Long before Barista Coffee or Starbucks arrived on these shores, Taiwan was home to a burgeoning cafe culture. But unlike the American-inspired franchise coffee shops that have sprung up across the country’s urban landscapes over the past decade, these earlier bohemian hangouts blended a Japanese-style tea shop atmosphere with a European vibe.
Early Taiwanese Coffee Culture (早期咖啡文化), located on the second floor of the National Museum of History, explores this coffee culture in an informative and well-designed, though small, exhibition.
The exhibition investigates two themes: the island’s coffee cultivation since the 19th century, and the coffee house culture that developed during the Japanese occupation period.
The museum does an adequate job of recreating the atmosphere of those days — from the lounge-style bars to the costumes of the servers — and even built a replica of a 1920s coffee shop.
The exhibit’s large collection of objects from the period, such as gramophones, phonograms, radios, as well as antique furniture and appliances, helps transport viewers back to a time when coffee shops were places to unwind and listen to the latest jazz, watch a silent movie or discuss art.
The black-and-white photos hung throughout the exhibit reveal a marked difference with Taiwan’s contemporary coffee shops. Here you won’t find crowds of university students spending hours at tables — either sleeping or studying — but well-heeled artists and intellectuals.
Other images show the servers in these haunts — far removed from the modern baristas who press buttons to brew coffee — and who were called jyogyuu (女給), a kind of geisha-cum-waitress. These images show “servers” sitting and chatting with clients.
The museum does a journeyman’s job bringing to life those glory days by placing the museumgoer right in the middle of the action. The exhibit also reveals the idiosyncrasies of each coffee shop, where owners would create an ambiance with a unique choice of furniture, art and services, which contrasts the uniform look of today’s coffee shops.
The section about Taiwan’s coffee cultivation is limited, just like the industry itself. It does, however, point out where coffee is grown and explain the bean-growing process.
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
As we live longer, our risk of cognitive impairment is increasing. How can we delay the onset of symptoms? Do we have to give up every indulgence or can small changes make a difference? We asked neurologists for tips on how to keep our brains healthy for life. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH “All of the sensible things that apply to bodily health apply to brain health,” says Suzanne O’Sullivan, a consultant in neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, and the author of The Age of Diagnosis. “When you’re 20, you can get away with absolute
May 5 to May 11 What started out as friction between Taiwanese students at Taichung First High School and a Japanese head cook escalated dramatically over the first two weeks of May 1927. It began on April 30 when the cook’s wife knew that lotus starch used in that night’s dinner had rat feces in it, but failed to inform staff until the meal was already prepared. The students believed that her silence was intentional, and filed a complaint. The school’s Japanese administrators sided with the cook’s family, dismissing the students as troublemakers and clamping down on their freedoms — with
As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
RSS