Art – Taiwan Insight

Two Bird’s-Eye Views: The Historical Interstices of WWII in Contemporary Taiwanese and Japanese Art

7 September 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Tsai Min-Ying. This article puts Taiwanese artist Li Li-chung and Japanese artist Kota Takeuchi in dialogue through their representations of WWII aerial warfare. The author reads their two video works side by side, revealing how artists from Taiwan and Japan each remember and reflect on war, contrasting a colonial view with an imperial view in their differing concerns about aerial warfare and challenging dominant historical narratives. Their nonhuman perspectives expose war’s perceptual violence while demonstrating art’s power to preserve memory and resist future violence.

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.

2025 Taiwan Theatre Report: Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

28 January 2026 Chee-Hann Wu

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.

Decolonial Art as a Form of Truth Telling and Indigenous Resistance

3 October 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Choesang Scholer. Despite the pressures of external forces on Indigenous land and domain, Indigenous community members utilise art as a medium for political protest to amplify their concerns when their government fails to do so. This article explores the way in which identity-building expression appears through various forms of art.

A Glance at Taiwan’s Arts and Cultural Landscape in 2023

26 February 2024 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Chee-Hann Wu. 2023 was a fruitful year for Taiwan’s arts and cultural events. This article focuses on significant events in Taiwan’s arts and cultural industries in 2023, such as theatrical performances and exhibitions, alongside related changes to cultural policy and difficulties faced by the publishing industry.

Treating the Faceless’ Art Experiences Equally: An Interview with an Independent Researcher Tze-Ning Hong

9 August 2023 Yu-Chen

Written by Yi-Cheng Sun; translated by Yi-Yu Lai. Tze-Ning Hong, an independent researcher, designer, and artist, has been immersed in an artistic environment since childhood and graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University. Her father, a calligraphy teacher in elementary school, provided her with a unique perspective as she navigated between her family and school life during her childhood. From this vantage point, Tze-Ning constantly observed the subtle transformations between “her father as a teacher” and “her father as a dad.” This experience gave her a more nuanced understanding of the teacher’s role than the average person. She has captured and preserved unnoticed and delicate memories regarding art education due to her special position.

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