In Taiwan, April 5 is a public holiday to celebrate the traditional Chinese festival of Qingming, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day. This year the holiday fell on a Tuesday, which gave us a four-day long weekend. Like many families, we swept the tomb a week early so we could
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Thousands of people braved the cold and rain around Taiwan today, Saturday March 12, 2016, the day after the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster to protest against the continuing reliance on nuclear power, the plan to develop a fourth nuclear reactor, and the use of Orchid Island as
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Taipei residents are somewhat embarrassed, and slightly disgusted by the Taipei City Government’s choice of mascot for this year’s lantern festival. The ‘monkey-gourd’ uses the monkey theme to celebrate the Year of the Monkey, and the shape of a gourd to symbolize fertility. Artist Lin Shu-min (林書民) was inspired by
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It’s a little over 12 hours since a 6.4 magnitude earthquake rattled the southern area of Taiwan and wreaked destruction on the City of Tainan: the oldest city in Taiwan. It’s a relatively short time for those of us observing from afar, even just a few miles away, where buildings
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As you land in Macau, it feels as if the plane is going to touch down on water. The airport, like a lot of the newer developments on the tiny enclave is built on reclaimed land. The sight of hundreds of cranes topping buildings under construction suggest a booming economy,
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As expected, the long awaited election for a new president and legislature has seen a resounding defeat for the pro-Chinese-reunification party. After many years of a lame-duck presidency, and a parliament marked by corruption scandals and in-fighting among the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party, the people of Taiwan have decided its
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It has generated great publicity for Bon Jovi’s upcoming Asian tour, and a fierce debate between Chinese speakers on both sides of the strait. At the time of writing, the song has enjoyed more than 1.2 million views, 11,462 likes, and over one thousand comments on youtube. One point of
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Watch Now A documentary by American Tony Coolidge about his personal journey discovering and exploring his Atayal roots in Taiwan. Tony is the founder of atayal.org. Voices in the Clouds explores issues of personal and cultural identity. Tony’s documentary is interesting because he is, from the perspective of mainstream, ethnic
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The Taipei Mayoral election in the couple of decades since Taiwan has enjoyed free and fair elections has usually been an intense contest between Taiwan’s two main political parties, the Chinese Nationalist KMT, and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The Taipei Mayoralty is considered a stepping stone to the Presidency:
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January 1, 2015, Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington marked the new year by doing something that hadn’t been dared since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979: it raised the flag of the Republic of China. This of course immediately raised the ire of the People’s
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