Building Bridges with Books:

Taiwanese Texts Travel the World

Taiwan is the publishing hub of the Chinese-speaking cultural sphere, and ranks second in the world in the number of titles published. Where do we go from here? How about even further abroad? Taiwan caught the interest of the international community during the Covid pandemic. As the pandemic w......

Scenes from Independent Bookstores:

Kuo’s Astral Bookshop and Titsia

Kuo’s Astral Bookshop and the Titsia bookstore, which opened in 2022 even as many other bookshops were going out of business, were both established by people from the publishing industry and both embrace the belief that “reading is power.” The founders have opened them to make their dreams a r......

Champions of Foreign-Language Books:

Maison Temps-Rêves and Librairie Le Pigeonnier

Apart from renowned bookshop chains such as Eslite, Taiwan is home to a di-verse array of independent bookshops. Scattered all over our islands, these places not only sell books but also host lectures, exhibitions, and performances. As the capital city, Taipei especially abounds with bookish e......

Journeys through Literary Landscapes:

Taiwan’s Local Stories Go Global

Literature opens windows into a country’s soul. Through Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, we imagine life in the countryside of southeastern France. Digesting Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, we find ourselves untangling an allegory of Latin American history and social r......

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......

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 ......

The Taiwanese Camino:

Mazu Pilgrimages

The activities that take place in Taiwan each March to celebrate the goddess Mazu are the island’s most boisterous folk culture events. For seven to nine days and nights, people follow Mazu—Taiwan’s “number-one goddess”—on pilgrimages and “tours of inspection.” Walking in these processions pro......