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.
When it comes to Taiwanese films, we usually think of famous directors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang and Ang Lee. In recent years, however, young filmmakers originally from other countries, such as Malaysian-born Ho Wi Ding and Myanmar-born Lee Yong Chao and Midi Z, have also garnered critical acclaim in both Taiwan and the wider world. These immigrant directors are breathing new life into Taiwan’s film industry with their international perspectives.
Nestled between mountains and sea, the Shen’ao Line hugs Taiwan’s Northeast as it navigates the area’s beautiful scenery.
Many streets in Taiwan are alive with vibrant colors. Which of these colors can represent Taiwan? Everyone has a different answer.
From the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries, Taiwan was known as the camphor kingdom. Over 70% of the world’s camphor was exported from Taiwan, to be used as an ingredient in smokeless gunpowder and in celluloid for movie film. These days natural camphor has largely been replaced other materials, and the glory days of the camphor industry are in the past. But by following a branch rail line in Taiwan we can get a glimpse of the sites where camphor once was harvested and processed.
“One thing that Small Island Big Song has taught me is to set aside the limitations of national borders, because the ocean does not have such boundaries.” So says BaoBao Chen, founder of the “Small Island Big Song” project, which aims to use music to link together Austronesian island countries and discuss environmental issues.
