LA Review of Books: “I Felt Like I Was Drowning”: On Women’s Rights in Taiwan

IN FEBRUARY 2017, Taiwanese indie press Guerrilla published a novel by a first-time author named Lin Yi-Han. Lin was the only child of a well-respected dermatologist in Tainan, one of Taiwan’s largest cities on its west coast. She was a top performing student during high school — beautiful, smart, bookish yet popular — but she […]
Dezeen: Abandoned building turned into mesh-covered forest events space in Taiwan

Divooe Zein Architects has turned an abandoned house in a wooded area of a park in Taiwan into a net-covered educational events space called The Forest Big. The Forest Big is in a wooded part of the Shangri-La Park in Miaoli, in an area scattered with the remnants of an old theme park. The project has […]
Taipei Times: German lawmaker urges global support

China’s “one country, two systems” framework in Hong Kong has proven a failure, while democratic countries should help Taiwan join the UN as an independent nation named “Taiwan,” German Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs member Ulrich Lechte said in Taipei yesterday. During his first-ever visit to Taiwan from Sunday to today, Lechte discussed issues related […]
National Interest: A Threat to China? Taiwan’s New Supersonic Cruise Missile Can Fly 1,200 Miles.

Taiwan has begun production of a new land-attack cruise missile. But the island country still is badly outgunned by China’s own, much larger missile arsenal. Taiwanese media on Aug. 4, 2019 reported that the country’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology had cleared the Yun Feng cruise missile for mass production. The supersonic land-attack […]
Hollywood Reporter: Beijing Orders Mainland Chinese Stars to Boycott Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards

… “The China Film Administration has suspended mainland films and personnel from participating in the 56th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards in 2019,” read a short statement that went out across Chinese state media on Wednesday. In addition to the awards show, the Taipei event also runs a well respected citywide film festival […]
Frozen Garlic: The NPP’s internal divisions, Ko’s new party, and the China Cleavage

Every now and then, an international media outlet will publish a story on Taiwan elections that interprets everything through the lens of relations with China. For example, someone might write a story saying that, after the recent events in Hong Kong, the DPP’s presidential prospects are surging. Every time this happens, a gaggle of Taiwan-based […]
Taipei Times: Presidential Office’s Ting to sue Ko over corruption comment

Presidential Office spokesman Ting Yun-kung (丁允恭) yesterday said that he would sue Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) over his accusation that people around President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are corrupt. On Monday, Ko said that although Tsai is not corrupt herself, “everyone around you [Tsai] is knee-deep in graft.” …
Taipei Times: Ko party petition clears legal step

A petition to block Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from registering his political party under the name Taiwan People’s Party (台灣民眾黨) passed its initial legal review, the online public policy platform showed yesterday. From its launch on Friday last week to press time last night, the petition had gathered 1,115 signatures. It must collect 5,000 […]
Taipei Times: Ko elected chairman at TPP founding

… Ko said that the TPP was founded to change Taiwan’s political culture, as the ideological battle between the two major parties has left the nation in a rut and led to friction over the past two decades. He said that his foremost principle is to promote the nation’s “general interests and the public’s maximum […]
Taiwan News: Taiwan president touts first balanced budget in 22 years

… Despite the fact that her administration had launched several programs to improve basic infrastructure, it still succeeded in submitting a balanced budget to the Legislative Yuan, the Central News Agency quoted Tsai as saying. This year, her administration drew up a budget for 2020 without any red, striking a balance between expenses and revenue, […]