Looking back on American secretary of state Rex Tillerson’s visit to Asia and meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, one observes that verdicts were sharply divided in critical evaluations...
Due to increasing tensions between both parties, the NPP and DPP may be set for a permanent split in the near future, as accentuated by the issue of a recall vote facing NPP chair Huang Kuo-Chang...
The "election" of Carrie Lam as Chief Executive of Hong Kong should be of little surprise to those who follow Hong Kong politics. But what now for Hong Kong?...
Last week’s demolition of the home of Chang'an West Road resident Chang Chuan-chin under suspicious circumstances which were claimed to be an accident has raised fears of a renewed wave of forced urban evictions in Taipei, with the recent lifting of restrictions on urban development passed after the demolition of the Wang family home in Shilin...
Upcoming elections for the position of Chief Executive in Hong Kong should only further demonstrate that the facade of democracy in Hong Kong has all but fallen away...
A hearing by the Constitutional Court of the Judicial Yuan on the subject of gay marriage earlier today has provoked anger among marriage equality advocates after comments by Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-San arguing against marriage equality during the hearing. The outcome of the hearing remains forthcoming, but could potentially legalize marriage equality in Taiwan...
Controversy has erupted in National Taiwan University after a student group, the NTU Kaohsiung Student Union, released an advertisement for an upcoming campus event featuring an image of a bound woman surrounded by men, with the accompanying text strongly suggesting gang rape...
Recent comments by Hau Lung-Pin, a KMT party heavyweight and a major contender in the upcoming race for party chair, illustrate how the KMT has largely failed to reckon with its authoritarian past...
The possibility of conflict breaking out between Taiwanese youth activists and the DPP seems quite likely in the near future, with discussion of an oversight bill for cross-strait trade deals scheduled for late next week. But although the passage of such a bill was one of the significant demands of the Sunflower Movement, the DPP has stalled and even reversed course multiple times on the issue....
A recent scandal concerning the murder of a 22-year-old Taiwanese model is revealing of the vacuousness, misogyny, and sensationalism of much of Taiwanese media...
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.