The detention and questioning of television personality Wang Ping-chung by police, a member of the deep Blue third party of the New Party, and three other New Party members, Hou Han-ting, Lin Ming-cheng, and Chen Ssu-chun, has led to divided reactions from Taiwanese society...
While LGBTQ organizations in Taiwan such as the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline have publicly stated that the recall vote recently faced by NPP chair Huang Kuo-Chang should be a wake-up call for LGBTQ groups in Taiwan, as a reminder of the fact that they remain opposed by a number of socially conservative forces, this also raises a question worth considering. Was it, in fact, anti-gay marriage groups which were the primary force behind the recall vote against Huang? Ultimately, even if the recall vote did not succeed, what one finds in examining the social forces behind the recall vote is that the NPP may have been outgunned from the beginning by conservative social forces...
Despite official commemorations by the Taiwanese government yesterday stressing the role migrant workers play in Taiwanese society at the 228 Memorial Park to commemorate International Migrants’ Day, which is today on December 18th, rights for migrant workers has a long way to go in Taiwan. This what bears keeping in mind today on International Migrants’ Day...
Several thousand demonstrated in Taichung against growing problems of air pollution in Taiwan today. According to varying estimates, between 5,000 to 9,000 were in attendance, but despite the size of the protest, the demonstration was less reported on by media due to taking place outside of Taipei. This is ironic, given that the focus of the demonstration was in many ways on problems of pollution as facing urban areas outside of Taipei, and on redistributing political power in a more even manner across Taiwan...
Huang Kuo-Chang has survived the recall vote organized against him by anti-gay marriage groups in his electoral district of New Taipei 12. Nevertheless, this was by the recall vote not meeting the necessary benchmark to pass, and the amount of voters who voted in favor of the recall were greater than those that voted against it. What now for the NPP, then?...
With the passage of transitional justice legislation by the Legislative Yuan, one can in fact expect debates regarding transitional justice in Taiwan to become fiercer, rather than be settled...
Anger has broken out from activists after punishment against China Airlines workers for participation in the China Airlines strike last year, the first strike in the history Taiwan’s airline industry. This took the form of the firing of China Airlines workers Lin Xinyi, forced transfer of Zhang Shuyuan, and Zhu Liangjun facing punishment and being made to sit down and talk with management...
With NPP chair Huang Kuo-Chang facing a recall vote on December 16th, whether Huang can survive his recall vote regarding his support of gay marriage is, in some way, a sign of whether youth voters stand any chance of changing older, more traditionally conservative electoral districts such as Huang’s New Taipei 12th District...
With reportedly over 30,000 taking to the streets yesterday in Kaohsiung in demonstration against planned changes according to some counts, significantly larger than any protest in Taipei to date, pressure upon the DPP regarding planned changes to the Labor Standards Act will continue, increasing the likelihood of divides within the party...
New Bloom presents the fifth installment of our podcast, Radio New Bloom! For our fifth installment of Radio New Bloom, we spoke to Dana and James from HCT Regenerative, the first organ and tissue bank in Taiwan...
