rewatched Pather Panchali and had my heart broken again. insanely beautiful movie

Earlier I posted about rising naturalizations of German citizens in Taiwan. Looking at total foreign naturalizations, the trend is different. Marriage-based naturalization remains the main pathway every year. The peak was 5,366 in 2017. In 2025, the total was 1,875. #Taiwan #DataViz #Naturalization

if you answer the question "what is sinners about" with anything other than this scene i truly feel very bad for you

The creator of He-Man is suffering from dementia and his wife had to set up a gofundme to fundraise despite the fact that Amazon MGM is releasing a multi-million dollar live action adaptation of the franchise this year www.gofundme.com/f/support-ro...

Taiwan Travelogue ist auf der Shortlist des Booker Prize 🤩 Ein super postkolonialer Roman über die Beziehung einer japanischen Schriftstellerin zu ihrer taiwanesischen Dolmetscherin auf einer Lesereise 1938. Selten so viel angestrichen! @multiburst.bsky.social hat’s vorgeschlagen.

Yay, the country that could... legalize same-sex marriage and institute caning? "It is probable that the KMT is not serious about the proposal. ... Consequently, one believes that the KMT is not serious about the proposal, but has only made it in order to campaign." newbloommag.net/2026/04/22/k...

Not my experience, but interesting: "[A doctor in Pingtung City] complimented me on my Chinese ability. I felt she was being more generous than factual, until she said other foreign patients have lived here for decades without learning the language. She said..." www.taiwanquest.com/a-doctor-in-...

Who is trying to undermine Taiwan-India relations with ugly xenophobia? "Using crime statistics within India to predict the behavior of Indian migrant workers abroad is fundamentally flawed, as it disregards the legal, socioeconomic and institutional ..." www.taipeitimes.com/News/editori...

Taipei nightlife!

Taiwan redrawn by its rivers. Orange rivers flow west into the Taiwan Strait, while green rivers run east toward the Pacific. This map also has a personal note: it was the very first one I created and the starting point for Taiwan Maps & Dataviz. #Taiwan #Geography #Maps #DataVisualization

"Not a single one of them could explain to me what Marxism is, how it worked as an analytical lens or how it even made its way into their papers they claimed to have written. ... As one student said to me, “I thought it sounded smart.”"

Actually this is pretty interesting. The eazycard system here is super convenient. And one could learn from it. Anonymous digital payment. But it has it flaws. The security design by "ok, it not perfect, oldschool and we can hunt down anyone misusing it" maybe somehow work in a society here...

Ah, nostalgia... a hell of a drug. (Found here: fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/201... )

About learning Taiwanenese (台語) as a native English speaker: "Frankly I think it’d be easier to learn Klingon. The grammar isn’t quite as bad, but it’s just different enough from Mandarin to be maddening..." laorencha.substack.com/p/book-revie...

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the best films of the 1990s. (Subjectively, of course!)

Facebook comments blowing up on this, but in a non-productive kind of way. Hardly actual debate: www.facebook.com/taiwanreport...

Taipei-based political analyst Sasha B. Chhabra criticizes major international media's reporting: "It is with absolute historical illiteracy and a complete mockery of political analysis that Western media insist..." formosareview.substack.com/p/did-you-fo...

Holy moly. The Giant made Youbikes with E-motor in Taiwan are amazing. In Germany I pull off every E-bike at the lights with my old commuter. But here? No chance. I can even keep up with the acceleration of the scooters. Maybe 1000-1300ms up to 25km/h? (maybe I am a good sprinter😂)

Here's the text of Cheng's comments to Xi, as provided by the KMT. Cheng invites Xi to come to Taiwan, calls for economic cooperation and on sustainability, states that both sides have the same ancestry and calls for the National Rejuvenation of China udn.com/news/story/1...

Haha. No. Taiwan doesn't have an energy self-sufficiency problem in case of war. Once again, in war, exports cease. Industry collapses. Elec demand cut by more than half, easily serviced with existing coal and renewables.

Höre grad die @sicherheitspod.de Folge mit @amfchina.bsky.social zum Thema Taiwan auf dem Rad nach. Pause an der Taiwanstraße. Die Menschen genießen den Sonnenuntergang. Über mir drehen Militär-Transportflugzeuge Trainingsrunden. sicherheitspod.de/2026/03/21/f...

{halfway through the third movie in a trilogy of long films about a plot to destroy the jedi}

I had to triple-check this was a real Trump post. It is.

Gut, dass bei Markus #Lanz nun Andreas Fulda @amfchina.bsky.social und Felix Lee mal wieder auf vieles hingewiesen haben, was in Sachen Taiwan/China längst Allgemeinwissen sein sollte. Lasst uns weiter dicke Bretter bohren, Bücher schreiben, Interviews geben. Aber diese Illustration? ...

Das ist rechter Terror! Jetzt wird Innenminister #Dobrindt sicher *mit der vollen Härte des Rechtsstaates* gegen rechten Terror vorgehen, gegen dessen politischen Arm, die AfD. Ganz bestimmt. #Rechtsterrorismus. taz.de/Mutmassliche...

Dresden wants to become for Taiwanese what Düsseldorf is for Japanese: The go-to hub in Germany. 100s of Taiwanese will soon move to the Saxon capital when the TSMC (ESMC) chip factory starts working. The Dresden International School is adding a whole new building. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmMh...

Reactionary centrists and republicans spent years smearing, belittling, or dismissing anyone who properly described the Trumpism as a white supremacist project. bsky.app/profile/nbcn...

Aber Bedenken bei chinesischer Software in Mobilitäts-Infra (sprich E-Autos und Öffis) sind "lustige Paranoia-Ideen"? Ein Autokauf ist auch Software-Bindung über 10+ Jahre btw. bsky.app/profile/chri...

Cycling infrastructure was so great today.

"Wir sind ein kleines Startup mit 80 Leuten. Am Ende sollen es 2.000 sein." Interview mit Christian Koitzsch, dem Chef von ESMC - der Joint-Venture-Firma, mit der TSMC gerade in Dresden für sein erstes europäisches Chipwerk 10 Milliarden Euro investiert. www.boersen-zeitung.de/unternehmen-...

Hörempfehlung! Und von wegen kleine Insel. Taiwan 🇹🇼 stünde auf Platz 6 mit Blick auf Wirtschaftskraft und Bevölkerung wäre es in der EU. Lernen könnten wir einiges von dem Land, e.g. Umgang mit #Desinformation #StrategischeKorruption #Hybride Bedrohung #Resilienz

Actually, I see more same sex* couples holding publicly hands in Taipei - than in Cologne. This freedom makes me smile for them. Yes, I know - on the countryside it's a different story...and if there is criticism on the real acceptance, please let me know. *as far as I can read them

Can somebody enlighten me on how this works? I saw some strings attached inside, and it's sort of a mechanical system that makes the arms behave like this. Inertia, with the help of the person?

SZ-Korrespondentin in Peking schreibt: "Taiwan ist ein fast unmögliches Wunder... Heute ist Taiwan in vielen Bereichen ein Vordenker freier Gesellschaften. Wer dennoch keine Faszination für Taiwan entwickelt, für die Menschen dort, die nichts anderes wollen,..." www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/taiw...

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann @masz.bsky.social ist gerade in Taiwan.

Wird ein Taiwan-Erklärer vom Bundeskanzler zum Abendessen eingeladen. Kein Scherz – das war wirklich so. Und im neuen Taiwancast erzählt Schriftsteller Stephan Thome, was dann passiert ist. intaiwan.net/2026/03/30/s...

"The assassination of a fugitive billionaire Taiwanese gambling tycoon is raising speculation that he was protected and then silenced by powerful political forces ... a veteran journalist said he believes it is more about scam and crime than politics." www.asiasentinel.com/p/who-wanted...

Ah, thanks for the hint. Didn't knew🫠

To be continued. #KMTChair #Beijing

KMT chair Cheng Li-wun to visit Mainland China April 7-12 at the invitation of the CPC Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping. She will visit Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing.

Looks like KMT chair will meet PRC dictator Xi Apr 7 to 12 Announcement going out right now

The best cycling site in Taiwan. Now updated. Absolutely lovely. taiwancycle100.com

Magnificient photography in "Hell on Wheels", an apparently underappreciated series. These first two could be classical paintings.

One of Taiwan's most powerful politicians, KMT Chair Cheng Li-Wun, recently answered questions by members of the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club. The complete event on video (in Chinese): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul18... (Sorry for splitting it up in segments and not adjusting white balance.)

Magnificient photography in "Hell on Wheels", an apparently underappreciated series. These first two could be classical paintings.

Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News

There is no hell deep enough. www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/...

Yesterday Elon Musk retweeted "white solidarity is the only way to survive". In our numb overwhelmed media environment it barely made headlines that the world's richest man endorsed blood-curdling white nationalism. My brief writeup for @religiondispatches.org religiondispatches.org/elon-musk-ju...

3/ It was known for decades that their spent fuel pools would fill up. The KMT did nada about that. Worse, the 2 plants in the north had to shut because for 11 years KMT mayors blocked the search for a place to put the fuel...