I was going to write a blogpost on this, but friend Michael C got there already. The awesome J Michael Cole tweeted that he is looking for work since Thinking Taiwan is shuttering its doors on May 20. Taiwan Communique has ceased. I know privately we are going to lose another important pro-Taiwan site this summer. We can never have enough pro-Taiwan voices out there, shaping the discourse and offering alternatives.
As for Thinking Taiwan, I'd be happy to run the place (or a similar site) for nothing if someone can find stable money to pay the writers. Its eclectic, well-written posts are too important to lose.
_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!
What about Randy Schriver's Project 2049 Institute? I think one of the Thinking Taiwan contributors, Mark Stokes, is there too. Perhaps they've considered it already, but a thinktank like that might be a good place to link up with the site and its universe of high quality contributing writers on Taiwan topics.
ReplyDeleteI'd be glad to write!
ReplyDeleteProject 2049 is a good idea, but it has a broader Asia focus.
ReplyDeleteAnd my axe! No, really, I would be happy to write for it, gratis, if this is what it takes to keep the site alive.
ReplyDeleteApparently, nobody likes HK gweilos either. I have been looking for months. Heading back to the US, a bitter bitter bug.
ReplyDeleteLike all the Taiwanese comedians who lost their jobs after CSB was no longer president, a lot of KMT bashers will lose their jobs now that the KMT is out of power.
ReplyDelete@anon: Taiwan is free today because of KMT bashers, dimwit.
ReplyDelete@anonymous Like all the Taiwanese comedians who lost their jobs after CSB was no longer president
ReplyDeleteThe head of the production company for those commedians' TV programs is Wang Wei-Zhong 王偉忠, who is an ultra-Chinese nationalist, from their top elite tier. If he knows you call him Taiwanese, he, thinking you have humiliated him, will be very angry at you.
I think it is possible, with an intelligent and critical editor, to build a conglomerate of informed writers from academia to provide shorter pieces, and from well written bloggers to provide longer pieces. It would be possible to build a site that is more comprehensive in its look at Taiwan, and provide more critical points of view that Thinking Taiwan ever could. The pieces are out there, but they need to be brought together. With a greater field of writers, the individual demand for content would decrease while maintaining the highest quality.
ReplyDelete