This book is written by four journalists of The Reporter 報導者, an independent nonprofit Taiwan-based digital media, launched in December 2015, and published by the newly established but much anticipated Spring Hill Publishing. It is a collection of several investigative reports on the transformation of the petrochemical landscape in Taiwan over the last half-century. It tracks the history of the petrochemical industry's development in Taiwan and tells the stories of petrochemical communities that have been impacted by industrial pollution. The Reporter's journalists had started their investigations in two major petrochemical areas-Kaohsiung City and Yunlin County-in late 2015 and continued to visit the sites for some three years before publishing. One of the authors, Jung-Shin Ho, makes the emotionally charged observation in the Preface that they have spent over a thousand days witnessing the petrochemical scars of Taiwan and discovering the power of citizens in despair.
