Taiwan Docs

In 1736, Hakka ancestors, the brothers Lin Fong-Shan and Lin Guei-Shan led 16 families from the area of Wu-Luo Zhuang into the foothills of the Ling, Moonlight, and Double Peak Mountains. The clansmen called this newly cultivated land "Mi-Nong" which is currently the town of Meinun in Kaohsiung County. In Ping Pu language, Mi-Nong means "a place surrounded by water vapor." A hundred years ago, the town of Meinun was indeed full of water, but there were many surrounding areas which had only sand and rocks.

So when the Hakka ancestors first settled there, frequent disputes erupted between different clans over the water.

To solve the water shortage problem in southern Taiwan and the Bing-Nang Industrial Park, the Department of Finance formed a committee to investigate the possibility of buliding a Meinun Dam. In 1981, the Water Resource Committee contracted the Chung-Hsing Engineering Consulting Firm to assess the feasibility of the Meinun Dam. Although intensive planning was already underway, public hearing was not held until December 1993. Because of the strong doubts concerning the safety of the dam, the public started of protests. For the inhabitants of Meinun who have lived there for over a hundred years, this may be the beginning of another nightmare.

Source: Taiwan International Documentary Festival