English language magazines in Taiwan
The Tapei Times today has an article about English language magazines published in Taiwan. There are several different magazines published such as 24seven, Xpat and Highway 11. What most of these magazines have in common is that they are distributed free. Advertisers pay for the cost of producing the magazine and writers generally don’t get paid for their contributions. (The Taipei Times article includes e-mail addresses if you are interested in contributing to the magazines.)
There is another magazine, Taiwanease, is set to be launched in the next couple of months. I met the editor a few weeks ago. The magazine is associated with Forumosa and it aims to set a higher standard for content with more stories on culture and less about drinking and other crazy antics.
One of the biggest problems with these magazines is their limited distribution. I would love to read them but I rarely get my hands on a copy. The magazines tend to be distributed to a limited number of bars and restaurants in certain parts of Taipei City (or Taizhong or Gaoxiong as the case might be). I never see them in my neighbourhood and I live in the capital of Taipei County!
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Posted: June 23rd, 2006 under News & media, Taiwan.
Comments
Comment from David
Time 24 June 2006 at 2:43 pm
chris, thanks for your informative comments. I understand Taiwanease intends to fill the gap left by the demise of POTS English language section.
Comment from Maoman
Time 25 June 2006 at 8:52 am
You’re right about Taiwanease aiming to fill the vacuum left by POTS. We’re not aiming to be elitest exactly, but we do aspire to substance.
David, if you know of a venue close to you that gets frequented by foreigners, let me know. Also, give me an idea of how many issues we should drop off at a time. I’ll make sure it happens.
Comment from waakao
Time 31 May 2009 at 5:28 pm
You should give our site a go. It’s about all things Taiwanese and it’s a fun read.
waakao(dot)com
Comment from Chris
Time 24 June 2006 at 11:31 am
There haven’t been many English magazines coming out of Taipei so in some ways the magazine culture can be seen as a way of saying that there is more to life than Taipei. It’s also because foreigners in Taipei already have more to do than those further south so probably have less time to produce magazines.
There was and maybe still is a free English magazine called Discontinued coming out of I-lan County in 2004. Taipei Times weekend articles rarely focus on events outside Nothern Taiwan.
Highway 11 is distributed near the tourism office in Hualien train station which is where I found a copy last year.
I think you can get a copy of the literary magazine Pressed by emailing pressed@asia.com. You could probably get a copy of most the magazines by simply sending an email asking to the magazines themselves. Some of the Taichung-based magazines can also be found in the Subway sandwich shops in Taichung.
There was a very short-lived restaurant review mag in Taichung. Finding keeping and advertisers are often a problem for English language magazines. This was the reason the English language section in the Taipei based POTS newspaper was pulled.