David on Formosa

Today marks the start of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. However, this year there are none of the usual celebrations. In memory of the hundreds of Tibetan people that died during protests last March, Tibetans both inside and outside of Tibet have decided not to celebrate the New Year with the usual festivities. Several hundred [...]

Michael Turton has a must read post on the human cost of investment in China. Analysis of the Ma interview from Letters from Taiwan, Michael Turton and A-gu. Lief photographs the Yenshui Fireworks Festival. Todd visits the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village. Taiwan Echo on a Taipei Court decision exonerating Shih Ming-teh. Doubting to shuo on [...]

There are a few recent articles on transport issues that I would like to comment on. I snapped this photo of a green electric bus in Taipei on 1 January. The bus is currently being shown at an international conference on vehicle greenhouse gas reduction technologies in Taipei. It runs on a Li-ion battery that [...]

Chinese band Wang Wen (惘聞) played their first gig in Taipei last night at Underworld (地下社會) in Shi-Da Road. Hailing from Dalian, Wang Wen are in Taiwan as part of the PUTS Sound 8, a documentary film and music festival. Wang Wen’s sound not only evokes the spirit of Sonic Youth, they also employ some [...]

I came across this article in the Taipei Times today which noted that parts of central and southern Taiwan are yet to record any rainfall this year! The article mentions concerns about an imminent drought and then goes on to say, The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Water Resources Agency issued a warning on Tuesday about [...]

More than a month has passed since Freedom House released its annual report in Taipei. Freedom House’s report on the state of political rights and civil liberties did not make any changes to Taiwan’s score based on events that happened during 2008. However, the staff of Freedom House did express concern and said, “2009 is [...]