![[Video] Change and Continuity in Chao Jing — A Fishing Village in Transition: First Prize Documentary, 2019 Chao Jing Bay Festival](/_images/b32ec18dcbac-960w.webp)
2019 Chao Jing Bay Festival — First Prize Documentary Video Link
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For divers, this small bay is a secret garden — a place to unwind and play on weekends.
But for the people who grew up here, it is the bay that raised them and sustains their livelihood. The protagonist of this film — Da Tou — has been jumping into the sea since he was a kid, rod in hand, roaming every reef with his closest friends. To them, this place isn't just a dive site. It's home. The home where they grew up.
In 2016, the Keelung City Government stood firm against pressure and opposition from all sides and resolutely established what is now the smallest marine protected area (MPA) in Taiwan. Over the three short years since then, the annual MPA review meetings have never failed to echo with the same old objections from local residents. Yet no matter what topic is on the table, once someone plays the card — "You're not from here, so your opinion doesn't count" — the conversation hits that same dead end, a perpetual Rashomon of misunderstanding, and the gap between different communities seems impossible to cross.
But there are still people willing to do something foolish. In 2018, through the matchmaking of Coach Lin You-Ping of @揪潛水, they successfully "tricked" four local fishing village kids into spending their weekends helping out at the dive shop leading snorkeling sessions. (The bait? Earning some extra cash on their days off — because working at a dive shop is hard, and that's exactly what lured them in.) As it turned out, these kids — dismissed by many as nothing but troublemakers — spent their free time glued to their computers, chasing glory in virtual worlds. They had no concrete vision for the future, nor for this bay they called home.
Foot traffic means cash flow, and cash flow is what keeps a local economy alive. The grilled sausage stalls appeared. The auntie selling shih hua tsai (agar weed) set up her table. The stand selling peanut ice cream rolls — beloved by Chao Jing's famous dog Dudu — opened its doors. But the fishing village transformation everyone had hoped for turned out to be far more complicated than that.
Training a snorkeling instructor or Divemaster who truly knows the local currents and topography — let alone a fully independent dive instructor — takes enormous effort and time. Fortunately, among the four young people who were originally "tricked" into joining, one young man gritted his teeth and powered through. With the experience of 200 scuba tanks logged in a single year, he became a certified dive instructor in 2019.
That young man is Da Tou — 簡晨宇. In Da Tou's eyes, having divers come to Chao Jing is a good thing — but it also brings real inconveniences for local residents. Parking on weekends is a perennial flashpoint at the neighborhood chief's annual review meetings. Some scuba divers pay insufficient attention to neutral buoyancy. And the rise of freediving in recent years has introduced the problem of lost bottom weights. These tensions and contradictions have long been at war inside Da Tou's mind.
But he is a seed. With more local people getting involved, perhaps at the next annual MPA review meeting there will be a little more understanding and a little less confrontation. If we can learn to see things from each other's perspective, every knot will find its way to an answer.
We hope more young people will join us in the future — especially those from the local community. Because you are the key to actually driving this fishing village transformation forward. The ocean changes because I dive in it.
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