2016

The 20th May Incident: Farmers' Demonstration

Follow-up Report on the Chiang Kai-shek Int'l Airport Incident

The Chiang Kai-shek Int'l Airport Incident

From the Lifting of Martial Law to the National Security Act

After the DPP was officially formed in 1986, the government on the one hand announced its willingness to lift martial law and the ban on political parties, yet on the other hand wished to supplant these restrictions with a National Security Act. Opposition parties demanded a full return to rule according to the constitution. This film documents their struggle before martial law was lifted.

The Freedom to Return Home

In the 1980s, the KMT regime had relocated to Taiwan for over thirty years. The mainland Chinese soldiers who arrived with its troops never stopped being homesick but were deprived of the rights to even write a letter home. A group of veterans founded the Association for Mainlanders’ Homecoming, demanding their basic human rights to return home and visit their family.

Lukang Residents' Anti-DuPont Movement

In 1985, US company DuPont received permission from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to set up a titanium dioxide plant near Lukang, Changhua County. The local residents held a series of protests against the plan, even one in front of the presidential office. This rising community consciousness, combined with a growing environmental awareness, ultimately drove DuPont out of the region.

September, Last Year (Lin Cheng-chieh's Street Protests)

On 3 September 1986, the Taipei District Court disregarded LIN Cheng-chieh’s legislative immunity and sentenced him to eighteen months in prison on charges of defamation. LIN decided not to challenge the ruling; he broke through police barricades and angrily threw a bell towards the presidential office, signifying the death knell of justice. He then began a 12-day protest on the streets.

The Battle between Shui Yuan Village and LCY Chemical Corp.

On 27 February 1987, residents of Shui Yuan Village barricaded the front gate of LCY Chemical Corp factory, who was polluting the groundwater. On the 100th day of their protest, Hsinchu Mayor promised to have police stationed there. But the factory tried to secretly ship out their product. Pushed to the limit, the villagers built a wall with concrete and vowed never to be fooled again.

The 20th May Incident

protest against the government’s indifference to farmers’ rights. Some farmers clashed with the police when trying to enter for restroom. Several were arrested, leading to fiercer clashes. Protesters demanding the release of the arrested were dispersed with baton and water cannon.

Fighting the Fifth Naphtha Cracker Plant

This film was produced for a briefing to the Ministry of Economic Affairs by the people of Houjin opposing China Petroleum Company’s fifth naphtha cracker plant. It brings together scenes of pollutions caused by the CPC over the previous year, interviews of the people affected, and footage of a series of protests, including that of the residents carrying coffins to the CPC facilities.

You are here