On behalf of Penghu's green turtles, Chen Mei-li composed these lines and created a picture book with her husband, Chen Kun-lien. Natives of Taiwan proper, the two are public servants with no background in ecology or publishing, but they embarked on this project so as to convey an important message: "Respect life, protect nature!"
The seas around the Penghu archipelago turn choppy in winter with the arrival of the northeast monsoon. Shuttling back and forth between the big island of Penghu and the smaller islands of Chiangchun and Wang-an, the boat Kuangcheng rocks and lurches as it crashes through wave upon wave.
Chen Mei-li sits on deck, fighting seasickness and braving a bone-chilling wind and the occasional bit of surf that snaps up on board. She left Penghu more than a year ago, but she and her husband Chen Kun-lien often bring their son Po-yu back to this place that they remember so fondly. Stuffed in their luggage are the red turtle cake and pickled beans that are the favorites of the old woman who used to be Chen Mei-li's landlady, as well as gifts for their friends and former colleagues.
A tale of three turtles
These gifts are copies of A Distant Homeland, a picture book the couple have spent much of the last two years laboring over. Inside are color photos of underwater scenery and beaches, many digitally composed or altered, with accompanying text about the exploits of three turtles.
Belle, Cyan and Apollo are three sea turtles hatched on a Wang-an beach who follow their mother back to her home in the sea. They pass through colorful coral reefs and encounter dense schools of fish darting in deep ocean canyons. After traveling thousands of miles, the little turtles are finally united with their extended family.
There they happily pass several decades, growing and maturing. Then, one day on the surface of the ocean they spot a boy being tossed by the waves, and Cyan courageously puts the boy on his back and carries him to safety on shore. This act of bravery makes Cyan the talk of their turtle clan.
After Belle and Apollo consummate their love for each other, the now-pregnant Belle must embark on a journey to find that pristine beach on which she was born, so that she can lay her own eggs. She travels back through the ocean canyon and returns to the coral forest. But now the coral is bleached and dead, and the carcasses of fish, shrimp and crab are scattered everywhere.
After enduring so much to return to the beach, she nears it only to hear off-putting human clatter and chatter, and she dares not come ashore. Hoping that the noisy humans will leave soon, she waits, for there is a great tide that day, one that she can ride far up on the beach to lay her eggs where the waves won't bother them. But when the humans don't leave, she anxiously begins to look elsewhere. Passing a fishing harbor, she sees Cyan and several other turtles tied up with rope. Poor Cyan is on the verge of death.
Now quite frightened, Belle continues on her mission, searching desperately for a quiet, safe beach on which to lay her precious eggs. Finally, she finds a beach where she can come ashore. In an out-of-the-way corner, she digs a hole big enough to contain her body, and then with all her might she uses her back legs to dig a pit for her eggs. At last, she slowly lays them in it.
Afterwards, she fills the hole with sand and intentionally makes a mess of tracks and digs several fake holes on the beach, before hobbling back to sea. She wonders what became of Cyan. Feeling the weight of responsibility for future generations, her spirit grows heavy, and the motions of her flipper-like legs slow. . . .
Days in her second homeland
"I'm Belle, Mama is Cyan and Papa is Apollo," says five-year-old Po-yu, who, though not yet able to read, often holds the book with great enthusiasm, looks at the pictures and recounts the story.
"This book is our second child," says Chen Mei-li with great satisfaction as she watches Po-yu giggle at her side with the book in his hands. The husband and wife threw their hearts and souls into this project. More than just a creative work, A Distant Homeland is also an expression of their feelings about life in Penghu.
In 1993, not long after getting married, the Chens, who were living in southern Taiwan, were encountering difficulties in their careers. They decided to start over. Taking and passing the civil service exams, they elected to start their new careers in Penghu, where life was more simple. The two were assigned to different posts as administrative workers in police stations on the main island of Penghu and the outer island of Wang-an, and for a year they would ride boats back and forth between the two islands to see each other.
Chen Mei-li was posted in Wang-an, which was experiencing a great exodus of its population. "When I first got there, I would get so scared by the howling wind that I couldn't fall asleep!" After prosperous Taiwan, Wang-an seemed like a different world altogether. "Yet, although Penghu's winds during the northeast monsoon are harsh and frightening," Chen says, "at least they, unlike the dangers of the city, can be predicted."
In Wang-an, Chen and her elderly landlady looked after each other. The landlady's children had long since left the island, and because she had been blind for many years, the house's lights had been off for a long time before Chen arrived.
Wang-an's green turtles
When Chen Kun-lien came to visit Chen Mei-li on Wang-an, he would spend much of his time on the beach. He soon became an excellent swimmer and discovered many beautiful and previously unknown coral reefs. Once, swimming off shore, a large black mass crossed his path. It was only when he turned to see it leave that he discovered it was a large school of small fish. This unforgettable experience and the beautiful underwater scenery he saw when swimming were the inspiration for A Distant Homeland.
On this outer island there wasn't much in the way of entertainment, and Chen Mei-li's co-workers would often call her to come out to the beach and watch green turtles.
Wang-an is one of the few unpolluted turtle nesting grounds left in Taiwan, and every year from May to October turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. A Wang-an legend has it that these turtles, which can grow to a meter or more in length, have saved drowning children, and so island residents venerate them.
At first, the only knowledge Chen Mei-li had of turtles was the old legends and stories told by her colleagues. Then one night, breathless co-workers called and told the Chens that a green turtle was just then laying eggs, so they all went off to check it out.
By the time they got to the beach, the mother had already finished laying all her eggs. "I don't know if she had been startled, or if she was worried that we might encroach upon her eggs, but she seemed reluctant to return to sea," says Chen. The tide was slowly pulling out, and they were all worried that if she didn't turn around and head for water soon, she might get trapped on shore. Just when everyone had resolved to lend the turtle a hand, it suddenly turned around and made quickly for the ocean.
Moving feelings turn into a book
"Often those who come to the island to research green turtles spend a week or two here and never see any," notes Chen, who seems to have some sort of special affinity for them. Back that first time, when she was holding Po-yu on the beach, she felt a bond with the turtle mother. And sentimental Chen Kun-lien turns to mush just seeing the profile of a turtle in the distance.
Even though Chen Mei-li would soon leave the island because it lacked medical facilities and her baby needed frequent medical attention, the couple's feelings about turtles were deeply impressed upon their hearts. Chen Kun-lien, who had once written a children's computer book, started thinking about coming up with a book about turtles, and in his head he started to plan out the basic outline of the story.
Knowing next to nothing about green turtles, they started reading the entries on them in encyclopedias and science dictionaries and went to ask the advice of Lin Chang-hsing, the head of the Penghu County Wild Bird Association, and Chen Yi-chun, a professor at National Ocean University, who had together written a booklet about green turtles and their environment. While Chen Mei-li got busy writing a story, Chen Kun-lien took photography classes and rode his bicycle to find some appropriate shoreline sites. He also found some underwater photos from the photo library supplied in his computer software. A story about three green turtles gradually began to take shape.
After half a year of hard work, A Distant Homeland was finally completed. The two approached many publishing houses, but none were willing to publish it. Tired of beating their heads against the wall, the Chens decided to publish it themselves. They met Li Ming-hsiang, a teacher of Chinese music who also wanted to publish her own books, and told her of their wish to start their own publishing company. Li Ming-hsiang was supportive of the Chens' idea, and without hesitation offered to provide financial backing and her own labor for their venture, Robol Publishing. The Chens started learning about publishing law, and they went to a printers to have a look for themselves. A year after they first started working on their children's book, it went to press as a sextodecimo hardcover edition with color photos of Penghu scenery and of green turtles in trouble.
Everyone help protect nature!
"We don't want to make any money, and we don't know how to go about marketing a book." Without distribution channels, they have done it the old-fashioned way: distributing the book themselves. They have given copies to Penghu libraries and schools, as well as to their friends and colleagues. Although Chen Mei-li has faced her share of rejections when lugging volumes from bookstore to bookstore, she has also felt gratification, as when a reader bought 150 copies to give as gifts.
They keep in touch with the many old and new friends who, like them, are concerned about the state of green turtles. After reading A Distant Homeland, Wei Ping-nan, the precinct head at the Penghu County Police station at Paisha, noted that people have recently started coming forward to file reports about the illegal hunting and selling of sea turtles in Paisha. There was also a case of people illegally raising turtles in Tayi Temple on Hsiyu, and the Chens' old colleagues have been strengthening their public service promotions on behalf of green turtles and have been pursuing investigations and making arrests in the hope that all of Penghu's citizens become conscious of the importance of protecting these threatened animals.
In contrast to the praise they heap upon their old colleagues in the police force, Chen Kun-lien and Chen Mei-li are quite modest about their own contribution. The book may not be professional enough, they note, but, "Most of the books about green turtles are factual books, not story books." The Chens hope that the publication of this book will encourage more people to show concern for the natural environment. Lin Chang-hsing, who supplied them with much of their information about green turtles, notes that although A Distant Homeland, as a story book with color pictures, may stray from reality in a few places, its value lies not in conveying academic knowledge but rather in promoting protection of green turtles.
The husband and wife have recently spent their own money on a translation and went to the Taipei International Book Exhibition in the hope of interesting foreign publishers. They plan on making a CD version of A Distant Homeland and want to write a second book, about coral.
Taiwan is an ocean nation, and the ocean holds a bounty of resources for it. Protecting the ocean ecology and creating an ocean literature are common wishes of the ocean's sons and daughters. Chen Mei-li and Chen Kun-lian have taken the first step and are waiting for others to join them.
p.122
There is an ancient legend in Wang-an about a green turtle that saves a drowning child. Chen Mei-li based the character of Cyan in A Distant Homeland on this legendary turtle. (from A Distant Homeland)
p.123
Penghu still has several pristine sand beaches where turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. These are the Chens' own beloved second homeland.
p.124
The beaches on Wang-an that are litter strewn and polluted pose a serious threat to the green turtles that come ashore to lay eggs.
p.125
"From far away come I . . ." The song Chen Mei-li wrote about a green turtle is her son Po-yu's favorite.
p.126
When the Chens' old friends in Penghu read A Distant Homeland, apart from feeling moved and having a sense of familiarity with the locale, they also identify deeply with the Chens' ecological ideals.
p.127
What kind of living environment are we leaving for future generations? Are we treating them the same way we are treating the green turtle? In their hearts, Chen Kun-lien and Chen Mei-li know the answers to these questions.
"From far away come I . . ." The song Chen Mei-li wrote about a green turtle is her son Po-yu's favorite.
When the Chens' old friends in Penghu read A Distant Homeland, apart from feeling moved and having a sense of familiarity with the locale, they also identify deeply with the Chens' ecological ideals.
What kind of living environment are we leaving for future generations? Are we treating them the same way we are treating the green turtle? In their hearts, Chen Kun-lien and Chen Mei-li know the answers to these questions.
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