Since the 1990s, Taiwan’s government has promoted the “Go South” and “New Southbound” policies, under which the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have become fertile new ground for Taiwanese entrepreneurship. At the same time, Taiwan has opened up its labor market to migrant workers from Southeast Asia, and increasing numbers of Southeast Asians have immigrated to Taiwan by marriage.
When the name Taijiang comes up, activists in local revitalization will think of the “temple classes” movement there. Hikers recognize it as the starting point for the Mountains to Sea National Greenway. Meanwhile, birdwatchers know that Taijiang is a wintering ground for the black-faced spoonbill, and that the founding of Taijiang National Park was closely related to Taiwan’s efforts to protect this bird.
In the classic words of French writer Honoré de Balzac: “If I’m not at home, I’m at a café. If not at a café, I’m on the way to a café.” Sipping a delicious cup of steaming coffee is enough to launch one into a wonderful world of imagination.
Taiwanese growers are using smart agriculture to cultivate world-class coffee, and locally grown coffee is taking off! Visit a local coffee estate and sample its fine single-origin brews to fully appreciate what these growers are up to.
Xingang in Chiayi County appeared on maps of Taiwan as long as 400 years ago. It has experienced floods, earthquakes, large-scale migrations and the transition from a commercial harbor to an agricultural community. In the 1980s, when the dajiale gambling phenomenon was at its height, it produced a grassroots movement for the little town’s revitalization.
“One Amis beats three lawnmowers!” the saying goes, and the Amis describe themselves as the “grass-eating people.” Aside from embodying the tribe’s traditional food wisdom, the Amis’ enduringly robust foraging culture resonates with contemporary concerns about reducing carbon footprints and promoting sustainability and biodiversity. Go to any morning market in Hualien or Taitung, or to any restaurant or night market for tourists there, and you will find traces of their foraging culture.
Yancheng began as a locality where salt was made by evaporating seawater by sunlight, but under the urban planning policies of the Japanese era it became Kaohsiung’s first sakariba (bustling consumer and entertainment district). After World War II it was again transformed, this time into a venue for the sale of imported products and contact with American culture.
Each of Diabolo Dance Theatre’s productions follows a certain pattern: the diabolo—an hourglass-shaped yo-yo spun by manipulating a string attached to two handsticks—takes center stage, while music, lighting, projected imagery, dance, and acrobatics serve to thread all together. In themselves, these various elements may appear unremarkable, but Diabolo orchestrates them in innovative ways.
In recent years the old quarter of downtown Taichung City has seen a wave of restorations of old buildings, the reopening of the Central Bookstore, and the opening of Taiwan Connection 1908, seemingly heralding a cultural renaissance in the city’s old central business district and injecting new vitality into this historic area.
On the streets of Taiwan, you can find Vietnamese at hairdressers and nail salons as well as Vietnamese rice noodle shops. You can also find them working at tea plantations in Nantou, lychee orchards in Taitung, water lily fields in Meinung, and bed and breakfasts and sesame twist factories on Xiaoliuqiu.
Just as Vietnamese are making their presence felt in Taiwan, so too are Taiwanese leaving their imprint on Vietnam.
“If you want to run, just run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.” Drawing on this quote by Czech runner Emil Zátopek, triple gold medalist in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, we can say: If you want to both run a marathon and admire the beautiful craftsmanship of nature, then run a canyon marathon.
