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Book Review: The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism

·February 9, 2021·5 min read

In 2016, Trump shocked liberal Democrats. They should not have been shocked. It takes a certain level of ignorance and magic thinking to believe in their candidate at the time. Hilary Clinton, after all, is the spouse of a president whose trade policies were largely responsible for the closing of factories and deindustrialization of the nation 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

A Refreshing, Elucidating Take on Tsai Ming-liang’s Oeuvre

Books English

·January 18, 2023·3 min read

Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang by Nicholas de Villiers is a strong entry in the English-language literature on one of Taiwan’s most distinguished contemporary filmmakers 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

“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

心得：《疫病與社會的十個關鍵詞》

Books Chinese Life

·October 1, 2021·1 min read

劉紹華是一名醫療人類學學者，長年在中國與臺灣研究衛生管理。從2002年起，她在中國四川涼山以民族誌方式研究涼山彞族的愛滋、毒品與流動青年的現象，深入分析社會變遷與國家衛生政策的關係。劉紹華從她對愛滋病與麻風的研究而深知，疫病、污名歧視、人權以及政治的互相關聯。在2020年出版的書籍《疫病與社會的十個關鍵詞》裡，她從正在肆虐全球的COVID-19疫情切入，以多年積累的知識提醒讀者，這一波疫情所引發社會、人權及政治的困境與爭執，並非新穎之事，反而是歷史中反覆再現的問題。劉紹華舉各種例子描述在面對疫情的過程中，不可淡忘的歷史教訓。本書的特點在於，剖析國家所採取的、看似理所當然的政策，如「防疫大作戰」等口號標語或高舉前線醫療人員為「道德模範」，探討其未料的後果，以及其掩蓋社會基層問題的企圖。 Read More

Having Faith in a Secular World

Books English Life

·July 20, 2021·6 min read

Joshua E. Livingston’s Sunrays on the Beachhead of the New Creation, a book with 54 short stories with black and white graphic illustrations that serve the tales beautifully and integrally, deals with what it means to have faith (specifically Christian faith), and what it takes to have faith when our daily reality is decidedly secular. When secularism is practically a religion, what does it mean to believe, be spiritual, and attempt to see beyond ourselves? Does life have no meaning beyond what we are capable of understanding? 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

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

Books English

·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

Democratic Experiments in Action

Books English Life

·September 24, 2021·3 min read

Deliberative Democracy in Taiwan: A Deliberate Systems Perspective by Mei-Fang Fan is a useful look at contemporary democracy in the Taiwanese context. 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

“Eyes of the Sky” Elaborates the Oceanic World of the Tao

Books English

·December 20, 2025·1 min read

Syaman Rapongan's "Eyes of the Sky" proves the latest work by the noted Indigenous author to be translated into English. Following up on the translation of his "Eyes of the Ocean," roughly a prose bildungsroman of Rapongan’s early life, Eyes of the Sky serves to further elaborate the “oceanic world” of the Tao Read More