David on Formosa

On Sunday and Monday I attended a conference in Smangus. The conference, organized by National Chiao Tung University (國立交通大學), brought together a small group of anthropologists to discuss the topic of “Rethinking environment, localisation and indigenisation.” While it poured rain on the Sunday afternoon the cafe at provided a great refuge for the presenters gave [...]

On 25 December this year Taipei County will be upgraded to a special municipality. The Chinese-language name of the new municipality will be Xīnběi Shì (新北市). About a month ago I sent an e-mail to Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei enquiring about the official English name of the new municipality but received no reply. A story [...]

The 12th Taipei Film Festival (台北電影節) opens on Friday 25 June and runs until 15 July. The venues for the screenings are Zhongshan Hall (中山堂) and the Shinkong Cineplex (新光影城) in the Ximending area and Governor Cinemas (總督影城) in Chang’an East Road. This year’s city in focus is Rio de Janeiro. There is also a section for [...]

Over the weekend I joined a trip organised by the Research Centre for Austronesian Peoples at Providence University to Ren’ai Township in Nantou County (南投縣仁愛鄉). We visited several villages in the area to learn more about Seediq (賽德克族) culture. The main purpose of the trip was as an orientation for professors from several universities who [...]

I had another letter in the Taipei Times today. This one was on the subject of peak oil. Unfortunately the title the Taipei Times’ editors chose for the letter, “Planning for an oil-less future”, reflects a common misunderstanding. Peak oil doesn’t mean the world will run out of oil, but that the supply and availability [...]

Every year the Taiwan Free Burma Network (台灣自由緬甸網絡) holds a concert on Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday. This year the event will be held on Saturday 19 June in Kaohsiung’s Central Park (高雄市中央公園) from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. The event features acoustic performances by Tonic (主音樂團) and Panai (巴奈). There will also be postcard signing for people to show their support [...]