Written by Gahon Chiang. The northern concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 opened on 25 December 2025, signifying progress from martial law to democracy. This terminal’s design emphasises openness and passenger mobility, contrasting the enclosed layouts of earlier terminals. The evolution of the airport reflects Taiwan’s broader democratic transformation, reshaping citizen-state relations.
Written by Professor Niki J.P. Alsford. Professor Murray Rubinstein significantly advanced Taiwan Studies, advocating for the island’s recognition as a distinct field of study. He resisted easy binaries. Instead, he traced the layered textures of Taiwanese society, showing how they intertwined in ways that demanded careful, nuanced attention. Professor Rubinstein’s legacy endures through his contributions, guidance, and the academic community he nurtured, emphasising the importance of thoughtful scholarship.
Written by Written by Felix Brender and Julian Vetterlein. The article reflects on TAP’s role in building a Taiwan Studies research ecosystem through travel grants, student engagement and interdisciplinary exchange. Through the perspectives of two research assistants, it shows how TAP supported full research cycles, international collaboration, policy dialogue and sustained academic interest in Taiwan beyond traditional funding structures.
Written by Dr Josie-Marie Perkuhn and Assistant Professor Dr Amélie Keyser-Verreault. The article examines growing CCTV surveillance of children in Taiwan’s childcare settings, analysing public petitions on the Join platform alongside nationwide survey data. While most respondents support intensive monitoring for safety, significant privacy concerns persist. The study highlights digitalisation’s role in reshaping childcare, democratic participation and emerging ethical tensions.
Written by Dr Josie-Marie Perkuhn & Professor Dr Christian Soffel. This article introduces Taiwan as a Pioneer (TAP), a four-year interdisciplinary postdoctoral project strengthening Taiwan Studies in Europe through research, workshops, teaching initiatives, digital infrastructure, and fieldwork. Treating Taiwan’s innovations as analytical lenses on global change, TAP built lasting scholarly networks and resources beyond a single funding cycle.
Written by Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley. This article shares insights from the new edition of The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media (2025), which documents a radically transformed, digitalised media ecology across the Chinese-speaking world. Comparing Taiwan, the PRC, Hong Kong and Macao, it foregrounds platform governance, power, participation and cultural negotiation, positioning Taiwan as a key lens for rethinking Chinese media studies in the digital age.
Written by Chee-Hann Wu. This article reviews Taiwanese performance artist Tehching Hsieh’s 2025 Dia Beacon retrospective, tracing his durational performances that treat the body as a clock, from cages to time-clocking, and reflecting on the exhibition’s embodied, minimalist presentation that collapses art and life, revealing time as both medium and co-performer.
Written by Yi-Ping Wu. This article recounts Taiwan’s 2025 cultural budget cuts amid political turmoil yet highlights the resilience of Taiwan’s theatrical landscape through the Taipei Theatre Awards, the Off-Broadway debut of Don’t Cry, Dancing Girls, the 2025 Expo Osaka initiatives, and the Les Misérables tour in Taipei and Kaohsiung, revealing international ambition despite systemic discrimination against the arts.
Written by Min-Hua Chiang. This article examines Taiwan’s 2025 growth surge, driven by ICT exports, capital formation, and booming semiconductors, while showing stagnant consumption, rising inequality, inflation, and housing burdens. It argues that concentrated income in tech undermines social cohesion and urges government spending, diversification, and AI-enabled upgrading across lagging industries for sustainable growth ahead.
Written by Carissa Cheng. Despite strong economic growth, Taiwan’s youth face stagnant wages, soaring housing costs, and limited opportunities, prompting many to abandon the DPP for the TPP in 2024. The article argues economic insecurity, party factionalism, and perceptions of elitism drove this shift, and urges the DPP to refocus on youth-centred economic policy, messaging, and reform.
Written by Leona Chen. This article reflects on The Boy from Clearwater, a translated graphic memoir that intertwines Tsai Kun-lin’s life with the author’s own diasporic longing. Through vivid illustrations and intergenerational memory, the graphic novel becomes a conduit for Taiwanese American readers seeking connection, historical understanding, and ancestral intimacy across language, distance, and time.
Written by Chee-Hann Wu. This article shares the rise of Taiwanese BL comics, which increasingly portray ordinary, everyday same-sex relationships without much sexuality-related conflict. These works exemplify comforting, relatable stories that reflect a society where love is simply lived.
Taiwan Insight 