Offshore Islands and Marine Culture: From Penghu Stone Weirs to Lanyu Flying Fish Season

30-Second Overview: About 95% of the world's stone weirs (ancient intertidal fish traps) are concentrated in Penghu, with 592 counted in the 2008–2009 survey. On Lanyu, the Tao (Yami) people's flying fish season includes a complete system of taboos; researchers have found that some of these have resource-management effects — for example, the prohibition on catching reef fish during the flying fish season happens to give spawning reef fish a fallow period. These offshore islands are not merely Taiwan's frontiers; they are museums of human marine wisdom.

In 1950, stone weirs accounted for 77% of Penghu County's total fishery production value¹. That was an era without motorized fishing vessels; these "sea labyrinths" dry-stacked from basalt and coral reef were the economic lifeline of the entire archipelago.

In that resource-scarce era, having no stone weir meant having no livelihood tool, unable to marry or establish a household. Stone weirs possessed the same real-property attributes as fields and houses — they could be pawned, mortgaged, bought, sold, and even served as objects of inheritance division, as well as benchmarks for marriage alliances and social standing. In peak harvest years, a well-built stone weir could often catch hundreds or even thousands of catties of fish in a single tidal cycle¹.

📝 Curator's Note
Penghu's 320 km of coastline, minus harbors and areas too deep for weir construction, still hosted nearly 600 stone weirs¹. This is no coincidence — it is the ultimate expression of three centuries of human–ocean symbiotic wisdom.

Penghu Stone Weirs: Three Centuries of Marine Architecture

Fisheries Technology Older Than Wikipedia

The history of stone weirs is far older than we imagine. The earliest record of Penghu stone weirs appears in the 35th year of the Kangxi reign (1696) in the Taiwan Prefecture Gazetteer compiled by Gao Gongqian: "Penghu has… two large weirs, twenty small weirs… paying miscellaneous taxes." By the 19th year of the Guangxu reign (1893), the Penghu Subprefecture Gazetteer recorded "two large weirs, 76.5 small weirs."

What is a "half weir"? The documents do not explain¹, and it remains a mystery to this day.

Even more astonishing is the time span. A 1999 survey by Penghu local historian Hong Guo-xiong showed 558 stone weirs county-wide, plus 16 supplementary entries for a total of 574 or more. The 2008–2009 field survey of remaining areas pushed the number to 592; adding oral traditions of weirs whose traces can no longer be found, Penghu's stone weirs likely exceed 600¹.

Global Distribution of Stone Weirs: Penghu's Astonishing Density

Stone weirs (stone fish weirs) are an ancient fishery/hunting structure found worldwide — in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Hawai'i, and even the United Kingdom and United States. But about 95% of the world's stone weirs are concentrated in Penghu².

By island, Jibei Island has long been known as the "home of stone weirs"; a 2006 survey found 92 weirs around its perimeter, the most of any Penghu island. Qimei Island's Twin-Heart Stone Weir is only a single weir, but because a nearby cliff provides a perfect viewing platform, it has earned the title "the most beautiful cultural landscape on Earth"¹.

💭 An Unverified Hypothesis
Why does Penghu have so many stone weirs? The Ministry of Culture's World Heritage Potential Sites introduction speculates that stone weir culture may be one of the common features of Austronesian fishing culture, but also notes "further evidence is needed to support this"¹.

Seven Prerequisites for Stone Weir Construction

Not every place can build stone weirs. According to the Ministry of Culture's compilation, stone weir development requires seven elements simultaneously¹:

1. Construction materials: basalt, gravel, or coral reef
2. Sufficient tidal range: using the rise and fall of tides to trap fish schools
3. Strong wind and waves: fish schools readily enter weirs for shelter
4. Extensive reef flats: fish schools trapped in the intertidal zone at low tide
5. Migratory fish species: providing sufficient economic incentive
6. Adequate labor: weir construction takes years, even a decade or more
7. Management system: customary agreements on benefit distribution and repair responsibilities

Penghu happens to possess all seven conditions, especially its basalt geology and monsoon climate, which provide an ideal natural environment for stone weirs.

Lanyu Tao (Yami): Turning Taboos into Ecological Science

If Penghu stone weirs represent the pinnacle of marine architecture, Lanyu's flying fish season is a paradigm of marine ecology.

The Flying Fish Season Is Not a Festival, It Is a Legal System

Every spring, the Kuroshio Current brings flying fish to Lanyu waters, and the Tao people enter the flying fish season: rituals begin with the Fish-Calling Festival in February and continue until around October³. But this is not merely a fishing season — it is a complete marine resource management system.

The Tao people's flying fish season has an entire system of taboos³:

• Women do not participate in flying fish season rituals, nor touch fishing gear or boats
• Do not bring oranges onto the island during the flying fish season
• Diving, swimming, and angling are permitted only in specific waters
• Different periods correspond to different fishing methods and target species

💡 Did You Know
The reasons behind these taboos are not necessarily what outsiders imagine. In the Tao language, "orange" sounds similar to "no fish"; bringing oranges onto the island is believed to take away the luck of the catch³⁴; women's taboos relate to the flying fish being a sacred species and associations with misfortune⁴. But some taboos do have ecological effects: during the flying fish season, gillnets, spearguns, and fishing rods cannot be used to catch other species (mainly reef fish); any bycatch must be released; and March through May of the flying fish season is precisely the reef fish spawning season — effectively creating a closed season for spawning reef fish⁴.

Plank Boats: A Shipbuilding Craft Without a Single Nail

The Tao people's plank boats (Tatala) are a marvel of world shipbuilding, assembled from multiple wooden planks. Every boat bears unique traditional painted patterns symbolizing tribal identity.

Plank boats are divided into two categories by size⁵:

• Small plank boats (Tatala): one-, two-, and three-person boats; the three-person boat is about 3 meters long
• Large plank boats (Cinedkeran): six-person (Atlo so avat), eight-person (Apat so avat), ten-person (Alima so avat); the ten-person boat is about 7 meters long, and each fishing team uses it as its unit

The launch of every boat involves complex traditional rituals, including blessings, naming, and a completion ceremony for the hull paintings.

A Paradigm Shift from Superstition to Science

For a long time, outsiders dismissed the Tao people's flying fish season taboos wholesale as superstition. Researchers take a more nuanced view: some taboos have ecological conservation effects (e.g., controlling fishing effort), while others may simply be superstition⁴.

A 2019 study published in Marine Policy examined Tao flying fish culture using five criteria for effective resource management, concluding that this local knowledge meets those criteria and has a theoretical basis for managing Lanyu's marine and fishery resources; however, inappropriate government policies, modern technology, education, and the market economy are also changing it⁴⁶. A 2020 follow-up study, based on interviews with islanders in 2014 and 2015, classified the flying fish culture's taboos item by item for the first time and estimated the whole island's annual flying fish catch at roughly 260,000 to 280,000 fish⁴.

Kinmen: How 36 Years of Military Administration Shaped a Society

An Anthropological Experiment in Wartime Governance

From 1956 to 1992, Kinmen implemented 36 years of battlefield administration⁷. This was not merely military control but an unprecedented social experiment — how to completely militarize an island society.

Comprehensive control under battlefield administration:

• "Control, educate, provide for, hygiene" all operated through the military administration system
• Food, clothing, housing, transportation, and other daily life were all regulated
• All residents had to cooperate with military exercises at any time
• Entry and exit required special permits

The result? A unique "battlefield culture": dense military facilities, anti-airborne landing stakes covering the whole island, "Retake the Mainland" slogans, and collective memories deeply branded into several generations of Kinmen people.

Unexpectedly Preserved Hoklo Architectural Clusters

Kinmen preserves many intact traditional Hoklo (Southern Min) architectural clusters.

Shanhou Folk Culture Village is the classic example: 18 buildings sit against the mountain facing the sea in a checkerboard layout, adopting the traditional Hoklo two-courtyard design, with walls of Quanzhou white stone, complemented by jiaozhi pottery, colored paintings, stone carvings, and brick carvings, showcasing Hoklo architectural craftsmanship. These buildings were funded and built between 1876 and 1900 by the Japan-based overseas Chinese leaders Wang Guo-zhen and his son Wang Jing-xiang, and distributed to Wang clan members for residence⁸.

📝 Curator's Note
Kinmen's overseas Chinese architecture is a very special cultural phenomenon. In the mid-to-late Qing dynasty, many Kinmen people, facing hardship, "went abroad" (guo fan), heading to Southeast Asia or crossing to Japan, then sending remittances home⁹. Wang Guo-zhen of Shanhou did business in Kobe, Japan⁹, yet his house was built as an authentic Hoklo two-courtyard mansion; Kinmen also has the Chen Jing-lan Western-style mansion, which combines Western and Hoklo styles — another form left by the same stream of remittances.

The Unexpected Success of Kaoliang Liquor Culture

During battlefield administration, the Kinmen Distillery became a crucial economic pillar. In 1952, General Hu Lien built the distillery and implemented a "sorghum for rice" policy encouraging residents to grow sorghum: one catty of sorghum exchanged for one catty of white rice. Sorghum production rose from 298 metric tons in 1954 to nearly 6,600 metric tons in 1991¹⁰.

Interestingly, Kinmen kaoliang liquor long could not enter the Taiwan market: the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Monopoly Bureau long monopolized tobacco and alcohol, and the distillery's warehouses once piled high with inventory. The factory manager at the time repackaged five-year-old stock as "Black Diamond" aged kaoliang. Only after 1992, when restrictions on Kinmen and Matsu liquor sales to Taiwan were relaxed, did Kinmen kaoliang come to dominate Taiwan's baijiu market¹⁰.

Xiaoliuqiu: A World-Class Miracle of Sea Turtle Density

Why Are the Sea Turtles Here Unafraid of Humans?

Xiaoliuqiu enjoys the reputation of "Sea Turtle Island" and is a designated important habitat for green sea turtles by the Pingtung County Government; the Ocean Conservation Administration of the Ocean Affairs Council once observed 805 sea turtles via aerial survey¹¹.

Why can Xiaoliuqiu retain so many sea turtles?

1. Abundant food sources: The fringing reef topography of this coral reef island nurtures seaweed such as Caulerpa and Sargassum, the staple diet of green sea turtles
2. Suitable water temperature: Influenced by a branch of the Kuroshio Current, sea temperatures remain above 25 °C year-round¹¹
3. Fishing bans for protection: Since 2013, gillnets have been prohibited within three nautical miles of the coast, and sea turtles gradually returned¹²
4. Whole-island turtle-protection awareness: From reducing plastics to reef-safe sunscreen, a unique landscape of harmonious human–nature coexistence has formed

The Aesthetics of Distance at NT$300,000

Xiaoliuqiu's sea turtle conservation has a key figure: NT$300,000. Under the Wildlife Conservation Act, harassing or abusing protected wildlife is punishable by up to one year imprisonment, detention, or a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000¹³.

This "aesthetics of distance" is not just a legal requirement; it has become the core philosophy of Xiaoliuqiu's ecotourism: watch them, photograph them, but absolutely do not touch them. Maintaining this "friendly distance" has made Xiaoliuqiu one of the few places in the world where wild sea turtles can be observed at such close range.

Matsu's Blue Tears: A Bioluminescent Wonder

From Military Frontline to Blue Fairyland

The Matsu Islands lie at the mouth of the Min River in Fujian and were once the frontline of cross-Strait military confrontation. The Beihai Tunnel, the Tunnel 88, and other military facilities demonstrate astonishing underground engineering.

But what truly made Matsu famous is "Blue Tears." Visible every year from April to September, with April to June being the prime window: the Min River discharges a large volume of freshwater at this time, bringing nutrient salts that cause massive growth of Noctiluca scintillans (commonly called "blue tears" or "sea sparkle," a non-toxic dinoflagellate)¹⁴. When struck by waves, these organisms emit blue fluorescence, creating a dreamlike "blue galaxy."

⚠️ Ecological Controversy
Although beautiful, blue tears are actually a warning sign of marine ecological imbalance. Massive Noctiluca blooms are often associated with coastal eutrophication. Matsu is considering how to find a balance between tourism development and ecological protection.

The Uniqueness of Eastern Min Culture

Matsu's culture differs greatly from Taiwan's main island. The Matsu dialect belongs to the Eastern Min language family, completely different from Taiwanese (Southern Min). Religiously, Mazu belief is especially盛行 — the place name "Matsu" itself comes from Mazu.

Architectural style is also unique: traditional buildings primarily use granite, adapted to the windy, rainy island climate. Unlike Kinmen's swallow-tail roof ridges, Matsu residences mostly adopt "sealed gable walls" (feng huo qiang), which provide better wind resistance.

Green Island: From Human Rights Trauma to Marine Restoration

The Prison Island's Transitional Justice

Green Island, formerly called Fire-Burn Island, was a place of detention for political prisoners during the martial law period. From 1951 to 1965, political prisoners were sent to the Taiwan Provincial Security Command's "New Life Correction Center" for thought reform; at its peak there were 12 companies and one women's platoon, about 2,000 people¹⁵; after the 1970 Taiyuan Incident, the Ministry of National Defense built the "Oasis Villa" Green Island Re-education Prison on the west side of the old site, and from 1972 began concentrating political prisoners from prisons around the country there¹⁶.

Today, the White Terror Green Island Memorial Park (formerly Green Island Human Rights Culture Park) preserves this history¹⁶, allowing visitors to walk through the spaces where political prisoners lived and understand the terror and absurdity of that era.

The Marine Miracle of Zhaori Hot Springs

Green Island has one of the world's few seabed hot springs — Zhaori Hot Springs. The spring source comes from seawater or groundwater from nearby waters that seeps underground and is heated by a volcanic magma chamber¹⁷. Soaking in the hot spring, on one side lies the boundless blue of the Pacific, on the other Green Island's volcanic terrain — this "ocean-view hot spring" experience is rare worldwide.

Even more special is its orientation: Zhaori Hot Springs faces the Pacific, toward the east where the sun rises, hence its name¹⁷. When the first rays of dawn rise from the Pacific, you are soaking in warm seawater welcoming the sunrise — this is probably Taiwan's most romantic sunrise experience.

The Marine Wisdom of Offshore Islands: Inspiration for the Modern World

Ancient Solutions for Sustainable Fisheries

Penghu stone weirs and Lanyu's flying fish season are both ancient practices of "sustainable fisheries." As modern fisheries face the crisis of overfishing, these traditional wisdoms offer important inspiration:

• Seasonal management: fishing strategies aligned with fish life cycles
• Ecological engineering methods: stone weirs use no artificial adhesives — the earliest ecological engineering
• Community co-management: weir construction and maintenance require whole-community cooperation
• Cultural protection: embedding fisheries management into cultural traditions to increase compliance

Small Island Nations' Climate Change Experience

Facing the threat of sea-level rise, offshore islands provide valuable adaptation experience:

• Diverse energy: Penghu's wind power and solar photovoltaics
• Seawater desalination: technological accumulation solving freshwater scarcity
• Ecotourism: successful models of transition from traditional industries to sustainable tourism
• Cultural resilience: how to preserve traditional culture amid modernization

The Global Significance of Island Thinking

The experience of Taiwan's offshore islands holds important reference value for island nations worldwide. From Palau and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, all face similar challenges:

How to develop a sustainable economic model on limited land resources?
How to maintain cultural uniqueness amid the tide of globalization?
How to maintain social resilience under the threat of climate change?

Taiwan's offshore islands have used three centuries of marine life wisdom to answer these 21st-century critical questions.

✦ "The ocean is not a barrier, it is a connection. The people on these islands built fish traps with stone, wove sustainable laws with taboos, welcomed the sun with hot springs, and remembered the flying fish's migration routes with song. They tell us: humans can coexist harmoniously with the ocean — not just conquest, but symbiosis."

When you stand on the viewing platform of Qimei's Twin-Heart Stone Weir, watching the basalt walls from three centuries ago glimmer in the sunset; when you hear a Tao elder on Lanyu sing an ancient work song; when you lock eyes with a green sea turtle in Xiaoliuqiu's transparent waters — you hear not just the sound of waves, but the echo of wisdom from this island's millennia of dialogue with the ocean.

These voices remind us: we are not the masters of the ocean; we are the ocean's children.

Further Reading:

• Matsu International Art Island — Beyond blue tears and tunnels, Matsu has grown its own curatorial language over the past decade: the three editions Island Brewing, Red Summer, Paiqiu all take their themes from Eastern Min proverbs

References

Extended References

• Penghu Stone Weirs - Wikipedia
• Evolution of stone fish weirs in Jibei area, Penghu Archipelago