Taiwanderful recently announced the 2011 Taiwan Best Blog Awards. To enter your blog you need to make sure you are registered at Taiwanderful before 10 December. Voting will take place from 10-30 December. I am no longer directly involved in running the awards but this blog will not be entered in the awards even though it is registered at Taiwanderful.

In previous years I have used the blog awards as a time to post links to some of my favourite Taiwan blogs. Even though I’m no longer in Taiwan I still read a number of Taiwan blogs and find them a great way of keeping in touch with what’s happening in Formosa. A list of some blogs I like in several categories follows.

Politics

With the presidential and legislative elections taking place next month these blogs are packed with great analysis.

• Ballots & Bullets – run by Jon Sullivan at the University of Nottingham, lots of articles by Taiwan scholars on the 2012 election
• Frozen Garlic - analysis of some of the legislative election contests that can’t be found elsewhere
• The View from Taiwan - Michael Turton always has great analysis and interesting photos
• The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato
• Letters from Taiwan
• Taiwan Matters!
• That’s Impossible
• Dixteel’s Thought on Taiwan
• Jerome Keating
• Save the Taiwan Pink Dolphins – great environmental news and activism

Photography

• Liefintaiwan
• joshintaiwan.com
• Mark Forman (aka Bbluesman)
• Darren Melrose
• Neil Wade
• Brent Franke
• Brian Webb
• Alton’s Images
• Craig Ferguson
• Charles Meacham

Personal and travel

• Taiwan in Cycles
• Shu Flies
• Lao Ren Cha
• The New Hampshire Bushman in Taiwan
• The Daily Bubble Tea
• My Kafkaesque Life
• Patrick Cowsill
• Life in Taiwan
• Isla Formosa
• The Wild East
• Alive and kicking!
• Tumbling in Taiwan
• Taiwan-Born American
• The Taiwan Adventure
• Hiking Taiwan
• Poagao’s Journal
• A hungry girl’s guide to Taipei
• Steven Crook
• Sponge Bear
• Wandering Taiwan
• My Several Worlds

• Putting Taiwan blogs on the map
• Vote for the best blogs
• Taiwan blog links — 17 January 2011
• Register for the 2009 blog awards
• Links to Taiwan blogs

Discussion forums are an important part of Taiwanease and go by the name Taiwaneasia. The English-language forum was built on the back of the Parent Pages, a resource for expat parents in Taiwan. The Parent Pages still have a distinct presence within the new site. There will also be a Chinese-language forum for “internationally-minded Taiwanese” launched soon.

A quick browse of the Taiwanease website reveals much more than just discussion forums. There is also a directory that will eventually contain listings of every possible venue of interest to foreigners in Taiwan such as restaurants, hot springs and libraries. Anthony informed me that there will be smartphone app for the directory launching in early 2012.

Other features of the site include event listings which will be improved in coming weeks and months. There will be an English-language classifieds site launched at Taiwanted.com. In the meantime classifieds are incorporated into the forum.

There are articles from the Taiwanease magazine that was published a few years ago. The articles are being released slowly and Anthony is also looking for writers to contribute new content.

The ”Getting it Done” section includes how-to guides “that will help people in Taiwan through tasks that might otherwise be complicated, things like getting a drivers license, or getting dual nationality for children born in Taiwan.” Anthony said this is something he is looking to the foreign community in Taiwan for help with. If people share their knowledge “it will make things that much easier for the next person, and that’s what a community is all about!”

And that community is not just online but gets together in the real world too. There are monthly events. At a barbecue at the Taipei Artists Village the caterer prepared food for 200 people and it was sold out. Last weekend there was a Christmas Happy Hour at Bobwundaye. Join the Facebook group to be notified of upcoming events. “It’s really fun to see friendships that have started as a pleasant conversation online, and matured into a great friendship in real life,” Anthony said.

Finally, Anthony said the technical stuff isn’t really the core of what he is doing, it’s more about helping people. “It’s the community and the idea of service to the community that drives me. I also have come to deeply appreciate what a fantastic place Taiwan is, and I love helping other people find that out for themselves.”

• Taiwanease magazine out now
• English language magazines in Taiwan
• +886: a new magazine
• Links

Some well known Taiwan bloggers including Scott Sommers, Steven Crook, Jerome Keating, Craig Ferguson and Carrie Kellenberger will be speaking at the event. I am running a discussion on “Blogging and Citizen Journalism” at 4pm on Saturday 23 April. I welcome anyone who is interested to join the discussion and share their ideas.

When: 1:00-6:00pm Saturday & Sunday 23-24 April 2011
Where: Alleycat’s Pizza Restaurant, Huashan Creative Park (華山創意文化園區), No.1 Bade Road, Section 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段一號)
Website: http://taiwanbookfest.com
Entry: free!!

• A Tibetan in Taiwan
• 2009 Taipei Book Exhibition
• Taiwan romance novel
• Taipei Book Fair
• Books and e-readers at the Taipei Book Exhibition

• Patrick Cowsill gives a history lesson on why the Dutch came to Taiwan.
• Taiwan in Cycles has all the information you ever need about carrying bikes on trains.
• Lao Ren Cha likes the Breeze Food Court at Taipei Station and has some suggestions for improving Taipei Station.
• Taiwanderful interview with Brian Webb of PhotoJazz.
• Josh snaps some photos at the City God Temple in Hsinchu.
• Hanjie visits Taroko and Mukumugi gorges.
• Global Voices on petrochemical product placement.
• Oz Soapbox on soap and sex. (This must be the closest thing Taiwan has to an expat sex blog!)
• Wandering Taiwan visits the Miniature Museum in Taipei.
• The China Beat on the abuse of the word ‘Han’.

News: Legislators consider making use of seatbelts in the back seat mandatory. Lin Feng-jeng labels the draft judges’ law a ‘dinosaur’. Activists question government’s failure to act against dog meat seller. Taiwan is experiencing a larger range of temperatures.

Continuing controversy over the Sean Lien (連勝文) shooting incident: while prosecutors call for death penalty even Sean Lien is not happy with investigation. Chen Hung Yuan’s family also question the prosecutors’ findings and the DPP still wants an election recall.

President Ma unhappy with missile test failures. Ministry of National Defense explains the reasons for the failures. Wired.com asks if the missile failure will score pity points with the US. Taiwanese American youth speak out for Taiwan’s right to self determination during Hu’s Washington visit. Analysts offer differing opinions on US-China joint statement. Richard Zalski suggests a new Taiwan policy for the US. Joseph Wu says rapprochement within Taiwan more important than Taiwan-China detente. J. Michael Cole says the ECFA is political.

Video: Gordon Ramsay goes on the trail of shark fin in Taiwan.

Announcement: The Formosa Foundation is seeking applicants for its 2011 Ambassador Program.

• Taiwan blog links — 17 January 2011
• Links 21 January 2008
• Links 27 August 2007
• Links 7 January 2008
• Links 5 January 2009

• Letters from Taiwan on the DPP’s presidential possibilities.
• Hiking on Snow Mountain by Neil Wade and Stu Dawson.
• Excellent and thoughtful responses to Amy Chua’s “Chinese mothers” article from shu flies and Taiwan-Born American. And an animated response from Next Media.
• Claudia Jean has more on the story of Frank Hsieh.
• Darren Melrose snaps an alternate take with his Holga.
• Taiwan Sustainable Cities has a round up of environmental news.
• Barking Deer on hiking in Taroko Gorge.
• Dan Bloom reports on a small computer glitch caused by the Y1C problem.

News: Adil Hussain talks about working with Ang Lee on the set of Life of Pi in Taiwan. Taiwanese musicians heading to France. The opening of the fourth nuclear power plant delayed yet again. NCKU opens a new green building. Taipei Times editorial on the lax enforcement of traffic laws. The official number of indigenous people in Taiwan is over 510,000. Taiwan experiences very cold temperatures over the weekend. Taiwan Today interviews former Vice President Annette Lu.

Hillary Clinton urges China to reduce tensions as Hu Jintao prepares to visit Washington. Senate Taiwan Caucus resurfaces in time for Hu visit. However, today’s headline is US downplays Taiwan before Hu visit.

Video: Check out Tobie Openshaw’s talk about betel nut girls at TEDxMonga.

• Links 21 January 2008
• Taiwan blog links — 24 January 2011
• Links 27 August 2007
• Links 7 January 2008
• Links 5 January 2009

Pan told the Taipei Times by telephone that the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) had invited 20 bloggers on a trip to visit a petrochemical plant in Kaohsiung and an electronic appliance plant nearby.

“The trip was totally free for participants. They received free meals and a NT$5,000 cash award,” Pan said.

“The NT$5,000 for each participating blogger alone costs NT$100,000 of taxpayers’ money and this doesn’t include the cost of hiring a marketing firm to arrange the trip and other costs of the trip,” Pan said.

Pan Han-shen further describes the practice as greenwashing. It is part of efforts by the government and industry to manufacture public support for the expansion of the petrochemical industry, in particular the proposed Kuokuang petrochemical plant on the coast of Changhua County. Michael Turton has more on the issue with links to some of the posts by bloggers who visited the petrochemical plant.

This event has occured while controversy is raging in Taiwan over the use of “embedded marketing”, which involves television stations and newspapers of disguising paid for promotions as news or normal programming. The National Communication Commission took ERA TV’s variety channel off the air last month for its repeated use of embedded marketing.

While the government has decried the pernicious practice and promised to take action to eradicate it, it now seems to have taken on new forms by shifting into the blogosphere. Of even greater concern is that the practice is not just being used by the government and corporations in Taiwan, but China is also using it to manipulate Taiwan’s media. Michael Turton summarises the impacts succinctly by saying,

This means that outside the Green press the public in Taiwan is getting two types of news about China: news from self-censored center-right mainstream press organizations, and news from totally pro-China propaganda houses.

The paradox of Taiwan’s media is that although it is free is suffers from being highly partisan and polarised. The practice of embedded marketing only further exacerbates the problem by replacing critical reporting with puff pieces. The blogosphere provides an important alternative space for a variety of opinions to be expressed. However, if this space is also discredited then Taiwan’s democracy can only continue to degenerate.

• The power of the nut
• New report on independent media
• New media in Taiwan
• Taiwan press freedom declines: report
• Taipei Times is ten years old

The votes have been counted and the announcement of the winners of the 2010 Taiwan Best Blog Awards is now online at Taiwanderful. The peer-judged award for overall best blog was shared by Neil Wade’s Photography Blog and Letters from Taiwan. The popular online vote for overall best blog was won by My Kafkaesque life. Go to Taiwanderful for the complete list of winners.

One of the aims of the awards is to increase linking between Taiwan blogs so it was great to see Lao Ren Chan, shu flies and Craig Ferguson post lists of their favorite Taiwan blogs. Thanks to Tim, Catherine, Ben, Craig, Drew, Brian, Portnoy and Trista for voting in the peer-judged section of the awards. Thanks also to everyone who entered their blogs in the awards or participated in the online voting. Lastly a big thanks to Fili for handling all the technical matters at Taiwanderful.

• And the winners are…
• Winners of the blog awards
• Vote for the best blogs
• Interview with the Bushman
• Announcing the 2010 blog awards

Voting is now open in the 2010 Taiwan blog awards. Anyone can participate in the online popular vote and there is no need to register. You can find more details about the voting at Taiwanderful. You can also go directly to the Taiwan blog directory and cast your votes.

Updated: This year anyone with a Taiwan related blog can vote in the peer-judged section of the awards. The voting is via an online form. Just send me an e-mail or message on Facebook or Twitter and I will provide you with the link to the online form.

You can also join the Taiwanderful Facebook page or follow @Taiwanderful on Twitter for news and updates about the awards. There is also now a Taiwan Bloggers group at Facebook.

• Vote for the best blogs
• Announcing the 2010 blog awards
• 2008 Taiwan Blog Awards
• Article on China Times blog
• Register for the 2009 blog awards

Politics

These blogs do a great job interpreting some of the nuances of Taiwan politics.

• Frozen Garlic - psephology and a look at Taiwan’s election culture
• The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato
• Letters from Taiwan
• The View from Taiwan – great political analysis with bonus cycling adventures
• Taiwan Matters! – led by the irrepressible Tim Maddog
• That’s Impossible
• Dixteel’s Thought on Taiwan
• Sinocentric
• Claudia Jean
• Jerome Keating
• Facing China

Photography

Capturing the beauty of Formosa.

• Neil Wade
• Darren Melrose
• Brent Franke
• PhotoJazz
• Alton’s Images
• Craig Ferguson
• Taiwan Photographers

Travel

Like the photography blogs above, these blogs also do a wonderful job introducing the beautiful island of Taiwan to the world.

• Hiking Taiwan – awesome reports of hiking in Taiwan’s high mountains
• Taiwan in Cycles – this blog transcends categorisation using the bicycle as a vehicle to discover Taiwan’s history and culture
• A hungry girl’s guide to Taipei – the ultimate guide to food and restaurants in Taipei
• Steven Crook – author of several books about Taiwan
• Sponge Bear
• Lao Ren Cha
• Wandering Taiwan
• My Several Worlds
• Tainan City Guide

Environment

Highlighting some important environmental issues in Taiwan.

• Wild at Heart
• Taiwan Sustainable Cities
• Save the Taiwan Pink Dolphins

Languages

A look at languages in Taiwan. It’s about much more than Chinese.

• Pinyin News – making Mandarin as easy as ABC
• Chinese Hacks
• Taiwanese Identity
• Tailingua – Hoklo Taiwanese language news
• Peggy Teaches Chinese

Personal and Other

All the blogs that don’t fit into the other categories.

• Shu Flies
• Jar of Buttons
• Poagao’s Journal – possibly the longest operating English-language blog in Taiwan
• The New Hampshire Bushman in Taiwan
• The Daily Bubble Tea
• Patrick Cowsill
• Life in Taiwan
• Isla Formosa
• The Wild East
• Alive and kicking! – the life of a TV news reporter in Taiwan
• Tumbling in Taiwan
• Taiwan-Born American
• Matthew Hooper – tech blogger
• Tagging Taichung – Graffiti in Taichung

Please don’t be offended if your blog has been left out. Feel free to mention your own blog in the comments or suggest your own favorites. Also don’t forget if you want to be in the running for the 2010 Taiwan blog awards you need to make sure your blog is registered at Taiwanderful before 1 December.

• Announcing the winners of the 2010 blog awards
• Some great Taiwan blogs: Part 3
• Announcing the 2010 blog awards
• Putting Taiwan blogs on the map
• Taiwan’s best blogs in 2011

In the lead up to the local elections in 2010 I wrote a post about the use of social media by politicians in Taiwan. I noted how the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was far more active online than its counterpart, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

I have gathered some data about the use of social media by the mayoral candidates in the five cities election (五都選舉) taking place on 27 November. All candidates are using several forms of online communication as part of their campaign. This includes websites, blogs, Plurk, YouTube, flickr and Facebook. Links to these sites are clearly shown on the front page of the KMT and DPP websites. This is shown in the two screenshots in this post. 

I have collated data about the number of followers the candidates have on Plurk and Facebook. These two websites are popular in Taiwan and the number of followers is a good indicator of the level of online engagement by the candidate. Twitter is yet to become widely popular in Taiwan. A few candidates have Twitter accounts, but these are usually just reposting from Plurk or Facebook.

*Combined total of two Facebook pages.

It is clear the DPP candidates are ahead of the KMT candidates by a wide margin. A few tentative conclusions can be drawn from this relatively small dataset. I think a key point is that the DPP has more active supporters who are young and internet users. The DPP’s Hsiao Bi-khim in an interview posted on this blog said, “Young people, according to polls, favour our party over the others by a two to one margin which is very good. Unfortunately the young people are not reliable because their voter turnout is low. Only about 30% of the young people come out to vote.” I also recently wrote about the DPP’s efforts to promote the youth vote.

Another factor could be the budgets the two parties have to fund their campaigns. The DPP puts a significant amount of resources into its online campaign activities. This may be because it is cheaper and more cost effective than other forms of advertising. The KMT has more financial resources and may spend more on advertising in television and newspapers.

This is a topic that could be investigated further in a more in depth study. I have also posted some more information on my Posterous blog with links to the candidates’ Plurk and Facebook sites and the raw data in a spreadsheet.

• Politics and social media in Taiwan
• Hsiao Bi-Khim on the election campaign
• New report on independent media
• Taiwan’s English-language media gets more digital
• New media in Taiwan