Taiwan Insight

When Cultural Exchange Is Forced to Tiptoe Around Authoritarian Red Lines

15 December 2025 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Isis M. Lee. A landmark exhibition in Prague displays 100 masterpieces from Taiwan’s National Palace Museum — yet Taiwan itself disappears from the story. This erasure reveals how authoritarian pressure increasingly shapes cultural spaces far beyond China’s borders.

Who Is Taiwanese: Rejection or Redefinition?

12 December 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Meng Kit Tang. This article explores the evolving debate over Taiwanese identity, contrasting two models: the rejectionist approach and the redefinition model. It examines the implications of each model for domestic cohesion, diplomacy, and national resilience, arguing that a redefinition approach provides Taiwan with a stronger foundation to navigate internal polarisation and external pressures.

A Third Front: The Pivot of Businesses Towards Activism

11 December 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Aleksandrs Gross. This article explores a unique phenomenon that occurred during the recalls – small businesses explicitly voiced their stance on the recalls. This mirrors similar patterns of Hong Kong during the pro-democracy movement in 2019. The author interviewed three pro-recall businesses to understand their stance and how they encourage constructive discussion without alienating opponents.

From Prodigy to Potential: How Taiwan Could Redefine Intelligence

10 December 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Gita T. This article examines how Taiwan could better identify and nurture the quieter forms of cognitive talent that often go unnoticed — helping students find stronger alignment between aptitude and work, reducing early burnout, and building an education framework that allows curiosity to breathe. In that sense, Taiwan’s next great export could be curiosity itself.

Time to Reposition Taiwan within Europe’s Indo-Pacific Vision

9 December 2025 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Laura Bonsaver. This article proposes that Europe should move beyond threat-centric framings of Taiwan and recognise it as an innovative, democratic, and technologically advanced partner. It recommends de-hyphenating Taiwan from militaristic narratives, normalising its role in Indo-Pacific strategies, and reframing Europe-Taiwan relations as mutually beneficial collaborations rather than dependency or crisis management.

From Musical Garbage Trucks to Garbage Consciousness in Taiwan

5 December 2025 chunyilee936

Written by Nancy Guy. Garbage, or rather, thoughts of garbage, are part of daily life in Taiwan. This is illustrated in the practices of individuals and households as they manage the material byproducts of everyday living. It is also reflected in all manner of creative practice. This post introduces the music of garbage trucks, the ‘Maiden’s Prayer’, not only on the music, but to social context with the music and Taiwan’s ‘throwing garbage’ culture.

Beyond Voices of Ethnicity: Post-Global Conditions in Taiwan’s Hakka Popular Music

4 December 2025 chunyilee936

Written by Hsin-Wen Hsu. Since the 2000s, Taiwan’s Hakka popular music has moved beyond themes of rural nostalgia and ethnic affirmation to engage the complexities of post-global conditions. Musicians respond to ecological precarity, translocal migration, shifting borders, and digitally mediated relationships while experimenting with new linguistic and collaborative forms. Hsu traces how Hakka communities navigate socioeconomic changes and evolving identities. In doing so, Hakka popular music becomes a crucial way of hearing Taiwan’s contemporary entanglements and imagining new modes of communal life.

Finding the Power of Quiet in a Noisy World: Listening to More-than-Human Soundscapes

3 December 2025 chunyilee936

Written by Laila Chin-Hui Fan. Taiwan joined the global initiative “Listening to Quiet,” reaffirming its leadership in soundscape conservation. From misty wetlands to the celebrated Quiet Trail, citizens practised deep listening as an ecological and philosophical act. These quiet walks are rooted in years of civic advocacy and reveal an emergent environmental ethic in Taiwan, where attentive listening becomes a form of humility, coexistence, and more-than-human care.

Listening for the Songs of Home: Tracing the Unheard Vietnamese Soundscape in Taiwan

2 December 2025 chunyilee936

Written by Kuo Ta-Hsin. This piece introduces the Vietnamese presence in Taiwan, through different sonic performances, to link Vietnamese students and/or migrants closer to their home. It is just for instance, In the karaoke rooms and Vietnamese eateries of Taichung, memory meets reality. Voices turn into acts of belonging, and to sing is to remain Vietnamese, even far from home.

Singing for the Mountain Lands: A Pivotal Indigenous Music Concert in Taiwan

1 December 2025 NGA Shi Yeu

Written by Eric Scheihagen. The author illustrates the 1984 Singing for the Mountain Lands concert in Taipei, organised shortly after the Haishan Coal Mine Disaster, which killed mostly Amis miners. It details how Indigenous musicians and activists, led by Hu Defu, used the concert to raise funds and publicly address discrimination, harmful stereotypes, and political issues. The event became an important milestone in Taiwan’s growing Indigenous rights movement and helped catalyse later organising efforts, including the formation of the Taiwan Association for Promoting Indigenous Rights.

The 114th Double-Tenth Day on NATO’s Eastern Flank: A Celebration of What Never Was

28 November 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Chien, Hung-yi. This article reflects on a National Day reception hosted by Taiwan’s representative office in a NATO member state on its eastern flank. Answering the question of what happened in Taiwan 114 years ago highlights two national-historical narratives of Taiwan. The author believes a Taiwan-centred view aligns more closely with lived reality and explains Taiwan’s complicated history to international friends.

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