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Stone Camp's solar power resistance: the Fangliao volunteers and a monastic master guard the black pearl

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Stone Camp solar power resistance 03 "Fangliao volunteers" guard the beautiful black pearl; a monastic master enters worldly struggle to protect the mountains and rivers

Fangliao is located at the southern edge of the country. Along the Ping-E Highway are convenience stores and gas stations that serve travelers passing through the Hengchun Peninsula, Kenting and Taitung, as if its only fate were to be "passed through" by tourists, making it the most depressing spot in the hearts of local residents. In recent years, because of the Lele chicken farm resistance and the arrival of a waste landfill, Fangliao has repeatedly made headlines with pollution news, and now there are also solar panels being developed everywhere.

A group of Fangliao residents started out opposing the Lele chicken farm and have now become a local force protecting Stone Camp. Even the monastic masters practicing at the temple could no longer stand by and watch the mountain forest be dug up into yellow earth, and they stepped forward to join the resistance, calling on the authorities to "stop stripping the earth of its vitality."

This group of Fangliao volunteers believes that Stone Camp is a historical asset full of potential, but short-sighted, quick-profit development has repeatedly harmed Fangliao. If its culture and ecology could be properly protected, it would not only safeguard the mountains and rivers, but travelers would also stop in Fangliao again.

The great bell in Foguo Temple weighs several dozen tons and is named "Guardian of the Mountains and Rivers," bearing witness to the monastics' great love for the environment and ecology. (Provided by Fangliao Baoding Foguo Temple)

Opposing chicken farm pollution ignites the torch of the citizen movement in Fangliao Township

In recent years, the Pingtung County Government, citing the unsuitability of land subsidence areas for farming, designated the four townships of Fangliao, Jiadong, Linbian and Donggang as a solar power zone, allowing developers to apply to develop large areas of farmland for solar power. Now even the important cultural asset Stone Camp must give way to solar power. The people of Fangliao feel they are being taken advantage of and roar: stop bullying Fangliao Township at will!

The gathering of citizen power in Fangliao must begin with Zhang Renji, a protester against the Lele chicken farm. Zhang Renji came from the prestigious baseball school Meiho High School and once played for the Amateur Group Heli baseball team. After an injury ended his professional career, he could only return to his hometown to open a shop and care for his parents. After returning home, he discovered that information about Fangliao online was pitifully scarce, and the eager learner began to photograph and make videos to introduce the beauty of Fangliao.

However, the harsh reality made him realize that, because of a culture of going along with things, a lack of media attention and weak citizen oversight, rural areas have become rich meat for a few political families to control. As a result, Zhang Renji became one of the earliest citizen journalists in southern Pingtung, founding the "I Am a Fangliao Person" online community and becoming an active local online opinion leader.

Zhang Renji believes that the success of the Lele chicken farm resistance was a milestone in turning around the atmosphere in Fangliao Township. (Photo / Lin Jiyang)

In 2019, New Power Party legislator Huang Guochang traveled south to support the Lele chicken farm resistance, and the county government, under public pressure, revoked the Lele chicken farm's registration certificate at the end of the year. This incident was a shot in the arm for Fangliao Township residents' participation in public affairs. Zhang Renji believes, "In the past, everyone was used to going along with things, or complaining and waiting in vain, thinking there was no hope for their hometown and unwilling to take action." But on the day the county government announced the revocation of the Lele chicken farm's license, it truly changed Fangliao Township. "When people see something wrong, more and more are brave enough to stand up."

One public nuisance after another; an old-street tofu pudding shop becomes the volunteers' headquarters

The old settlement of Shuidiliao in Fangliao Township was a transfer point for east-west transportation before the South Link Railway opened. Travelers heading east usually spent the night here before taking a bus to Taitung. There are three villages here, named "Heavenly Timing, Geographical Advantage and Human Harmony," vividly expressing Shuidiliao's position as a key commercial hub. Today Shuidiliao is no longer lively, and one can only recall its past glory from the mottled shop signs on the old street.

Jian Sunu is the owner of the tofu pudding shop on the old street and a resident actively involved in public affairs. She has always been present at Fangliao Township's environmental citizen actions over the years, and the Stone Camp cultural asset case is no exception. Her comrades include a noodle shop owner, as well as wax apple farmers and homestay operators. The little tofu pudding shop is like the engine of local public affairs, and it would not seem far-fetched to call it the headquarters of the Fangliao citizen volunteers.

She describes Fangliao as like a black pearl: "small, black and unremarkable, yet very sweet, blessed with the beauty of mountains and sea, and now reduced to a township of pollution and public nuisances, with one major environmental hazard after another breaking out in Fangliao." First there was the years-long battle over the Lele chicken farm, then environmental groups exposed the landfill company Kailin for illegally burying hazardous waste, and just when the World War II relic Stone Camp fort was discovered, it was damaged by solar power development.

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