David on Formosa

Although the “five cities” elections (五都選舉) are still more than three months away, billboards promoting election candidates have been in place for many months. Over the last few months I have been photographing some of the billboards around Taichung. Some of the photos with comments are included in this blog post. A larger collection can [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

On Saturday I met up with Mark, Todd and Darren at Art Street (藝術街) in Taichung for a photowalk. Art Street is Taichung’s attempt at creating a European style walking street. I don’t think the street has quite realised the original vision, but it is an interesting neighbourhood nonetheless. A lot of the interesting stuff is [...]

I recently completed my Master’s thesis, about two and half years after I began studying for a Master’s degree in Taiwan Studies at NCCU (國立政治大學). Although I still have a few administrative matters to complete before I can get my degree certificate. My thesis is titled “Indigenous Rights in Taiwan and the Smangus Case”. It [...]

After the first day of the Lunar New Year passed uneventfully I joined the mass exodus from Taipei to places further south. I met a friend at Taipei Station a little before 9:00 am and we were able to purchase a ticket to Taichung on the High Speed train for 11:00 am that day. There [...]

It is almost a year since Taiwan's High Speed Rail system opened. Last night I took the 5:16 train from Taichung up to Taipei and made it to my evening class at NCCU with time to spare. The furtherest I'd been on the HSR before was from Taipei to Xinzhu.  You should have no trouble [...]