They might be unforgivable, vicious insurrectionists in the eyes of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), but the political prisoners on Green Island played a pivotal role in the local economic, agricultural, medical, educational and cultural development.
The premiere of director Hung Lung-pang’s (洪隆邦) documentary film, One Day on Green Island (綠島的一天), at a human rights memorial last Friday offered a rare insight into the close friendship that developed between the island’s residents and the prisoners.
Political prisoner Ouyang Wen (歐陽文) said: “We saw topless women when we went ashore, so we thought they were Aborigines.”
PHOTO TAKEN BY FORMER PRISONER CHEN MENG-HE
The women turned out to be emigrants from Little Liuchiu in Pingtung County and China’s Fujian Province who were too poor to buy clothes. They could only take the red clothes offered by fishermen at the Guanyi Temple after a big haul of fish and with the god’s permission through divination blocks to cover the lower part of their bodies.
The prison had no walls when the first batch of political prisoners arrived on the island on May 17, 1951.
The officials told the local residents: “You would be colluding with communists if you talk to the prisoners.”
Later, the prisoners collected stones from the sea and built walls to block themselves in.
Because of the strong sea wind and heavy fog, the island’s residents could grow nothing but peanuts and yams.
After eating moldy food shipped from Taiwan for more than a year, the officials could not take it anymore. They ordered prisoners who had doctorates in agriculture to form a team and take charge of growing tomatoes, pumpkins, water spinach and other vegetables, while raising turkeys, pigs and sheep at the same time.
They also exchanged vegetables with fish from the local fishermen.
The “Green Island” soybean sauce that the island continues to sell to this day was originally produced by then-prisoner Huang Chung-hua (黃仲華).
Former prisoner Mao Fu-cheng (毛扶正) said that their farming tools, such as sickles and hoes, were all made of melted scrap iron taken from the demolished US passenger liner SS President Hoover ran aground in 1937.
The number of prisoners on Green Island was once as high as 2,000, accounting for two-thirds of the island’s total population. More than a dozen were doctors from National Taiwan University Hospital, who asked their families to send equipment and medicine and set up a temporary clinic to treat other prisoners, officials and local residents.
Tien Fen-lai (田份來), a local resident, recalled a woman suffering from difficult labor, with the baby dying in her womb. With the help of the prisoner-doctors, they were able to take out the baby and save the woman’s life.
“Many of the prisoners were talented,” said Lin Deng-jung (林登榮), a retired teacher from Green Island Elementary School.
He said that officials once assigned a dozen of the prisoners to teach different subjects at a local elementary school. This boosted the enrolment rate, with 19 of the 20-plus students successfully entering junior high schools in Taiwan. One of the tutors at that time was the famed writer Bo Yang (柏楊).
Some of the prisoners were good at Beijing or Taiwanese opera and Chinese stand-up comedy. They often performed in the local villages.
Chen Meng-he (陳孟和), an art major from National Taiwan Normal University, used native materials that he could find on the island to manufacture violins and guitars, which have been preserved to this day.
Chen was also ordered to take photographs for the prisoners, and family pictures for the local residents at the prison’s co-op. Today, the old photos have become rare and precious historical materials.
“The political prisoners’ youth was all wasted in Green Island,” the director said, “but they changed the local residents’ destiny.”
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
RSS