Arts Archive

  • Taiwan in the frame

    Taiwan in the frame

    Among the proselytizers, merchants and adventurers from Europe who inserted themselves into Taiwan’s early modern history, George Psalmanazar is notorious. Centuries before the Chinese Communist Party began faking news about Taiwan, this (most likely) French-born hoaxer, who claimed to be a Formosan and invented his own language to prove it, was regaling eighteenth century London […]

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  • All the World’s a Stage: Shakesepeare and Taiwan

    All the World’s a Stage: Shakesepeare and Taiwan

    The following book review appeared in today’s Taipei Times: A few years ago, I attended a Shakespeare workshop in Taipei. As someone who only began to appreciate the Bard outside the classroom, I was excited. Several Taiwanese were participating in the four-week course, and I was curious to see what they would make of it. […]

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  • Hidden in plain sight: the extradordinary work of Hsieh Tong-liang (Part 2)

    Hidden in plain sight: the extradordinary work of Hsieh Tong-liang (Part 2)

    Part 2 of a feature for Guan Xi Media: With tea and preliminary chit-chat done, Diane suggests we start our tour in the large exhibition space next door. Split into sections showcasing the various series of works that have occupied periods of Hsieh’s life spanning, in some cases, a single year, in others, decades, the […]

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  • Taiwan’s ‘return-to-reality’ trailblazers (Taipei Times review of ‘Politics and Cultural Nativism in 1970s Taiwan’)

    Taiwan’s ‘return-to-reality’ trailblazers (Taipei Times review of ‘Politics and Cultural Nativism in 1970s Taiwan’)

    The following book review appeared in today’s Taipei Times: Discussions of identity in Taiwan are seldom clearcut. Viewed through the prism of the country’s democratization, things can be even more opaque. For those with rudimentary knowledge of these issues, this short book is no primer; indeed, even the initiated may find it challenging. But those […]

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  • Hidden in plain sight: The extraordinary work of Hsieh Tong-liang (Part 1)

    Hidden in plain sight: The extraordinary work of Hsieh Tong-liang (Part 1)

    The follow article appeared in Guanxi Magazine: For years I’d been intrigued by the peculiar house on Chang’an Rd in Taichung’s Taiping District. As with most of my best discoveries in Taiwan, I’d stumbled upon it – in this case almost literally, when a scuffed pass had sent a football trickling down a sloping, paved […]

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  • Chiang Kai-shek’s Politics of Shame (review for Global Asia)

    Chiang Kai-shek’s Politics of Shame (review for Global Asia)

    The following book review was published in the December, 2022 issue of Global Asia: “To the statesmanship, vigor, and personality of this one man more than any other single factor must be the credit for having realized this ideal … of a free and democratic China,” wrote H.H. Chang in a 1944 biography of Chiang […]

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  • Hand in glove: Taiwan-born movie star branches out to chart his own course

    Hand in glove: Taiwan-born movie star branches out to chart his own course

    The following article appeared in today’s Taipei Times: Ignacio Huang (黃勝煌) is a puppet master. But unlike Argentina’s political operators, he doesn’t pull strings. “It’s glove puppetry,” says Huang of budaixi (布袋戲, traditional Taiwanese puppetry), which in recent years has replaced the big screen as his bread and butter. Ahead of legislative elections in Argentina […]

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  • Fisherman’s friend? Film festival documentary fails to lift lid on industry abuses

    Fisherman’s friend? Film festival documentary fails to lift lid on industry abuses

    The following article was published by the News Lens on November 11: The Taipei International Labor Film Festival (TILFF) wrapped up on October 15 with minimal fanfare. Thanks to Covid – which saw proceedings switched to an online format – and a rather underwhelming publicity drive, this 15th installment of the two-week event slipped under […]

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  • En route to a brighter tomorrow (Médecins Sans Frontières-Magnum exhibition at Art Taipei 2021)

    En route to a brighter tomorrow (Médecins Sans Frontières-Magnum exhibition at Art Taipei 2021)

    The following article appeared in today’s Taipei Times: Assorted political bigwigs turned out for the VIP opening of Art Taipei on Thursday. With projected foot traffic of 100,000-plus and a 30 percent increase in exhibitor participation, the event — which runs until Monday at the Taipei World Trade Center — was another opportunity to showcase […]

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  • Fictionalizing Taiwan’s White Terror (review of ‘Transitions in Taiwan’ for Taipei Times)

    Fictionalizing Taiwan’s White Terror (review of ‘Transitions in Taiwan’ for Taipei Times)

    The following book review appeared in today’s Taipei Times: Violence and oppression, we are told in the introduction to this collection of tales, are foundational to modern Taiwan, providing “a legacy that continues to influence its contemporary society.” It is interesting, then, that an anthology subtitled “Stories about the White Terror,” offers few instances of […]

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