The Shaken Hongye Tribe Fights Geothermal: The Mesozoic Generation Awakens and Joins the Battle, Refusing to Let Outside Forces Decide Their Fate

"At the July 11 tribal meeting, only twenty or thirty villagers stayed until the end. There wasn't even a head count or a vote. Most people signed in, took their snack box, and left. They had no idea what geothermal development was even about." Peng Chang-fu, who was the first to speak out against the geothermal project and whose home sits just 300 meters from the drilling well, was scathing: "How can you let the company write meeting minutes saying drilling was approved? That kind of tribal meeting is just not right."

The Hongye Tribe is made up mainly of Truku people. Peng Chang-fu is one of the few Bunun among them. With the geothermal company barging in, he was disturbed every night and could not live in peace. Bottling up his frustration, he could only pour it out to his good friend Zhang Gui-fang. To his surprise, Zhang Gui-fang was just as furious. "Driving all day out there is hard enough already. Since the geothermal company came, I can't sleep at night. I'm so miserable I'm almost getting sick," Zhang Gui-fang said.

"I know it's very hard to successfully oppose development, but the right thing should still be done. Geothermal development in the tribe has enormous impact. We must answer to future generations so they can hold their heads high." His friend's support gave Peng Chang-fu great encouragement. He finally could not hold back and fired the tribe's first shot against geothermal development.

One Man Raises the Flag, and Tribespeople Respond by Hanging White Banners One After Another

On August 22, at the tribe's thanksgiving ceremony, Peng Chang-fu hung up a banner all by himself. This reckless yet passionate act quietly won the support of many tribespeople who were angry but dared not speak. Within a tribe that values lineage and family standing, Peng Chang-fu, this inconspicuous small figure, had undoubtedly crossed the tribe's "traditional order" red line. When Peng Chang-fu asked village public officials to join the petition, he was even cursed to his face with a three-word insult and publicly told to "watch out."

But under Peng Chang-fu's lead protest, the villagers of Hongye rallied with a shared sense of indignation. One after another they hung banners opposing geothermal development to protest the construction, and they banded together to elect Peng Chang-fu as chairman of the self-help association, launching a self-reliant campaign.

Yet Peng Chang-fu privately worried: "I only finished elementary school. Zhang Gui-fang didn't even finish elementary school. Most of the villagers who resist don't have computers and can't type. An opposition movement can't keep going on like this." Just as he was fretting, a group of young people from the tribe came to him and volunteered to serve as the self-help association's staff team.

A Tribal Elder Delivers a Wake-Up Call, and a Culture Teacher Steps Up to Back the Self-Help Association

Libix is a cultural worker. She originally taught Truku traditional music and dance at a school and was a highly respected teacher in the tribe. But a tribal elder came to her and gave her a sharp wake-up call: "You young people who've had an education, where have you all gone? Haven't you seen what's happening in the tribe? Why won't you step forward?"

The elder's words shook Libix's decades-long elegant middle-class outlook on life: "We are the educated batch who work outside and buy homes, and our lives are actually better than most people in the tribe. Yet this was the first time we heard an elder say this. We were stunned and very sad. Young educated tribespeople like me have instead become more indifferent to tribal affairs."

She recalled her childhood growing up in the tribe: "The elders with facial tattoos would call the children over to eat. The children didn't care whose house it was, they'd grab a spoon, scoop from the pot, and put it straight into their mouths. No one distinguished whose family it was. As long as you were a child of the tribe, the elders would care for and cherish you." These emotional ties drove her to throw herself into this struggle.

So she became the first volunteer to step up and back Peng Chang-fu, and she brought in more young people to join the action, connecting with young tribespeople living away from home, quietly integrating everything, from promotional materials to setting up a Facebook fan page, writing meeting minutes, and planning the petition, putting the whole resistance movement on track.

Tribal Youth Return Home to Join the Battle: Past Development Has Not Made the Tribe Better, but Has Taken Away More

Idung is another young teacher who came back to support the opposition movement. He said the Truku have a word, "Tmpusu," which roughly means "those who live here will ultimately come back." For him, the city only lets him put on a mask and hide among the crowd. "Only when I return to the tribe am I an indigenous person. Only then can I fully relax and be myself. Even if it's just going up the mountain to cut grass and plant vegetables, not doing these things would make me very sad."

"In the past, when we cooked at the mountain work hut, anyone passing by could come in and eat. No one would go hungry. A shared life is the foundation of the tribe, but this simple tribal spirit of sharing has been misused." Idung described it this way: "A few years ago a mine came and then a reservoir was built. In the end, the mine brought gravel trucks and mudslides. A drunk tribesperson was crushed to death by a big truck. The reservoir sent the abundant water of the Hongye River straight to Ruisui for the big hotels and pomelo orchards." And the once lush green rice paddies of Hongye Village were left with nothing but barren land overgrown with weeds.

The government and the developer's disregard for the tribe's will made this group of educated tribespeople feel an even greater sense of responsibility. To awaken the tribespeople's determination to protect their homeland, they organized an anti-geothermal march and concert on October 3.

The Tribe Splits, and Overwhelming Social Pressure Descends on the Eve of the March

At 7:30 in the morning on October 3, close to the scheduled departure time of the anti-geothermal march, there were surprisingly very few people in the square of the Hongye Village activity center, leaving the self-help association members deeply anxious. "Then, until the march set off, very dramatically, many tribespeople only then came out of their homes one after another and joined the march." Seeing the procession gradually grow to more than two hundred people, Libix felt a great weight lift from her heart.

In fact, on the eve of the march, she was still planning the next day's event. "Because of all kinds of social pressure and concern, the singers and host who were originally supposed to perform all asked for leave at the last minute and couldn't come." She smiled bitterly and said, "No choice, I had to go on stage myself." Because the host and the scheduled singers were absent, Libix had to fill in herself.

In this unprecedented first united march in Hongye Village, more than two hundred tribespeople walked to the geothermal drilling site and, outside the construction site fence, slaughtered a pig to make an offering to the ancestral spirits, declaring the tribe's determination to oppose geothermal development. A tribal concert was then held in the afternoon to continue building the tribe's will to resist.

At the event, Libix made an emotional appeal to the tribespeople: "People of the tribe cannot always treat themselves as outsiders and then wait for the chief to make decisions." She was also keenly aware of the long-suppressed mindset of the tribespeople, and that even more of them were angry but dared not speak, unable to break out of conservative thinking.

"For a long time, the tribe has been used to letting a few heads of powerful families decide public affairs. This way of thinking is not easy to change. Take it slowly. We have the power of faith and the wisdom of tradition supporting us. We must let the tribespeople slowly step forward," Libix said.