The Tao people of Lanyu are rowing around Taiwan to raise awareness of their culture and the environment
By Noah Buchan
Maraos (瑪拉歐斯) grew up listening to stories of a great seafaring nation of islands that shared the same language and culture as his own — the Tao (達悟族) — who lived off a diet of flying fish, crustaceans, taro and millet. But centuries ago, the tale goes, a marriage dispute between the islands broke the nation apart.

[ FULL STORY ]

Lynn Miles and Klaus-Peter Metzke discuss the not-so-good, good old days
By Jules Quartly
He called it a "sentimental journey" returning to Taiwan after 40 years but Klaus-Peter Metzke was grumpy. The business consultant was tired from lugging around his suitcases, his flight to Germany would take off in a couple of hours and the heat and humidity was getting to him.

[ FULL STORY ]

Sheltered workshops offer a suppportive working environment where physically and mentally challenged individuals can gradually gain vocational and social experience
By Ho Yi
At Easy Coffee inside the Shantao Temple MRT station (善導寺站), Lin Chien-hsuan (林建炫) serves coffee every morning to the rush hour crowd. At first glance, one would never suspect that he is a mentally disabled patient who couldn't converse with people when first starting work at the coffee shop.

[ FULL STORY ]

In Nantucket Sound, home to the rich, powerful and politically influential, wind turbines are just grand, as long as they're in someone else's backyard
By William Grimes
Every so often, a purely local dispute rises above its station and assumes national importance. This was the case with the Cape Wind project, a proposed wind farm that seemed to have everything going for it: It would deliver badly needed additional electric power to energy-hungry New England, reduce utility bills for everyone and cut down on air pollution. There was just one little problem. The spinning windmills would be located in Nantucket Sound, within view of some very expensive homes and some very wealthy and powerful citizens.

[ FULL STORY ]

`The Island of Seven Cities,' written by the Toronto architect, has sparked a heated debate on whether the Chinese were the first foreigners to settle in Canada
By Bradley Winterton
This book follows in the wake of Gavin Menzies' 1421 [reviewed in Taipei Times Jan. 19, 2003]. Whereas Menzies, together with many other claims, speculated that a Chinese fleet reached North America in that year, Paul Chiasson points to an actual Canadian site that, he believes, contains the remains of a Chinese settlement.

[ FULL STORY ]

FICTION
[ FULL STORY ]