In the high seas off west Africa, a fisherman on a Chinese longline tuna vessel cuts the fins off a live shark before throwing it back in the water to suffocate and drown.Its lucrative appendages will be landed at the port of Dakar before being shipped onward to Asia for use in shark fin soup, a del
French filmmaker Sebastien Vanicek vowed when he took charge of the sixth installment in the “Evil Dead” film series that it would be the most brutal. Mission accomplished, mon ami. Not the most artful or clever or scariest. Brutal.Vanicek has certainly delivered — a relentlessly violent, overlong,
As the sun reaches its peak, Leo energy invites us to shed our armor, embrace our inner child, and discover the liberation of radical authenticity.To atone for his sins, the hero Heracles was commanded to slay the invulnerable lion that roamed the Nemean Forest. When he realized that no weapon could
“Line” is widely identified as the most popular messaging app in Taiwan, with up to 90 percent market penetration. Countless foreigners use it, yet the complexity of its information ecosystems is often invisible to them. For Taiwanese, however, Line is full of all sorts of groups organized, like loc
For a diplomat, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene has been anything but subtle. Unlike his recent predecessors as American de facto ambassadors, he has openly thrown his weight around in local politics. The last time that I can recall Americans becoming blatantly involved in
The world’s tallest unoccupied skyscraper was meant to boast a rooftop pool and a luxury hotel after completion, but instead it has stood deserted in the Chinese port city of Tianjin for years.Work on the soaring Goldin Finance 117 began in 2008, but construction stalled as its developer fell into d
Amber Fan, the 22-year-old protagonist of Kit Fan’s heartfelt and elegiac second novel, is ready to say goodbye. Goodbye to her parents, who are booked on the midnight flight from London to Hong Kong, there to enjoy their sunset years having sold the family restaurant in London’s Chinatown. And good
In an era dominated by screens and artificial intelligence, Spanish creative duo Anna Devis and Daniel Rueda are known for transforming everyday objects and landscapes into playful visual illusions. For their first exhibition in Taiwan, the couple invites visitors to wander through their gallery and
As Arabic rap thundered from loudspeakers and hundreds of spectators packed the stands in the occupied West Bank city of Rawabi, handlers put the finishing touches on gleaming Arabian stallions before leading them into the show ring.“Palestinians have a huge passion for Arabian horses,” Abdelnasser
Bonnie Glaser, who over decades has built her career as one of America’s top experts on China and East Asia security, believes it is no longer safe for her to visit China.“I have not been back since 2019, nor would I go,” said Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marsh
Back in 2022, I wrote about an idea then on the fringe: that the Batanes Islands in the Bashi Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines could belong to Taiwan (“Yet another reason to save Taiwan,” June 20, 2022). Such an argument would be completely wrong and irrational, but that would not stop it f
July 13 to July 19“Police Bodhisattva” sits in the lotus position on a cloud, holding a sword in one hand and prayer beads in the other. Six additional hands behind him perform the main duties of Japanese-era law enforcement: maintaining left-hand traffic, ideological policing, arresting criminals,
Human language is notoriously slippery and imprecise. To offer some precision and clarity, we often turn to the language of numbers and mathematics. The problem is with the imprecise and slippery people using those numbers and the perennial “garbage in, garbage out” problem. We put a lot of hope in
The next time you see a satellite image of Taiwan, look at the eastern edge of Changhua County and notice the long snake-like dark patch. These are the steep hills where the terrain rises up from the plains of Changhua to higher, flat ground in Nantou County to the east. This abrupt change in topogr
In the heart of old Baghdad, legendary movie theaters stand abandoned and shrouded in dust, bearing witness to Iraq’s once-vibrant cultural scene.A few kilometers away, director Ali al-Bayati oversees his camera operators as they adjust their lenses for a scene in his upcoming horror film, which he
Say what you will about them, but the Disney live-action remakes have at least given us a choice. Which would you rather see? A spirited, soaring, animated Moana, or a purposeless remake featuring Dwayne Johnson with Fabio hair?The sea is wide, my friends. Yet Moana, the Polynesian wayfaring princes
Five referendum proposals are winding their way through the legislature, all proposed by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its smaller coalition partner, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). Last November, the legislature passed an amendment to the Referendum Act (公民投票法), stipulating th
In recent years, wage stagnation in Taiwan, especially after inflation, has been driving workers to leave low-paying service jobs and shift to gig work. A 2023 TVBS report states: “Cheng Min-chih, a new freelancer, used to handle cases while maintaining her 9 to 5 job, boosting her regular monthly i
When Beijing recently adopted its new ethnic unity law, international attention focused largely on its implications for China’s governance and ethnic minorities. Yet the legislation also carries significance beyond the People’s Republic itself. By reinforcing the idea of a single Chinese national id
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