Taiwan Insight

Not All Stories Are Yours To Tell – A Reflection on The Century Bloodshed Part I

Written by Chee-Hann Wu. This article reflects a personal memory and classroom discussion; she explores the ethical responsibilities of artists when representing traumatic historical events. Emphasising consent, historical accuracy, and self-awareness, the piece argues that storytellers and audiences alike must engage critically with how collective trauma is portrayed and remembered in art and media.

The Hidden Prison: How Taiwanese Comics Expose the White Terror’s Quiet Scars

Written by Meng Kit Tang. The piece examines how two recent Taiwanese comics: White Prison Shadows 2 (2025), grounded in Ye Shitao’s White Terror experiences, and White Rebellion 1 (2024), a speculative thriller; reveal the White Terror’s most enduring legacy: not the prison cell itself, but a “prison outside the prison” sustained through surveillance, social stigma, and internalized self-censorship.

From White Terror to Green Overreach: Taiwan’s Democracy Under Pressure

Written by Meng Kit Tang. This article examines how Taiwan, under mounting pressure from Beijing, risks drifting toward legal and administrative overreach at home. Drawing on recent high-profile detentions, national security legislation, and institutional gridlock, it argues that while today’s Taiwan bears no resemblance in scale to the White Terror, it increasingly echoes its methods: vague laws, procedural shortcuts, and media-driven stigma.

Good friction: A design principle for positive peace

22 April 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Emma Baumhofer. This article argues that “good friction” supports trust, deliberation, and coexistence. Drawing on Taiwan’s civic tech and public life, it proposes designing systems that balance efficiency with social cohesion and the demands of positive peace.

River and Sea · Plateau · Resonance: The Possibility of Peace in a Turbulent World

17 April 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Kefei Cao. The author traces her personal and historical journey across the Taiwan Strait, moving from lived encounters to reflections on war, memory, and coexistence. Drawing on Lung Ying-tai and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, she proposes theatre as a space for reimagining peace beyond binary divisions, where vulnerability, dialogue, and shared humanity become the grounds for fragile yet enduring connection.

Taiwanese Peace as a crucial engagement to advance decolonisation for Japan

15 April 2026 Adrian Chiu

Written by Yoshitaka Ota. This article argues that the first step toward contributing to Taiwanese peace is to stop creating a common enemy between Taiwan and Japan and to start taking Taiwanese agency seriously. Japan should also exercise its agency to recognise and depart from the permanence of coloniality, which continues to create China as a common enemy, rather than looking at itself as the enemy once.

Peace and Democracy: A Symbiotic Relationship

13 April 2026 Adrian Chiu

Written by Wu Yu-Shan. This article argues that Taiwan urgently needs to establish a public body of knowledge surrounding “peace research”. Peace research concerns not only the safety of life but also the survival of democracy and freedom. Nascent democracies under the shadow of war, like Taiwan, face external threats, security dilemmas, and cultural deficits. Therefore, to protect democracy, we must first protect peace.

Taiwan’s Energy Challenges Amid Shifting Geopolitical Realities: National Security, Energy Transition, and Technological Ambitions of an Insular Democracy Under Pressure

10 April 2026 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Romain Blachier. Taiwan’s energy debate is no longer only about transition targets or electricity costs. It has become a question of how the island sustains itself under pressure. Surging demand from AI, deepening reliance on imported gas, and renewed discussion of nuclear power all point to a system under strain. What is at stake is not just growth, but the conditions that make Taiwan’s political and economic life possible.

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