Matsu Islands

The Matsu Islands were fishing grounds and shelters for boats from the Fujian coast long before they held permanent villages. Settlers from the Changle and Lianjiang districts near Fuzhou built stone houses on the slopes above the anchorages, carrying their Eastern Min speech, their temples and their fishing methods with them. The archipelago takes its name from Mazu, the sea goddess, who by local tradition was washed ashore on Nangan; a temple there is said to hold her tomb. Dried and salted fish and seasonal migration to the mainland sustained the villages, and the islands never grew rich.

Because they lay off the Fujian coast rather than near Taiwan, the islands were not part of the Japanese colony established in 1895. In 1949 Nationalist forces withdrawing from the mainland held on to them, and the sea lane to Fuzhou closed. For the next four decades Matsu was a front line: thousands of troops were stationed here, tunnels and gun positions were driven into the granite, slogans were painted on cliffs, and civilians lived under military administration with curfews, rationed movement and blackout rules. Fishing families who had crossed to the mainland every year found the crossing forbidden.

Military rule ended in 1992, and the garrison has shrunk steadily since. Some tunnels, forts and lookouts were opened to visitors, villages that had emptied were restored as guesthouses, and ferries to Fuzhou's coast resumed in 2001. The islands are governed by the Republic of China as Lienchiang County, while Beijing claims them as part of Fujian. Residents voted in favour of casino development in a referendum in 2012, while tourism has grown on stone villages, war relics and the glowing plankton.

Matsu's culture comes from Fuzhou, not from southern Fujian, and the difference is audible and visible. People speak Eastern Min, a language other Taiwanese do not understand, and the architecture belongs to the same region: houses of dressed granite and rubble, two storeys, with small windows against the wind and roof tiles held down by stones. Restoration work at Qinbi and other villages has kept the form intact, and the grey stone against green hillsides is the image most associated with the islands.

Temple life is intense for so small a population. Nearly every village has a temple, often in bright red, yellow and blue with fire-wall gables, dedicated to Mazu, to the Lady of Linshui or to other deities brought from the Fuzhou coast. The great occasions come in the first lunar month, when deities are paraded by lantern light through the lanes with drums, firecrackers and shared feasts. Fishermen's rituals and offerings to those lost at sea remain part of the calendar.

The military period left its own culture: tunnels turned into wine cellars and visitor sites, painted slogans kept as heritage, and a generation of residents who did their national service beside their own homes. Overseas connections run both ways, with Matsu families settled in Taoyuan and Keelung on the main island and long-standing ties to the Fuzhou coast. The islands are proud of being different from Taiwan proper and used to being explained to visitors.

Lienchiang County holds only a few thousand people, spread across Nangan, Beigan, Juguang and Dongyin, with Nangan the largest township at about 4,000. Jieshou on Nangan is the county centre, where the government offices, schools, hospital and most shops are; everywhere else is a village of a few hundred people at most, and some hamlets stand empty. It is the smallest county by population in the country, and the age profile is old, with young people leaving for work and study on the main island.

The economy rests on the public sector, the remaining garrison, fishing and aquaculture, the distillery that makes the county's sorghum liquor and rice wine, and tourism that concentrates in spring and summer. Water and electricity supply are constant local concerns, as both depend on island plants, and freight comes by ship. Construction, guesthouse keeping and small shops absorb much of the rest of the workforce.

Daily rhythm follows the boats and the weather. The morning ferry between Nangan and Beigan sets the pattern of the day, schools and offices keep regular hours, and evenings are quiet outside a few streets in Jieshou. Fog can cut the islands off from the air for several days at a stretch, so residents plan travel with slack built in, and shops stock up ahead of the winter monsoon.

Matsu eats in the Fuzhou manner. Laojiu, an aged rice wine brewed on the islands, is both drink and ingredient, and the red yeast lees left behind from brewing — hongzao — are used to marinate and cook chicken, pork and noodles, giving dishes a deep pink colour and a faintly sour, winey taste. Hongzao chicken and hongzao noodles appear on most menus, and the county distillery also makes a strong sorghum liquor stored in a converted military tunnel.

The sea supplies the rest. Yellow croaker, steamed whole, is the prestige fish; mussels, clams and other shellfish are farmed or gathered along the shores. Yumian, noodles bound with pounded fish, are eaten in soup for breakfast and lunch, and fish dumplings and fish balls turn up on the same tables.

The islands' best-known snack is jiguang bing, a round sesame-crusted bread with a hole in the middle, said to have been carried on cords by soldiers in the Ming dynasty; today it is often split and filled with pork belly, fried egg and pickled vegetables. Sweet-potato dumplings, known locally as golden dumplings, are an island speciality, and sweet-potato paste and taro appear as desserts. Shops in Jieshou sell rice wine, laver and dried seafood as the standard things to take home.