Filtering Death, Performing Life: Environmental Humanities and the Ecologies of Taiwan’s Wetlands in Chin-yuan Ke’s Documentaries

My paper examines Taiwan’s wetlands as thresholds between life and death through Chin-yuan Ke’s documentaries Ebb and Flow (2011) and Sea Spray (2022). It considers wetlands as ecological filters that unsettle modern binaries and host multispecies encounters. The paper shows how film and dance shape a storytelling politics that reframes grief for disappearing wetlands as a prompt for environmental awareness. By tracing these entangled coastal ecologies, the paper highlights how environmental humanities can connect scientific insight with cultural meaning to support wetland conservation in the Anthropocene.