Water from Heaven:

The Caoshan Waterway System and the Sapphire Spring

Water is precious, and we should keep in mind that it is hard to come by. But to get to know its sources is no easy matter. However, the Caoshan Waterway System, close to the Tianmu area of Taipei’s Shilin District, has been open to the public since 2020. Its facilities, dating back more than ......

Daxi’s Other New Year

A Century-Old Festival That Brings the Whole Town Together

Many cities around the world have a festival that comes to represent them: Kyoto has the Gion Matsuri and Munich has Oktoberfest. What makes these celebrations memorable is not simply the spectacle, but the way an entire city takes part. Daxi District in Taoyuan has a similar festival of its o......

Five Decades of Photos on Taiwan’s Democratic Development

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The Twilight Years of Taiwan’s Sugar Railways: The World’s Most Extraordinary Industrial Railway

In their heyday, Taiwan’s sugar railways formed one of the world’s most extraordinary narrow-gauge industrial railway systems. Their tracks crisscrossed southern and central Taiwan, stretching more than 3,000 kilometers—longer than the national railway network itself. At a time when sugar was ......

Riding the Wind

Taiwan International Balloon Festival

At 4:30 p.m., the atmosphere in the pilots’ briefing room at Luye Highland in Taitung is relaxed yet focused. After briefing the pilots in English on the schedule and weather forecast, balloon commander Wout Bakker carries two black pilot balloons—pibals—onto the field and releases them. Watch......

Recollections:

Young People Seeking Dialogue amid Chaos

At the offices of the CK Potpourri magazine club at Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School, we speak with 16- and 17-year-olds about democracy. Their tone is not that of enthusiastic politically active young people, but of fatigued internet users. Second-year students Huang Qianhang and Weng S......

Featured Story

Here’s to a Free and Democratic Taiwan! 30 Years of Direct Presidential Elections

Taiwan held its first direct presidential election in 1996. Thirty years on, we invite readers to experience Taiwan’s now-­familiar electoral culture anew through culture and aesthetics. Japanese scholars Yoshiyuki Oga­sa­wara and Masahito Wa­ta­nabe have both described Taiwan’s elections as g......

Featured Story

Prime Produce: Local Ingredients Reimagined

This month we visit farmers across Taiwan who are revitalizing traditional produce into brands that are taking the market by storm, in a movement that is a microcosm of the transformation and upgrading of industries islandwide.......

Featured Story

Sustainable Taiwan

Facing climate change and limited resources, progress toward “net-zero transition” has become a key indicator of national and corporate competitiveness. This month we take you across Taiwan to visit sites of “green resilience” and see our island’s astonishingly innovative solutions.......

Featured Story

Rural Renaissance: From Rustic Fare to Fine Local Dining

While everyone is pursuing exquisite dishes made by internationally famous chefs, have you ever stopped to try the delicious flavors of Taiwan’s rural cuisine? In this month’s Cover Story, we explore the revolution in “new local tastes” brought about by members of the “Tian Mama” certified eat......

Featured Story

Landscapes and Lifestyles

What is this “Taiwan” that we take for granted? We have long been used to viewing the ocean through car windows or exploring the mountains via artificially built trails. However, in this month’s Cover Story, we have tried to turn our attention in bolder directions. When one’s perspective chang......

Featured Story

Taiwanese Style Takes On the World

Reading the stories in this issue, I felt as if I was in a London market smelling the aromas of licorice and star anise wafting in the air, seeing that tree of uncertain identity—mandarin or pomelo?—in the backyard of an old house on Kinmen, and feeling the moist ceramic clay handled by four g......