Temple festivals in Taiwan often seem to be a mixture of the sacred and the profane. Sure, temples are places of worship—but temple festivities often have elements of what would otherwise be considered “low” culture incorporated into them Read More
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Several dozen people gathered outside of a small temple at the Nanshan Public Cemetery in Tainan on the afternoon of October 15th. The event, which was a guided tour of the cemetery, was organized by a group of local residents and academics who have devoted themselves to calling for the cemetery’s preservation. Namely, the Tainan city government is planning on demolishing the cemetery for redevelopment, though technically the cemetery is undergoing an evaluation as to its cultural value Read More
The first hint that something big would be taking place in Bangka over the weekend was when a large stage was set up on the street of my apartment building and started blaring loud electronic music every day at 11 AM Read More
Enes Kanter, the center for the Boston Celtics, made viral tweets earlier this week with photos of sneakers in support of Taiwan, having tweeted photos of custom sneakers that read “Free Tibet” and “Free Uyghur” in the past Read More
Singer-songwriter Jolin Tsai and television host Xiao S, whose real name is Dee Hsu, are among the Taiwanese celebrities to have come under fire after expressing support for Taiwanese athletes at the Olympics. This proves the latest sporting incident in which identity issues between Taiwan and China have been flagged, with scrutiny occurring over posts on platforms banned in China Read More
Animal memes increasingly seem to be an integral part of Taiwanese politics Read More
In retrospect, it was probably inevitable that Taiwan’s domestically developed and manufactured vaccine, Medigen, would encounter difficulties in public reception Read More
The jokes started in 2018 after legislator Apollo Chen and then-chair Wu Den-yih appeared in a publicity photo together, awkwardly posing with their fists. If this wasn’t bad enough their pants went all the way above their waists, in a grandfatherly fashion. The image sparked a seemingly endless number of memes Read More
The thing about living in a city I really love is how many interesting characters there are. And you'll never know them all, no matter how hard you try. Where I live in Taipei—Bangka, the oldest and historically poorest district—has proven especially full of unique characters. All of these people have stories, but I'll never know them all Read More
It’s likely that a lot of bars or nightclubs will disappear during the current outbreak—particularly smaller establishments that eke out a living with what few customers they have Read More
To be a child of globalization comes with an inconceivable sense of perpetual displacement—a disturbance of sort: the fault lines between distant societies or “civilizations” are deeply felt in the space you occupy, the people you interact with, and the commonplace cross-cultural misunderstandings you observe Read More