Eyes glowing red, the towering “ghost king” presided over the atrium of a Hong Kong housing block on Sunday as residents performed age-old rituals — a scene that may become history as redevelopment looms.The Hungry Ghost, or Yu Lan, Festival has its roots in Chinese folk religion and marks the time
In the run-up to the referendum on re-opening Pingtung County’s Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant last month, the media inundated us with explainers. A favorite factoid of the international media, endlessly recycled, was that Taiwan has no energy reserves for a blockade, thus necessitating re-opening th
Sept. 1 to Sept. 7In 1899, Kozaburo Hirai became the first documented Japanese to wed a Taiwanese under colonial rule. The soldier was partly motivated by the government’s policy of assimilating the Taiwanese population through intermarriage.While his friends and family disapproved and even mocked h
Under pressure, President William Lai (賴清德) has enacted his first cabinet reshuffle. Whether it will be enough to staunch the bleeding remains to be seen.Cabinet members in the Executive Yuan almost always end up as sacrificial lambs, especially those appointed early in a president’s term. When pres
The Venice Film Festival kicked off with the world premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia Wednesday night on the Lido. The opening ceremony of the festival also saw Francis Ford Coppola presenting filmmaker Werner Herzog with a lifetime achievement prize.The 82nd edition of the glamorous internati
A town in Japan is to urge all residents to restrict their smartphone use to two hours a day in an attempt to tackle online addiction and sleep deprivation.Officials in Toyoake, Aichi prefecture, said the measure would target not only children but also adults, amid growing concern about the physical
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch, the two most prestigious English screen actors in the world, resoundingly butt heads in this feel-bad movie; it is oddly, but not uninterestingly, composed throughout in feelgood romcom style. In casting terms, this is a Borg-McEnroe 10-set tie-break leading t
It is clear, as we look forward to this autumn’s new films, that a crimewave of sorts is happening. Whether cosy or brutal, true-crime-ish or fictional, filled with forensic crime scenes and hazmat-suited people shuffling out of despoiled apartments, or with twinkly-eyed character actors sampling ca
On Aug. 10, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) convened their national party congress and celebrated the sixth anniversary of their 2019 launch on founder Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) 60th birthday. Compared to a year ago, the TPP is in pretty good shape, and current party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) had some
An attempt to promote friendship between Japan and countries in Africa has transformed into a xenophobic row about migration after inaccurate media reports suggested the scheme would lead to a “flood of immigrants.”The controversy erupted after the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, sa
By 1971, heroin and opium use among US troops fighting in Vietnam had reached epidemic proportions, with 42 percent of American servicemen saying they’d tried opioids at least once and around 20 percent claiming some level of addiction, according to the US Department of Defense. Though heroin use by
For years, a man’s giant intestine was anonymously on display at a US medical museum in Philadelphia, identified only by his initials JW. Today, the donor display for Joseph Williams depicts not only his anatomical record, but his powerful life story.After two years of controversy over how to ethica
Invasive species are a problem throughout the world, and Taiwan is no exception. Non-native organisms have a number of negative impacts on the environment. They may drive native species to extinction by predation, by introducing new diseases or parasites or by outcompeting them for food or water. In
Donald Trump’s unshakeable belief in his ability as a peacemaker has raised the prospect of another attempt to solve one of the world’s most implacable crises: North Korea’s continuing development of nuclear weapons.During an occasionally fractious meeting with Lee Jae-myung in the White House on Mo
Frankenstein’s monster, Vladimir Putin, vindictive bosses, nuclear war and at the end a Golden Lion. The 82nd Venice Film Festival begins tomorrow.Dozens of stars are expected on the Lido, major directorial talents are bidding for comebacks and a strong field of films are competing.Here are some of
Pierre Cote spent years languishing on public health waitlists trying to find a therapist to help him overcome his PTSD and depression. When he couldn’t, he did what few might consider: he built one himself. “It saved my life,” Cote says of DrEllis.ai, an AI-powered tool designed to support men faci
During the Metal Ages, prior to the arrival of the Dutch and Chinese, a great shift took place in indigenous material culture. Glass and agate beads, introduced after 400BC, completely replaced Taiwanese nephrite (jade) as the ornamental materials of choice, anthropologist Liu Jiun-Yu (劉俊昱) of the U
Aug. 25 to Aug. 31Although Mr. Lin (林) had been married to his Japanese wife for a decade, their union was never legally recognized — and even their daughter was officially deemed illegitimate. During the first half of Japanese rule in Taiwan, only marriages between Japanese men and Taiwanese women
In the next few months tough decisions will need to be made by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and their pan-blue allies in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It will reveal just how real their alliance is with actual power at stake.Party founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) faced these tough questions, which
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