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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The popular influencer, bodybuilder Holger Chen, recently raised eyebrows with comments that one in three young people today have gang ties. Read More
Internet personality Joeman was arrested on drug charges earlier this month. Though hardly the first time that a celebrity has come under public scrutiny for a drug-related arrest, the arrest has struck a chord with the public at large Read More
The saga of a baboon spotted variously in the past few weeks in Pingjhen District in Taoyuan came to a dramatic end yesterday after the animal was tranquilized by authorities in the afternoon. Subsequently, however, the baboon was reported as having been discovered to have gunshot wounds Read More
A recent petition by Code Pink sees fit to ventriloquize the people of Taiwan, claiming that the people of Taiwan do not want war with China–certainly true–but then claiming that the people of Taiwan do not hope for support for the US against China. The petition goes on to cite polling by Academia Sinica Read More
A recent tweet by tankie influencer Danny Haiphong reacted against news that the US currently has 200 military advisors in Taiwan. Haiphong suggested that China was justified in its outrage, while advocating that if the US is allowed to station troops in Taiwan, China should be allowed to station troops in Puerto Rico Read More
Recent comments by former President US Donald Trump on Fox News lashed out at Taiwan Read More
A strange moment of political convergence occurred with former Trump administration official Elbridge Colby retweeting tankie influencer Carl Zha 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
A June piece in The Telegraph, on the joys of tourism in Taiwan as it is under geopolitical threat, proves a bizarre exercise in colonial disaster tourism–or pre-disaster tourism, if you would, seeing as there has been no Taiwan contingency as yet Read More
A report in the Financial Times earlier this week indicated that some in Washington DC were upset with DPP presidential candidate William Lai for suggesting that one day he hoped to see a Taiwanese president visit the White House. As the same article quoted an official stating that the White House had not been in contact with the Lai campaign over the remarks, those unhappy about Lai’s comments may not be from the White House, but could be from the State Department 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