Brian Hioe

Bilingual 2030 Rebrand Still Criticized

Brian Hioe
Following criticisms by academics, teachers, and others, the government appears to be shifting tack with plans to encourage bilingual education in Taiwan. The policies previously referred to as “Bilingual Nation 2030” have been rebranded as “Bilingual 2030” and the goal is no longer to make Taiwan into a bilingual nation by 2030. However, the new set of policies has still been criticized by educational groups such as the National Federation of Teachers Unions...
EnglishJuly 2022Politics5 min read

Legal Case Over Chiang Diaries Reflects Struggle Over Historical Memory

Brian Hioe
The Taiwan High Court ruled earlier this week that the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo from when they were president belong to the state, upholding a ruling by the Taipei District Court from June 2020. The decision from June 2020 also stated that the papers written by the Chiangs when they were not president belong to their heirs, and this was upheld in the most recent ruling. Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo, of course, ruled over Taiwan during the authoritarian era, as father and son strongmen...
EnglishJuly 2022Politics5 min read

Clashes Between Demonstrators, Suspected Gangsters in Miaoli Over Landfill Development Plans

Brian Hioe
Clashes broke out in Miaoli earlier this week over the Kunyu landfill, when local residents demonstrating the landfill’s construction were allegedly attacked by men that they allege were gangsters hired by the construction company. The clashes took place around 3 AM yesterday, in the early morning hours of Thursday. Eight were injured, consisting of five men and three women, including a student whose glasses were broken during the struggle...
EnglishEnvironmentalJuly 2022Social Movements7 min read

Biden Comments Suggest Disapproval of Pelosi Visit to Taiwan

Brian Hioe
A scoop by the Financial Times on Tuesday reported that US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi planned to visit Taiwan next month. However, US president Joe Biden surprised today with apparent off-the-cuff comments suggesting that his administration viewed the Pelosi visit as a bad idea. When asked about the prospect of a Pelosi visit, Biden stated, “Well, I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is”...
EnglishInternationalJuly 2022Regional Tensions8 min read

Authoritarian Nostalgia Plays Role in Pan-Blue Nuclear Advocacy

Brian Hioe
Pan-blue media personality Jaw Shaw-kung, one of the leading figures of the “Fighting Blues” within the KMT, recently took a strong stance against the Tsai administration’s energy transition policy. Jaw criticized the Tsai administration as overly reliant on LNG terminals and instead called for the extension of Reactor No. 2 and Reactor No. 3’s operational lifetimes, as well as the restart of the controversial Lungmen Reactor No. 4. Jaw’s comments are worth examining for how this sheds light upon the pan-Blue camp’s framing of Taiwan’s current energy issues...
EnglishEnvironmentalJuly 2022Social Movements7 min read
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Brian Hioe

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.

丘琦欣，創建破土的編輯之一，專於撰寫社會運動和政治的自由作家偶而亦從事翻譯工作。他自哥倫比亞大學畢業，是亞洲語言及文化科系的碩士，同時擁有紐約大學的歷史，東亞研究及英文文學三項學士學位。