Peace Island Gathering Announcement
Longtime anarchists and artist-performers Lenny and June are inviting like-minded people to the Peace Island Assemblage. This gathering will take place from September 18 to 22, 2025, in Keelung prefecture, Taiwan.
As Lenny tells us…
My partner and soulmate, June and I discovered Heping (Peace) Island two years ago. It is part of the Keelung prefecture at the northern tip of Taiwan. We were told of the small island when we were performing a theatre piece about Hong Kong in a church in Keelung.
The island is connected to the mainland by a foot bridge which takes less than 60 seconds to cross.
I was entranced by the name, and the existence of such a small, independent piece of land. Of course, at the sea bed level, everything is connected. But an island is always poetic and free.
June and I were given a guided tour of the public part of the island. We learned of its history, its domination under colonial and post-colonial rule, as an outpost of the Spanish and Japanese states. Most recently the Taiwanese government has established a restricted military area for the armed forces. However, there is also a small civilian residential section, including the Peace Island Coastal Park.
This is a beautiful rural setting, but it has not remained untouched by modern nationalism and industrialization.
We have been planning a peace project for 2025 in opposition to the holocaust going on in Gaza and many other battlefields all over the earth. We also feel Taiwan’s non-stop harassment by the Chinese Communist Party’s military deserves some protest and revolt for peace.
So we have decided to call for an assemblage of people, creations, art and music and experiences, sharing on Peace Island in Keelung during the International Peace day weekend.
The group of civilians who erected the New Village in Japan in 1930
(from The New Village by Ou Ning).
We are also remembering the struggles and achievements of the people who began the New Village movement in Japan in the late ‘teens of the 20th century. It was inspired by Tolstoy’s hopes for international peace and unity between peoples. Chinese anarchists then brought the idea to China. The movement is discussed in the book The New Village by Ou Ning. The New Village movement inspired many communal groups of idealists, including anarchists, living together in rural settings, isolated from modern industrial society, in order to strive for deeper human relationships.
“The Ideal World” by Ou Ning (E-flux Journal, March 2025) discusses the movement, including its basic principles:
“1. Our ideal is that all the world’s peoples can ful?ll their destinies, and each person can also grow fully.
“2. Do not harm others just so you can exist.
“3. You must set your life on the right path. Do not harm others’ destinies and legitimate needs because of your own pleasures, joys, and freedom.
“4. We must try our best that humankind across the world can share in the same spirit and the same way of life as us, so that all humankind can fulfill its obligations, enjoy freedom, and have decent lives that accomplish their destinies (including individuality).
“5. Whoever wants to live in this way, and believes that it is possible to live in this way, and hopes that people all over the world can live in this way—these people are members of New Village and are our brothers and sisters.
“6. We do not want conflict between countries and between classes. Those who enter New Village lead decent lives, work together, and believe that the world we hope for will emerge, and we work hard for this.”
We are calling for an “assemblage” rather than an “assembly” because it would be more the gathering of works than the creators of such. We could not afford, and we do not intend to facilitate an organized assembly. We cannot pay air fare for friends interested in coming to Keelung, Taiwan. But if they have enough interest and motivation to come, we’ll of course provide some accommodations and food. Others can join via the Internet with artistic creations and presentations; this is a data-dominated world.
We expect there will be an art exhibition, a series of sharing talks (in person or online), collective music performances, and a mutual aid kitchen. All will take place either in public or donated spaces.
There will also be a themed compilation album with “solidarity tracks” from friends all over, including a few songs recorded for this assemblage in Tokyo in the winter of 2024 by a small circle of friends, all working for mutual aid support of the resistance in Gaza.
We also anticipate articles and other publications from friends wishing to share their experiences that way.
A few documentary films/videos will also be featured and shown during the weekend.
All of the in-person happenings will be located on or near Peace Island. We are looking for spaces for these events. There are many interesting non-institutional spaces where these activities might be hosted.
The assemblage will be an autonomous gathering of people, works and happenings. There is no coordinator of events or displays. No sponsor. No chairperson. No one has responsibility. It is purely an assemblage of kindred souls, in person or in display of works. Therefore, there is no financial budget. We take care of ourselves while we also try to take care of each other, whenever necessary.
Like the New Village movement participants, we believe that projects can be realized when people suspend their predetermined judgments and let each other follow the flow of their creative inspirations into broadly imagined frameworks. It happens.
If you would like to participate, contact Lenny at
lenny@rti.org.tw (radio show station)
or
lenocato@icloud.com
L&J dwelling is just across from Heping island, out there at the tip of Taiwan’s Pacific coast.