WEBVTT

00:01:03.354 --> 00:01:06.232
Growing up in Taiwan, I heard a lot about Kinmen.

00:01:22.499 --> 00:01:24.167
Like most Taiwanese,

00:01:24.167 --> 00:01:27.253
I had never been to these islands so close to China.

00:01:29.005 --> 00:01:31.591
Until I came with my parents a couple years ago.

00:01:59.160 --> 00:02:01.579
I knew that Kinmen had been the frontline for Taiwan

00:02:01.579 --> 00:02:03.832
during the Chinese Civil War,

00:02:03.832 --> 00:02:07.460
but it was still a shock to see that China

00:02:07.460 --> 00:02:10.255
is literally right there.

00:02:46.166 --> 00:02:48.751
I sang this song all the time as a kid.

00:02:48.751 --> 00:02:53.506
We were taught that we, Taiwanese,
were Chinese in exile

00:02:53.506 --> 00:02:55.842
and one day with help from the US,

00:02:55.842 --> 00:02:58.469
we would retake China, freeing the mainland

00:02:58.469 --> 00:03:00.096
from the evil Communists.

00:03:03.474 --> 00:03:05.935
And Kinmen would be the launching pad.

00:03:07.729 --> 00:03:11.316
About 100 miles across open water from Taiwan,

00:03:11.316 --> 00:03:14.652
Kinmen is surrounded on
three sides by the mainland

00:03:14.652 --> 00:03:17.322
and has frequently been
shelled by red artillery.

00:03:19.449 --> 00:03:21.492
Kinmen is in effect the cork

00:03:21.492 --> 00:03:24.162
in the Communist invasion bottle

00:03:24.162 --> 00:03:26.831
performing much the same role for Asia,

00:03:26.831 --> 00:03:29.375
as does Berlin in Europe.

00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:38.801
This was my dad in 1968.

00:03:40.303 --> 00:03:44.307
When he drew Kinmen for
his mandatory military service,

00:03:44.307 --> 00:03:46.142
my grandmother cried.

00:03:47.101 --> 00:03:49.979
She was afraid that he might
not make it back alive.

00:03:53.942 --> 00:03:56.527
As I got older, politicians on TV

00:03:56.527 --> 00:03:58.112
stopped trying to convince us

00:03:58.112 --> 00:04:00.365
to take back China at all costs.

00:04:02.200 --> 00:04:05.578
But the folks in Kinmen were
still expected to defend Taiwan,

00:04:06.746 --> 00:04:08.957
even though they have family and history

00:04:08.957 --> 00:04:11.751
just on the other side of the divide.

00:04:16.965 --> 00:04:21.427
As for my family, like most
ethnic Chinese in Taiwan,

00:04:21.427 --> 00:04:23.137
we\'ve been here for generations

00:04:23.137 --> 00:04:25.390
and have no connections to China.

00:04:26.766 --> 00:04:30.853
Instead, my father dreamt
of going to the US,

00:04:30.853 --> 00:04:33.648
which is where I have spent
most of my adult life

00:04:34.357 --> 00:04:37.610
until I moved back to
Taipei a few years ago.

00:04:47.662 --> 00:04:49.956
After so many years away,

00:04:49.956 --> 00:04:52.292
I\'m still figuring out my own relationship

00:04:52.292 --> 00:04:55.003
to Taiwan and China.

00:04:59.799 --> 00:05:01.884
金門連接了台灣和中國
Kinmen connects Taiwan to China,

00:05:03.094 --> 00:05:05.388
but also keeps them apart.

00:05:06.681 --> 00:05:09.350
Maybe that\'s why I\'m drawn to this place.

00:05:10.435 --> 00:05:12.520
I want to make sense of it.

00:07:50.845 --> 00:07:53.222
Growing up, this channel of water

00:07:53.222 --> 00:07:58.060
was the edge of our universe,
separating good from evil.

00:08:02.398 --> 00:08:05.067
Then one day, we were suddenly allowed

00:08:05.067 --> 00:08:07.278
to cross to the other side.

00:08:10.823 --> 00:08:14.785
And all it took was a half hour ferry ride.

00:08:19.332 --> 00:08:21.876
On my very first trip to China,

00:08:21.876 --> 00:08:24.795
I used my Taiwanese Compatriot Permit.

00:08:26.130 --> 00:08:28.090
It\'s basically a separate passport

00:08:28.090 --> 00:08:29.592
issued by the Chinese government,

00:08:30.968 --> 00:08:32.803
the same government that considers

00:08:32.803 --> 00:08:36.015
my Taiwanese passport illegal.

00:08:38.476 --> 00:08:41.103
But when I began working in China,

00:08:41.103 --> 00:08:45.233
it was actually easier to travel
with my American passport.

00:08:52.448 --> 00:08:55.284
The China I saw was not
the sad and scary

00:08:55.284 --> 00:08:58.371
communist wasteland that
I learned about in school.

00:08:59.205 --> 00:09:01.582
It was an exhilarating place,

00:09:01.582 --> 00:09:04.544
bursting with colors and possibilities.

00:09:22.562 --> 00:09:24.939
I wanted to be a part of it

00:09:24.939 --> 00:09:27.858
with whichever passport I needed to use.

00:09:41.581 --> 00:09:43.958
I was last in China in 2018.

00:09:45.835 --> 00:09:48.296
I had a hard time getting a film I made

00:09:48.296 --> 00:09:51.757
to pass through the censors
so we could show it there.

00:09:53.593 --> 00:09:56.053
Then China\'s crackdown on
Hong Kong happened

00:09:57.305 --> 00:09:59.890
and the pandemic shut down everything,

00:09:59.890 --> 00:10:03.477
including the Kinmen ferry in 2020.

00:10:07.023 --> 00:10:10.901
I\'m not sure I\'ll go to China
again anytime soon.

00:12:39.884 --> 00:12:42.803
When Covid broke out,
I moved back to Taipei

00:12:42.803 --> 00:12:44.972
after several decades in the US.

00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:49.894
There you go.

00:12:49.894 --> 00:12:53.147
I\'ve spent more time with
my parents in the last three years

00:12:53.147 --> 00:12:55.191
than in the past 30 years combined.

00:12:57.276 --> 00:13:00.070
This place is feeling like home again.

00:13:00.070 --> 00:13:04.867
Though I can\'t help but wonder
how long this will last.

00:13:12.249 --> 00:13:14.919
I have split the last 15 years in my life

00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:18.422
going between Taiwan, China,
and the US.

00:13:20.508 --> 00:13:22.843
More and more, I feel like
a kid whose parents

00:13:22.843 --> 00:13:26.096
are involved in a three-way custody battle.

00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:30.810
Hostile, codependent, manipulative,

00:13:30.810 --> 00:13:32.978
each pair with their own dysfunctions.

00:13:34.522 --> 00:13:37.691
They all think they know
what\'s best for me.

00:13:37.691 --> 00:13:39.568
They don\'t care what I want.

00:13:47.576 --> 00:13:49.370
Many in Kinmen think that China

00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:53.707
will never attack Taiwan
and the US should stop interfering.

00:13:56.794 --> 00:14:00.381
\"We\'ll be reunified peacefully\", they said,

00:14:00.381 --> 00:14:03.592
\"because after all,
we\'re all one big family.\"

00:14:09.014 --> 00:14:12.810
At dinner recently, my mother
casually reminded me

00:14:12.810 --> 00:14:15.813
that I should have a plan if China invades,

00:14:17.565 --> 00:14:19.775
但是他們打算留在台灣
but they intend to stay in Taiwan.

00:14:21.610 --> 00:14:24.989
\"We\'re gonna be too old to leave\",
she told me.

00:16:41.750 --> 00:16:43.836
Starting in 2024,

00:16:43.836 --> 00:16:46.171
Taiwanese compulsory military service

00:16:46.171 --> 00:16:49.883
will be extended to one year
for all eligible men.

00:16:56.932 --> 00:16:58.934
When these young men arrive in Kinmen,

00:16:59.977 --> 00:17:05.232
would they be surprised like I am
by the peaceful sunsets,

00:17:06.525 --> 00:17:08.861
the same ones that my
father must have seen

00:17:08.861 --> 00:17:11.572
when he served here all those years ago.

00:17:14.658 --> 00:17:17.411
And by the kindness of the people here

00:17:18.287 --> 00:17:22.374
who are forever caught in between.