Concerns regarding Chinese influence on Taiwanese media have again been raised in the past week through a number of incidents. However, it generally should not surprise that large elements of the Taiwanese media remain firmly beholden to China...
The detention of Chinese labor activist Wei Zhili and two other members of the Chinese independent news publication iLabour has led to calls for the release of what have been referred to as the “iLabour Three”. iLabour specialized in reporting on migrant workers’ issues, as well as labor consultancy...
A campaign between Chinese tech workers and their American counterparts, as coordinated through an online campaign based on GitHub, has proved an unusual example of workers in the same industry organizing internationally...
A rare strike action by migrant workers took place on May 3rd of this month. Even more unusual was the fact that the strike was not only successful but was successful after only just one day...
With a recent proposal by Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu to create free economic zones within Kaohsiung, one observes the unusual revival of a Ma era political idea: the establishment of special economic zones within Taiwan. Perhaps this should not surprise...
Ahead of the May 24th deadline set by the Council of Grand Justices in its original ruling in May 2017 that gay marriage in Taiwan needed to be legalized by, concerns are on the rise regarding the three gay marriage bills currently under discussion in the legislature...
Chinese exchange student Lee Jia-bao continues to face the possibility of deportation back to China, with his current visa status set to expire in July, and Lee still seeking asylum in Taiwan due to his criticisms of Chinese president Xi Jinping...
The Want Want Group recently threatened the Apple Daily with a defamation lawsuit for publishing a report stating that the Want Want Group received over 477 million Chinese yuan—just over 2 billion NTD—from the Chinese government between 2017 and 2018...
The historic first demonstration to call for the decriminalization of cannabis in Taiwan was held on April 20th last month, with approximately 200 in attendance. The event was scheduled to coincide with 420, a date which in which cannabis-related events are held internationally...
International Workers' Day saw thousands of workers take to the streets of Taipei today, with the demonstration beginning at noon today on Ketagalan Boulevard and ending around 4 PM. The demonstration involved throwing papers with a list of demands at the Legislative Yuan, firing bottle rockets at the Presidential Office, and a skit involving presidential contenders and the sea goddess Mazu...
Brian Hioe is one of the founding editors of New Bloom. He is a freelance journalist, as well as a translator. A New York native and Taiwanese-American, he has an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and graduated from New York University with majors in History, East Asian Studies, and English Literature. He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018 and is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme.