It’s been said that the excursion train running 20 minutes up the mountain from the town of Jiji is Taiwan’s most popular scenic railway. It could be, because even on a Tuesday, it was packed. This narrow-gauge railway was built to haul logs to a sawmill, but no more, now it just hauls people. You […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Taiwan' Category
WoWasis book review: ‘Woman Islands,’ Taiwanese fiction by Chung Wenyin
Chung Wenyin is one of Taiwan’s most prolific writers of fiction. Originally published in Chinese in 1998, Women Islands (2011, ISBN 978- 986-82340-1-7) now appears translated into English. This novel is the tale of a young Chinese woman torn between familial responsibilities, her own personality, and the fact that she’s unprepared for the job market […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis visits the Chaotian Temple in Beigang, Taiwan
Located a few km northwest of the central Taiwanese city of Chiayi is the city of Beigang, where the flamboyantly exotic temple of Chaotian is situated. It’s one of Taiwan’s most important temples dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu, the deity of one of the major folk beliefs in the coastal provinces in Taiwan and […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Formosa in Fiction,’ by Rolf-Peter Wille
Rolf-Peter Wille is a German writer that has lived in Taiwan since 1978, which makes 33 years as of this writing. He is also a pianist who has performed all over the world both as soloist as well as in a piano duo with his wife, Lina Yeh, who also serves as one of the […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis visits Taiwan’s National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium
Visitors to Taiwan’s southern-tip Hengchun Peninsula should be certain not to miss the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium. Here, you’ll see a vast, colorful array of corals and the fascinating creatures that inhabit the reef area, as well as a wonderful collection of sea animals that to a large extent, swim around you, […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis visits Taiwan’s Sanxia Zushi (Sansia Zushih) temple near Taipei
The Taipei area is known for its beautiful temples, but for us here at WoWasis, none was more striking than Sanxia Zushi, 30 km southwest of Taipei. It’s a fairly close taxi ride away from the Yingge Ceramics Museum, so our suggestion is that you see both on the same day. In our opinion, […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Angelwings,’ queer fiction from Taiwan
Oh how we desperately wanted to like Angelwings: Contemporary Queer Fiction from Taiwan (2003, ISBN 0-8248-2661-2). It had all the markings of a winner, ten short fiction stories told from a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender perspective (referred to in Taiwan as the tonqzhi and ku’er wenxue movements). Here at WoWasis, our problem was that the […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis visits Taiwan’s Yingge Ceramics Museum
Located roughly 30 minutes outside of downtown Taipei, the Yingge Ceramics Museum, located in New Taipei City, is well worth the visit. Housed in a dynamic glass-concrete-steel building, the museum houses some 2,000 pieces of pottery, many of which are remarkable. The history of pottery making in Taiwan is ancient, the quality outstanding. Permanent exhibitions […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Wang Wen-hsing’s ‘Family Catastrophe’ from Taiwan
When originally written in 1972, Wang Wen-hsing’s ‘Family Catastrophe’ created a ton of controversy. His story of a dysfunctional family flew in the face of the Confucian concept of respect for parents. The story revolves around a young man named Fan Yeh, and is unfolded in a non-traditional time-lapse interpretation involving an older step-brother, a […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis visits historic Lin An Tai House, Taipei
Like many other nations, Taiwan has done a great job of tearing down its old houses in its surge to create a modern country. Aside from its venerated temples, there’s precious little left of Taiwan’s architectural past. Fortunately, Taipei has preserved a very old house that was built in 1785 by Lin Chin-Ming, and moved […]
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