The first-ever Republican-era Sacrificial Official to Confucius, the last person to hold the hereditary title of Duke Yansheng, former president of the Examination Yuan of the ROC—and the 77th senior lineal descendent of the Sage—Kung Te-cheng survived stormy times while tenaciously maintaining the Confucian orthodoxy he inherited, and thereby inscribed his name as a 20th-century legend.
“One gains strength upon becoming a mother.” The fortitude of the mothers in the advocacy group “Parks and Playgrounds for Children by Children” bears witness to the truth of this Chinese idiom. “Our children inspired us to gain expertise and fight for their right to play.” These women have mobilized through social media.
In 2014, Leo Tsai (a.k.a. Tsai Shun-jen) launched his “traveling with door gods” activity. He and his team had deftly restored four paintings of door gods made by the famous temple artist Pan Li-shui, after which they received endorsement from International Architectural Paint Research (APR) to exhibit the restored paintings in Sweden. This showed that there is international recognition of the restoration standards upheld by Tsai and his team. Amidst numerous images of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, a
“That’s how you get there—just keep going and you’ll find the way.” On the day of our interview with Chu Chia-yi, he is quietly giving directions to the crew, but could just as easily be describing his career path. Chu’s youth has been an advantage. While everyone was still wondering how far he could go, Chu was heading up makeup special effects for the films The Tag-Along and The Mermaid, along with the TV series Wake Up 2. These have sent him on an uncommon journey for Taiwanese in his fie
A sedate and firmly grounded building stands at the intersection of Taipei’s Zhongshan South Road and Xinyi Road. In contrast, located opposite is Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which often overflows with the sound of boisterous visitors. The building in question, however, remains quiet and composed. In fact, inside are stored texts that have come down through the ages, and have been collected since the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912.
Remaining steadfast despite their history of hardship, the Hakkas are traditionally thought of as a people without a homeland of their own. Taiwan’s mother tongue revival movement of three decades ago sparked a growing sense of ethnic consciousness among Hakkas. Amid the swirling currents of democracy, they have striven to gain respect. Hakka studies first emerged as an academic discipline in Taiwan in 2003. In the 15 years since, the discipline has produced prodigious and varied fruits that h
Hou I-ting has long been concerned about the “politics of the body”—how images of the body are shaped and molded. Whether this molding occurs in mass culture, or in the history of art, or in the politics of women’s bodies, or in the ways that global production chains employ workers’ bodies, she asks questions about familiar images and then proceeds to reveal the “shaping mechanisms” involved.
Should traditional crafts, crystallizations of our ancestors’ wisdom and technical mastery, be expected to die out as times change? Are they so easily replaced by the fresh and newfangled?
Ko Hung-tu, an old painter who claims not to have much experience, works tirelessly with his brush to convey his appreciation of life. A leader in the design field, he has persevered in pursuing his childhood dream. His remarkably lifelike works record the most beautiful moments experienced by living beings.
Rocket engineer Gou Chongsin is so well known in Taiwan that the band Mayday wrote the song “Tough” about him. Taiwan’s dreams of space took flight in 2010 when his Advanced Rocket Research Center carried out Taiwanese academia’s first test launch of a hybrid-propellant rocket, the HTTP-1.
