The Taiwan Gazette translates and publishes original reporting from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Our goal with the platform is simple: We want original reporting from the Sinosphere to have a wider impact on global civil society.
All in Translations
Before Taiwan entered the COVID-19 Level 3 Alert this year, The Reporter visited a social worker who also works as a boxing coach in Sanxia, New Taipei City. How has he turned boxing into a tool to empower indigenous youths from disadvantaged backgrounds?
How do artists invite us to reexamine the changes in the Taiwanese identity? What methods do they use? In 2018, Liang-Pin Tsao opened an exhibition at TKG+ Projects examining the intertwined relationships between “identity” and “history”. Focusing on the images of the Martyrs’ Shrine, the exhibition asks: How does one become Taiwanese?
For decades, the Love River (愛河 Ai He) has always been a sparkling spot of Kaohsiung’s cityscape. In this article, readers will find out how the story of this beloved river intertwined with the city’s century-long history, from the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese colonial era, to the twenty-first century.
On July 12, 2021, Tokyo, the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics, is entering another state of emergency to combat the spread of COVID-19. With COVID-19 still running rampant across the world, why is the Tokyo Olympics not cancelled or postponed?
In February 2020, the first physical diasporic Hongkonger magazine —Flow HK (如水), or “Be Water” in Chinese—was printed in Taiwan. In terms of its significance to the pro-democracy movement, this magazine is a living embodiment of an imagined Hong Kong community under the shadow of the Hong Kong National Security Law. The Reporter interviewed the editorial board of Flow HK to find out why they decided to publish in Taiwan and how they intended to keep the current of the Hong Kong protests flowing across borders.
On July 1, 2020, the UK announced the expansion of rights for BNO passport holders, arguing that the Hong Kong National Security Law is a “clear and serious” violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. For Hongkongers born before 1997, the BNO now offers a new "escape" route. What can the BNO inform us about the formation of Hongkonger identities and the geohistorical entanglements between Hong Kong, the UK, and China?
On February 26, 2021, the Chinese General Administration of Customs unexpectedly announced a ban on imports of Taiwanese pineapple starting from March 1. March is the export season for Taiwan's famous Golden Diamond Pineapple. The Chinese ban came as a shock to the Taiwanese industry. How did Taiwan’s overreliance on the Chinese market come to be? Who gets to decide the fate of Taiwanese pineapples?
During WWII, there were hundreds of Taiwanese living in Southeast Asia. They were regarded Japanese, lost everything overnight and were detained in internment camps. Shu-min Chung (鍾淑敏) had dug up historical materials in search of the Taiwanese in internment camps, trying to fill in the forgotten history of overseas Taiwanese.
Last year, the Taiwan Railways Administration imposed a ban on public sitting in the lobby of Taipei Main Station, citing COVID-19 concerns. This sitting ban raised urgent questions: Who has claims over this space? What might be the historical and ideological forces shaping the usage of this space? And why is Taipei Main Station associated with the signs of “Free China” and the rise of “Little Indonesia”?
Bubble tea and handmade drink shops are an indispensable part of Taiwanese food culture. For years, they play the role of a cultural ambassador, promoting Taiwanese cuisine to the international community. How did bubble tea rise to its current status of Taiwan’s “national drink”? How did this “bubble tea kingdom” come to be? What can we learn from the rise of handmade drink shops in Taiwan?
Between 1949 and 1999, the National Defense Medical Center was located around what is now the Shuiyuan Campus of National Taiwan University. Ghastly rumors about the site circulated among present-day college students. Why was the site haunted and by whom? What might be the ghosts’ unfulfilled wishes? How have fictions and oral narratives about the White Terror in Taiwan contributed to a haunted remembering of the site? And how should we reckon with the ghastly heritage of NTU’s Shuiyuan Campus and beyond?
How is Taiwan seen under the gaze of others? What might hinder people from understanding Taiwan as it is through a more realistic approach? How can Taiwanese establish and present its own subjectivity? Lin Wei-Yun ‘s (林蔚昀) insightful critique of a Polish edited volume on Taiwan might provide some meaningful clues.
Australian musician Brett Dean's diagnosis of COVID-19 on March 5 2020 shocked Taiwan's art world. Cho Hsiao-ching (卓曉青), the first violinist of the National Symphony Orchestra shares her personal journey as an artist, mother and victim of the pandemic, following her experience of self-health management.
During COVID-19, exceptional public health measures were adopted by nations to secure their populations from disease and death. In imperial Japan, practices and discourses of public health played an equally important role in transforming the nation into a civilizing power fit to survive in the modern world. What can we learn from the practice of mask-wearing in colonial Taiwan?
Pop songs in Taiwan have been an inseparable element in people’s everyday life. How was its rise and popularity linked to Japanese colonial governance in Taiwan? How did the reception and prohibition of pop songs shift under the Nationalist government’s martial law regime?
In 2019, the China Film Administration banned mainland Chinese films and related personnel from participating in the 56th Golden Horse Awards. How did filmmakers, curators, and critics in Taiwan, mainland China, and Hong Kong react to this ban? What are the implications behind a Golden Horse Awards without China?
Pei is a Mainland Chinese student who has studied in both Taiwan and Hong Kong. How is she “represented” in debates in different places? What are her insights on identity politics, nationalism, and populism? Introducing the third piece of our special series: Lusheng in Taiwan: Contradictions and Anticipations.
“Kabar Ma Kyay Bu” (ကမ္ဘာမကြေဘူး), also translated as “We Won't Be Satisfied Until the End of the World”, is the Burmese-language anthem of Myanmar’s 1988 pro-democracy movement. On February 6, protestors sang this anthem in Taiwan’s “Little Burma”, showing overseas support to their detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other arrested political figures. Many see the latest military coup as a serious hindrance to Myanmar’s road to democracy since 2011.
Many in Hong Kong see immigration as a means to escape China’s tightened control over the city they called home. The Reporter interviews immigrants who moved from Hong Kong to Taiwan between 1969 to 2020 for different reasons. What were their strategies of adaptation and integration? How did they deal with their feelings toward immigration—a feeling of being so close yet so far?
2021 marks the tenth anniversary of Mainland Chinese students (lusheng) pursuing degrees at Taiwan's higher education institutions. However, in fall 2021 China’s Ministry of Education will suspend their enrolment. How might we address the changing political economy that shapes and contests policies for lusheng? What will become of these students? Introducing the second piece of our special series: Lusheng in Taiwan: Contradictions and Anticipations.
