On October 17th, New Bloom editor Brian Hioe interviewed Wu Zheng of the New Power Party, who is running in the Songshan-Xinyi area. This is part of New Bloom's ongoing series of interviews with independent city councilor candidates, as part of its special 2018 election coverage...
Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office representatives organized several panel discussions and tabled at the New York Comic-Con in New York City in early October this year, hoping to promote Taiwanese comics. However, promotion efforts showed many places for improvement...
Fears of a rapprochement between Japan and China in Taiwan have been exaggerated by the media. Namely, decades of enmity between Japan and China scarcely will fade overnight...
Polish media organization Idź Pod Prąd recently released a video declaring support of Taiwan and opposition to China. Unfortunately, while many in Taiwan have celebrated this as an international expression of support for Taiwan, they have failed to notice that this comes from a far-right wing Christian group that is anti-gay and has links to white supremacist groups...
US-Taiwan relations and US-China relations will likely see no major shift after the results of American midterm elections. As such, the current status quo will remain, pending future political shifts...
It may be that the strategy adopted by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen of calling back popular, high-profile DPP politicians to serve in her central administration is backfiring. Namely, Tsai’s actions threaten the ability of the DPP to develop and maintain political promising careers for its members for the sake of the party’s future and long-term sustainability...
The Taiwanese government continues its abysmal record of support for authoritarian regimes in the hopes that they will support Taiwan with congratulations issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recently elected Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro on social media. Bolsonaro is a far-right wing firebrand and his election has raised concerns globally that Brazil will see resurgent authoritarianism under his presidency...
Migrant workers in Taiwan continue to push for improved conditions, as observed in demonstrations by migrant workers in late October calling for the separation of migrant worker dormitories and the factories they work in. Demonstrations took place on October 28th outside of the Ministry of Labor...
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.
