“Wu and Wu’s book includes some stories which lay stress on the spirit of engagement as well as personal narratives and testimonies. Jinlang Lin and Bao-feng Zheng’s story tells how their lives have been destroyed by the Six Naphtha Cracker Plant. Since 1990, the Lin family has made their living through oyster farming in Taisi. After the construction of the Six Naphtha Cracker Plant, their lives changed: “Due to the sand pumping, the seascape was altered, and the ecology of the intertidal oyster reef was damaged. Oyster seeds were covered in sand and oyster harvests declined sharply. The old men living in the country had no idea how the Six Naphtha Cracker Plant would impact oyster farming” (Wu and Wu 71). The government broke the promise that the plant would not have any impact on oyster farming. However, the burden of providing the proof requested by the Environmental Protection Administration lay on the oyster farmers themselves. Moreover, the “no compensation” rule was based on the government’s position that “industry comes first” and “the land of the emerging industrial park” does not belong only “to oyster farmers” (Wu and Wu 71).” (Chang, 2023, p. 173)
“Bao-feng Zheng’s story is a particularly powerful testimony in terms of ecofeminist engagements. Women in Taiwan’s fishing villages play a vastly under-recognized role. They wear traditional bamboo hats, nondescript clothes, aprons, rain shoes, face masks with small floral prints, and sleevelets, and their two eyes and two hands are always busy opening the oysters. They work in oyster farms with their husbands during the early morning at low tide and with other women during high tide. When they open, clean, process, and cook the oysters, they perform the same tasks as local men, reducing the pressure on men, and they are equally exposed to pollution. Yet, due to sexism in fishing villages, as Zheng testifies, women often endure insults when they stand up for the rights of illiterate fishermen and protest sand pumping and sea reclamation. Zheng has since passed away, but her husband Lin carries on her passion, keeping an eye on every development plan along the seashore of Yunlin and asking the Six Naphtha Cracker Plant for more details regarding the depleting fish populations.” (Chang, 2023, p. 173)
“As Wu and Wu also note, “either local factions or gangsters control Yunlin” (Wu and Wu 73). The Six Naphtha Cracker Plant and the offshore industrial island at Mailiao village are intertwined with political interests and huge profits (Wu and Wu 72). Lin claims, “Without knowing, we [he and his late wife] are on the same boat. Fighting persists. It is responsibility that drives our common mission” (Wu and Wu 73).” (Chang, 2023, p. 173)
