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
Life
A to Z
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
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