Tsai administration

Fallism and Chiang Kai-Shek Statue Removal in Taiwan as a Means of Mobilization

Lwazi Bululu
Midterm elections are around the corner and there has been a plethora of ballot box issues to choose from that will prove decisive in key races: from Indigenous issues, incumbents’ COVID response, alleged corruption, and so on. But one issue that is not going to feature at all will be that of transformative justice and the unresolved issue of the biggest symbol of authoritarianism: the bronze statue of Chiang Kai-Shek at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. Which begs the question of the purpose of political iconoclasm, or image breaking, as a form of performative democracy...
2022 ElectionsEnglishNovember 2022PoliticsSelf-DeterminationSocial MovementsTheory and History8 min read

Regional Forums Discuss Mixed Indigenous Identity and Legal Recognition in Taiwan

Yo-Ling Chen
This past Friday in Pingtung City, the Mixed Indigenous Youth Forum Working Group (MIYF) held its fifth and final regional forum on the life experiences of Indigenous youth from mixed backgrounds. Combined with the other regional forums held in Taichung, Taipei, Taitung, and Hualien, MIYF discussed and recorded over 50 participants’ life stories pertaining to their Indigenous identity journey and variable engagements with Indigenous legal status...
EnglishIndigenousOctober 2022RaceSocial Movements16 min read

Mixed Background Indigenous Peoples and Their Struggle for Legal Reform

Yo-Ling Chen
In 2017, Nikal Kabala’an, an Amis woman, carried her first newborn daughter to the Taipei City Da’an District Household Registration Office to register her baby’s birth. Nikal and her husband, who is Han, decided to register their child under Nikal’s husband’s Mandarin surname with the intention of simultaneously registering a traditional Amis name to continue her Indigenous heritage into the next generation. However, she was informed at the Household Registration Office that she could not register her child under her husband’s surname and a traditional Amis name, and thus had to choose only one...
EnglishIndigenousRaceSeptember 2022Social Movements17 min read

Will Taiwan Be Able to Lower Its Voting Age From One of the World’s Highest?

Brian Hioe
Questions have been raised about whether an upcoming referendum to lower the voting age to 18 will pass. Concerns have been raised about whether the referendum will meet the referendum may not meet the 9.65 million votes necessary to pass constitutional changes. This means that young people can serve in the army, drink, and are able to vote in national referendums, seeing as changes to the Referendum Act in December 2017 lowered the age for voting in the referendum from 20 to 18, but they cannot vote for elected representatives in Taiwan currently...
EnglishPoliticsSeptember 20226 min read

Chinese Grouper Ban Accused of Being Attempt to Politically Pressure Taiwan

Brian Hioe
Taiwan has expressed dissatisfaction after China acted to block imports of grouper last Friday, alleging that it had found oxytetracycline and other prohibited chemicals in excessive amounts in grouper imports from Taiwan. For its part, Taiwan has suggested that China’s actions are politically motivated, similar to China blocking imports of pineapple, wax apple, and custard apple, as a way to hit back at Taiwan’s agricultural sector...
Cross StraitEnglishInternationalJune 20228 min read