Tsungwei Moo—Taiwan Artist at Yosemite

Art knows no borders! The warmth and passion of Taiwan’s artists is permeating the wider world. If you ever ha­ve the good fortune to visit California’s Yosemite National Park in the summer, you may see an artist wearing a woven bamboo hat sitting under a big tree, pastel stick in hand, sketch......

Reviving the Architecture of the Past—Li Chien-lang and the National Taiwan Museum

The National Taiwan Museum’s Nan­men Park branch is currently hosting an exhibition of drawings of the museum by renowned expert in architecture and historic building preservation Li ­Chien-lang. On the day his book of illustrations of the museum launched, Li was there being interviewed by the......

Art Director Hwarng Wern-ying: A Labor of Love

“For me, The Assassin actually started in 1998, after Flowers of Shanghai was released….” Hwarng Wern-ying has worked with director Hou ­Hsiao-­hsien for 20 years, of which ­Hwarng spent 12 planning and preparing for The Assassin. The sense of realism that comes through inside the frame comes ......

Painting Life One Line at a Time: Leigh Wen Sets Her Own Course

Artist Leigh Wen has a very distinctive style: she covers her canvases in layers of oil paint, then produces 3D effects on the flat surfaces by scraping lines into the oils. Born in Taiwan, Wen has lived in the United States for 33 years. Her resume includes two artist fellowships from the New......

Learning Huayu in Taiwan

—A Journey of Boundless Possibilities

Lukas Engström is a Swedish national based in Taiwan. Shortly after he started to learn Mandarin Chinese here, he visited a soft drinks bar to buy a cup of pearl milk tea. While in the queue, he kept repeating to himself the Chinese phrases he had to say to the staff. When at last he gave the ......

Soothing Taiwan’s Sweet Tooth

Stories of Local Pastries

Rivaling Willy Wonka’s legendary chocolate bars, and laden with even more stories than Marcel Proust’s madeleine cakes, Taiwanese pastries continue to satisfy our sweet tooth. With their origins in traditional Chinese confectionery, they are made with local ingredients rich in cultural meaning......

Tradition and Innovation:

The Protean Power of Instant Noodles

Who invented instant noodles? In Taiwan, we come across the forerunner of instant noodles, the world’s first instant noodles with sauce packets containing sumptuous chunks of meat, as well as those featuring distinctively local recipes that make use of Chinese medicinal herbs and huadiao, a cl......

A New Trend in Medical Tourism

—Healthcare and Health Maintenance in Taiwan

Hospitals in Taiwan possess high-end medical technology and equipment, and Taiwan is a world leader in certain specialties, including liver transplantation and reproductive medicine. Institutions here provide very cost-effective healthcare services and have a competitive advantage against the ......