Taiwan Insight

From Poppies to Tea Gardens: How Taiwan’s Tea Took Root on Thailand’s Northern Borderland

Written by Po-Yi Hung. Taiwan’s tea is often associated with its mountain landscapes, but its influence extends far beyond the island. This article traces how Taiwanese tea varieties, cultivation techniques, and agricultural expertise transformed the former opium-growing borderlands of northern Thailand. It reveals tea as more than an agricultural commodity, as a vehicle of diplomacy, territorial governance, and cross-border mobility that quietly reshaped the Golden Triangle.

When Tea Becomes Everything (Part 2)

Written by Gawin Tiansuwan. In Part 2, the author follows a deeper immersion into tea culture, spanning Canada, Thailand, and Taiwan. A life-changing move to Taipei to study Mandarin leads to a deep connection with Taiwan’s tea community, historic neighbourhoods, and a young master in Pinglin. Using these Taiwanese tea-making insights, he returns to Northern Thailand to help revitalising local wild tea traditions.

When Tea Becomes Everything (Part 1)

Written by Gawin Tiansuwan. In Part 1, the author traces a personal journey of self-discovery through tea. Moving from Western blends in the UK to traditional gongfu cha in Hong Kong, the author explores how tea provided stability during burnout. Crucially, an inspiring trip to Taiwan’s iconic teahouses sparked a lifelong passion, prompting the purchase of his first Yixing teapot and ultimately bridging a connection to his ethnic heritage.

Evading the Eye in the Sky: Beginning from the Window of a Wartime Photo Studio

4 September 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Tsai Min-Ying. This article examines how wartime air defence shaped Taiwan’s visual culture through a logic of self-concealment. The author traces works by Peng Ruey-lin, Chiu Tzu-Yen, and Huang Tonghong. She argues that colonial practices of hiding from aerial surveillance persist in contemporary art as a collective memory of war, survival, and identity.

Ash and Sugar: A Material History of Taiwan’s Aerial-Warfare Logistics Base Part II

3 September 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Tsai Min-Ying. Following its first part, this article continues to explore the wartime mobilisation and the air war that did not only take place in the air through artists Hsu Chia-Wei and Lo Yi-Chun’s works.

Ash and Sugar: A Material History of Taiwan’s Aerial-Warfare Logistics Base Part I

2 September 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Tsai Min-Ying. This article reframes Taiwan’s World War II air-war experience through the material logistics that sustained Japanese aviation. Tracing sugarcane, molasses, alcohol, and fuel production alongside works by Hsu Chia-Wei and Lo Yi-Chun, the author explores how aerial warfare was materially organised, remembered, and inscribed across Taiwan’s industrial and agricultural landscape.

Crafting ‘Affective Relatedness’: How Emotions Move Taiwanese Gay Men Towards Fatherhood

1 September 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Jung Chen. This article explores how Taiwanese gay men navigate legal barriers to fatherhood via cross-border reproductive technologies. The author introduces “affective relatedness” and argues that emotions, like hope and belonging, are essential drivers for queer parenthood. This framework also illuminates the reciprocal emotional connections forged between the researcher and participants during sociological fieldwork.

Destroyed Houses, Unfinished Justice: The Historical Trauma of Housing Modernisation of Tao Indigenous People

31 August 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Yu-Yueh Tsai. This article examines how government housing policies in Lanyu during the martial law era replaced traditional Tao homes with flawed concrete structures. This modernisation project caused displacement, social upheaval, and long-term trauma. Inadequate reconstruction assistance forced families into debt and incomplete housing, widening inequality and weakening traditional kinship support systems while exacerbating mental health struggles.

From Hong Kong to Taiwan: Emotions, Identity, and Community in the Diaspora

28 August 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Judy Lee. This article examines how emotions drive community formation among Hongkongers who migrated to Taiwan after 2019. Lee argues that these migrants channel feelings of grief and love for their home city into positive community engagement, cultural production, and education, illustrating how emotion fuels the diaspora.

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