(Image: Hakka TV)
Because the location of the Meinong Reservoir sits on a fault, there were safety concerns. The project also would seriously damage the natural ecological environment of the Yellow Butterfly Valley and impact the long-maintained traditional Hakka culture in Meinong Village. Therefore, at the end of 1992, Tseng Gui-hai (曾貴海), Chong Yong-feng (鍾永豐) and others organized the Meinung People's Association (美濃愛鄉協進會), and in 1993 they led Meinong Hakka folks to take a night-time bus to Taipei to protest the construction of the reservoir.
Through mobilization and congressional lobbying, they convinced the Legislative Yuan to delete the Meinong Reservoir project budget for two consecutive years in 1993 and 1994, and only retained research funding for alternative programs.
On April 16, 1998, the then-Premier Hsiao Wan-chang (蕭萬長) restarted the Meinong Reservoir project and announced that "Meinong Reservoir will start construction within one year." On April 19, 1999, Meinong anti-dam participants mobilized 15 tour buses to go to the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to voice their objection to restarting the project. A week later, Meinong Township residents personally went north to supervise the budget review of the Meinong Reservoir. The Legislative Yuan deleted all of the NT$250 million budget for the reservoir.
Meinong’s struggle was temporarily halted after the transition of power from one party to another in 2000 in Taiwan, when the ruling party announced that it would never build a reservoir during its tenure. This movement called on writers and singers from Meinong to participate, such as the Hakka novelist Chong Li-he’s (鍾理和) son Chong Tie-min (鍾鐵民), who brought local residents to the Legislative Yuan to protest, and singer Lin Sheng-xiang (林生祥), who because of this movement, set up the Labor Exchange Band, and released the anti-reservoir movement music album “Let Us Sing Mountain Songs (我等就來唱山歌).”
The Meinong Anti-Dam Movement was not just opposed to the reservoir. The community reconstruction project started at that time continues to this day. In addition to the Meinung People's Association, local community groups also include the Fairy Pitta Association (八色鳥協會), which is formed by teachers from junior and senior high schools. It teaches students to identify native bird species in the Hakka language, and does culturally-rooted work, so that local residents can learn more about their hometown, and feel more closely connected to it.
This movement also gave birth to Taiwan's first Hakka ecological and cultural festival, the Yellow Butterfly Festival, which has been held since 1995. The festival ceremony is carried out based on ancient Hakka rituals, combining the pious belief in the Earth God "Ba Gong (伯公)", and declaring to the sky, the earth, and all participants the determination to conserve the Yellow Butterfly Valley.
The Anti-Dam Movement not only won the banner of victory and prevented the government from arguing about building reservoirs, it also created rich cultural works, including the music of the Labor Exchange Band, and better preserved the historical culture and natural ecology of the Hakka village.