Southwestern Taiwan is a strong-hold of traditional Taiwanese culture. Many people in this region still speak “Minnanhua,” the local Chinese dialect also known as Taiwanese, in preference to Mandarin. Yet at the same time, the southwest has a corridor of Hakka settlements stretching nearly 50 kilometers from north to south. Taiwanese society is a multiethnic…
Some suggestions on where to go and the singers and bands you might hear. It’s a night full of surprises – the good kind. You managed to overcome your “worked-all-day, just finished-dinner” lethargy to head out into the night for a live band you’ve never seen before in a place you’ve never been. The venue…
The Mid-Autumn Festival – also known as the Moon Festival – has been one of the most important observances on the Chinese calendar since at least the Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD). But the Taiwanese have been finding new ways to celebrate the holiday, which this year falls on the evening of September 13. The essence…
Specialty coffee shops have sprung up on nearly every street corner in recent years. Can they thrive in a traditional tea-drinking culture? Nobody seems quite sure when Taipei’s love affair with specialty coffee shops began. The pioneers have been around for more than a decade: Woolloomooloo, Rufous Coffee, and of course Cama, which has more…
Much of what is now downtown Taipei was once enclosed within city walls, with access through five gates. The area has a lot to tell about the city’s history. The Taipei city wall was completed by the Qing Dynasty in 1884. Although it survived for only 16 years, its influence on modern Taipei is still…
Taiwan offers a wealth of options for helping to improve wellness and mindfulness. In many countries, religious and spiritual retreats have become a counterweight to the relentless march of progress and materialism. The trend is especially evident in Taiwan, which is known for being a beacon of religious freedom and one of the world’s centers…
The classic garment is elegant and evocative of traditional Chinese culture. But do you need the figure of a professional model to carry off wearing one? As a Chinese-American, I have always loved wearing a qipao for special occasions. But after having four kids and living the diplomatic high life in Taiwan for three years,…
Visitors eager to get a glimpse of the Taiwan of yore can easily devote an entire day to Lukang and at least two days to Tainan. Lukang, a small town on the west coast, in its 18th-century heyday was one of the island’s foremost centers of trade, while Tainan was Taiwan’s capital for over 200…
By Steven Crook and Katy Hui-Wen Hung “My father was born in 1926 in Tamsui. My mother was born in 1930 in Tokyo, where my grandfather (who was from Banqiao; my maternal grandmother was from Tainan) worked as a financial advisor until 1946. During the war, both of my parents ate hiromaru lunchboxes, with the…
Katy Hui-wen Hung and Steven Crook discuss their newly published book. Katy Hui-wen Hung: I grew up in Taipei, studied in the U.S. from 1984 to 1986, and have lived in the UK since the late 1980s. Some years ago in the UK, I got to know Marlena Spieler, the acclaimed cookbook writer. Marlena, an…
