History Archive

Homeward bound: The remarkable career of Ho Te-lai

The following article appeared in today’s Taipei Times. This piece was very personal to me as it is about my children’s great-great-granduncle – a painter who has only really started to gain the recognition he deserves (at least in Taiwan) over the last 30 years. Many hours of research went into this over a course of […]
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Kosovo and Taiwan eye an alliance of outsiders

The following article was published on the Foreign Policy website today: Nowhere is Washington held in higher esteem than in the small Balkan nation of Kosovo. On Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, a statue of the former U.S. president waves cheerily to passersby. Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright—who in 1999 pushed for […]
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Is North Macedonia poised to reboot its ‘Taiwan Adventure?’

The following article was published on The Diplomat’s website today. The “Taiwan adventure,” it was called. Or the “Taiwan billion.” Or – rather more prosaically – the “Taiwan loans case.” It all depends on who you ask. “I guess the ‘Taiwan billion-dollar affair’ could be a working term,” said Filip Stojanovski. “Though maybe not so […]
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Taiwan’s old Southbound Policy (Global Asia review of ‘Imperial Gateway’)

The following book review appeared in the March issue of Global Asia. When Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen unveiled her administration’s “New Southbound Policy” in 2016, it’s unlikely that historical parallels with imperial Japan crossed her mind. Yet as this compelling monograph reveals, from the moment Taiwan was ceded to Japan, plans to turn the island […]
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Taiwanese as second-class imperialists (Taipei Times review of ‘Imperial Gateway’)

The following book review appeared in today’s Taipei Times: Among the many atrocities committed by the Japanese during World War II, the Sook Ching massacre was notable for the involvement of Taiwanese. Having captured Singapore in February 1942, the Japanese army and its accomplices killed at least 25,000 Chinese. Prominent among the invaders’ henchmen was […]
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Taiwan’s Ukrainian community shows a little goes a long way

The following article appeared in today’s Taipei Times: Ukrainians are nothing if not determined. The Russian invasion of their country and atrocities against its population has made that clear. Taiwan’s small Ukrainian community and its supporters have also demonstrated their doggedness this week through a campaign to have a performance by a pro-Putin opera singer […]
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Germany’s balancing act in East Asia

The following article appeared in the February issue of The Parliament magazine. As news headlines go, “Education minister takes trip overseas” isn’t much of an attention-grabber. But it gains some heft when the minister in question is German, and the destination is Taiwan. When Germany’s Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, touches down in […]
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Little Burma: Where great food meets fascinating history

The following article appeared in this month’s issue of Taiwan Business Topics, the magazine of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan: On most afternoons, Henry Wong and friends sit outside A-Mui’s Noodle Shop (阿妹緬甸小吃, 41 Huaxin St.) in Little Burma, sipping tea from yellow cups. On cooler days the saucers go on top like sombreros, […]
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China exploits the West’s tolerance

The following op-ed appeared in Taipei Times today: It is quite the irony when former British prime minister Boris Johnson — a buffoon who for far too long was taken seriously — is branded a buffoon for saying something deadly serious. Following Johnson’s withering criticism of China at a business forum in Singapore on Wednesday […]
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The battle for Taiwan’s constitution

The following piece was published on the UnHerd website today: At the Taipei headquarters of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP), a wall of shame has been erected in dishonour of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) patsies. Towards the bottom of the TSP shit-list sits Elon Musk, whose recent “solution” to the cross-strait standoff was not well-received in Taiwan. […]
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