People from Kinmen have historically been on the frontline of conflict in the Taiwan Strait. But the islands’ geographic proximity and economic ties to China make the issue of identity a complicated one for the people that live there.
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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.
02:15My wife is from Taiwan, and I'm from Fujian.
02:21Yet another complication.
02:23Kinmen residents hold Taiwanese ID cards,
02:25but on them it says they're from Fujian province.
02:28This refers to the ROC's Fujian province, not mainland China's.
02:32Taiwan and Fujian used to be considered separate provinces within the ROC.
02:42On another part of these islands,
02:44Li Kaizhen, an oyster farmer and village head,
02:46would say he's from Kinmen.
02:48But he says he could also consider himself Chinese,
02:51because his ancestors came from China.
03:09All these different identities exist side by side on this small island,
03:13illustrating the complexities of this place,
03:15both friendly with China and Taiwan's first line of defense against it.
03:20From where I'm standing in Kinmen, China's only a few kilometers away.
03:24Across the water is the Chinese city of Xiamen.
03:27Here is also a reminder of Kinmen's role as a front line between Taiwan and China.
03:32Until the 1990s, these speakers broadcast propaganda over to China.
03:44People here recognize that Kinmen is in a unique position,
03:47like this business owner, who identifies as Taiwanese.
04:14Kinmen is connected to Xiamen by ferry, just a 30-minute ride.
04:18Kinmen residents go to China often, and some own property there.
04:22In 2018, Kinmen even started importing water from China.
04:26But a sociologist who studies Kinmen
04:28warns of the potential consequences of these links.
04:43China has vowed unification with Taiwan, and threatened to take it by force.
04:47But although some here may consider themselves Chinese,
04:51one Kinmen County counselor says many residents still want democracy.
05:13It's under a democracy that all these different opinions exist in Kinmen.
05:43And where Chinese flags are sometimes hung alongside Taiwanese ones.
05:48It's also a place where Chinese people live alongside Taiwanese.
05:51Irene Zhao, who's from China, says it's a great place for her and her husband,
05:55who's Taiwanese, to live and raise their kids.
06:13Now, people here, like Wang and her husband, who's from Beijing,
06:17grapple with how to articulate the complexities of living on Kinmen to their children.
06:39In their own ways, people here on this small island group
06:43are doing their best to make sense of their position between Taiwan and China.
06:48Ryan Wu, Pichi Zhuang, and Keynes Cuaranta for Taiwan Plus.