The recent “499 Chaos” ultimately proves no laughing matter given that it has its roots in the poor salaries faced by Taiwanese and the dominance of major Taiwanese industries by a small number of powerful companies...
Nora Lam is most recently the director of Lost in the Fumes, a documentary about Hong Kong localist Edward Leung. Lam has also worked on films including directing Midnight in Mong Kok and co-directing Road Not Taken. The following interview was conducted on May 9th by New Bloom editors Brian Hioe and Symin Chan during a visit by Lam to Taiwan...
As the two year anniversary of the Tsai administration taking power was on May 20th, recent comments by Tsai Ing-Wen on what she has accomplished to date in the two years of her presidency suggest that Tsai has not wholly abandoned attempts to keep the civil society groups that took public prominence after the Sunflower Movement happy...
As with past years, Taiwan’s lack of membership in the World Health Organization has become a matter of controversy again. Taiwan is currently blocked from participating in the World Health Organization and the WHO’s governing body, the World Health Assembly, due to Chinese pressure...
Reports that the Taiwan Civil Government is being investigated for fraud and scam activity may surprise few. However, it seems unlikely that the underlying ideology of the group will go away anytime soon. After all, vaguely similar conspiracy theories exist all over the world, but the underlying ideology of the Taiwan Civil Government would be one uniquely a product of Taiwan’s unusual geopolitical situation...
News that North Korea has cancelled planned talks with South Korea should be nothing surprising for those skeptical that peace had been achieved on the Korean Peninsula following a meeting between South Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea now also threatens to call off talks with the US, specifically raising issue with comments by American National Security Advisor John Bolton...
Confusion has broken out in the United States regarding perceptions that American president Trump has abruptly reversed course, with claims that “too many jobs [have been] lost” in China, and that he intends to reverse sanctions on Chinese electronics manufacturer ZTE...
A fee dispute between some of Taiwan’s most significant television networks has touched upon long-standing concerns about undue attempts to influence political developments through the media. Namely, television network Formosa TV has alleged that FoxConn CEO Terry Gou is attempting to use the fee dispute to prevent Formosa TV programs from being shown as a form of political censorship...
Images of the killing of Palestinians on the Israel-Gaza border during protests against the American Embassy relocation to Jerusalem have been shocking for many in Taiwan. However, instead of looking at this tragic set of events merely as a tragedy in a distant, faraway land, perhaps there are lessons from this to be drawn for Taiwan and connections to be drawn between Taiwan's own struggles and Palestine's plight...
With former president Ma Ying-Jeou facing four months of imprisonment after being found guilty of leaking classified information by the Taiwan High Court, it seems predictable that the KMT will leverage on this fact to claim political persecution by the DPP...