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Kaori Lai’s “Portraits in White” Captures Individuals Cast Adrift by the White Terror

·October 4, 2025·2 min read

Kaori Lai's Portraits in White is a skillful literary examination of individuals caught in the larger tides of Taiwanese history. Though not of the generation that directly experienced much of this history, but of the generation that came immediately after, Lai’s work proves a deft exploration of the subjectivities of those who lived through the White Terror Read More

“Endangered Youth” is a Look at Young Activists in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Ukraine

Books English

·September 8, 2025·1 min read

CJ Anderson-Wu's Endangered Youth is best read as an ensemble work, comprising a series of vignettes and micro-fiction about young activists in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Ukraine. The book draws heavily from reality, referencing a number of real-world figures with slight alterations to their names. This is also true of many historical events referenced in the book Read More

Syaman Rapongan’s “Eyes of the Ocean” Proves Rare Example of Taiwanese Indigenous Literature in English

Books English

·August 29, 2025·2 min read

Syaman Rapongan's Eyes of the Ocean proves a rare opportunity to glimpse the accomplished Taiwanese Indigenous writer’s work in English. In this sense, Eyes of the Ocean is one of the rare works of Taiwanese Indigenous literature translated into English to date Read More

Chris Horton’s “Ghost Nation” Examines Taiwan’s Neglected History

Books English

·August 9, 2025·2 min read

Chris Horton's Ghost Nation is a comprehensive take on Taiwan’s history from a pan-Green perspective. In this sense, the book can be situated alongside other histories of Taiwan published for a general audience that have been published in past years Read More

“Heaven Does Not Block All Roads” Looks at the Storied Life of an Activist

Books English

·April 28, 2025·1 min read

Heaven Does Not Block All Roads is an elucidating and well-written biography of Huang Chin-tao, a member of the resistance army Troop 27 and later dangwai activist. As such, Huang came to be known as Taiwan’s so-called “Eternal Warrior” before his passing in 2019 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

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

“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

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

Social Distancing 2.0: A Review of Hsin-Hui Lin’s Contactless Intimacy

Books English

·July 13, 2023·7 min read

Hsin-Hui Lin's Contactless Intimacy is a claustrophobic character study, a dazzling exercise in worldbuilding, and a chilling thought experiment: what would happen if artificial intelligence gained the power to dictate human intimacy? In a world where physical contact is prohibited, relationships are optimized by machines, and free will is exposed as fiction, what might become of individual agency? Read More

社交距離2.0——讀《零觸碰親密》

Books Chinese

·July 8, 2023·1 min read

林新惠的《零觸碰親密》是一部深入角色直至引發幽閉恐懼的作品。小說建構的世界令人讚歎不已，同時也是令人不寒而慄的思想實驗：如果有一天人工智能得以支配人類彼此的親密關係，會發生什麼？在一個身體接觸被明令禁止、人際關係被機械優化、自由意志近乎虛無的世界，個人的能動性將會發生什麼變化？ Read More

A Glimpse of Singapore from Afar: A Review of Eternal Summer of My Homeland

Books English

·June 14, 2023·1 min read

Agnes Chew's Eternal Summer of My Homeland, written about the author’s homeland of Singapore while living in Germany, is a capable collection of short stories. Consisting of eleven short stories, the collection is briskly paced given their length Read More