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Cultural landscape in a border-island:

A case study of Kinmen Island, Taiwan

簡宏達 Chien, Hung-Ta (Taiwan)

PhD Researcher, Joint Center for Urban Design

Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

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The Falkland Islands

CyprusKinmen Island

Northern territory

Spratly Islands

Timor

New Guinea

Border-island

•Issues related to territory, sovereignty and natural resources etc.

•Types of disputed islands: Colonial islands; divided island; disputed neighboring countries (location of maritime boundary)

Disputed Island

Border-island

Landscape planning in a border-island

Crucial issue:

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IslandBorder-island

border-island

Disputed contexts;

The delimitation of international maritime boundary outside islands or international boundary inside islands

Island cultural landscape

Border-island cultural landscape

TransformationOverlapping of island and borderland

Border landscape?

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Border study

Frontier Border Boundary

Land boundary

Maritime boundary

Boundary in the air

Border landscape

Borderland

Boundary delimitation

?

?

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Cultural landscape in borderland

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Four aspects of border landscape (Prescott 1987)

•Boundaries as features of the landscape

•Contrasting landscapes on opposite sides of the boundary

•The attitudes of border dwellers

•Borders and national policies

Border landscape (Mainly focus on land borderland)

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Bridge border landscape and disputed island

BoundaryBorderland

Border landscape

Land boundary

Island

Border-island

Border-island landscape

Maritime boundary

Island landscape

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Island landscape

•Air, island (land) and ocean(water)

Universal attraction of island

•Sun, sand and sea

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Border-island landscape

•Three-dimension sealed landscape:air, island and water body

•Maritime buffer zone landscape: status of surrounding water is changed

•Political landscape: landscape is reshaped for political ideology, value and establish the governing powers

•Nationalism landscape: to achieve national identity and loyalty

•Garrison landscape: territory ownership and national security

•Institutional boundaries divided landscape: ruling political power institutions, military facilities, relevant authorities of national policy

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Taiwan in the world

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Geo-political Map of the Taiwan Straits

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Location of Kinmen Island

8 Kilometer off Xiamen Bay

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Disputed (contested) history of Kinmen Island after 1949

1949-1958: Active military action frontline

1959-1979: Passive military action frontline

1980-2000: Deadlock garrison

2001-current: Cross-border testing

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Taiwan

Taipei

Kinmen

China

Politics

Economy

Society

Culture

Military occupation

Politics

Economy

Society

Culture

Power

Population

Invasion

Taiwan and Kinmen; Center and Periphery

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The authority system

The Kinmen National Park HeadquartersKinmen military

authority

Kinmen County government Relevant authority

of the ‘three mini links’ policy

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Concentrated garrison landscape

Shop-window landscape

Sandwich landscape

Landscape of fears

Sacred landscape

Landscape of abandonment

Vernacular landscape

Cross-border landscape

Borderland tourism landscape

Kinmen border-island landscape

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Concentrated garrison landscape

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Shop-window landscape

Political Propaganda; shop-window of political ideology of Nationalist China; Frontage of Taiwan territory;

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Sandwich landscape

Ground

Under ground

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Landscape of fears

•Fears of powers:

•Fears of dangerous environments: military facilities

•Fears of ghost

Sacred landscape

•Graveyard of dead serviceman

•Monuments and war memorial museum

•Local belief

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Landscape of abandonment

Abandoned residential buildings

and settlements

Abandoned military facilities

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Vernacular landscape

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Borderland tourism landscape

Danger Leisure

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Cross-border landscape2001: ‘Three Mini Links’ policy ( Kin-Xia Peace Bridge, water, electricity)

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Spatial patterns of Kinmen Island landscape

divided, broken, hard-integrated

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The landscape planning of Kinmen Island

The planning for the divided, corridor-shaped and slotted-shape landscape

Divided landscape

Corridor-shaped landscape

Slotted-shaped landscape

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Conclusion

•The (disputed) border-island needs to be paid attention.

•The cultural landscape transformation of disputed border-island needs to be concerned.

•The cultural landscape of border-island needs to be studied with the applications and approaches of land border landscape.

•The landscape planning in border-island is very crucial and critical for living quality improvements of island under the influence of globalization.

•Kinmen is a particular case but not the unique example. The application and reference of Kinmen Island for further study on worldwide disputed islands

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The conservation of vernacular landscape

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The conservation issues of vernacular landscape

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Research Background

•Borderland is a worldwide issue, such as USA-Mexico,

•Border landscape study (House 1982, Minghi 1963, Prescott 1978 1987, Rumley and Minghi 1991)

•Land borderland is the focus of the boundary and border landscape studies

•The issue of island and international boundary (Maritime boundary)

•The awareness of the maritime boundary issue because of the delimitation of the maritime boundary

•Taiwan is a island country