As Taipei 2018 mayoral elections approach ever closer, it remains an opaque question as to whether the DPP will back Ko Wen-Je. In the meantime, one can divine something of the shifts in the DPP’s position going into 2018 elections as compared to 2016 from the continued debate over whether the DPP will endorse Ko this year...
What has been read as the “banning” of children’s cartoon character Peppa Pig in Chinese media can be seen as the begin of what will probably be an expansive cycle of relatively harmless icons being banned in China because they come to be perceived as too politically sensitive. We might take a closer look...
A great deal of uncertainty would seem to be ahead for the planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and American president Donald Trump, which is scheduled to take place on June 12th in Singapore. This is particularly seeing as Trump has decided abruptly to withdraw from a nuclear deal with Iran that lifted long-standing economic sanctions on Iran in 2015 in return for Iran dismantling aspects of its nuclear weapons program...
Healthcare workers are on the protest in Taiwan, as observed in recent demonstrations outside the Ministry of Health and Welfare on May 6th by the Taiwan Radical Nurses’ Union calling for better workplace protections for nurses...
With over 1,000 demonstrating on May 5th to call for implementation of a jury trial system, members of the public continue to attempt to push the Tsai administration towards advocacy for a jury-based system...
A recent article in the South China Morning Post by Lawrence Chung has provoked ire, with its bizarre suggestion that former president Ma Ying-Jeou pursue the Taiwanese presidency for a third term. Indeed, the factual errors and implausible speculations of this article only go to show how much the South China Morning Post has deteriorated as a publication, in becoming little more than a propaganda organ for China...
China forcing airlines to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites is a highly significant move in framing Taiwan as part of China from the get-go for anyone going to Taiwan. As it seems unlikely that airlines will defy China, in spite of American condemnations, this may require intelligent responses...
In surprising fashion, the KMT and DPP may be converging on similar tactics in its choice of political candidates in 2018 elections, at least where Taipei mayoral candidates are concerned. This perhaps illustrates that the DPP and KMT are in many ways caught in the same bind politically at present...
The much-anticipated South African film of the year, The Wound, was officially released on the 27th of April, 2018, in the UK. The film was much anticipated because it is indeed one of the very few films that deal with aspects of homoeroticism and homosexuality in traditional African communities. But what to make of the film and reactions to it among white, liberal audiences?...