Student Protesters and Reporters arrested after Occupying the Ministry of Education

Students are shown handcuffed after protesting against ideologically-driven changes to the national curriculum

July 24, 2015May 13, 2016 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment anti-black-box, education-in-taiwan, national-curriculum, protest, social-movements, students, Taiwan

Protests intensified last night over controversial changes to the national curriculum. High schoolers and other students were joined by other members of the community after the Ministry of Education defied a court decision that deemed the changes illegal and insisted on rolling out new textbooks that redefine the Japanese colonial period as the period of Japanese occupation, and re-introduces a Sinocentric version of history in Taiwan. Thirty-three people were arrested, including 3 reporters after they entered the MOE building late last night. The

Politics

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment eviction, land-grab, protest

Most of my stories are pulled from Taiwan’s Chinese-language media, however, this is one I eye-witnessed, on my way to buy breakfast this morning. In our quiet, and peaceful neighborhood of Shulin I turned a corner and and unexpectedly came across a small crowd of officials, curious citizens, and police. An old, single-storey house was festooned with two American flags, one at ground level and one on the roof, and adorned with roughly spray-painted Chinese characters. My Chinese literacy is far