"It's very humble, but we hope to make a start. We need more donations," Shueh said. The Keelung museum is one of the few attempts to preserve Taiwan's coal mining culture. In 1998, Taipei County Government announced plans to build a large coal mine museum and memorial in Houtong (侯桐), the old site of Ruisan Coal Mine Corp. But the project is still only on paper, according to the county government's construction bureau. The government also has a plan to set up a memorial park at another mine in Shihti. That project, also announced in 1998, remains on ice.
"We set up this small museum in haste, but at least it's something to fulfill Lin's wish before it's too late.
"I want to see the history and knowledge of coal mines passing down to future generations. Besides, I can't bring these things to my grave," Lin told the Taipei Times by phone. Suffering from skin cancer, Lin said with a voice of gravel that he was unable to give a longer interview.
Another race against time is the black lung disease with which many coal miners struggle. Most miners worked in the mines more than 10 years, and none of them are immune to the incurable disease. Filmmaker Wu Nien-jen's (吳念真) Dohsan -- A Borrowed Life (多桑, 1994) vividly depicts his father's suffering from the disease, unbearable difficulty with breathing, constant coughing and other complications. The father eventually jumped off the hospital roof to end his pain.
"We feel very strongly about the film and don't really want to see it again," said Wang Kuo-wei who has been diagnosed with light symptoms of black lung disease. But Wang's co-worker, surnamed Chen, is a lot worse. He has now been diagnosed with severe symptoms of the disease, but when he was first diagnosed 15 years ago, he was already retired.
Before labor insurance regulations were amended in 1999 to accommodate those suffering from occupational diseases after having left employment, Chen had not received a penny for his sickness. In April of this year, the Council of Labor Affairs passed the Occupational Disease Protection Law, which gives a monthly allowance of NT$1,000 to NT$6,000 to those suffering from occupation-related diseases. But the law was not made retroactive and only those diagnosed with black lung diseases after April this year are eligible. "It's still too late for me," said Chen. Now working as a street cleaner to support himself, Chen has been quiet about his rights for many years.
In Dohsan, the father always looked stern and stubbornly never admitted to his pain. This same spirit is true of many old Taiwanese miners, according to Wang. "One reason you would take on such hazardous work is that you would rather grit your teeth and take the risk than ask for money from people," Wang said. This is the reason miners have remained quiet in the labor movement. Retired miners only staged a few protests demanding greater labor payments in the past five years. "They don't like to ask people to give them money," Wang said. "But they might well be the most disadvantaged."
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