島嶼韌性社區與小島住民環境治理研究：金門與廈門環境治理及城鄉發展政策的比較研究(II)

The islands of Kinmen and Xiamen, also known as Quemoy and Amoy respectively, are culturally closely knit with the coastal region of Fukien in south of China. Both islands played important historical roles in coastal defense, and are home to many Overseas Chinese since the 19th Century. A decisive battle of the Chinese Civil War was fought on Kinmen in 1949, cutting off Kinmen’s connection with Xiamen and Fukien. Positioned on a critical frontier between the “free world” and the “communist world,” self-sufficiency became militarily important in the event of a blockade. After 1979, PRC’s central government chose Xiamen to be a special economic zone. It attracted large flows of foreign investment and experienced rapid urban development. The establishment of the “Little-three-link” policy in 2002 which allowed scheduled ferries between Kinmen and Xiamen, reopened connections between Kinmen and its PRC neighbor cities. Renewed exchange highlighted the remarkable differences between the development paths of the two islands during the 53-year suspension of contacts. This paper analyzes these different development paths through two comparative case studies involving forms of enclosure: first, I will discuss wetland conservation of Tzi Lake in Kinmen and then gentrified residential developments around Yuan-dan Lake in Xiamen; changing relationships, the impact of sudden re-opening of borders, and new forms of enclosure under globalization and regional flows of capital and labor are discussed.