The National Museum of Natural Science’s exhibition When the South Wind Blows: the Documentary Photography of Taixi Village compiles the stories told through text and images of the residents of Taixi, a small coastal farming village.

Over 100 photographic documentaries spanning a period of nearly 30 years record the 398 smokestacks of the Sixth Naphtha Cracking Plant just across the Zhuoshui River, and how every summer, when the south wind blows, fumes from these smokestacks are sent northward to Taixi Village, where the residents are forced to breathe in the harmful pollutants. Much of the photography shows close-ups of the faces of Taixi residents and houses left abandoned by those who have moved away. In image after image, the daily realities of life in Taixi are brought to the foreground: the exodus of the local population, children raised by grandparents, building of cement river embankments and paddy ridges, air pollution from the naphtha cracking plant, and the dwindling fishing catch. The photographic works open up a space for visitors to reflect on these challenges.