Decoding the island's cultural DNA — every Friday from Taiwan.
Oct 16, 2026
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4 min read
My father bought this fish at a harbour auction on the Tainan coast. Two historians disagree about where its name came from.
Oct 9, 2026
2 min read
A bowl of fish-ball soup at Hualien Harbor, and the fish in it that chases flying fish.
Oct 2, 2026
3 min read
For eighteen issues I signed off with the word Formosa. I never checked where it came from.
Sep 25, 2026
6 min read
Six dice, one bowl, and two stories about where the game came from. Only one of them was written down.
Sep 18, 2026
house with the wrong year in its name, a town named as a thank-you, and a man in Anping who tells every guest where his family came from.
Sep 11, 2026
We drove out to see a tree that isn't a tree. It rained, and we watched it from a bridge.
