The Beauty of Creation

Gentle Birthing in Taiwan

Have you ever asked your mother about the circumstances of your birth, or asked other family members about theirs? We are taught all our lives that the day we were born was a great trial for our mothers. Certainly it takes a heroic effort for a mother to give birth. But aside from the physical suffe ...more

Green Island Reflections

After 50 minutes bobbing through mighty waves, the ferry from Tai-tung’s Fu-gang Fishing Harbor finally brings us to Green Island, which stands alone out in the Pacific Ocean. This is a place where political prisoners were once confined, and the hillsides still retain patriotic slogans carved ...more

Decorative Tiles and Red Brick

A Taiwanese Architectural Dialogue

Look up while visiting a traditional Taiwanese san­he­yuan, or courtyard home, and you might see decorative tiles dotting the roof ridge or the walls. These tiles were an ingenious finishing touch added to lovely old Taiwanese buildings, their visual interplay with the ordinary red brick aro ...more

Crafty Fashion: Giving Taiwanese Manufacturing a Voice Through Design

Designers are often faced with the question of how to balance personal creativity with commerce. Tai­chung makes that balancing act a bit easier. Its relatively low rents and labor costs, and Tai­pei-comparable competitive pressures, make it more accommodating to experimental spaces, enticin ...more

Documentaries of the 1960s

A Pioneering Decade for Taiwanese Cinema

Documentary films flourished in 1960s Taiwan. The films focused on such themes as family life and the routines of city dwellers, and often played out against a backdrop of the social issues of the time. What kind of era was it? What was on the minds of the directors of that day? Let us explore these ...more

Taichung, Future Capital of Smart Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector is always changing to reflect contemporary trends of technological development. Since the steam engine ushered in the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, machines have been gradually replacing the power of man and beast. The Second Industrial Revolution at the end of ...more

Making Beauty Part of Life

An Alternative Classroom Landscape

If a classroom contained a sofa or its exterior became a cave, what kind of scene would that be? These are examples of the classroom landscapes created for children by teacher ­Huang Kuo­ping of New Tai­pei City’s ­Chong De Elementary School. When textbooks have boxes to fill ...more

Training Top-Flight Doctors:

Chang Gung Hospital’s Microsurgery Program

It is not yet 7 a.m., but already the conference room of the Plastic Surgery Department at ­Chang Gung Memorial Hospital is filled with doctors preparing to take part in a morning micro­sur­gery discussion meeting. They include surgeons from many different countries, who share their expe ...more