In Tamsui, Taiwan, more than 11,000 kilometers distant from the township of Zorra in the Canadian province of Ontario, there is a Mackay Street, and June 2 is “Dr. Mackay’s Day.” George Leslie Mackay (1844–1901) was the first missionary sent overseas by the Canada Presbyterian Church, and he contributed much to Taiwan in the fields of religion, healthcare, and education.
Bananas were first grown in Taiwan several hundred years ago. Today, after centuries of cultivar selection, Taiwanese bananas are proudly exported to Japan and Dubai, and were even chosen as a food for the athletes’ village at the Tokyo Olympics.
Fruit is best eaten in season right where it is grown. But what if in the chill of winter you want to eat summer fruits like mango or lychee? The answer lies in the old saying “spring cultivation, summer weeding, autumn harvesting, and winter storage.” If you transform tropical fruits by dehydration or cooking, concentrating their flavors into dried fruits or jams, you can capture their magnificent tastes and enjoy them all year round.
Originally from Southeast Asia, these writers have put down roots in Taiwan, where their books are widely acclaimed. As Taiwanese writers, they even enjoy popularity overseas. We may refer to them as “Malaysian-born writers in Taiwan.”
Autumn is the season when the persimmons ripen, and the only time of you can eat them fresh. Take a trip to Hsinchu’s Xinpu Township, Taiwan’s largest producer of dried persimmons, and stop for a moment to appreciate the scenes of sunlight pouring through the fruit drying racks. Any photo you take will be beautiful, for at a moment like this everyone is a master photographer.
For ten years now, two neighborhoods in Southern Taiwan have chosen to make light their calling cards. With their colorful, artistic lanterns that line the streets and canals, the Tainan Phoo Tse Lantern Festival and the Yuejin Lantern Festival offer more than just opportunities for Facebook and Instagram photos. For their locales in greater Tainan, the festivals have also made deep cultural impressions and become important sources of living memories.
Taiwan boasts the largest number of pineapple varieties in the world. Fresh Taiwanese pineapples’ delicate texture and balanced flavor also make them the world’s best. Superior cultivars and stringent cultivation techniques have laid a strong foundation for exports, and pineapples are currently Taiwan’s top fruit in terms of export volume.
After more than a century of development, no matter how dazzling the skyscrapers of Taipei’s East District and Xinyi District may be, the old city area centered on the North Gate still retains the traces and charm of times past.
Jujubes come onto the market in Taiwan in the run-up to the Lunar New Year. In 1944, Indian jujubes (Ziziphus mauritiana), less than ten grams in weight and sour and astringent in taste, were introduced to the island. But since then they have been dramatically transformed into sweet, juicy fruits weighing up to 200 grams. For this the credit goes to agricultural experts and farmers, whose hard work enables us all to experience the joy of jujubes.
The major domestic outbreak of Covid-19 in Taiwan in 2021 triggered a sharp rise in demand for intensive care wards. At the same time, however, global shipping had come to a halt, and building materials were in short supply. Miniwiz Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese firm that upcycles consumer and industrial waste into construction and consumer products, sprang into action by collecting huge quantities of local medical waste and turning it into safe and useful new products.
