When I went to the gallery at Ho Sng House (about a 10-15 minute walk from Guting station) to see Peng Hsiung Hsu’s Sexca-paint (一邊打砲,一邊畫畫) exhibition, the artist was there in person to offer a guided tour. I was handed a lollipop as part of the experience: “The lollipop is part of the exhibition.” Read More
Former Singaporean Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo raised eyebrows with comments earlier this month asserting that Taiwan was a “piece on the chessboard.” Though these comments provoked some outrage in Taiwan, Yeo’s full comments were not necessarily incorrect, in that he went on to state that Taiwan was itself aware of its role as a geopolitical pawn of larger powers, and that it was its own choice as to how to be played. Yeo next went on, however, to rather outlandishly suggest that a solution for Taiwan and China to establish peace was to form a confederation with China Read More
This past weekend, BDSM Company hosted four performances of “Kinky Community Musical 2.0" at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Written by Della Wang and directed by Hsiao-I Lu, "Kinky Community Musical 2.0” is a revised version of Wang’s first “Kinky Community Musical,” which debuted in late April 2019 just weeks before the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan. Featuring mesmerizing rope-binding scenes, catchy tunes in the form of twelve original songs, and gripping script writing, the play tells an intertwined love story of four main characters that pushes the boundaries of tongzhi politics to further incorporate Taiwan’s BDSM, asexual, and polyamory communities Read More
The 2024 campaign season largely continued the aesthetic tropes of previous election cycles Read More
Several incidents in August involved Taiwanese musicians who faced restrictions or otherwise came under scrutiny while touring in China. 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
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
I imagined this happening in my late twenties, exactly ten years after high school graduation. A few of us would meet in Taiwan. I had just received my first promotion and at dinner, I’d humblebrag to all my friends. Justin–who would be earning the most–would pay for drinks, then pass out in the car. A few of us would be married, most of us single. Instead, I found myself back in Taiwan with almost a hundred alumni, reliving experiences that were once my last. Lunar New Year, homecooked meals with grandparents, weekly Karaoke—the routines I’d given up when I crossed the Pacific. Read More
In the past week, Bondee, an app allowing users to create virtual avatars and chatrooms in which they can host up to fifty of their friends, has taken Taiwan by storm. This follows the popularity of apps such as Gathertown in Taiwan, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic 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
Chinese indie band YOUNG DAN stoked outrage after an Instagram post on Monday that referred to Taiwan as part of China. The offending text in the post read, “From Guangxi to Taiwan, China" Read More
“Walking the Crack” sets out to be a “walk-able” exhibition in some form, citing Michel de Certeau in its abstract. Read More