Jonathan Adams

Jonathan Adams reports on Taiwan for GlobalPost. Adams has covered China and Taiwan since 2002. He began working for Newsweek in 2003 and has been the magazine's Taiwan correspondent since 2004,...

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Jonathan Adams's Notebook:

September 8, 2009 21:30 ET

Just add thighbone

What's the secret to great sword-making? You've gotta add a dash of human bone, according to one Taiwanese swordsmith.

The Associated Press has a great feature today on Kuo Chang-hsi, a sword-maker in southern Taiwan who peps up his product with human bone. Here's a quote from the story: 

"When I first tried to make a Kanjiang sword I failed," he says, referring to a famous weapon first made in China some 2,400 years ago. "Then I remembered — there's a saying that if one wants to make a good sword, one needs human bones."

September 3, 2009 07:17 ET

Lama latte, anyone?

Sure, the Dalai Lama's visit had all the elements of a big news story here: a domestic squabble over whether to welcome the spiritual leader; bombast from Beijing; and a Taiwan government still in crisis from its botched typhoon response.

But kudos to Reuters for cutting through all that and getting the real scoop: the groundbreaking "Dalai Lama latte" served up by one Taiwan hotel, in honor of His Holiness. (Imagine the commercial: "What, only half a cup? Don't you like my aura?") Drink up.

 

 
August 16, 2009 11:20 ET

Taiwan's seventh day of mourning

As relief efforts continued in the wake of Taiwan's most deadly typhoon in 50 years, relatives of the dead — estimated to be at least 500 — performed public grieving rituals Saturday.

Taiwanese media was full of heartbreaking scenes. The Apple Daily ran a photo of mourners in a mountain valley in the south, with the headline "Too late to say 'I love you'." At the former site of Hsiaolin Village, anguished relatives called out to the dead and burned incense and "ghost" money, as Buddhist monks rang bells. (See CNN video footage).

Following local custom, Saturday was the "first seventh" (tou qi) — the seventh day after a tragic death, when relatives call home the wandering, confused spirits of the dead and help them cross over to the afterlife. Such rituals will be repeated every seventh day for several weeks, according to an expert quoted by Kyodo News.

Hsiaolin Village was buried last weekend, after torrential rains pounded mountains. That loosened mud and rocks that swept into the valley below, over villagers, their houses and an elementary school. Some 380 people died, according to the Associated Press.

Elsewhere, others were swept into surging rivers and drowned. The Associated Press said 7,000 homes were destroyed in the typhoon; more than 20,000 residents of mountain areas in the south have been evacuated and another 4,200 remain stranded — cut off by damage to roads.

May 16, 2009 06:39 ET

In the "ouch" department ...

Taiwan's most ... attention-grabbing news of the week was the tale of a 50-year-old man, surnamed Lin, who only wanted some private time on the toilet.

Instead, he got bitten in the crotch by a five-and-half foot snake. Specifically, per the Taipei Times, by a Taiwan beauty ratsnake (orthriophis taeniura friesi) that had coiled up inside the toilet bowl. Luckily, such snakes are non-poisonous.

The quick-thinking Lin tried to flush the serpent, "to prevent it from hurting anyone else." But it wouldn't go down the drain.

Not surprisingly, Lin's a bit commode-shy now. "Lin said he now has a phobia of toilets following the incident and will only use a newly purchased plastic toilet bowl," the Taipei Times reported.

Despite his nightmarish encounter, Mr. Lin took a philosophical attitude, hinting that he had actually saved the snake.

“It was the snake’s signal for help when it bit me," Lin said, according to the Taipei Times. "If it hadn’t, maybe it would have been stuck in the septic tank and either suffocated or starved to death."

"It looked like an accident but it was actually fate."

May 5, 2009 05:31 ET

Taiwan is open for business

The Taiwan stock market has come roaring back in the last couple of days, as this front page from the Apple Daily shows.

It chalked up a 12.4 percent two-day gain last Thursday and this Monday, with financial stocks doing especially well. (The market was closed Friday for the Labor Day holiday).

Why the exuberance? Tech demand is coming back, lifting Taiwan's electronics firms — and suggesting that the island's export economy may have turned the corner at last.

More importantly, Chinese money is on its way — gobs of it, potentially. In cross-strait commercial talks last week, Taiwan and China inked deals on financial cooperation, and the island signaled it would allow direct Chinese investment.

Details are yet to be ironed out, as this Reuters story notes. But if all goes well, qualified Chinese institutional investors will get the green light to invest in Taiwan's stock market, Taiwan banks will get to do direct business on the mainland, and Taiwan will open its massive infrastructure projects to Chinese companies.

In short: Cross-strait ties are cozier than ever, and investors are eyeing the payola.

Does that mean unification is next? Nope. So far, talks have studiously avoided politics — and analysts say it's likely to stay that way.