A number of realist international relations scholars in recent years have argued for the U.S. to abandon its already ambiguous security commitment to Taiwan. Academics such as Charles Glaser have argued that doing so would remove a flashpoint for potential conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while at the same time improving the …
Jinguashi, a small, secluded town on the northeastern tip of Taiwan, wakes to the same schedule every day: busloads of tourists spill over from excursions in neighboring Jiufen to wander through the town’s old streets marveling at temples and scenery. Teapot Mountain and the Gold Waterfall fit effortlessly into the background, the kind of breathtakingly …
Wu Ming-yi’s (吳明益) fifth novel《單車失竊記》(The Stolen Bicycle) pays tribute to the millions of soldiers who died during World War II and the countless animals and natural habitats that were destroyed in the cataclysm. Written in traditional Chinese, the novel follows the protagonist as he sets off on a search for his father’s stolen bicycle, a popular Made-in-Taiwan …
It wasn’t the dreaded knock on the door in the middle of the night. Instead, the undercover military police officers posed as clients wanting to buy tea from Mr. Wei. Their main objective was something of an entirely different nature, however: to recover incriminating documents from the White Terror era that Mr. Wei had in …
Taiwan’s political scene is once again being shaken by young people who have decided to take direct action against the government, this time over “minor” alterations to high school curriculum guidelines. As with the other youth movements that contested the authorities’ modus operandi in recent years, the participants have shattered the traditional norms of behavior …