New Bloom editor Brian Hioe interviewed Kathy Cheng, who runs the blog Tricky Taipei and is currently crowdfunding for a children's picture book about Taipei, Hey Taipei...
With the defeat of Michael You and the victory of Cho Jung-tai in DPP chair elections, this has been read by many as signaling a mandate of confidence from DPP members in current president Tsai Ing-wen. Namely, Cho is seen as a Tsai protege, and You ran on a platform primarily characterized by its antagonism to Tsai...
Calls are on the rise within the DPP to replace current president Tsai Ing-wen as the DPP’s candidate in 2020 presidential elections. Namely, pan-Green traditionalists, generally skewing towards the deep Green end of the political spectrum, are unhappy with Tsai’s performance as president to date. However, splits have also developed with those within the DPP and pan-Green camp that do not call for Tsai's replacement...
The "September Political Struggle" between former president Ma Ying-Jeou and former majority speaker Wang Jinpyng is again back in the news, with Wang and Ma publicly trading barbs after the release of a new book by Ma detailing his presidential administration and defending past actions. The reemergence of these tensions perhaps points to the major splits within the KMT at present...
It proves unsurprising that six Taiwanese universities have been found guilty of sending southeast Asian students to work in factories illegally. It is highly likely that this case only is the tip of the iceberg of what is a larger issue...
The controversy regarding the appointment of National Taiwan University president Kuan Chung-ming has finally ended, with the Ministry of Education agreeing to appoint Kuan as president of what is generally viewed as Taiwan’s most prestigious educational institution...
Outrage has broken out after Tainan city councilor Ingay Tali’s swearing-in ceremony was declared invalid after Ingay took the oath in Amis, with his back facing the portrait of Sun Yat-Sen that he was to have been facing, and while wearing traditional attire...
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.
