On Taiwan's outlying Kinmen Islands, just kilometers away from China's coast and formerly the frontline of cross-strait conflict, the issue of identity is a complicated one.
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00:00In 1958, after the August 23rd bombing,
00:03all the soldiers wore helmets.
00:07Wang Ling, a tour guide, says soldiers used to roam these streets
00:11on Taiwan's outlying Kinmen Islands,
00:13which are governed by Taiwan but are much closer to China,
00:16and used to be the front line of battle between the two sides.
00:20For people living here, still caught in the middle of cross-strait tensions,
00:24identity can be a complicated question.
00:27Wang was raised in Kinmen and now owns several businesses here.
00:31But when she was a teenager, she identified as Chinese.
00:35That changed only after she moved to the main island of Taiwan for college.
00:51Wang says depending on their background and age,
00:54each person on Kinmen may have a different answer to the question,
00:57where are you from?
00:59Opinions vary even along this one street.
01:05Yan Jiren, who owns a Chinese medicine shop,
01:08says his ancestors came to Kinmen from southeast China,
01:11and he goes back often to see family.
01:13When asked where he's from, he says,
01:24So, both sides are from Kinmen.
01:31The Republic of China is Taiwan's official name.
01:34It once governed mainland China before its troops were defeated
01:37by the communists in the Chinese Civil War,
01:39and it was forced to flee to Taiwan in 1949.
01:42On the mainland, the communists then established the People's Republic of China.
01:47But at the time, the ROC still considered itself
01:49the legitimate government of both Taiwan and mainland China.
01:53And nowadays, though some in Taiwan still believe this idea,
01:56others reject it.
01:57But Yan's 30-year-old daughter gives a different answer.
02:06But she wouldn't often say she's from Taiwan,
02:08and that's relatively common here.
02:11Just steps away from the medicine shop,
02:13another business owner gives yet a different answer.
02:16Yet, another complication.
02:18Kinmen residents hold Taiwanese ID cards,
02:21but on them it says they're from Fujian province.
02:23This refers to the ROC's Fujian province, not mainland China's.
02:28Taiwan and Fujian used to be considered separate provinces within the ROC.
02:32All these different identities exist side by side on this small island,
02:36illustrating the complexities of this place.
02:38Both friendly with China and Taiwan's first line of defense,
02:42From where I'm standing in Kinmen, China's only a few kilometers away.
02:46Across the water is the Chinese city of Xiamen.
02:49Here is also a reminder of Kinmen's role as a front line between Taiwan and China.
02:53Until the 1990s, these speakers broadcast propaganda over to China.
03:12I feel very happy and blessed.
03:16I hope that my fellow mainlanders can enjoy the same freedom and democracy as we do.
03:22People here recognize that Kinmen is in a unique position,
03:26like this business owner, who identifies as Taiwanese.
03:43Kinmen is connected to Xiamen by ferry, just a 30-minute ride.
03:48Kinmen residents go to China often, and some own property there.
03:52In 2018, Kinmen even started importing water from China.
03:56But a sociologist who studies Kinmen warns of the potential consequences of these links.
04:13China has vowed unification with Taiwan and threatened to take it by force.
04:18But although some here may consider themselves Chinese,
04:21one Kinmen County counselor says many residents still want democracy.
04:42Now, people here, like Wang and her husband, who's from Beijing,
05:11grapple with how to articulate the complexities of living on Kinmen to their children.
05:33In their own ways, people here on this small island group
05:36are doing their best to make sense of their position between Taiwan and China.
05:41Ryan Wu, Peachy Zhuang, and Keynes Cuaranta for Taiwan Plus.