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Rebel yell: Curriculum protesters shouldn’t drown out other voices

When Cheng Nan-jung (鄭南榕) burned himself to death at the office of his outlawed Freedom Era Weekly in 1989, he became an instant martyr for the democratic cause. Not for the first time, the police had come to arrest him and shut down his operation. Even with the martial law period in its death throes, [...]
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Beginner’s Lluc: Majorcan Culture in the Heart of the Tramuntana

“Whose heart does not find warmth in their mother’s house?” (Miguel Costa i Llobera) When I started this blog in early 2010, I was advised to get things going by sticking up any material I might have lying around. I’d just got back from an enforced sabbatical in the UK, all in all [...]
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Sympathy for the Devil: Taipei Times Book Review

My review of Cambridge historian Barak Kushner’s book Men to Devils, Devils to Men from today’s Taipei Times (9/7/2015). A fascinating analysis of how competing visions of postwar justice shaped relations between Japan, China and Taiwan Early Saturday June 19, a group organized by Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society gathered on Lane 44, Jinshan South [...]
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Taiwan media owes Honduran ambassador a big apology

Honduras Ambassador to Taiwan Rafael Sierra speaks at a press conference the day after he was involved in an accident with a scooter in Danshui on Sunday 17 May. Within the first few months of my two years at the now essentially defunct Taiwan News back in 2004, any slither of hope I may still [...]
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Opportunity Knocks: Nicaraguan director Jaime Zúñiga makes Taiwan debut with Venus in Fur

My Taipei Times piece (Friday, 15 May) on actor-director Jaime Zúñiga and his production of Venus in Fur running at Taipei National University of the Arts from 15-17 May. All three performances are already sold out, though you might be able to grab a place on the floor if you show up early. Jaime Zúñiga takes [...]
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Floyd Mayweather doesn’t frustrate me; boxing’s relentless greed does

When the decision was announced, the silence from the overwhelmingly Filipino crowd at the Farm House bar in Taipei’s “Combat Zone” said it all. There was some half-hearted, almost apologetic booing and, in a few cases, some wilful delusion. “It’s bullshit,” said a Pinoy named Dave, shaking his head. “He just ran away all the [...]
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From warzones to wailao (外勞): Taiwan’s qualifiers for World Cup 2018

While there’s next to no chance of Taiwan emerging from the second round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, they could have done a fair bit worse in terms of the teams they drew in Group F. True, with a world ranking of joint-179th (out of 209 nations) with Cambodia, they are [...]
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Un Bataburillo de la Cocina Paraguaya

There’s something satisfying about reduplication. Words like pell-mell, riffraff and whippersnapper just sound good. Johnson called them “low words.” Blackadder called him a “pompous ass with sweaty dewflaps.” Hodepodge is another good one and so is the Spanish equivalent batiburillo. The word suits Asunción, a city of jumbles. Passionate indolence. Teutonic Guarani-speaking Ladinos. Dark and dusty bookshops on hot [...]
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Into the Mist: The Secret History of KMT Collaboration with the Japanese

The following is the original draft of a feature which appears in today’s Taipei Times (Sunday, 5 April). Just above Hell’s Valley in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投區), there’s a small clearing in the bushes that affords a great view of the surrounding hillside. When the sulfurous steam dissipates, you can watch tourists milling around the [...]
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Verse Not Purse; No Green, Free Bean; Can’t Write for Toffee, Still Blagged a Coffee …

Though I sometimes still have the odd couplet or rhyme floating around my head (mainly the works of the late Christopher Wallace), I jacked in writing poetry a long time ago, mainly because I’m not very good. Not long after I got started with with this blog, I stuck up a couple of my better [...]
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