Thinking of my students in both Myanmar & Afghanistan—their brilliance, humour and intelligence, their humanity, their care and compassion, their desire to make the world better. And thinking about how lacking in these qualities the current UK government are. What an awful, stupid, cruel decision.

For my Mandarin Chinese homework, I have been set the task of promoting the deep fried Mars Bar—pinnacle of Scottish cuisine—to Taiwanese audiences. I am very proud of my translation of the delicacy into Mandarin: 炸馬霸 (Zhá Mǎ Bà), or Deep Fried Horse Hegemon.

Getting my students to re-engineer my philosophy as practice class, in the spirit of Epicurus.

Some heavy-duty theological content in this mural spotted in Pingtung, Taiwan.

What a nasty piece of work Starmer is, with his implication that the Greens are a party of the far left who "want to tear our country apart." Sure. Disagree on policies, make arguments, even show a bit of humility. But this unpleasant, divisive rhetoric is the problem. It is not the solution.

This was the loveliest way to spend a Friday early evening, listening to Hug Muzik / 曾立馨 performing their amazing Bossa Nova / Taiwanese pak-koán 北管 mash-ups in Xishi. Met lots of good folks, caught up with some old friends, then Youbiked back to Pingtung along the bike path under the railway line.

Today's classes on Zhuangzi have been a riot of rambling around, with my students cajoling me into speaking very rusty Burmese, lots of stories about ducks, barrages of jokes in the Zoom chat, and a loud burst of Faye Wong as our break-time musical interlude.

Got talking to the Hakka guy in the coffee shop across the road from our home. He said he'd guessed I was British because a) I'm not tall, and b) I seem cultured, whereas (I'm just reporting what he said... this is not an endorsement of his view) Americans are a) tall and b) uncultured.

I'm so excited to see this beautiful little gem of a book coming into the world next week!

After years of refining & further refining a book proposal, agonising over the market—an abstraction entirely beyond my comprehension—I've started again from scratch, putting words to paper, writing what I want. Who knows where it's going? But there's life there, & fun, & a sense of something real.

We're gearing up for the lunar new year here in Taiwan, so here's Ludwig Wittgenstein, wishing you a very happy year of the horse. 馬上成功！

An excellent piece on the virtues of sad sandwiches by Misato Okaneya. "Boterham demands no love or effort, and keeps the day going. I feel there is absolute trust in a boterham, not necessarily because it is excellent, but because it is simple and unpretentious."

Turned up this treasure in Pingtung. Taiwanese language songs with guitar accompaniment, from 1977.

Had a dream last night that Nick Cave popped in to borrow a duster. I offered him a J-Cloth, but he regretfully declined, saying he wanted a proper duster or nothing at all.

Our co-director @willbuckingham.com talking about literature and translation at the Taipei International Book Exhibition. Featured in the Liberty Times 👇 art.ltn.com.tw/article/pape...

In the news, in a tiny hat. Talking about literature and translation in Taiwan. art.ltn.com.tw/article/pape...

A disadvantage of working in an online university (Parami) with faculty across the world, and finding myself in the easternmost time-zone, is that I have to attend meetings at 10pm on Friday night. My meeting outfit tonight will be pyjamas with a jacket thrown over the top. It fools nobody.

So nice to finally see this in print. A series of interviews with Taiwanese indie bookshop owners, talking about their strategies for survival. I did the translations into English, and learned a lot about the Taiwan book trade. The design of the book is fabulous.

I lost my wallet in Taipei. It was returned to the police station. Not only that, but all the cash and cards were still there, and had been removed, catalogued, and put back with such neat orderliness that I'm tempted to lose my wallet more often, if only to take advantage of this extra service. 😍

Up in Taipei for a spell, and it's nice to be here. In between some tasty Malaysian food, and a very good Long Island iced tea, I've spent the evening practising hard, so I can sound at least relatively coherent in Mandarin on a panel tomorrow at the Taiwan International Book Exhibition.

Taiwan cuteness here in Pingtung! @willbuckingham.com and I showing our first visitor around.

Oh, Nina…. You are right up there on my list of things that make life incomparably better. #NowListening

Terrific Sunday morning jazz here in Pingtung with singer YenTing Lo and pianist 林亮宇. Tickets a snap at 50元. I'm so glad I went.

This is the view from my new favorite writing spot, in the reading room of the Pingtung Confucius temple. #Taiwan

Here's something I wrote on temple #divination in #Taiwan, the gamification of choosing, why belief isn't really a big deal, and why we can still find ways of choosing better, even if there are no better choices...

As is well-known, dreams about levitation are highly auspicious, harbingers of great fame and success. Well, last night, I dreamed that I was levitating, while a cat curled asleep on my lap. And the omens here are clearly off the scale.

Nice to see that 2026 is keeping up its strong commitment to being completely normal.

A small encounter, and an attempt at religious conversion, on the streets of Pingtung. www.willbuckingham.com/granny-chen-... #Taiwan #Pingtung

While we source things like drying racks, we're making use of our local launderette. So this is my office for the morning while I work on a long-overdue book proposal. I'm being well looked-after—Mr. Liu from the coffee shop next door has just brought me a free hand-drip coffee. #Taiwan #Pingtung

Recovering from lugging boxes up five flights of stairs with some with excellent Turkish coffee, and equally excellent company. It’s nice to be here in Pingtung.

Taipei friends, this looks like it will be a great event. A bit of a long haul from down south, sadly, but the book is next on my list.

China: Flies sorties into Taiwan's air defense zone (ADIZ) China: Cuts Taiwan's undersea cables China: Swarms fishing boats into military formation China: Flies a drone into Taiwan's air space China: Says it will take Taiwan by force, if necessary Rest of the world to Taiwan: Stop provoking China!

The guy who moved us from Tainan to Pingtung was a total superstar. He charged 3000 TWD to ship a van full of stuff (& us) down here, bought us coffee & scones to keep us fuelled, helped lug everything up five flights of stairs, & talked enthusiastically about philosophy the whole way. #Taiwan

it's been a hectic few days, but we're just about ready to move down to #Pingtung tomorrow.... I picked up the keys to our new place today. www.willbuckingham.com/going-south/

I'm still waiting for Bob Dylan to present me with his Nobel Prize for Literature medal. (I will, of course, magnanimously refuse to accept it...)

Books packed. Friendly guy with a van booked. House cleaned. And so, after 2½ years in Tainan, on Sunday we’re moving to Pingtung. #Taiwan People we talk to fall into two camps: the horrified urbanites (“But there’s nothing there!”), and the dreamy romantics (“Oh, the South… when I retire…”).

This whole thread is worth reading.

This is a fun news story…

2025 was a busy year at @windandbones.com HQ. 2026 is shaping up to be the same....

We're kicking off the new year at Wind&Bones Books with this lovely digital-only short, from Bulgarian writer Martina Mustafova — a lovely essay about motherhood, grief, care, and what it means to outlive — or be outlived by — those you love. #literature #essays #writing @windandbones.com

Years ago, I wrote #poetry, but never worked out what I wanted to write about. What was my subject-matter? I had no idea. So I stopped. 1/2

This story is so strange, and so beautiful. I love it. It's the perfect listening for a New Year's Eve, or New Year's Day.

Thinking about this today: “A free man thinks of death least of all things, and his wisdom is a meditation of life, not of death.” Spinoza 未知生，焉知死 （”Not yet knowing life, how could you know of death?”) Confucius. #philosophy

Things are looking up with Spinoza. After some tricky passages on the nature and origin of the mind, today’s hot topics are titillation and cheerfulness.

Right. Having a second go at reading Spinoza. Wish me luck.

It’s the time of year when people like to reflect on their greatest triumphs over the past 12 months. So I want to share the news that Woody the (somewhat stand-offish) cat today deigned to sit on my lap.

A good reading list this, from the fabulous Jenna Tang.

Here at Abu Dhabi airport, I’ve stumbled across the perfect last minute gift to slip into my hand luggage as I head home to the UK for Christmas….

there is a crack in everything / that's why

I visit Hualien for just one day, and somehow, all hell breaks loose. #Taiwan