All in Translations

U.S. Aid and the Origins of Taiwanese Wheat Culture

Wheaten foods play an important role in the everyday life of Taiwanese people. However, the mass introduction of wheaten foods to Taiwan and even Taiwan’s own domestic production of flour are fairly recent phenomena. Why did Taiwanese begin integrating large quantities of wheaten foods into their diet? The answer to this question is intimately linked to U.S. aid. A story of food culture and U.S. Cold War cultural policy in Asia, this article features as part of our special issue: Encountering Everyday Life: Taiwan in Museums.

Ordinary Straw Hats Guided Colonial Taiwan to International Fashion

In the early stage of Japanese colonial governance, the Government-General of Taiwan encouraged the straw hat business—the growth of which not only brought Taiwan to the stage of international fashion, but also consolidated Japan’s colonial imaginary of Taiwan as a southern island, a strategic site from which the southward advance policy could be launched. A story about colonial modernity and imaginaries, this article features as part of our special issue: Encountering Everyday Life: Taiwan in Museums.

Thinking Outside the Pot: The Bond between Taiwan and the Steam Rice Cooker

In Taiwan, using a steam rice cooker is an everyday experience. However, up until the 1960s, the big stoves, briquette stoves, and kerosene stoves still enjoyed widespread popularity. How did the steam cooker eventually step into Taiwanese homes and become one of its essential kitchen appliances? This article will present a few facts about the steam rice cooker, examining the history of its growing popularity in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Humanitarian Aid to Hongkongers Faces New Questions Amid Geopolitical Uncertainties

July 1, 2019 is the 2nd anniversary of the occupation of the Legislative Council in Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill movement and the 1st anniversary of Taiwan’s investment of national resources in providing humanitarian aid to Hongkongers in exile. Two years after Taiwan’s assistance of Hong Kong, official relations between the two have seemingly ceased as the political situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate. Amid geopolitical uncertainties, how can Taiwan continue to help Hongkongers?