A member of Taitung’s Pinuyumayan community, Sangpuy Katatepan has been deeply attracted to the ancient melodies of his tribe since childhood. He composes the lyrics for each song on his albums in the Aboriginal language of his people. This love for the land is channeled by a robust yet gentle voice that not only moves the Taiwanese, but also transcends the language barrier, resonating with musicians abroad and earning him a gold medal at the September 2017 Global Music Awards in the USA.
Stepping foot on the rooftop of the Hong-Gah Museum on a clear day, the outlines of Mt. Danfeng, Mt. Qixing, Mt. Datun, Battleship Rock, and even that stronghold of local arts, Taipei National University of the Arts, are all visible. On the Guandu Plain in Taipei’s Beitou District, where the museum is situated, a wide road splits the landscape into an endless expanse of fields to one side and a forest of metal factories and homes to the other.
“Youth Banana” is a Taiwanese rock band whose very name bespeaks the younger generation’s creativity and sense of the absurd. Its four members—leader, keyboardist and lead singer Wang Kiwei (known as “Lao Wang” or “Old Wang”), bassist Jiang Wang, drummer Huang Tang Hsuan, and guitarist Zack Guo—all grew up in the little town of Qishan in Kaohsiung.
In 2019, Vietnam’s National Hospital of Pediatrics conducted a successful liver transplant on the youngest patient in the nation’s liver-transplant history; a surgical team from Taipei Veterans General Hospital performed the operation. A Thai government promotional video on smart medical care featured a wellness diagnostic kiosk manufactured in Taiwan.
Lin Sheng-xiang is a unique voice in Taiwan’s music community. He has long been focused on issues related to farming, labor and the environment, and he has a particular style that has absorbed the traditional and the modern in a blend of traditional Taiwanese music with Western rock and roll.
“What I want to be when I grow up.” Do you remember that assignment from elementary school? Now, years later, have you become the adult you envisioned?
When you walk into the IBU Book Café, in a lane off Nanxing Road in Yilan County’s Dongshan Township, the first sight that greets your eyes is a wall covered with a dazzling array of books, while your nose is met by a light fragrance of coconut and a heavy smell of spices. This is a place where you can borrow books and try out some Southeast-Asian cuisine, and it is also a space where migrant workers and long-term immigrants from Southeast Asia can interact.
Established in 1981 in the tradition of Germany’s Red Dot and iF design awards and Japan’s G Mark awards, the Golden Pin Design Awards are the most prestigious and influential professional design awards in the global Chinese market. Currently organized by the Taiwan Design Research Institute, the awards demonstrate the excellence and importance of Taiwan’s designers and showcase the newest trends in Asian design.
A trip to Taiwan can mean many things: personally visiting some of its 368 districts and townships, tasting local specialties, uploading photos to Instagram and Facebook…. Regardless of how you plan your visit, you will certainly want physical reminders of the scenes and scenery you experience, souvenirs that embody something of Taiwan’s character and can be shared with friends.
Cycling through the Chianan Plain along Taiwan’s oldest highway—Provincial Highway 1—the places we pass are bastions of prosperity pioneered by our forebears: irrigation reservoirs, cattle markets, bustling districts around train stations…. This journey follows the central artery through the area known as “Taiwan’s granary,” the main source of food for this island. As our bicycles cross geographical latitudes, we also encounter stories from across the years.
