Tangkáng is a small harbour town in southern Taiwan. Famous for its traditional Ong-Ya ceremony, Tangkáng was the place where wooden sailboats (junks) and their merchants gathered during the Age of Exploration. Today it is a vital fishing port with thousands of inshore and offshore vessels. It is known for the slogan: Three Delicacies of Tangkáng— bluefin tuna, sakura shrimp, and mullet roe. With 400 years of history, Tangkáng is similar to many port towns in Asia, where Indigenous peoples, colonizers, immigrants, and migrant workers’ cultures came together to create a diverse and unique maritime experience in the land of Formosa.

Since the 1990s, Taiwan began to bring in Southeast Asian migrant fishers, and Indonesian seafarers have become the primary labour force in the fishing industry. Tangkáng and other major fishing ports have supported Taiwan’s reputation as one of the top fishing locations in the world. In Tangkáng, you can find Austronesian faces, conversations and signboards in Indonesian languages, and Indonesian meals in food stalls run by migrants. This kind of sensory experience is familiar to the locals.

Originating in the Quran reading gatherings they held on ships, the Indonesian migrant fishers in Tangkáng have not only gone on to build their own mosque during the past two decades but also established an autonomous seafarers’ community named FOSPI (Indonesian: Forum Silaturahmi Pelaut Indonesia, English: Indonesian Seafarers Gathering Forum). FOSPI unites over 2,500 fishers from different regions of Indonesia. It has become a second home for these seafarers struggling for their lives and dreams in Taiwan.

“Silaturahmi,” the word in the abbreviation of FOSPI, is originally from an Arabic word meaning the “connecting and mending ties of relationships.” This Islamic concept has been adapted to everyday life and practiced among Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Indonesia. We chose this word as it portrays the ethos and purpose of FOSPI: to support each other, accept our differences, and learn to interact with the local society. Even though most crew members come and go due to unpredictable work at seas and contractual obligations, the spirit of “Silaturahmi” is upheld and practiced as a vision of sharing the common good that passes down through generations.

In Tangkáng today, mosques built by Indonesian fishers coexist peacefully with local temples and churches, while Indonesian music accompanies the lively Tangkáng temple parade. When off work, the fishers sing and compose songs about their journeys in a foreign land with guitars; they paint graffiti mottos on their fishing boats with leftover paint from boat repairs to encourage themselves and the others.

At the daily feast, fishers sit in a circle on the floor, enjoying home-cooked Indonesian dishes. There are local Taiwanese dishes too, such as ginger fish soup and freshly-cut sashimi with soy sauce and mustard—dishes that become a nostalgic taste of life in Taiwan when they return home. Every August, the Indonesian migrant fishers celebrate the Independence Day of their homeland by erecting a handmade archway on the dock where they repair their fishing equipment and auction off their catch. The event reflects the vitality of their struggle for freedom and independence under Indonesia’s red and white national flag.

This is the story of how Indonesian migrant fishers built a community and found solidarity in a Taiwanese fishing town amid the rapid changes of globalization, as well as how seafarers from foreign lands created a lively multicultural place while continuing to forge new connections.