English

The Rodrigo Roa Duterte Case: An Explainer

Josiah David F. Quising
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is the first Filipino and the first Asian to be arrested by the International Criminal Court. He has been accused of orchestrating a series of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that occurred during his time as mayor of Davao City (2011–2016) and continued under his anti-drug campaign as president (2016–2019). According to the ICC Prosecutor, this falls under what is called crimes against humanity—killings or exterminations committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population...
April 2025EnglishInternationalPoliticsRegional Tensions11 min read

Review: Ká-sióng, A Collection of Taiwanese Short Fiction

Maya Rubin
Literary translation is having a moment, particularly in Taiwan. You might have seen the recent, glowing New York Times profile of Tilted Axis, a British publisher specializing in translated literature, or witnessed the frenzy over Lin King and Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子)’s National Book Award win for King’s brilliant translation of Taiwan Travelogue. Riding that wave is Ká-sióng (the Taiwanese Hokkien romanization of 假想), a collection of five newly translated Taiwanese short stories recently published by Strangers Press in partnership with the Taiwan Ministry of Culture, National Museum of Taiwan Literature, and Books from Taiwan. The stories in Ká-sióng, each of which has a different author and translator, are almost dizzyingly diverse, from body horror in an Indigenous Atayal village to sci-fi memory manipulation in a futuristic, flooded Taipei. The stories–which are presented in arbitrary sequence–offer a polyphonic, cacophonous vision of Taiwanese fiction and culture...
April 2025Arts and CultureEnglishFeaturedLiterature and Poetry14 min read

Taiwan Should Step Up Aid to Myanmar’s Future Government, Not Its Current Military Junta

Brian Hioe
A Taiwanese rescue team dispatched to Myanmar in the wake of the 7.7 earthquake that struck the country earlier this week has been dissolved after more than 48 hours on standby. Reportedly, neither the Thai authorities nor the Myanmar authorities responded to Taiwan’s offer of assistance after both countries were impacted by the earthquake, collapsing buildings, and killing thousands...
April 2025EnglishInternationalPoliticsRegional Tensions4 min read

Migrant Workers in Taipei Raise Awareness of Gender Violence, Palestine Through Song and Dance

Girard Mariano Lopez
On Sunday, dozens of migrant workers in Taipei gathered at the city’s central train station to protest gender violence against migrant women as well as raise awareness about the plight of Palestinian women and children through a flash mob performance. This was in celebration of “One Billion Rising”, an annual campaign against rape and gender violence held in 60 countries worldwide. The name comes from a statistic that within their lifetime, at least one in three women across the world will have encountered gender violence, which totals to around one billion people...
April 2025EnglishFeaturedLaborSocial Movements5 min read

Taiwan Affairs Office’s “Hired Thugs” List Reveals Beijing’s Priorities At Present

Brian Hioe
China has updated its list of Taiwanese independence advocates that it sanctions. In particular, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) announced last month that it has opened a new mailbox for individuals to report tips on what are termed “Taiwanese independence hired thugs”. According to the TAO, it has received 323 reports to date. Eleven individuals are listed as “hired thugs”...
April 2025Cross StraitEnglishFeaturedInternationalPolitics6 min read