Ecodocumentary Making and Taiwanese Environmental Movements in the Early 21st Century

This talk traces the development of environmental discourse in Taiwan as reflected in two activist eco-documentaries produced by Taiwan’s Public Television in 2010 and 2020 respectively.

In a paper published in The China Quarterly in 2009, I discussed the emergence of the discourse of “Taiwan as an ocean country” in a presidential campaign in the late 1990s. Although this discourse emerged at a specific historical juncture in Taiwan with a political agenda, it has changed profoundly the ways Taiwanese people define “Taiwan” and their relationship to the world. The ocean turn has helped cultivate an ecological literacy attentive to the marine space. If the fundamental imperative of any environmental project is to change our cultural imagination, world view, and value system, then the discourse of “Oceanic Taiwan” has slowly enacted a change in Taiwanese people’s awareness and world view.  

This talk traces the change by examining the environmental discourse in Formosa vs. Formosa (2010) and Whither Energy Transition? (2020) . These two activist eco-documentaries were produced with the aim to intervene in two crucial environmental movements respectively in the first decade of the 21st century—namely, the Anti-Petrochemical Factory Movement around 2010 and the algal reefs protection vs. energy transition controversy around 2020. If the protection of the Dacheng wetland against the development of petrochemical industry can be considered a landmark in Taiwan’s environmental movement, the alga reef controversy signifies a watershed. I choose these two ecodocumentaries to illustrate the development of environmental discourses and awareness in Taiwan in the new century. My talk will stress the importance of ecological literacy and the critical roles of experts in intervening in populist environmental discourses that are intellectually and morally simplifying. 

While Formosa vs. Formosa is based on “environmental protection vs. development” dichotomy, Whither Energy Transition? presents the difficult dilemma between two competing environmental visions: algal reef protection or energy transition for reaching the urgent goal of net-zero Co2 emission. Examining the environmental discourse in the two ecodocumentaries, this talk draws attention to the daunting challenge of ecocinema’s task of consciousness-raising through ecological literacy cultivation. In the case of the algal reefs controversy, the debate involves highly complex scientific knowledge far beyond the reach of non-professional environmental activists and the general public. The failure of Whither Energy Transition? to do justice to the complicated debate on algal reefs reminds us of the difficulty of acquiring legitimate “ecological literacy” and the murky waters that one unavoidably gets into in all environmental battles.  

(This talk is based on a manuscript Prof. Chiu co-writing with Hsing-Juh LIN, Distinguished professor of Life Sciences and former president of Taiwan Westland Society. The manuscript is intended to be a book chapter for Taiwan as Ocean co-edited by Ti-han Chang and Niki Joseph Paul Alsford) 

Recommended documentaries 

• Formosa vs. Formosa 福爾摩沙對福爾摩沙 
• Whither Energy Transition? I 能源轉型轉到哪? 上集