Matsu
Participatory Design Studio: How does the outside professional
gain understanding of the inside story in the local community |
| Matsu Islands,
named after the goddess Matsu, are a minor archipelago of 19 islands
and islets in the Taiwan Strait administered as Matsu County by Taiwan
government. In 2003, the nine-thousand permanent residents mostly reside
in the five major islands: Peikan, Nankan, Tungyin, Tungchuan, and Sichuan.
Due to the geographical location, 8 miles off the coast of mainland China
in Taiwan Strait, Matsu Islands, as well as Chinmen Islands, had been
known as the most important military sites for Taiwanese troops who carried
on the Chiang Kai-shek’s impossible mission of re-conquest of Mainland
China after the 1949 Chinese Civil War. During the Cold War years, soldier
and military related outsiders contributed to large numbers of temporary
population that fostered a versatile local economy for Matsu Islands.
Late 1990s, the hostile relationship between China and Taiwan gradually
transformed into a business-first attitude, because many Taiwanese business
owners have transplanted their companies, shops, and factories to China
since the late 1980s. In the dawn of the 21st Century, Taiwanese government
withdraw the majority of the troops in Matsu Islands, and initiated the
so-called "small three links," that allow trade, mail and people
to cross the small stretch of water between Taiwan's Chinmen and Matsu
counties and China's Fujian Province. This friendly action between China
and Taiwan governments has dramatically impacted Matsu Islands’ military-based
economy. Large numbers of troop outsiders departed from Matsu Islands,
while many secret military sites were left abandoned. The total population,
therefore, dropped noticeably from 17,088 in 1971, to 8,773 in 2003.
Under this circumstance, in 2002, the Matsu County government sought
outside expertise to transform its local economy from military based
one into an eco-tourism one. In this paper we will use the case of Matsu
in Taiwan to illustrate some of the issues that we are concerned with. In
the case of Matsu, we have continued to refine our participatory approach
to planning in response to some of the questions raised above. Many
of the complications, contradictions, and dilemmas in cross-cultural
communication and cross-boundary planning are apparent in tourism planning. In
this paper we focus on three general questions to be answered, hopefully
to generate a discussion and cross analysis with other similar case studies.
We re-state these questions: 1) How do we understand the problems that people face when they have to deal with unfamiliar and foreign environments? 2) How do we set goals and objectives when we help people face the above problems? 3) How do we engage people (participation) in making plans and designs for future environments that will help to resolve problems that people face? |