Reviving Keelung’s glory
As local studies programs have reintroduced people to their hometowns, they have also fostered a local consciousness and a yearning to reclaim a sense of local identity.
In 1999, Keelung Community University lecturer Li Zhengren forcefully promoted a Keelung studies curriculum, encouraging residents to gain a better understanding of the culture and history of the city, as well as a feel for its industrial pulse. He notes that during the Qing Dynasty Taiwan’s first railway and modern port were built here. Back then Keelung was one of Taiwan’s leading cities. Yet in the decades that followed, construction of the Taipei–Yilan Highway, competition from the port of Taipei, and a massive out-migration of population caused the city to lose its luster.
In order to revive a sense of civic pride, Li has led students to search for plants that are native only to the Keelung River basin or taken them on field trips to the West Third Wharf and Depot, which has more than eight decades of history. After 15 years of such efforts and explorations, locals have recovered a sense of confidence in their hometown.
Located in far southern Taiwan, North Pingtung Community College was established in 2000 when the area was facing a crisis of local identity. It therefore promoted “Pingtung Studies” in the hope of convincing locals to show more concern for their home county.
Since 2000 NPCC has held a “Pingtung Studies Forum” once a year. NPCC president Chou Fen-tzu notes that not only are many students and colleges now participating but the focus has been expanded to include leisure and tourism and the revitalization of agriculture.
Chou explains that they’ve spent eight years preparing a revised edition of the Pingtung County Record, which includes a compilation of materials documenting the 15-year development of Pingtung studies, and through the joint efforts of NPCC, local NGOs, historians, and residents, records nearly 20 years of accomplishments in community building, public health and environmental protection. “It’s aimed at getting local people to tell their stories and demonstrate their social power,” says Chou.
Shaping a vision for the future
Local studies can also provide a vision and administrative blueprint for future local development.
“Local studies must create a vision for the future,” says Zhang Jinyu, president of the First Community College of Kaohsiung. In light of the special industrial character of the city, the college in 2000 designated the environment and ecology as important components of Kaohsiung studies. For instance, the college’s nature, ecology and conservation club, which has ties to the environmental organization Citizen of the Earth, successfully pushed to preserve the Zhouzi Wetlands in the Zuoying area of the city, thus helping to create Kaohsiung’s first wetlands city park. In recent years, in addition to closely monitoring pollution in the Erren and Houjing Rivers, the club has brought together students, volunteers and environmental groups to clean up the Qianzhen River.
“Local studies is no longer just about passing along knowledge,” says Zhang. “Instead, from a foundation built on love, it aims to go beyond a study of the past to improve the present and move toward a future of our own imagining.”