Schedium

Is it love or is it madness? Perhaps it's just a bit of both.  On February 20, a 23-year-old Dutch national arrived at Taoyuan International Airport with his pregnant Taiwanese girlfriend . The couple were not married and had apparently come to Taiwan so that he could meet the girl's parents. But things did not go too well for them.  During a previous sojourn in Taiwan  the man had overstayed his visa and had been banned from entering the country for three years. When he arrived at the immigration inspection, he was informed that he could not leave the airport and had to be repatriated. His girlfriend, however, had already passed the passport control. While awaiting repatriation at the airport the man kept talking on the phone with his girlfriend and cried. Then he received a message: "I miss you." After reading these words he lost his mind. He jumped over the barrier of the immigration inspection and ran out of the airport. He walked for 3 kilometers

When you see scenes like this you know why Taipei really needs an airport express. Last week I arrived at Taipei Bus Station (located right next to Taipei Main Station ) and there I saw this huge line of people waiting to board the bus to the airport. When the bus arrived there were so many passengers that I had no choice but to wait for the next one. Overall it took me about one hour and a half to get from the bus station to the airport.  Then I arrived in Hong Kong. I exchanged some money, bought something to drink, recharged my Octopus Card (the equivalent of Taipei's Easy Card) and took that amazing, super modern, spacious Airport Express that runs from Hong Kong International Airport to Central in just 25 minutes!  When I first came to Taiwan at the end of 2011, I was quite surprised that this island, known all over the world for its high-tech industry, had no direct MRT connection between the airport and Taipei Main Station. I bought a ticket, exited the airport an

Today (March 6) a court in New Taipei City sentenced Zheng Jie (鄭捷) to the death penalty . Last year Zheng killed 4 people and injured 22 in a knife attack in the Taipei Metro. On May 21, 2014, Zheng had boarded a train of the Taipei Metro in Longshan Station. After the train departed, he went on a stabbing spree. The terrorized passengers were trapped for a few minutes inside the train.  During the interrogations following his arrest, Zheng admitted that the knife attack was premeditated. He said that he had chosen Longshan Station because the distance to the next stop, Jiangzicui Station, was longer than the average. This allowed him to kill as many people as possible.

Ke Wenzhe (in Taiwan spelt Ko Wen-je) is the first elected mayor of Taipei who was personally affected by the 228 Incident. In a speech delivered on February 28 of this year, Ke talked about the tragedy that befell his own family and the entire Taiwanese society.  Here is my translation of the speech:    *** Today is the 68th anniversary of the 228 incident. As a relative of one of the victims, I am one of you. I remember how my father used to come back home every year from the 228 ceremony with tears in his eyes. Seeing my father's tears deeply hurt me. But I know that the pain that my father felt for his own father was even stronger. In that tragic year 1947 many Taiwanese people lost their relatives and friends, and Taiwan's society lost some of its most brilliant intellectuals. Afterwards a long era of terror, of silence and estrangement descended upon our history. People built an invisible wall that separated them from their fellow citizens, a wal

On February 24 a scuffle broke out between mainland Chinese tourists who were visiting Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holidays.  According to media reports, a queueing dispute erupted between two women who were waiting for the restroom in Taipei 101, Taiwan's tallest skyscraper and one of the country's tourist landmarks.  The women belonged to two different tourist groups, one from Yunnan and another from Tianjin. The quarrel escalated and two men began yelling at each other. They came to blows and one of them was knocked down. When he got up he wanted to take revenge, but he was stopped by some female members of his group. Security guards soon arrived at the scene to separate the men. 

As Xi Jinping tightens control over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), further restricts freedom of speech and revives Marxist and Maoist ideology, the judicial system, too, is undergoing a conservative counter-reformation aimed at strengthening the role of the Party and excluding possible reforms inspired by the judicial system of liberal countries.  According to China News , on February 25 the Party leadership group of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China released a statement stressing that the country must preserve "the judicial system of socialism with Chinese characteristics " (中国特色社会主义司法制度). At the same time, it strongly rejected what it described as "Western judicial independence and the separation of powers" (西方“司法独立”、“三权鼎立”). The Supreme People's Court said that the judicial system must "resolutely resist the influence of wrong Western thought and wrong Western viewpoints."

While this year the number of mainland Chinese tourists that spent their Chinese New Year holidays in Hong Kong has declined for the first time since the 1997 handover, neighbouring Japan and South Korea have become increasingly popular with Chinese travellers. Data released by Hong Kong's immigration department show that 675,155 mainlanders visited Hong Kong between February 18 and 22, a 0.16%  drop compared with last year. Many regard the rising anti-Chinese sentiment in Hong Kong as the main cause for the diminishing popularity of the former British colony among mainland visitors.  Over the last few years, the misbehaviour of some mainland tourists as well as the soaring number of Chinese shoppers have caused widespread anger in Hong Kong and prompted many citizens to take to the streets. On February 8, for example, around 800 Hong Kong residents  protested  against Chinese one-day shoppers and parallel traders that are making the city unlivable. Japan and South Ko

On February 2 Lee Teng-hui , the former leader of the Guomindang and the first democratically elected president of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), gave a speech at the Legislative Yuan concerning the issue of constitutional reform.  Lee Teng-hui is my favourite Taiwanese president. He implemented democratic reforms, defended the ROC against Beijing's claims to Taiwan, he managed the economy well and was a politician who exercised a strong leadership but was at the same time tolerant, humane, and capable of understanding and representing Taiwan's mainstream public opinion. In this respect, I consider him a better politician than Chen Shuibian and Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu), let alone Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo (Jiang Jingguo).  Three points in his speech seem to me quite interesting, and in this post I will briefly examine them. The first two points concern Taiwan's identity and economic situation. The third point relates to Lee's assertion tha