David on Formosa

This week saw two significant changes to Taiwan’s English-language newspapers. The first was the announcement by the Taiwan News on Tuesday that it would cease publishing a print edition and only be available online. The paper, established in 1949 as the China News, changed its name to Taiwan News after it was purchased by the [...]

Image from NASA Earth Observatory Typhoon Fanapi (颱風凡那比) was the first typhoon to directly hit Taiwan this year. It made landfall at Fengbin in Hualien County at 8:40am on Sunday 19 September. The typhoon packed winds that exceeded 200 kilometres per hour. It also caused a Foehn wind which resulted in elevated temperatures in Taitung on Sunday [...]

The Taipei District Court has suspended a case involving Lee Ming-tsung (李明聰), an NTU assistant professor and one of the initiators of the Wild Strawberry Movement (野草莓學運), who was charged under the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法). The judge said a constitutional interpretation of the law was necessary before a verdict could be made in [...]

Saturday was something of a washout in Taichung. Heavy rains for most of the afternoon limited my attendance at the first day of Rock in Taichung (搖滾台中樂團節) to just one performance. Although the rain kept the crowds down there were still plenty of young people out enjoying the free festival in Taichung’s Wenxin Park. I [...]

I went on a trip to Smangus this week. I carefully checked the weather forecast on Sunday night before I left. I was aware that Tropical Storm Lionrock and the low pressure system to the northwest of Taiwan would influence the weather during the week. However, it seemed unlikely that either of them would directly impact [...]