Wind–Human Resonance in a Polluted City: The Case of Dalinpu in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Abstract

Air pollution creates significant challenges, particularly in countries undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization. Wind, a strong agency in moving polluting to and away, however, does not attract sufficient attention from the social science literature on urban health and air pollution. This article fills this gap by proposing the concept of wind–human resonance, referring to both the capacity and intensity of the wind as two kinds of human–wind relationships in the weather-world. On the one hand, certain cleaning and blocking practices are carried out by residents, corresponding to the wind’s carrying capacity of air pollutants; fishing activities are altered according to the wind capacity in the atmo-oceanic dynamic. On the other hand, the intensity of the wind envelops an industrialized coastal village where community members engage with the oceanic wind that shapes the community identity (and affect). This framework of an entangled human–wind relationship is empirically examined through the case of the coastal Dalinpu area of Kaohsiung in southwestern Taiwan, a community that has successfully organized a campaign in the name of “southwest wind preservation” to terminate an industrial zone construction project. By revealing how wind is physically and affectively entangled into urban politics, this article aims to foreground the air flow study in volume geography in particular and the human–environment relationship in general.

空气污染给全世界、特别是快速工业化和城市化国家带来重大挑战。然而, 作为转移污染的一种强大媒介, 风未得到城市健康和空气污染的社会科学研究的足够关注。为了弥补这一空白, 本文提出了“风—人响应”的概念, 将风的能力和强度作为天气世界中的两种人—风关系。一方面, 根据风对空气污染物的承载能力, 居民采取某些净化和阻挡措施；根据大气海洋动力的风力大小, 居民调整捕鱼活动。另一方面, 风的强度席卷了一个工业化沿海村庄；在那里, 海风塑造了社区身份和情感, 村民与海风相互关联。在台湾西南部高雄的大林浦沿海地区, 人们成功地组织了一场“保护西南风”运动, 旨在终止一个工业区建设项目。本文以大林浦地区为案例, 对人—风关系框架进行实证检验。本文揭示了风如何在物理上和情感上融入城市政治, 从而强调了体地理学和人地关系对风的研究。

La polución aérea plantea retos importantes, especialmente en los países que experimentan una rápida industrialización y urbanización. Sin embargo, el viento, un agente poderoso para desplazar y alejar contaminantes, no atrae mayor atención en la literatura de las ciencias sociales relacionada con la salud y la contaminación aérea. Este artículo colma este vacío al proponer el concepto de resonancia eólica-humana, concepto que se refiere tanto a la capacidad como a la intensidad del viento, como a dos tipos de relaciones eólico-humanas en el mundo meteorológico. Por una parte, éstas llevan a efecto ciertas prácticas de limpieza y bloqueo, que se corresponden con la capacidad del viento para transportar polutantes atmosféricos; las actividades de pesca se alteran de acuerdo con la capacidad del viento dentro de la dinámica atmo-oceánica. Por la otra, la intensidad del viento afecta una aldea costera industrializada donde los miembros de la comunidad se enfrentan al viento marino que configura la identidad (y el afecto) comunitarios. Esta enmarcación de una relación enredada humano-eólica se examina empíricamente a través del caso del área litoral de Dalipu del Kaohsiung, en el sudoeste de Taiwán, una comunidad que ha organizado con éxito una campaña a nombre de la “preservación del viento del sudoeste”, para poner fin al proyecto de construcción de una zona industrial. Revelando cómo el viento está física y afectivamente enredado en la política urbana, el artículo busca poner en primer plano el estudio sobre el flujo del aire en la geografía del volumen, en particular, y la relación hombre-entorno geográfico, en general.

Key Words:

• air pollution
• capacity
• intensity
• wind–human relationship

关键词：:

• 空气污染
• 能力
• 强度
• 风—人关系。

Palabras clave::

• capacidad
• intensidad
• polución aérea
• relación eólica-humana

Acknowledgements

We appreciate discussions and comments from Wang Chih-Hong, Lu Hsin-Yi, Wu Yi-Long, Yu Sang-Ju, and members of the Vertical/Volume/Weather (VVW) study group of National Taiwan University during the writing process.

Notes

Notes

1 Kuriyama’s argument that links madness with the wind (feng) may have overlooked historical changes. In the early Chinese text, madness can be written as 狂 (Ch. kuang) that is caused not by wind but by rising yang, or heat (see Hsu 2008).

2 Scholars hold different views on the relationship between wind and qi (氣). For Kuriyama (1999), qi (氣) reflects human moral standards, whereas the wind forms “the sound of air passing through holes.” Wind is an irregular air flow that could be harmful to people who are weak and inadaptable. Qi, on the other hand, often is wind that blows regularly and is not harmful (i.e., seasonal winds). Investigating texts from the late Warring States and Han Dynasty, Hsu (2008) proposed a different view from Kuriyama and argued that qi and wind usually separately mean the wind that is inside (breath and emotion) and outside (season, climate, cloud, and weather). Wind in Han China was even associated with the “season of the emergence of life” (Hsu 2008, 117).

3 A careful comprehension of the atmospheric and oceanic state has therefore emerged as a requirement for making a living and surviving as a fisherman, with no room for error. Many local fishermen inherited their boats, skills, and equipment from their fathers and grandfathers, and work alone out at sea.

4 According to the locals, the Taiwanese term kiâm khuì (鹹氣, Ch. xian qi) can best describe this quality. Kiâm khuì (鹹氣) means a uniquely overwhelming “(oceanic) salty qi” that leaves the hair and skin sticky and covers eyeglass lenses with salt spots after a day exposed to the oceanic air.

5 Similar feeling experiences also can be found in the cases of the Foehn in Switzerland and Santa Ana in California (Strauss 2008; Hoskins 2021).

6 In 2021, when the Dalinpu community and nongovernmental organization was unable to organize the Southwest Madness Music Festival by themselves, the Kaohsiung city government hosted an Ocean Wind Music Festival, the first kind of such “wind event” sponsored by the government.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan [108-2410-H-002 -184 -MY3].

Notes on contributors

Yi-Ting Chang

YI-TING CHANG is a PhD Student in the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include vertical geopolitics, infrastructure and technology, and human–environment relationships in the three-dimensional world.

Shiuh-Shen Chien

SHIUH-SHEN CHIEN is a Professor of geography, environment, and development studies in the Department of Geography and International Degree Program of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at National Taiwan University, Taiwan. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests have covered the Global South and international development, local and regional development and urban China studies, geopolitics, and volume studies in the climate change and weather-world context.