No Man Is An Island -

Review: Island in Between (金門)

·December 5, 2023·2 min read

Island in Between follows director S. Leo Chiang’s personal journey. Having grown up in the US, he finds himself back in Taiwan after the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, he finds himself drawn to the island of Kinmen, where his father previously served in the military as part of the draft Read More

Incidents Reveal China’s Sensitivity About Taiwanese Musicians

English Life

·December 3, 2023·2 min read

Several incidents in August involved Taiwanese musicians who faced restrictions or otherwise came under scrutiny while touring in China. Read More

Kirsten Han’s ‘The Singapore That I Recognise’ Provides a Personal Account of Singaporean Activism Today

Books English

·December 2, 2023·2 min read

Kirsten Han’s The Singapore That I Recognise provides a glimpse of Singaporean civil society activism in recent years. The book stands out not only as a personal account of Han’s own journey as a journalist and activist, but also with regards to what it shows about Singapore today Read More

Hong Kong Sci-Fi Movie “Detrimental” Befuddles With Bad Writing, Poor Execution, and…Great Production Values?

English Film

·November 25, 2023·3 min read

With its laughably inconsistent plot and confusingly selective use of CGI, "Detrimental" could be Hong Kong’s contribution to the "so-bad-it’s good" genre Read More

A Powerful Look at the Hopes, Fears, and Bravery of Hong Kong Demonstrators: A Review of “Among the Braves”

Books English

·November 21, 2023·2 min read

Among the Braves, by Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin, is a gripping, powerful narrative of the events surrounding the 2019 Hong Kong protests Read More

Arrest of Internet Personality Over Cannabis Leads to Discussion of Drug Laws in Taiwan

English Life

·November 10, 2023·2 min read

Internet personality Joeman was arrested on drug charges earlier this month. Though hardly the first time that a celebrity has come under public scrutiny for a drug-related arrest, the arrest has struck a chord with the public at large Read More

“Dear Chrysanthemums” Offers a Humanistic Lens on Chinese History

Books English

·November 4, 2023·1 min read

Dear Chrysanthemums, by Fiona Sze-Lorrain, is a well-crafted set of stories set during various points in modern Chinese history Read More

“Monday Without a Wheelchair”: A Look at Home Away from Home for Taiwan’s Migrant Workers

Art English Life

·October 30, 2023·8 min read

New Bloom/No Man is an Island's Brian Hioe spoke to South Korean writer and photographer Minsik Jung about the art project "Monday Without a Wheelchair", detailing the lived experiences of Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan Read More

Bad Taiwan Takes: Pre-Disaster Tourism in Taiwan

English Life

·October 29, 2023·2 min read

A June piece in The Telegraph, on the joys of tourism in Taiwan as it is under geopolitical threat, proves a bizarre exercise in colonial disaster tourism–or pre-disaster tourism, if you would, seeing as there has been no Taiwan contingency as yet Read More

Bad Taiwan Takes: The KMT Attempts to Depict Itself as “Hawkish” on China

English Life

·October 24, 2023·4 min read

A recent article on the Brookings Institution titled “From dove to hawk: KMT’s transformation and the quest for new guardrails in cross-Strait relations”, by Dennis Lu Chung Weng, proves a strange exercise in the KMT’s attempts to depict itself in a positive light to the US. Seeing as the article appeared in the same timeframe as an article by former Sunflower Movement student leader Lin Fei-fan, this seems to be the Brookings Institution’s attempt to present the KMT’s viewpoint Read More

Review: Social Forces in the Re-Making of Cross-Strait Relations

Books English

·October 22, 2023·2 min read

Andrew Beckershoff's Social Forces in the Re-Making of Cross-Strait Relations is a useful look at the backdrop of events that later led to the 2014 Sunflower Movement. Read More

“Fly in Power” Ably Documents the Work of Red Canary Song

English Film

·October 21, 2023·2 min read

Fly in Power documents the work of Red Canary Song, the coalition of Asian and Migrant sex workers and massage workers formed after the death of Yang Song during a police raid in Flushing in 2017. The documentary takes a ground-level look at not only what Red Canary Song does, but also the perspectives of members as to how they understand their work, why they joined, and their backgrounds Read More