Mr. Kim was born in North Korea and served in the North Korean army for 10 years, including as a propaganda officer. The first time he tried to leave the country, he was arrested, tortured in prison, and sentenced to death. On his way to his execution site, Kim jumped off a moving train, and eventually defected to South Korea in 1999. In 2004, he founded Free North Korea Radio to provide an independent source of news and information to his fellow North Koreans. Since then, FNKR has grown from its initial internet broadcast to 5 hours of daily programming on shortwave radio, earning it the 2008 Media Prize from Reporters Without Borders. Over the years, Kim has persisted in this endeavor to challenge and undermine the censorship and propaganda of the North Korean government, despite threats to his life. Kim is highly respected in the North Korean community in South Korea, and was elected chairman of the North Korean Defectors Association in 2004. A 2008 CNN report provides further information on Kim and FNKR.

“Mr. Kim Seong-Min represents the hope and dedication that is needed in any effort to bring about change in an extremely closed state,” said Dr. Wen-cheng Lin, President of the TFD. “North Korea has a notorious human rights record and can be considered the least democratic country in the world. We have seen little progress, despite many efforts by concerned members of the international community. Having escaped from North Korea, Mr. Kim knows first-hand how important it is to offer hope to people living under a brutal regime. He is dedicating his life to that cause, and his work is beginning to bear fruit. This year the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy is very pleased to honor him with our annual award.”

The award was judged by an international panel of human rights experts. One of the judges Dr. Alex Boraine, Chairperson of the International Center for Transitional Justice and former Deputy Chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission commented that “Kim brings the good news of people who are prepared to risk their lives for the sake of oppressed people in his own country. Radio is a very powerful tool to bring home the message of freedom and human rights.”

Mr. Kim Seong-Min will be awarded the 2009 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award at a ceremony in Taipei on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. The Award includes a US$100,000 grant to support his work at Free North Korea Radio.

*Article based on a press release from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.

• 4 May is Bike Day
• Links 14 April 2008
• Once was a prison
• Links 2 June 2008
• Links 17 March 2008

Two articles recently published on culture.tw contain some useful information and advice for foreign students studying in Taiwanese universities.

Jeana Jack, a student at NCCU, has written a survival guide for international students that is full of good advice. She discusses choosing a university, learning Mandarin, finding a place to live and other important things.

I had lived in Taiwan for several years before I became a full-time student here so this made adjusting to university life quite easy. I imagine it must be more difficult for people who have just arrived in Taiwan and have to simultaneously deal with adjusting to life in a foreign country and starting a university course.

The second article was written by me. I interviewed three students from different backgrounds about their experiences studying Mandarin in Taiwan. They talk about the positives and negatives of language learning in Taiwan as well as giving some advice about learning Mandarin. The most common advice for successfully learning Mandarin is that you need a lot of patience.

*photo from culture.tw used under Creative Commons licence.

• My new teaching job
• End of the last semester at NCCU
• Links 10 December 2007
• Shi-Da class outing to Yingge
• Wild Strawberries ready for nonviolent action

Taiwanderful is again running awards for the best Taiwan blogs in 2009. The first awards were held last year with a popular online vote to decide the best Taiwan blogs.

This year’s awards will continue with popular online voting, but there will also be a peer-judged category. A group of influential Taiwan bloggers will judge the blogs in the various categories. The judges are Ben, Portnoy, Carrie, Todd, DJ Marcus, Fili and myself.

While there are no prizes offered the awards aim to promote the Taiwan blogosphere. Entrants in the awards can encourage people to vote for their own blogs and other blogs they like. They can also use social media like Twitter and Facebook to promote their blog and the awards.

To participate in the awards you need to register your blog in the Taiwan blog directory at Taiwanderful. If you have already registered before there is no need to register again. However, you might like to check and update your entry.

Check the Taiwanderful blog for more information about the awards. You can also follow @Taiwanderful at Twitter or become a fan of the Taiwanderful page at Facebook.

Please note: This blog is registered at Taiwanderful, but will not be considered for the awards.

• 2008 Taiwan Blog Awards
• Kou Chou Ching win awards
• Article on China Times blog
• Interview with the Bushman
• Links 22 September 2008

A beautiful sunny day greeted participants in the LGBT Pride Parade in Taipei today. Organisers estimated 25,000 people participated in the parade and increase from 18,000 last year.

The theme for this year’s parade was “Love Out Loud”. Participants marched in groups matching the colors of the rainbow. Red for sex, orange for power, yellow for hope, green for nature, blue for liberty and purple for art.Some of the groups participating included “Do the left thing”, the Green Party, Gay & Lesbian Couples Association and many university groups.

This year’s event called on the government to take action on anti-discrimination legislation. Politicians often make promises about gay rights before elections, but never follow through once they are elected.

The parade started from Ketagalan Boulevard wound through the streets in the area south of Taipei Station. This men in this photo are the “Water Boys” (水男孩).

Although today was Halloween there were only a few people in Halloween themed costumes.

The parade returned to its starting point on Ketagalan Boulevard. There was a performance by Rock in Hose Burlesque. Their performance was included a message about safe sex.

Only a week earlier an anti-gay protest organised by Christian groups had taken place in Taipei. The LGBT Pride event, with its much bigger turnout, affirmed that Taiwanese are increasingly tolerant and accepting of diversity. Hopefully this will lead to more concrete measures to legislate for gay marriage and other rights in the near future.

*More photos in the 2009 LGBT Pride Parade set at flickr. Also check out the photos from the official LGBT Pride volunteer photographers.

• LGBT Pride Parade in Taipei
• Hopes and dreams on parade
• Xinzhuang temple parade video
• Assembly Law amendments restrict rights
• Temple festival in Xinzhuang

With local elections approaching the campaign is not just being run on the streets but also in cyberspace. The screen shot from the DPP website above shows the party’s candidates for mayor or county commissioner in the end of year local government elections. Beneath each candidate’s photo there are icons linking to Plurk, Facebook, blogs, websites and YouTube. It shows that candidates are actively using social media as tools in their campaign.

A number of leading DPP politicians including Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) are active users of Plurk. Frank Hsieh has just published a book called “Frank’s Plurk Diary”. He began using Plurk in April this year and now has 11,447 friends and 3,519 fans. Plurk is currently much more popular than Twitter in Taiwan because it has a Chinese-language option.

A brief survey of the KMT’s websites show they are lagging behind he DPP in the social media revolution. The KMT’s plurk account is updated regularly but it only has 402 friends and 383 fans compared with the DPP’s Plurk account with 3,433 friends and 1,246 fans. The DPP’s official Facebook page has 6,394 fans. A search for the KMT on Facebook reveals several pages or groups with a few hundred members. (It is not clear which one is the official page.)

What looks to be KMT’s official YouTube channel hasn’t been updated for seven months. In contrast the DPP’s YouTube channel is active and the most recently uploaded video is a well produced piece of political satire that takes a shot at the KMT’s poor governance in Taipei City.

President Ma has sought to engage with the public online via a weekly video. However, when the weekly video was launched in July this year it attracted criticism when it was discovered the next two week’s videos had been recorded and uploaded in advance. Ma was also criticised for not using YouTube. Chen Shui-bian had a YouTube channel when he was the President. The White House also has a Youtube channel.

While US President @BarrackObama, Australian PM @KevinRuddPM and the British PM @DowningStreet are among world leaders using Twitter, as far as I know Taiwan’s President doesn’t have a Twitter or Plurk account.

Michael Turton, a well known Taiwan political blogger said, “The blogosphere and social media worlds here appear to be overwhelmingly green. This says good things about the young.” Perhaps this also says something about the future direction of Taiwan politics.

• A-bian on the ABC
• A million march for Taiwan
• Taiwan’s true Greens
• Recommended website #2: Taipei Times
• Ma Ying-jeou gets on his bike

William Stanton, the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), gave a speech at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University (國立政治大學) this morning. He addressed the topic of US-Taiwan relations highlighting the close ties between the two countries especially in the areas of education, trade and military exchanges.

Last week Taiwan lifted a ban on US beef imports that had been in place since 2003. This topic seems to be of great interest to the Taiwanese media and there were cameras from a number of Taiwan television stations present. (All the cameras left immediately after Stanton commented on the beef issue.)

Stanton addressed the beef issue early in his talk saying, “There’s never been one case of any person getting Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease from eating US beef. I’d like to point out in contrast that in 2008 1,034 people tragically lost their lives riding motorscooters in Taiwan. There really is no risk eating US beef.” He added that more than 50 countries in the world import US beef.

Stanton went on to discuss the close ties that exist between the US and Taiwan. He highlighted education and trade as key areas. The US has more trade with Taiwan than it does with India, Spain, Italy and Singapore. He noted Taiwan was once the largest source of foreign students for the US. It is currently ranked sixth even though it only has 23 million people.

Stanton noted the improvement in cross-strait ties. He said, “We believe that the improved relationship fosters stability. It makes Taiwan a more attractive place to invest and do business.”

Stanton said that improved cross-strait relations, “avoids the risk of miscalculation and potential conflict.” He added that, “The nature, the scope and the pace of that relationship is for the people of Taiwan to decide. Despite the warming trend, Taiwan’s sense of security — whether politically, economically or militarily — is certainly not as strong as it should be. Taiwan, in order to feel secure, needs friends and the United States will continue to be a dependable friend to Taiwan.”

This led to the security issue. Stanton said US policy is, “based on the Taiwan Relations Act which commits the United States to ensuring sufficient self-defense capability for Taiwan. We’re not going to waiver in that commitment.”  The issue of F-16’s was still under discussion, but he said that one year ago the US concluded a US$6.4 billion deal which provided Apache helicopters, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Harpoon missiles for ships, upgrades to the E-2 reconnaissance aircraft, Patriot PAC-3 missiles and also aircraft spare parts.

Stanton then emphasised that the security relationship was not just about weapons sales. He said, “It’s an ongoing dialogue. We have regular exchanges between our militaries.” He noted that some Taiwanese military personnel were receiving training and education in the United States.

Questions following Stanton’s talk gave NCCU students a great chance to ask a high ranking US diplomat about key issues in the US-Taiwan relationship.

A diplomacy student from the US asked what the US could learn from Taiwan’s development. He said that Taiwan’s healthcare system could be a model for the US.

Stanton replied, “The biggest lesson from Taiwan is the theme that President Obama is stressing, the need for education. A decision that Taiwan made early on was intensive high-level education and it has been a great formula for success.” On healthcare he said he personally supported the program President Obama was working on. He also cited a personal example of the high costs his daughter had faced for basic medical treatment in the US.

An exchange student from China said that Taiwan officials had said that Taiwan would be a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker in the Asia-Pacific region. However, the US arm sales to Taiwan contribute a potential threat that would make Taiwan a troublemaker.

On the US arms sales Stanton said, “It’s a two-way street. There are somewhere between a 1,000 and 1,400 missiles along the Chinese coast aimed at Taiwan. Taiwan feels very vulnerable. The mainland* has never given up its policy of saying it would strike if independence were declared.”

“There hasn’t been much done by the mainland to reassure the people of Taiwan. It’s a US policy going back 30 years that we will support the self defense of Taiwan. The principle issue is the relationship between Taiwan and the mainland and the sense of threat that people here feel.”

*This is a direct quote. Mainland obviously refers to China.

• Taiwan Studies at NCCU
• Semester 2 at NCCU
• How does NCCU rank?
• Australia Conference at NCCU
• Taiwan Studies in the Taiwan Review

Formosa Betrayed, a political thriller set in Taiwan in the 1980s, now has a worldwide distributor and is set for a release in 15-20 North American cities in February 2010. A tweet from @TaiwaneseAm_org on Twitter said the film will be released on the February 28th weekend. A press release from Taiwanese American.org says the distributor is Screen Media Films.

Formosa Betrayed screened at the Hollywood Film Festival in Los Angeles on Saturday night. The film has screened in a number of US film festivals over the past few months. It recently won Best Picture and Best Actor for James Van Der Beek at the San Diego Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival.

There is no word yet on the date for the film’s release in Taiwan.

• Formosa Betrayed coming soon
• Formosa Betrayed trailer
• A movie that needs to be made
• 1895 trailer
• Reading about Taiwanese History

Japan was the leading country in Asia ranked 17th. Reporters Without Borders noted that both South Korea, at 69th, and Taiwan had fallen in the rankings this year. Regarding Taiwan it wrote, “The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately-owned media while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom.”

Reporters Without Borders’ website contains two reports expressing concern about problems with Taiwan’s media in the past twelve months. In November 2008 at least ten journalists were injured in protests over the visit of Chinese official Chen Yunlin. It is important to note that several journalists were injured or interfered with by police or security guards, it was not just the result of the actions of protesters. In December concerns were raised over government interference in public media, including Radio Taiwan International, the Central News Agency and Public Television Service.

Earlier this year Taiwan’s ranking also fell in Freedom House’s 2009 Freedom of the Press report. Although Freedom House still classified Taiwan’s media as free.

Update: The Taipei Times has an article with quotes from GIO Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓).

• Freedom House reports declining media freedom
• Wild Berry House opening
• Freedom House sounds a warning
• Is Taiwan becoming a police state?
• Freedom House report released in Taipei

The streets of Taipei came alive this afternoon with the vibrant, noisy and colorful Hope Parade (世界夢想嘉年華). The parade is an annual event organised by the Dream Community (夢想社區) in Xizhi (汐止), Taipei County.

The parade began at Freedom Square before a short march through the streets to Ketagalan Boulevard. After arriving on the boulevard in the late afternoon there was a stage set up with a concert going on into the evening.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) was on hand to start off the parade and rode on one of the floats for part of the parade.

Drumming was a popular activity in the parade. The photo above shows some indigenous school children drumming.

There were quite a few groups of indigenous students from all over Taiwan although their costumes could not really be described as traditional. The parade is inspired by the Brazilian Carnival so it draws on that influence as well as having its own unique Taiwanese flavour.

There were several Indian-themed groups. The ladies pictured above put on a Bollywood dance performance in the evening. There was also a group from ISKCON, better known as the Hare Krishna Movement.

This young lady loved posing for the camera. The event was great fun for participants, photographers and spectators alike. There will be more color and excitement on the streets of Taipei when the annual LGBT Pride Parade takes place on Saturday 31 October.

*More photos in the 2009 Hope Parade set at flickr. I will upload more photos over the next few days.

• Xinzhuang temple parade video
• LGBT Pride Parade in Taipei
• New home for David on Formosa
• Loving out loud and proud
• Assembly Law amendments restrict rights

Dan Bloom has written an article on his blog looking at what Woodstock means to some foreign residents of Taiwan (update: edited version at The Wild East). The article includes a quote from me even though I wasn’t even born when the Woodstock concert took place in 1969.

The article mentions a number of Taiwan music festivals such as Spring Scream and Hohaiyan. The event in Taiwan that is probably closest to Woodstock in spirit is the annual Peace Festival. This year it is happening near Hualian on 6-8 November.

Have you seen Taking Woodstock? Have you had your own Woodstock experience? Let me know what you think in the comments.

• Interesting
• Reading tea leaves
• Happy New Year of the Pig
• Links 2 July 2007
• Greening area