Life

A to Z

A Tale of Two May 4ths

·May 7, 2021·4 min read

A few years ago during the one-hundredth year anniversary of the May 4th Movement, when members of the pan-Blue camp, along with various Chinese nationalists, were outraged by the Tsai administration instead commemorating the date as “May the Fourth be with You”—Star Wars Day, I guess you could call it Read More

An Attempt to Revive Marx’s Workers’ Inquiry

Books English Life

·June 22, 2021·3 min read

Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle: Strategies, Tactics, Objectives, edited by Robert Ovetz, is an ambitious book Read More

Animatronic Hells and Goddesses with GPS

English Life

·April 20, 2021·5 min read

Temple festivals in Taiwan often seem to be a mixture of the sacred and the profane. Sure, temples are places of worship—but temple festivities often have elements of what would otherwise be considered “low” culture incorporated into them Read More

Book Review: The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism

Books English Life

·February 9, 2021·5 min read

In 2016, Trump shocked liberal Democrats. They should not have been shocked. It takes a certain level of ignorance and magic thinking to believe in their candidate at the time. Hilary Clinton, after all, is the spouse of a president whose trade policies were largely responsible for the closing of factories and deindustrialization of the nation Read More

Burying Taiwan’s History by Digging It Up

English Life

·November 5, 2021·4 min read

Several dozen people gathered outside of a small temple at the Nanshan Public Cemetery in Tainan on the afternoon of October 15th. The event, which was a guided tour of the cemetery, was organized by a group of local residents and academics who have devoted themselves to calling for the cemetery’s preservation. Namely, the Tainan city government is planning on demolishing the cemetery for redevelopment, though technically the cemetery is undergoing an evaluation as to its cultural value Read More

Celebrating a God’s Birthday with a Temple Rave

English Life

·December 7, 2020·8 min read

The first hint that something big would be taking place in Bangka over the weekend was when a large stage was set up on the street of my apartment building and started blaring loud electronic music every day at 11 AM Read More

Democratic Experiments in Action

Books English Life

·September 24, 2021·3 min read

Deliberative Democracy in Taiwan: A Deliberate Systems Perspective by Mei-Fang Fan is a useful look at contemporary democracy in the Taiwanese context. Read More

Everyone is an Island

English Life

·March 23, 2021·3 min read

There are no answers in the vast endless ocean...only questions Read More

Having Faith in a Secular World

Books English Life

·July 20, 2021·6 min read

Joshua E. Livingston’s Sunrays on the Beachhead of the New Creation, a book with 54 short stories with black and white graphic illustrations that serve the tales beautifully and integrally, deals with what it means to have faith (specifically Christian faith), and what it takes to have faith when our daily reality is decidedly secular. When secularism is practically a religion, what does it mean to believe, be spiritual, and attempt to see beyond ourselves? Does life have no meaning beyond what we are capable of understanding? Read More

Immortality

Art English Life

·March 8, 2022·13 min read

For a week she stood inside a room at the Taichung train station. There was something quietly defiant about her stance, left foot crossed over her right, the weight of her body slightly on the back foot, as if she were just about to take a small step forward. Her chin tilted up so that her eyes, not fully shut, received light and her eyelids were pearly and diaphanous. She held a soft gaze, not focusing on anything in particular, but able to take in everything Read More

Interview: Charles Yu

Books English Interviews Life

·January 19, 2021·8 min read

New Bloom/No Man is an Island editor Brian Hioe spoke to writer Charles Yu about his recent book, Interior Chinatown, which recently won the National Book Award Read More

Pioneering in Ordinary Life

English Interviews Life

·July 6, 2021·15 min read

New Bloom/No Man is an Island editor Brian Hioe interviewed Lance and Stuart Chen-Hayes, who recently published 兩個爸爸. This follows up on an interview conducted following the publication of Double Dads One Teen in English in 2019. Lance is Taiwan’s first out gay dad and their nonbinary teen, Kalani, became the first Taiwanese citizen with two father’s names on both an international birth certificate and an international marriage license Read More