New Bloom Magazine | Radical Perspectives on Taiwan and the Asia Pacific

Social Movements

Seediq Digital Language Activist Sayun Pihaw Wonders, “How to Find an Angle to Facilitate Understanding?”

Yanne C07/06/2025

The following interview was originally posted on Global Voices ahead of the panel, “Digital Initiatives for Indigenous Languages of Taiwan,” which was held on June 28, 2025 at DAYBREAK. This event is the first time Rising Voices, in collaboration with New Bloom and the Indigenous Youth Front, organized an event in Taiwan to bring together local Indigenous language digital activists to learn from and connect with each other. The idea was to facilitate the exchange of learned experiences and innovative ideas among these language activists, inspiring more possibilities for their language work. In this interview, Sayun Pihaw, an Atayal speaker from Taichung and Indigenous media worker, shares how her job provides her with exposure to the cultural agendas of Indigenous communities other than her own. At the same time, marrying into a Seediq family has opened the door to her involvement in the promotion of the Seediq language....

EnglishIndigenousJuly 2025RaceSocial Movements4 min read

Atayal Digital Language Activist Pasang Teru: “Small, Consistent Efforts Will Lead to Change”

Yanne C07/05/2025

The following interview was originally posted on Global Voices ahead of the panel, “Digital Initiatives for Indigenous Languages of Taiwan,” which was held on June 28, 2025 at DAYBREAK. This event is the first time Rising Voices, in collaboration with New Bloom and the Indigenous Youth Front, organized an event in Taiwan to bring together local Indigenous language digital activists to learn from and connect with each other. The idea was to facilitate the exchange of learned experiences and innovative ideas among these language activists, inspiring more possibilities for their language work. In this interview, Pasang Teru, an Atayal speaker and a certified Indigenous instructor, shares about his work as a teacher and advocate for Indigenous languages through print media, online projects, and broadcasting...

EnglishIndigenousJuly 2025RaceSocial MovementsYouth Movements5 min read

Atayal Digital Language Activist Tapas Katu: “Using Indigenous Languages is Completely Normal”

Yanne C07/02/2025

The following interview was originally posted on Global Voices ahead of the panel, “Digital Initiatives for Indigenous Languages of Taiwan,” which was held on June 28, 2025 at DAYBREAK. This event is the first time Rising Voices, in collaboration with New Bloom and the Indigenous Youth Front, organized an event in Taiwan to bring together local Indigenous language digital activists to learn from and connect with each other. The idea was to facilitate the exchange of learned experiences and innovative ideas among these language activists, inspiring more possibilities for their language work. In this interview, Tapas Katu, an Atayal speaker from Nantou, shared how she learned the Atayal language and leveraged the power of digital tools to aid her learning...

EnglishIndigenousJuly 2025RaceSocial Movements7 min read

Interview: Amis Language Activist Omah Canglah on Indigenous Language App Development

Yanne C07/01/2025

The following interview was originally posted on Global Voices ahead of the panel, “Digital Initiatives for Indigenous Languages of Taiwan,” which was held on June 28, 2025. This event is the first time Rising Voices, in collaboration with New Bloom and the Indigenous Youth Front, organized an event in Taiwan to bring together local Indigenous language digital activists to learn from and connect with each other. The idea was to facilitate the exchange of learned experiences and innovative ideas among these language activists, inspiring more possibilities for their language work. In this interview, Omah Canglah, an Amis speaker on the panel from Hualien, Taiwan, shares about their language activism work and app development...

EnglishIndigenousInternationalJuly 2025RaceSocial Movements5 min read

Arts/Culture

Review: Ká-sióng, A Collection of Taiwanese Short Fiction

Maya Rubin04/05/2025

Literary translation is having a moment, particularly in Taiwan. You might have seen the recent, glowing New York Times profile of Tilted Axis, a British publisher specializing in translated literature, or witnessed the frenzy over Lin King and Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子)’s National Book Award win for King’s brilliant translation of Taiwan Travelogue. Riding that wave is Ká-sióng (the Taiwanese Hokkien romanization of 假想), a collection of five newly translated Taiwanese short stories recently published by Strangers Press in partnership with the Taiwan Ministry of Culture, National Museum of Taiwan Literature, and Books from Taiwan. The stories in Ká-sióng, each of which has a different author and translator, are almost dizzyingly diverse, from body horror in an Indigenous Atayal village to sci-fi memory manipulation in a futuristic, flooded Taipei. The stories–which are presented in arbitrary sequence–offer a polyphonic, cacophonous vision of Taiwanese fiction and culture...

April 2025Arts and CultureEnglishLiterature and Poetry14 min read