Qualla: Penghu Refugee Camp

Penghu Refugee Camp: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mimicat1531, CC BY-SA 3.0. Huynh Can Du spent 56 days adrift on the South China Sea before a rescue vessel found his boat off the coast of Orchid Island, Taiwan. It was May 1975, just weeks after the fall of Saigon. There were 84 refugees aboard. All were granted entry into Taiwan -- a country that, despite its own precarious diplomatic position, chose not to turn them away. Huynh, a former serviceman fluent in Vietnamese, would go on to spend eleven years working at the Penghu Refugee Camp, the remote island facility that became Taiwan's primary processing center for Vietnamese boat people from 1978 to 1988.

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Image: Mimicat1531 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Penghu Refugee Camp: Flight Context

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 舟集 Boattoad, CC BY-SA 4.0. Coordinates: 23.63N, 119.60E. The former Chiangmei camp site is located in Baisha Township on the northern part of the Penghu archipelago, across the bridge from the main island. From the air, the Penghu archipelago's flat, wind-scoured islands are distinctive in the Taiwan Strait. Nearest airport: Penghu Airport (RCQC), approximately 8 km to the south. Recommended viewing altitude: 3,000-5,000 ft for island detail. The Chuwan camp site in Siyu Township lies to the west across the inter-island bridge network.

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Image: 舟集 Boattoad | CC BY-SA 4.0

Penghu Refugee Camp: A Military Base Becomes a Refuge

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ying-lung Lu, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first Penghu camp opened in 1977 at Chuwan village in Siyu Township, using a borrowed ROC Army base as a temporary reception center. It closed around 1979 after a short, largely unnoticed operation. The more significant camp opened on December 1, 1978, in Chiangmei village (a...

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Image: Ying-lung Lu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Penghu Refugee Camp: Between Nations

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 舟集 Toadboat, CC BY-SA 4.0. Taiwan's willingness to accept Vietnamese refugees was shaped by Cold War politics as much as compassion. The Republic of China had lost its United Nations seat in 1971 and was diplomatically isolated, yet it continued to cooperate with the United States on refugee resettlement t...

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Image: 舟集 Toadboat | CC BY-SA 4.0

Penghu Refugee Camp: Remembering What Was Forgotten

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 張欽嵐, CC BY-SA 4.0. For decades after the camp's closure in 1988, the Penghu refugee chapter faded from public memory. The military sites reverted to their former quiet, and few in Taiwan discussed the boat people who had passed through. That began to change in the 2020s. In 2023, director Awei Liu ...

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Image: 張欽嵐 | CC BY-SA 4.0