“Taiwan’s Opposition Leader Comes to US With a Message Straight Out of Beijing” read a May 31 headline in the Wall Street Journal. Top US administration officials and members of Congress almost certainly read the WSJ, and if there was a bullet point takeaway that people in Washington should absorb a
As someone who normally steers clear of books with “transcendence” or “metaphysics” in their subtitles, this reviewer — a casual observer of local belief systems since the 1990s — found Fabian Graham’s Money God Temples in Taiwan a challenging read. Those who’ve only dipped their toes into temple cu
Japan’s thousand-year-old samurai horse festival has survived wars, earthquakes and a nuclear disaster. Now it’s battling a new challenge — climate change.The Soma Nomaoi began as a way to train mounted warriors and it still looks the same a millennium later, with riders dressed in samurai armor com
Taiwan’s English education system is being pulled apart by three opposing forces. Bilingual Nation 2030 pulls students toward English and global communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness pulls them toward digital judgment, verification and AI-mediated work. But Taiwan’s old exam culture
The pavements of Hanoi’s wide boulevards and narrow lanes have long been clogged with bustling food stalls, weaving scooters and crowds of coffee and beer drinkers sitting on low plastic stools.But the spontaneity that charmed tourists and supported street vendors in Vietnam’s capital has subsided i
Over the years, springtime has become synonymous with bold choreographic exploration at Cloud Gate Theater (雲門劇場) through its annual Spring Riot program. Initiated in 2001 by former artistic director Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) but paused for five editions, the program resumed in 2024 under Cheng Tsung-lung
It seems every few days one bumps into one of those “real man” comments in which Taiwan is urged to “face reality” or similar, and “make a deal,” with the speaker implying that soon it will be too late. “Deal” advocates always present themselves as having a superior grip on reality, and the manly ab
June 1 to June 7"If all Taiwanese were as afraid of dying as you, then what would happen?” Physician Shih Chiang-nan (施江南) reportedly said this to his wife Chen Chiao-tung (陳焦桐) after she urged him to stop intervening on behalf of Taiwanese soldiers stranded overseas after serving in the Jap
There are shadowy cabals plotting to sell out Taiwan to be annexed by China, by invasion if necessary. Fortunately, they are buffoons. In 2019, former Bamboo Union gangster and founder of the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), Chang An-le (張安樂, colorfully known as “White Wolf”), led a protest
Have you applied for a new job? If you’ve been shortlisted, get ready to be interviewed by artificial intelligence.Deluged by a flood of AI-generated job applications from easy-apply job boards, recruiters are turning to AI to cope. Companies are using chatbots to interview candidates, typically at
At 7pm on a Friday in London, the lobby of Third Space in Soho looks more like a members’ club than a gym. There’s a humming smoothie bar, twenty and thirtysomethings in color-coordinated workout sets and a steady stream of arrivals heading to reformer Pilates classes.A decade ago, this crowd might
Boots Riley holds nothing back in his audacious, surrealist social satire I Love Boosters. The film is a go-for-broke expression of wild imagination and social consciousness that’s impossible not to admire for its wacky, bold vision, with teleporting, high fashion snobbery and pyramid schemes.Here i
The press conference for the Met Costume Institute’s spring exhibition is always a stately affair, but this year it was giving “feudal lady addresses her serfs” or perhaps “Marie Antoinette during the last days of Versailles.” Here, among the spectacular marble sculptures of the art museum’s America
Food prices have often played a major role in Taiwan’s history. The first major wave of migration from China occurred in 1628. A moderate drought, the Ming Dynasty maritime ban that prohibited fishing and trading (intended to reduce piracy) and a temporary tax, conspired to exhaust local resources,
Feline features stare out from the covers of umpteen novels, they have an officially designated day devoted to their mystique and popularity, and have outnumbered dogs as pets for a decade.The influence of cats is evident across every corner of Japanese society, with a recent report crediting them w
Reading this book was, yes, wonderful. Yes, inspiring. But it was also like reading a series of many, many long text messages from a dear friend. Or perhaps the posts of a really great, just discovered, and somehow still genuine social media feed. The premise of Craig Mod’s Things Become Other Thing
The arithmetic is straightforward and uncomfortable. By the end of 2025, Taiwan had committed itself to a 50-30-20 electricity mix — half natural gas, 30 per cent coal, 20 per cent renewables. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’s (MOEA) own monthly energy reports tell a different story. Natural gas re
Taiwan’s drone exports are taking off, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, as Taiwanese companies seek a stake in the fast-growing global market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).Low-cost drones used for reconnaissance and strikes are in high demand as governments around the world boost defense spending
Ajay Verma, a consultant gastroenterologist at Kettering general hospital in Northamptonshire, says our gut is a “complex machine.” “It is constantly providing us with the nutrition we need, initially to grow and develop, and then for us to survive, thrive and repair from injury and illness.” How ca
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