Good afternoon, Taiwan! Some kind of landscape 📷: Hasselblad SWC 🎞️: Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 II #BelieveInFilm

I don't read many substacks, but Broad & Ample Road by Michelle Kuo & Albert Wu is special, for insights on Taiwan above all, but good on various other issues, too, eg hwere trends in publishing/patterns of translation/graphic novels ampleroad.substack.com/p/underdog-s... cc @wwborders.bsky.social

The Honduran Emerald, a beautiful hummingbird endemic to the dry oak-pine forests of Honduras. I recently had the pleasure of being in Honduras to learn more about their conservation and sustainable ecoutourism efforts. Honduras has so much to offer, from birds to geology to amazing culture.

Hey UK/EU! My new book "Contested Taiwan: Sovereignty, Social Movements, and Party Formation" is officially available for order, and will arrive early August! www.combinedacademic.co.uk/978029575392...

Patriot missle batteries deployed to Taipei City's riverside parks. The tactical purpose is said to deter a decapitation strike on the capital by using the river terrain (smart). Psychologically this will make an impression on Taipei residents. tw.news.yahoo.com/%E6%BC%A2%E5...

Taiwanese investment in China steadily declining – Taipei Times: ‘In terms of Taiwan’s total outward investment, the percentage of businesses investing in China has dropped from 83.8 percent in 2010 to 11.4 percent in 2023, 7.5 percent last year and 2.7 percent in the first quarter of this year’

@michaelturton.bsky.social considers the mass recalls in the context of the long history of Taiwanese resistance to misrule--powerful grassroots social movements and even armed rebellion have been a feature of Taiwanese history for a very long time. www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar...

Interesting failed recall in Nantou. The target was a DPP county councillor. 12,000 votes favored recalling her; 6,000 voted no. But the recall failed because the number of votes for the recall did not meet the 1/4 threshold of 14,000. Turnout was only around 32%. www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/20...

Before tea, indigo. 'During the town’s heyday in the late 1800s, more than 80 ships traversed these waters [from Sanxia to Bangka), transporting not just indigo but local tea, camphor, timber, furniture, coal and rice noodles.' www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar...

@donovan-smith.bsky.social with a great analysis of the proposed recall of one of the KMT's most flamboyant and obnoxious legislators. She's a briliant example of a politician who is more of an influencer than a traditional politician. Very blue district though. www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar...

Taiwan's TOIEC scores continue to rise. In 2015, the average reading and listening score was 532. In 2024, it was 581. The average score for students aged 5-17 is 611. Average score was highest for 25-29 age group: 634. Speaking and writing score also up slightly. tw.news.yahoo.com/%E8%87%BA%E7...

Chinese fighter jets twice risked collisions with Air Self-Defense Force surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, in the latest close encounters between the two militaries. www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07...

Sanity check: state media coverage does not support speculations that Xi has lost power. Maybe there's oher evidence, but not here.

@thomchau.bsky.social on the recalls with special attention to KMT position as articulated by a senior leader firmly in the Ma camp. The recalls are not going to change their China policy founded on the 1992 consensus but they support increased defense spending. asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Tai...

Tariffs and recalls--On “Taiwan This Week” @ICRTNews today with Gavin Phipps and @brianhioe.bsky.social. Available now on usual podcast platforms. podcasts.apple.com/tw/podcast/t...

Fascinating and nuanced read by @tw_reporter_org on increased fears of Chinese infiltration in Taiwanese society, including random individuals being accosted on subways, how this links to past authoritarianism, and connects to other contexts www.twreporter.org/a/street-sna...

Taiwan's population declined for the 18th consecutive month in June. YOY -66,158. There were 8,499 fewer births in 2025 H1 than in 2024 H1. 2024 recorded the lowest number of annual births ever despite being a Dragon Year. Looks like 2025 will be even lower. health.ltn.com.tw/article/brea...

SPIEGEL reports that Chinese military used laser several times against German frigate passing through Taiwan Strait in fall of 2024 but that chancellery at the time decided to not make this public or express displeasure vis-à-vis Beijing. www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...

Marble sculpture by Kuo JengTseng of Taiwan

'The Dalai Lama on Sunday was seen wearing a cap embroidered with the word, “Team Taiwan” while watching a modern neo-techno performance of the traditional San Taizi (三太子) dance, as he celebrated his 90th birthday in Dharamsala, northern India.' www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/...

Helping colleagues at the Huntington garden with a donation of Japanese painting manuals. Nothing super fancy, but a wonderful collection to show different publics how wood block printing supported artistic production in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods

#TaiwanSensibility: 'The hashtag is often attached to shots of walkup apartment buildings built at least 40 or 50 years ago, or lush greenery, or colorful neon signage...They say that this kind of urban scenery is charming, retro, and relaxing.' www.taiwan-panorama.com/en/Articles/...

Nearly 400,000 people in Taiwan, including 80 percent of residents in residential care facilities, depend on nasogastric tubes for nutrition. About 1/3 of Taiwan's 350,000 people 65+ with dementia are fed via nasogastric tubes. udn.com/news/story/7...

As someone who has read *a lot* of pop Taiwan books over the last few years, this one stands out in quality. Dawley’s retelling of Taiwanese history humanises Taiwan in a way that is desperately needed in today’s great-power focused world. It is a must read. reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/taiwan?...

Tiny oil painting from a photo I took in Hualien, Taiwan. This one humbled me lol — and painting on canvas feels pretty different from wood.

Japanese reading practice of the day: a lengthy "Report of the Colonization Inspection Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina," written in 1907 by the Civil Affairs Department of the Government-General of Taiwan's Office – comparative Habsburg-Japanese colonialism!

This could foreshadow similar debates in Taiwan before long. Proportionally, Taiwan had a lot more foreign workers than Japan does and numbers are increasing.

@michaelturton.bsky.social on the games the PRC plays: 'The PRC engages in aggression because it wants to, not because its agency is controlled by the words of Lai, or any other action of Taiwan.' www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar...

Taipei City's population of people aged 15-34 declined from about 534,000 to around 470,000 between 2020 and 2024. While the city's overall unemployment rate is 3.5%, almost 16% of this cohort is unemployed. vip.udn.com/vip/story/12...

Quanzhou 泉州 used to be known as Chhì-tông Siâⁿ 刺桐城 (Coral Tree City; MC *tsʰieH-duŋ). This found an Arabic phono-semantic match in Zaytun زيتون (Olive City), which is the name you can read in Marco Polo (<Çayton> etc.). Zaytun in turn is the origin of the name of 'satin' fabric! 🤩

"Seediq Digital Language Activist Sayun Pihaw Wonders, 'How to Find an Angle to Facilitate Understanding?'" by Yanne C

People bringing pro-recall banners to special screening of Invisible Nation.

'The question is, are “humanistic” actors even feasible within the system that the Chinese Communist Party somehow brought into being the country we today recognize as China.' www.chinadiction.com/p/making-rev...

China changing the status quo again.

Good morning, Taiwan! It is a rainy morning in Kaohsiung as Typhoon Danas approaches. 📷: Nikon F3P 🎞️: Kodak TMax 100 (expired) #BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography

Taiwan in Time's fourth article on the fierce Hakka resistance to Japan's invasion of Taiwan in 1895. This one recounts the final Hakka stand in the deep south centered around Liudui in Pingtung. www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar...

Footage of an agricultural and crafts fair showcasing Nantou goods in 1967. The central county's Renai Township produces peaches, pears, apples, chestnuts, rice, yams, peanuts, beans, corn, and rami. Textiles hand-woven by Nantou's #Indigenous communities are also a hot export commodity for #Taiwan.

A break: check out this mango gift box we just received #taiwan

I am a strong proponent of geothermal. Happy to see this.

Yi You-fu is the first student from Liouguei High School in (very) rural Kaohsiung to be admitted to NTU. Liouguei High School became a high school in 1968. Liouguei High School has 191 students and 43 teachers. Faculty-student ratio is 1 to 4.4. udn.com/news/story/6...

Thanks to Peggy McInerny and the International Institute for this profile on some of my recent work: www.international.ucla.edu/institute/ar...

#redwhiteandblue #streetphotography #Taiwan #Taipei #街頭攝影 #台灣 #台北

'In another of those songs -- "guá sī siáng" (我是誰, "Who Am I") -- Hsieh sings about 228 victim Tang Te-chang's (湯德章) lifelong struggle for identity, which he sees as a parallel to Taiwan's bid to garner international recognition and its dilemma over its name.' focustaiwan.tw/culture/2025...

Great book. Notable for tying this very important episode in Taiwanese history to the ongoing debate over who had technological superiority in the age of navigation.

DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu says that the KMT-TPP coalition has blocked amendments to the National Security Act more than 400 times despite the increasing number of espionage cases in recent years.

Rana Mitter has just reviewed Ghost Nation for The Observer, calling it 'crisp and deeply researched' and a 'compelling and important book'. observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Next Friday! Join us for a panel featuring civil society perspectives on the Great Recall Movement! [Speakers] Brian Hioe JhuCin Rita Jhang Savungaz Valincinan www.facebook.com/events/19656...

Two more KMT legislators in Nantou are facing recalls after Phase II petitions reach threshholds. Voting is scheduled for August 23. www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/20...

Pingtung prosecutors searched KMT premises in Taoyuan, Hualien, Taitung, and Nantou yesterday in a recall case targeting a DPP indigenous legislator. A deputy director of the KMT’s Organization and Development Committee is being held incommunicado. news.ltn.com.tw/news/politic...