Even the most casual followers of Taiwan politics are familiar with the terms pan-blue and pan-green. The terms are used so casually and commonly with the assumption that everyone knows what they mean, that few stop to really question it. The way these terms are used today is far broader and extensi
Seven hundred job applications. One interview. Marco Mascaro arrived in Taiwan last year with a PhD in engineering physics and years of experience at a European research center. He thought his Gold Card would guarantee him a foothold in Taiwan’s job market.“It’s marketed as if Taiwan really needs yo
During his glittering career, George Clooney has played a casino thief, a Batman, a chain-gang convict, an assassin and a high-flying layoff artist. This fall, he’s stretching even more, playing an utterly charming and gorgeous movie star. Kidding!Reality and fiction beautifully weave in and out in
It’s easy to forget, given the current glut of robot-uprising doom flicks, that Hollywood has been doing the artificial intelligence thing for decades — long before anything resembling true AI existed in the real world. And now we live in an era in which a chatbot can write a passable sonnet, it is
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) media reported late last month that the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau had opened an investigation into Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “Taiwan independence” activities, including co-founding Kuma Academy, the private civil
Picture a plastic surgeon’s office. You might imagine a sleek Los Angeles practice, with discreet entrances meant to conceal celebrities from the paparazzi. Maybe a Dallas high-rise, where monied housewives spend on postpartum “mommy makeovers.” Or a Miami location, where influencers and OnlyFans st
Joe Sacco is one of a very small number of graphic novelists who have smashed through into the mainstream. His masterwork is Palestine, a collected volume of single-issue comic books he created in the 1990s, documenting the violence in Gaza. His technique is to embed as a journalist in a war zone an
Since Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) was elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair on Oct. 18, she has become a polarizing figure. Her supporters see her as a firebrand critic of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), while others, including some in her own party, have charged that she is Chinese Pr
If China attacks, will Taiwanese be willing to fight?Analysts of certain types obsess over questions like this, especially military analysts and those with an ax to grind as to whether Taiwan is worth defending, or should be cut loose to appease Beijing. Fellow columnist Michael Turton in “Notes fro
Last week gave us the droll little comedy of People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) consul general in Osaka posting a threat on X in response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi saying to the Diet that a Chinese attack on Taiwan may be an “existential threat” to Japan. That would allow Japanese Se
Nov. 17 to Nov. 23When Kanori Ino surveyed Taipei’s Indigenous settlements in 1896, he found a culture that was fading. Although there was still a “clear line of distinction” between the Ketagalan people and the neighboring Han settlers that had been arriving over the previous 200 years, the former
Even after years in business, weekend tables here can be booked out a month in advance. The price point far exceeds its competitors. Granted, expectations are soaringly high, but something here failed to hit the high notes. There are a few telltale signs that a restaurant relies solely on outstandin
The Taroko Gorge is not Hualien's only canyon worth exploring. A scenic three-hour walk up the nearby Sanjhan River (三棧溪) takes you to the Golden Grotto (黃金峽谷), an awe-inspiring razor-thin canyon carved into the mountain's hard marble walls, culminating in the Inner Sanctum’s waterfall.I had been wa
The Nuremberg trials have inspired filmmakers before, from Stanley Kramer’s 1961 drama to the 2000 television miniseries with Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox. But for the latest take, Nuremberg, writer-director James Vanderbilt focuses on a lesser-known figure: The US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, wh
Among the Nazis who were prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials in 1945 and 1946 was Hitler’s second-in-command, Hermann Goring. Less widely known, though, is the involvement of the US psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who spent more than 80 hours interviewing and assessing Goring and 21 other Nazi offic
Less than two weeks since taking office as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair, people are already asking how long Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) will remain in office. She is already mired in controversy, both inside and outside the party. It is not an unreasonable question. This century, only three of 15 KM
It’s always a pleasure to see something one has long advocated slowly become reality. The late August visit of a delegation to the Philippines led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-ching (黃昭欽), Chair of Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan
The first thing to understand about eating spicy food is that it really isn’t a matter of taste. Capsaicin, the active chemical in capsicum plants that are a key ingredient in anything you’d think of as “spicy,” evolved as an irritant to stop mammals from chewing and destroying plant seeds. It acts
The post-pandemic flood of artist memoirs continues, but Patti Smith stands apart. The poet who wrote punk into existence before pivoting to pop stardom then ghosting fans to raise a family has, in the 21st century, leaned into literature and music with such vitality it has become hard to say which
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