In China, 190 children are stolen every day to full the demand for sons. Brokenhearted parents trying to find their loved ones face retaliation from traffickers and government intransigence
By Clare Dwyer Hogg
In China, around 190 children are snatched every day - stolen from their beds and the streets. This is more than double the average number of abductions recorded in England and Wales over a whole year. If 190 people were dying every day from the same illness, you'd call it an epidemic. And that's exactly what it is, except nobody really wants to talk about it. Especially the Chinese government.

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Mayaw Biho, an Aboriginal rights activist, says he has no political agenda, yet campaigns for the use of Aboriginal names; he documents the lives of marginalized people, yet says he doesn't care whether their traditions live or die
By Ian Bartholomew
Mayaw Biho (馬躍比吼) is one of Taiwan's most prolific Aboriginal documentary filmmakers with over 20 films, varying in length from around 10 minutes to over an hour, and many unfinished projects awaiting funding to his name. At 37, he has created more than enough work to annoy the powers-that-be both in the government, as well as within the Aboriginal establishment. He attributes this to his refusal to take sides. "I simply record what I see," he said.

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A project by staff and students of the Shih Chien University School of Design has created some unexpected adornments on Taipei's busy streets
BY Ian Bartholomew
Walking around the Mingde (明德) MRT station or National Taiwan University campus (國立台灣大學), you might notice a strange trend in unused, public spaces near 7-Elevens. Along Dingzhou Road (汀州路), there is a posterized image of baseball hero Wang Jian-ming (王建明), for example. It is made from paper cups inserted in a wire fence; further down, motorcycle parking spaces have been blocked off with milk crates and contraptions made from disused bicycles adorn the sidewalk.

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Social networking sites like Facebook have wooed millions of users with their easy format for keeping in touch, but left them navigating the pitfalls of interacting online - is it really private?

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William Volmann hits the streets of 14 countries - including Japan, the Philippines and China - with one question for the down-and-out: Why are you poor?
By BRADLEY WINTERTON
I don't suppose many Taiwanese people are very interested in the subject of poverty. Taiwan's "tiger economy" has resulted in extensive prosperity, and there are few things the newly rich want to think about less than those who remain poor.

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A half-hidden family history prompted Bliss Broyard to examine her father's mixed racial lineage, which left a legacy of confusion and an interesting story
By JANET MASLIN
After the literary critic Anatole Broyard died in 1990, his family arranged a memorial reception at a suburban Connecticut yacht club. It was a club that claimed to have no black members until, after Broyard's death, his mixed racial lineage was made known. After that, the club cited him as evidence of integration.

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FICTION

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