©Copyright 2017 Hsi-Wen Chang
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©Copyright 2017 Hsi-Wen Chang Wounded Land and Wounded Peoples Attitudes of Paiwan People and Tao People toward Nuclear Waste Hsi-Wen Chang A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington Reading Committee: Stevan Harrell, Chair Miriam Kahn Jeffrey Hou Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of Anthropology University of Washington Abstract Wounded Land and Wounded Peoples Attitudes of Paiwan People and Tao People toward Nuclear Waste Hsi-Wen Chang Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Stevan Harrell Department of Anthropology In 2008 and 2010, Taiwan Power Company (TPC) consecutively selected two Paiwan villages as candidates of the nuclear waste repository site. Surprisingly, Paiwanese villages are willing to accept storing nuclear waste on their homeland for the hope of local development with TPC's monetary compensation. Compared to Paiwanese villagers’ positive attitude, Tao islanders have been demonstrating a contrasting manner towards nuclear waste since they found the state-owned “fish can factory” is actually a nuclear waste repository. The overarch question I would like to ask is why there are different attitudes from different people on the issue of nuclear waste. Drawn from previous literature on nuclear relevant issues, three theoretical perspectives including environmental justice, sense of place and tourism are used to interpret why the two indigenous communities hold different attitudes toward nuclear waste. Based on my fieldwork at Nantian Village and Lanyu Island, I confirm that the fluid relationship between people and land is affected by the contextual factors such as the economic system, colonial history, religions, and etc. More importantly, I found the concept of environmental autonomy is very helpful to predict the indigenous people’s attitude towards the nuclear waste. Actually, environmental autonomy is deeply influenced by the fluid relationship between land and human. Simply put, the fluid relationship between people and land goes first and subsequently shapes the indigenous people’s environmental autonomy and the environmental autonomy finally influences the attitude toward nuclear waste. Environmental autonomy plays a bridge role that connects the fluid relationship between people and land to the indigenous people's attitude toward nuclear waste. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Motives and Purpose of Study ............................................................................................................................ 1 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Environmental Justice: Beyond the Monetary Compensation .................................................................... 5 The Sense of Place: Multivocality and Multilocality ..................................................................................... 7 Tourism: Is It a Double-Edged Sword for Cultural Preservation? ........................................................... 14 Research Methods .............................................................................................................................................. 18 On Ethnographic Positionality ......................................................................................................................... 20 Where Am I From? ....................................................................................................................................................... 20 From Nursing to Anthropology ................................................................................................................................ 23 Nuclear Waste Shows Me the Way Home .......................................................................................................... 27 The Way Back Home ................................................................................................................................................... 28 Entering Lanyu Island ................................................................................................................................................. 31 Between an Insider and an Outsider ................................................................................................................... 36 Research Ethics .................................................................................................................................................. 43 Structure of Dissertation and Organization of Chapters ............................................................................... 46 Chapter One: Mapping the Taiwanese Nuclear Issues in a Global Terrain ............................ 50 Nuclear World ..................................................................................................................................................... 50 Background of Nuclear Power .................................................................................................................................. 50 From Weapon to Electricity ....................................................................................................................................... 51 What Is “Acceptable Nuclear Risk?” ..................................................................................................................... 52 Taiwan Nuclear History .................................................................................................................................... 55 Taiwan As Developmental State .............................................................................................................................. 55 History of Energy in Taiwan ..................................................................................................................................... 58 The Neglected History of Taiwanese Indigenous People and Energy Development ....................... 73 Environmental Movements as Reactions to Development .......................................................................... 79 Western View on Nature ............................................................................................................................................. 80 Eastern (Taiwan and China) View on Nature: Taiwan ................................................................................. 81 Environmental Movements on Nuclear Issues .............................................................................................. 86 Environmental Justice ....................................................................................................................................... 90 i World Movement .......................................................................................................................................................... 91 Nuclear Power in Taiwan as Environmental Justice Issues ....................................................................... 94 Chapter 2: The Nuclear Waste in Indigenous Land ...................................................................... 96 Barren Land and Poverty: The Basis of the Decision ................................................................................... 98 The Selection Criteria Followed in Taiwan ....................................................................................................... 98 The Philosophical Background of the Criteria ............................................................................................. 101 The Philosophical Ideas about Small Barren Islands ................................................................................ 107 Scientific Prejudice .................................................................................................................................................... 109 The Injustice of the Decision .......................................................................................................................... 115 Chapter 3 : The Fluid Relationship between Taiwanese Indigenous People and Their Land ................................................................................................................................................................ 126 Land Ownership ............................................................................................................................................. 126 Paiwan People ............................................................................................................................................................. 126 Tao People .................................................................................................................................................................... 129 The Impact of the State ................................................................................................................................ 134 Paiwan People ............................................................................................................................................................. 134 Tao People .................................................................................................................................................................... 137 The Impact of the Christian