One week from today, first @ucirvine.bsky.social book event on The Milk Tea Alliance, my latest @columbiagr.bsky.social book, a joint event that will be moderated by @amywilentz.bsky.social & feature Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow talking about her new book Atomic Dreams www.humanities.uci.edu/events/art-i...

Earlier I shared the story of the “TL branch”—a group accused of sedition during Taiwan’s White Terror in the early 1950s. What more do we know about them? For context, see here: bsky.app/profile/albe...

Taiwan isn’t as susceptible to invasion as one would think www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2...

Rainbow before the typhoon.

In our latest post, we show how arguments that cast Taiwan as a "destabilizer" are troubling and flatly untrue. Taiwan isn't the one bending the world order. Taiwan's story deserves to be seen in its own right, not as a scapegoat. ampleroad.substack.com/p/a-sense-of...

What more do we know about Wei Wenxian (魏文賢)?

Lovely exhibition on comparative histories of manga/manhua publishing in pre/post WW2 Taiwan and Japan at the National Taiwan Museum of Comics in Taichung. Lots of items on loan from Japan, reprints one can flip through, and thoughtful curating around issues of censorship and visual culture.

Near 白崇禧’s grand tomb stands a White Terror memorial.

The most famous figure in the Muslim cemetery is Pai Ch’ung-hsi, the Guangxi warlord and Nationalist general, whose son Pai Hsien-yung became a leading modernist of Chinese literature. Pai’s gravesite includes a domed pavilion with Islamic-style arches.

Another reason I love this route: it passes Taiwan’s largest Muslim cemetery. Hajji Shi Wen-Ting from Xinjiang rests here, among Hui, Uyghur, and other refugees — reminders that Taiwan itself became a land of refugees after 1949.

The 99 Peaks Trail is one of the most unique and beautiful places in Taiwan. It features extremely steep grassy hills that look unworldly. This is due to the fast eroding sediment that they are made out of, creating what looks like 99 peaks on the horizon. youtu.be/uh3KL6q-YQE

A small shrine I pass often on my favorite ride in Taipei. Dedicated to the “holy mom,” it is likely a yin 陰 shrine—a place where the wandering spirits of women without descendants can rest and be remembered. Just around the bend, the holy mom keeps watch with an open view of the mountains.

In our latest newsletter, @michellekuo.bsky.social and I write about two dazzling graphic novels that grapple with the afterlives of Japanese colonization in Taiwan. ampleroad.substack.com/p/underdog-s...

Opposition fully liquidated. Hong Kong has become the world's most radical effort to combine free markets and political unfreedom. To the extent that they succeed, we will all suffer hongkongfp.com/2024/11/19/b...

Powerful statement from journalist turned activist Gwyneth Ho on her FB, published after she was sentenced to 7 years in prison by a Hong Kong court today: "we rose above fear and emerged as a genuine civil society."

Breaking: #HongKong High Court has sentenced former HKU law professor Benny Tai to 10 years in jail, the longest sentence so far under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Created a Taiwan Studies Starter Pack for folks coming from Twitter. Let me know if you ought to be on here! go.bsky.app/TG2GBbz

Really dig these colorful bathrooms I saw in military dependants villages in Gangshan 岡山

Just added a bunch of new accounts to my Taiwan starter pack. Lots of people are joining Bluesky so I'll try and keep up and add journalists, academics, official accounts, informative people, etc. Would also love to add more Chinese/Taiwanese language content. Feel free to make relevant suggestions!

A brief write-up about an old rice mill and granary in a small town in rural Miaoli. The farmers' association is generally pretty good about preserving heritage sites (even those without official status), and this one was pleasant to visit on the way to Nanzhuang. spectralcodex.com/shitan-grana...