The Many Faces of Indonesia

Indonesia has a population of some 260 million people and is enjoying GDP growth of more than 5% in 2017, making it both an enormous market and an engine for growth within the recently created ASEAN Economic Community. The country is undergoing wholesale change and international investors are ......

Surabaya, the Years of Struggle:

Taiwanese Firms in Indonesia’s Second City

Surabaya, with a population of 3 million, is Indonesia’s second largest city, and one of its most modern. Taiwanese businesspeople first began going there in the 1970s. In the 1990s a large new group moved in, and today everywhere you look you see signs of their presence.......

Linking Taiwan to Silicon Valley: The Taiwan Innovation Entrepreneurship Center

Over the last several years, the spread of Silicon Valley’s startup culture to the whole of the San Francisco Bay Area has made the entire region synonymous with “startups.” Taiwan recently opened the doors of its own Bay Area startup accelerator, the Taiwan Innovation Entrepreneurship Center ......

Going Barefoot—One for One

Buying a pair of shoes can be simply another consumer experience in your local department store—or it could be one that changes the life of a child. During her missions abroad, Mimi Chen has seen many children who were forced to give up their education just because they didn’t have shoes to we......

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 ......

Wind, Waves, and Wonder

—Surfing in Taiwan

For people from Europe, North America, Japan, and Korea, where winters are cold, it’s a real luxury to be able to surf in warmer climes. People can come to Taiwan and surf year-round, with warm seas, diverse and delicious food, and the friendliness of the Taiwanese people all being normal part......