Taiwanese noise legend Liao Ming-he, better known as Dino, passed away on Tuesday at age 45. Born in 1976, this proved an early death for someone who was viewed as a pioneer in the Taiwanese noise scene and one of its elder statesmen Read More
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A recent op-ed in the Australian Financial Times by Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, has provoked consternation Read More
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
New Bloom members Peter Freestone and Brian Hioe pick some of their favorite indie albums from 2021, mainly focusing on bands from Taiwan. This is the fourth in a series of Best Album lists compiled by New Bloom Read More
From buzzy soap operas and historical dramas to award-winning films, programming centered on Taiwan continues to proliferate across Netflix. The latest entry: an episode of “Midnight Asia,” a six-part docuseries by InFocus Asia celebrating the diverse nightlife found in Asian metropolises, such as Seoul, Mumbai, Tokyo, Manila and Bangkok. Episode 5 stars the incandescent city of “Taipei, Taiwan” after dark Read More
“Demigod” celebrates a mainstay character of renowned Taiwanese traditional puppetry studio Pili Puppetry, and introduces the art form to new audiences Read More
A Holy Family (神人之家) is an insightful documentary that examines family dynamics. The movie follows the filmmaker, Elvis Lu, as he films his estranged family Read More
Over 4,000 have signed a petition against development plans by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University for the campus of its College of Hakka Studies, which is located in Zhubei Read More
In the second half of the 2020s, I traveled repeatedly from New York to Taiwan, partly for study purposes, partly for other reasons which were never entirely clear to me, staying sometimes for just one or two weeks, sometimes for several months. On one of these Taiwanese excursions which, as it seemed to me, always took me further and further abroad, I came on a bustling early summer’s day to the city of Taipei Read More
Although there have been several short fiction films about the 2019 Hong Kong protests, such as “Night is Young” and “Lost Pearl,” May You Stay Forever Young (少年) is perhaps the first full-length fiction film to address this tumultuous time in recent Hong Kong history. Given increasing censorship in Hong Kong, as with protest documentary Revolution of Our Times, May You Stay Forever Young could only see nationwide theatrical release in Taiwan. The film was in the running for "Best New Director" and "Best Editing" at the 58th Golden Horse Awards. Though it won neither, it did win the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema award at the Golden Horse Film Festival in 2021 Read More
Brian Hioe spoke to Rubben from Eden Hill about their festival, which was originally scheduled for April, but had to be rescheduled due to heavy rain. Eden Hill will take place in Hsinchu on the weekend of June 17th. The following article originally appeared on Electric Soul, a Hong Kong-based electronic music magazine and ticketing platform, on March 30th Read More
Actor Kai Ko's directorial debut, Bad Education, is a capable film with many merits. Though still entertainment fare at the end of the day, much is to be praised about the movie, which like many hit Taiwanese movies in past years has a script penned by novelist Giddens Ko Read More