-preserved and intact traditional villages." Yet the island's biggest advantage for tourism lies in the fact that it has been off-limits for so long. Now its tourist industry can slowly and carefully advance, avoiding the pitfalls that tourism has encountered elsewhere.

Liao cites the examples of Green Island and Kinmen. When these places were first opened to tourists, they became popular destinations overnight, so that large numbers of hotels and restaurants were built all at once. Supply ended up exceeding demand, so that the market was thrown out of equilibrium. Now the tourist industry is suffering in those places.

"With the lessons learned from others' mistakes, the county government has asked for thorough advance planning, and the ROC Tourism Bureau is working with the island's authorities. Matsu's careful and steady efforts to build up its tourism industry have earned it a lot of respect."

Demonstrating the frugal and practical nature of Matsu and its people's determination to make full use of the available land, the plaza in front of the County Government building serves as a public vegetable garden. In the photo the county executive chats with a gardener.

Matsu's decision to walk rather than run is directly reflected in its focus on preserving the architecture of its traditional villages.

After many decades of tight government control, the old architecture has been remarkably preserved in Matsu, particularly in Nankan's Niuchiao Village, Peikan's Chinpi Village in Peikan, and Fuhsi in Chukuang. All are excellent examples of traditional eastern Fujianese village architecture. Elsewhere in the ROC the traditional Han Chinese culture was southern Fujianese. Meanwhile, eastern Fujian itself has experienced such rapid develpment that almost all of its traditional architecture has been destroyed. The traditional eastern Fujianese settlements on Matsu are just about the only ones left in pristine condition anywhere in the world.

"We only started to restore these buildings two or three years ago," says county government employee Tsao Yi-hsiung. "The people had a lot of doubts, but the county established a 'town and country workshop' in order to bring about coherent regional planning that would preserve whole neighborhoods of these old buildings. It instilled in people the notion that preserving architecture was a way of helping the local economy. The results have been surprisingly good." Matsu has a high rate of outward migration, and these people living elsewhere are naturally happy to have others care for their ancestral homes. People are now clamoring to sign restoration contracts with the county government.

What with the three links and the tourism industry, the economic outlook for Matsu appears bright, but might a pure focus on economic development and architectural preservation prove, however beautiful on the outside, to be empty on the inside? With these concerns, county legislators Tsao Yi-hsiung and Chen Kuei-chung have promoted a campaign to get artists to live in traditional buildings, so that residents can see how art might become rooted in their daily lives.

Chiu Chin-pao explains that the exodus of youth from Matsu is very serious. Moreover, the fact that children aren't learning the Fuzhou dialect these days is putting the traditional local culture under even more pressure.

In response to these concerns, 40 members of the local community, including teachers and public servants, have formed a group called the Yuntai Music Hall, which compiles local operas and folk songs and then asks the schools to teach them to children.

A stick of incense symbolizes the goodwill of morally upright men and women. As the era of the "three small links" begins, the people of Matsu are giving a facelift to the old Queen of Heaven Temple. The statues of the deities are temporarily stored in the basement to keep them out of harm's way.

"The Yuntai Music Hall was established in 1994. At first it merely compiled traditional folk songs in the Fuzhou dialect and performed them. Later group members created simple music for oral traditional children's stories. The members of the group taught others to sing the words and then would play instruments in accompaniment," says director Pan Chien-kuo. In the summer of 1998, the group went to Fuzhou to gather material and in an opera school there learned how to perform such highlights of the traditional repertoire as "Picking Up the Jade Bracelet" and "The Pearl Pagoda." Thanks to their own vision and the instruction they received from a teacher of Taiwanese opera when they returned, the group has spurred a general focus on cultural preservation.

Liu Jun-nan, a Yuntai member who is plant manager at the Matsu Distillery, notes that Fuzhou opera has always had a very flexible style. A lost art in Matsu for half a century, it is now getting a new start with these Matsu folk. "The main purpose of Yuntai is to preserve traditional spirit and the local dialect," he says. "If the group is lucky, when our next generation comes to maturity, maybe they will be performing at the National Concert Hall."

Matsu has a small population and little area, but with the three small links, development of the tourist industry, and cultural preservation, they understand where they are going.

Matsu's Queen of Heaven Temple, dedicated to the deity Matsu and the oldest temple on the island, is in the process of being torn down and rebuilt. Not far from there is the "Iron Fort," home to the amphibious forces. It too has become a tourist attraction. As the tropical wind blows, the spirits of those who lost their lives in battle seem to come to life here. But in the hills behind it the tunnel used by former President Chiang Ching-kuo as his frontline office has become overgrown with vines. String beans drape down over the entryway. Meanwhile, children are returning home from school, singing an old folk song they learned there: "The light of the moon, 15 moons, moon lady, my wife." Meanwhile, at home their mothers are cooking mushrooms brought in from Fuzhou under the "three small links," waiting to feed them so they can grow big and strong.

Matsu combines various legends of this era, and its people have shown admirable originality in reacting to the era's key challenges. Now that the three small links have become a reality and the ROC is working to build infrastructure on its outlying islands, the Matsu locals, who speak in the soft cadences of the Fuzhou dialect so different from Taiwanese, are walking along the road of life, carrying the legacy of history on their backs and toward the legends of the future.

At the beginning of April, when a trade delegation from Matsu returned from discussions with the authorities in Mawei, Fujian, Lienchiang County Executive Liu Li-chun went to the docks in Fu-ao to welcome them home.

(Eric Lin/tr. by David Mayer)

* Area: 28.52 square kilometers

* Population: Household registration records show nearly 7,000 persons legally domiciled on Matsu, but the actual long-term population is only about half that number.

* About the islands

Matsu is the main island in Lienchiang County, which comprises four townships on five islands. The name Matsu is often used colloquially to refer to the entire county. Nankan Township is the political and cultural center of Matsu. Most of the tourist sites are located in Nankan, which is where you generally go to buy the specialty products and foods that Matsu is best known for. Even so, the townships of Peikan, Chukuang, and Tungyin are not without their special attractions. Peikan has its stone houses and fish noodles. Chukuang has its fishing port, as well as a lighthouse designated as a Class 2 historic site. In Tungyin one will find fantastic rock formations and the Tungyin branch of the Matsu Distillery.

* Transportation

Uni Air operates five flights a day from Taipei to Matsu. The flights are often booked full, so reservations should be made early. April and May are fog season in Matsu, and flights are often very delayed. You can also travel by boat between Keelung and Matsu. The trip takes eight hours, but there is no fixed schedule, so you'll have to contact Taiwan Navigation Company for information. Those in Matsu can consult the Matsu Daily, a newspaper distributed by the Lienchiang County Government.

Ferry services are available from Nankan to the outlying islands of Lienchiang County. For passengers departing from Nankan it takes ten minutes to Peikan, an hour to Chukuang, and two hours to Tungyin, but be aware that sailings are often canceled when the sea is too rough. Those planning a trip to the smaller islands are advised to contact the ferry service operators in advance to make sure the ships are running. There is also a helicopter service between the islands that is not as dependent on the weather, but there is only flight per day.

More information is available on the website of the Matsu National Scenic Area Administration (www.matzu-nsa.gov.tw). The site is in Chinese, but English readers might enjoy the beautiful photos!