In the end of 2022, the former Imperial Japanese Navy Fongshan Wireless Communications Station designated as a national monument began to undertake a large-scale renovation due to the urban renewal project. The monument is also an important habitat of the almost extinct endemic introduced species “Hīnn-iah-á” in south Taiwan. 

The Nationalist navy retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after its failures in the Chinese Civil War. Disputes and conflicts arose frequently from the four factions in the navy, among which there had been nearly sixty naval vessels mutinied and surrendered to the enemy in merely one year. In the 1950s, under the rallying cry of “one family everywhere,” the navy mounted a massive purge in itself, during which lots of soldiers were brought to the wireless communications station and never came back.

The Hīnn-iah-á appeared at the wireless communications station at about the same period. Some believe that the Hīnn-iah-á was introduced to Taiwan with the ROC navy, and folklore has it that the deceased would become butterflies in the seven days after death to send messages to their families. Perhaps the souls who couldn’t find their way home all turned into the Hīnn-iah-á lingering in the wireless communications station.

To propagate and promote the importance of Hīnn-iah-á to the general public, this project will accumulate regional negative equity to establish the “Hīnn-iah-á Cultural and Educational Foundation” and propose to the city government to construct a “Hīnn-iah-á Ecological Conservation Center” in the wireless communications station.

The ecological conservation center will introduce the species and ecological history of Hīnn-iah-á while displaying the specimens preserved today. The center will also design permanent itineraries of the park with an emphasis on the conservation of the endemic species, the care for human rights, and the development of creative industries, expecting to transform the collective karma on this land into energy for regional revitalization and make the culture of Hīnn-iah-á thrive and spread endlessly.