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

Social Movements

Proposed Work Categories for Foreign University Graduates Reflect Prejudiced Views of Migrants

Brian Hioe05/14/2025

The Ministry of Labor has halted a plan that would have opened up six new categories of work to foreign students who have graduated from university in Taiwan. These new categories are in nursing, driving buses, cargo inventory, cargo vehicle driving, safety personnel for buses, and inventory management...

EnglishLaborMay 2025RaceSocial Movements6 min read

Siraya Groups Take Stand Against KMT Effort to Deny Indigenous Recognition to Pingpu Groups

Brian Hioe05/12/2025

Siraya civil society groups took a stand against a move from the KMT to create a new legal category called “Pingpu Indigenous” earlier this month, holding a press conference on the matter. The proposal, which originates from KMT legislator Sra Kacaw, who is Amis, would be a means of denying Siraya recognition as Indigenous...

EnglishIndigenousMay 2025RaceSocial Movements5 min read

Migrant Workers as Subjects of a Taiwan Strait Contingency

Marcin Jerzewski05/11/2025

An escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait—whether it transpires as a maritime blockade or a kinetic attack—would bring about disastrous social and economic consequences. Given the importance of the Taiwan Strait to international maritime trade and Taiwan’s critical role in supply chains of strategic technologies, including semiconductors, crisis scenarios consider several grave repercussions. These include immediate disruptions to global economic activity valued at over two trillion dollars, threats to Japan’s energy security, and shortages in the EU, which would exacerbate economic inequality, poverty, and the functioning of critical sectors...

Cross StraitEnglishInternationalLaborMay 2025Regional TensionsSocial Movements7 min read

Taken For Granted: Taiwan’s Flagship Foreign Policy Neglects Labor Issues

Marcin Jerzewski05/10/2025

In its quest to diversify its political and economic engagements with the world, Taiwan keeps looking south. At the recent Yushan Forum, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation Chairman Michael Hsiao proudly announced the launch of six new strategic corridors under the framework of the New Southbound Policy (NSP). This includes government-led initiatives to facilitate cooperation on technology, health, and resilience, as well as think tank, NGO, and youth corridors led by civil society...

EnglishInternationalLaborMay 2025PoliticsRegional TensionsSocial Movements7 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 CultureEnglishFeaturedLiterature and Poetry14 min read