David on Formosa

I had a busy day yesterday taking photos around Taichung. The day began at an Aboriginal Cultural Festival organised by the Taichung City Government. The event featured some traditional dancing as well as some fun activities like the three-legged race pictured above and a tug-of-war. There was also a good range of aboriginal style food [...]

Taiwan Pictures Digital Archive is a collection of over 3,200 historical photos of Taiwan that was previously launched as Vintage Formosa in March 2008. All the images were collected by  Marc who has just completed a great redesign of the site.

I had a letter published in the Taipei Times today suggesting some reforms Taiwan could make to its electoral system. I have previously discussed the importance of referendums for Taiwan and the belligerence of the KMT in opposing them. I also wrote about reforming the voting system for the Legislative Yuan following the election in 2008. [...]

Yesterday I visited the Alishan area to look at an area of land that is proposed for a village relocation. The relocation plan is being put forward by members of the Laiji (來吉) community following the impacts of Typhoon Morakot. Some academics and people from the local government met with community members and were taken [...]

Four members of the organisation Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) from the United States spoke at a forum in Taichung last night. They talked of their experiences as victims of murder and violent crime and how they came to be activists against the death penalty. It is a common assumption that the families of [...]

Taiwan’s summer music festivals were supposed to kick off this weekend with the Wan Bay Music Festival (灣島音樂祭) at Jiupeng (九棚) in Pingtung. However, as a result of an injunction from Pingtung County authorities the event has been cancelled. Apparently police were concerned the event would be used for selling illegal drugs. I have some more [...]