Taiwan: A Place Where One Can Find Happiness

In October 2026, Taiwan Panorama held an exhibition of 50 years of photographs at Taipei’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park. The exhibit traced Taiwan’s transformation and connections with the wider world through our reports over the last half-century.

The 11-day exhibition attracted friends from around the globe. We even met some­­one featured in a Taiwan Panorama report 40 years ago.

As we watched visitors study each image, the emotion in their eyes warmed our hearts. We saw how they sensed the goodness, freedom, and inclusiveness of Taiwan’s diverse society.

It has always been our mission to introduce Taiwan’s people and its soft power to the world. In this month’s Cover Story we interview six foreign writers with longstanding ties to Taiwan, spanning journalism, scholarship, translation, acting, and rock music. Recognizing Taiwan’s value in different spheres, they tell Taiwan’s ­stories to the world in their mother tongues.

German Sinologist Stephan Thome has written in German about relations across the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan’s democratic development, as well as a novel set in Taiwan. Taiwanese-American journalist Clarissa Wei explores history, geopolitics, and identity through food in two books. Taiwanese-­Japanese writer Tae Hitoto, descended from the prominent Yan family of Keelung, has written the story of her roots in Japanese, showing “the Taiwan you can’t see in guidebooks.”

Meanwhile, Canadian Joe Henley founded the Taipei Metal website to introduce Taiwan music, and plays in a band that combines Buddhist teachings with death metal. Having found a sense of belonging in Taiwan, he has also written several topical books about the island. American reporter Chris Horton settled in Taiwan after living in China and Hong Kong, and wrote Ghost Nation to describe Taiwan’s path to democracy. South Korean translator Kim Taesung, a recipient of Taiwan’s Medal of Culture, is well versed in Taiwan literature and has translated more than 150 Chinese-language books into Korean, including challenging modern poetry.

In this issue we share Taiwan as seen by these writers with our readers.

We also visit the Taichung Green Museum­brary—a combined museum and library designed by a Pritzker Prize-­winning team to unite aesthetics with functionality. We examine how Taiwanese researchers are combating Fusarium wilt of banana and assisting Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, contributing to the global banana industry.

Taiwan has a self-confident democratic spirit, remarkable technology, beautiful scenery, and kindhearted people—qualities that deserve to be seen by the world. Taiwan Panorama will continue to bring you stories of life in Taiwan—a place where one can find happiness.