New Bloom

New Bloom New Bloom is an online magazine covering youth culture and politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific.

About New Bloom / 關於破土

In the wake of the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, many online publications that aim to spread social issues in Taiwan to the international audience have sprung up. Yet while the attempt is with these publication made to spread news of Taiwan to the outside world, that is, putting the local in touch with the international, very rarely is the attempt made to do the opposite.

台灣太陽花運動過後,許多致力將台灣社會議題向全世界閱聽人發聲的網路刊物陸續開辦;但在這些刊物努力將台灣的消息向外界傳送,讓在地與國際接軌的同時,卻罕見有人反其道而行。

What is not attempted is to put the international in touch with the local. However, as we see it, the local problems of Taiwan, much less any other country in the Asia Pacific region, cannot be resolved except internationally. What often appear to be purely local issues often are actually rooted in international causes. Accordingly, what would be needed is to situate local issues in their broader, international context, and to deliberate transnational means of addressing them. It would be through bringing the international into contact with the local, then, that we can find resolution to the regional issues of the Asia Pacific.

讓國際接觸在地正是乏人努力的部分。但在我們看來,台灣在地的問題不從國際入手則無從解決,亞太地區任何其他國家的問題就更不在話下。看似純粹在地的議題往往紮根於國際事務之中,由此觀之,急需做到的是把在地議題放進更大的國際脈絡中,並深思跨越國界的解決方法。唯有引導國際社會與在地接觸,我們對亞太各國的地區性議題才能獲得解答。

Who we are / 破土成員

We are a group of students and activists based in Taiwan and America who share a range of leftist politics ranging from Marxism, anarchism, and other radical perspectives. We see New Bloom not only as a site to spread international news but also a space to build a new leftist tendency from the Asia Pacific by engaging in political analyses of social issues and social movements that concern with the questions of global capitalism, US and Chinese imperialism, national sovereignty, human rights, and social inequalities. It is our belief that the issues currently facing Taiwan and the Asia Pacific cannot be resolved except at an international level. Therefore, we seek to provide a space that fosters political and intellectual transnational dialogues in the Left.

我們是一群定居於台灣與美國,認同馬克思主義、無政府主義及其他基進左翼政治觀點的學生及社會運動參與者。我們眼中的《破土》不只是報導國際新聞的網站,更是透過對一切涉及全球資本主義、美國及中國帝國主義、國家主權、人權和社會不平等的社會議題及社會運動進行政治分析,從亞太地區建立左翼新思潮的空間。我們相信,台灣和亞太地區目前所面臨的問題,不從國際層面入手將無從解決。因此,我們力圖提供一個空間,以促成左翼政治及智識的跨國對話。

Our focus / 破土焦點

We see there are three most pressing issues facing Taiwan and the Asia Pacific region broadly:

1) Economy: the development of neoliberal trades and free trade zones
2) Politics: international affairs, war/militarism, and electoral politics
3) Social Inequalities: workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights, gentrification, and environmental issues

我們認為台灣和整個亞太地區正面臨最迫切的三大問題:
1) 經濟上:新自由主義貿易及自由經濟區發展
2) 政治上:國際關係,戰爭與軍國主義,以及選舉政治
3) 社會不平等:勞工權利,LGBTQ權利,縉紳化及環境議題

"KMT Legislators Continue with Trips to China, In Spite of Security Concerns" by Brian HioeThe KMT has again opened itse...
27/12/2025

"KMT Legislators Continue with Trips to China, In Spite of Security Concerns" by Brian Hioe

The KMT has again opened itself up to criticism, with a series of recent trips to China by seven KMT legislators. The seven legislators are Weng Hsiao-ling, Lin Szu-ming, Yeh Yuan-chih, Cheng Cheng-chien, Chiu Jo-hua, Lu Yu-ling, and Tu Chuan-chi. Former KMT legislator John Chiang, the father of Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an, as well as KMT Mainland Affairs director Chang Ya-ping, too, were in attendance.

The KMT has again opened itself up to criticism, with a series of recent trips to China by seven KMT legislators. The seven legislators are Weng Hsiao-ling, Lin Szu-ming, Yeh Yuan-chih…

"Taiwan LGBTQ+ Groups Criticize Conscription Criteria Amendment Requiring Alternative Service for Transgender and Inters...
26/12/2025

"Taiwan LGBTQ+ Groups Criticize Conscription Criteria Amendment Requiring Alternative Service for Transgender and Intersex People" by Yo-Ling Chen

Over the past two weeks, multiple LGBTQ+ groups have issued statements criticizing draft amendments to conscription criteria that would end blanket exemptions for transgender and intersex people, requiring them to instead complete an alternative substitute service. While alternative service involves conscripts being placed in institutions serving public welfare such as government agencies, police and fire departments, schools, hospitals, and even research institutions, it still requires a 26-day basic training camp, which is typically held at the Chengkungling Recruit Training Center (成功嶺新訓中心) in Taichung. In their criticism of the draft amendments, LGBTQ+ groups emphasized the deleterious effects to physical and psychological well-being that transgender and intersex conscripts face, even in alternative service, especially given the mandatory basic training component.

Over the past two weeks, multiple LGBTQ+ groups have issued statements criticizing draft amendments to conscription criteria that would end blanket exemptions for transgender and intersex people…

"With Constitutional Court Deciding Against Unfreezing Itself, Taiwan's Constitutional Crisis Continues" by Brian HioeTa...
25/12/2025

"With Constitutional Court Deciding Against Unfreezing Itself, Taiwan's Constitutional Crisis Continues" by Brian Hioe

Taiwan's ongoing constitutional crisis remains unresolved, as the impasse about the Executive Yuan refusing to sign a fiscal allocation bill passed by the Legislativ/e Yuan continues.

Taiwan’s ongoing constitutional crisis remains unresolved, as the impasse about the Executive Yuan refusing to sign a fiscal allocation bill passed by the Legislativ/

Check it out, the last New Bloom Substack of the year! Featuring our round-up of latest articles and upcoming events!
25/12/2025

Check it out, the last New Bloom Substack of the year! Featuring our round-up of latest articles and upcoming events!

A constitutional crisis • Little Red Book ban • migrant worker exploitation • military service and the trans community • This Is The End • NYE Eve at Daybreak • CNN Taipei • Decolonizing Therapy

"Calls for Securitization Likely In the Wake of the Metro Stabbing" by Brian HioeA mass stabbing that killed three and i...
23/12/2025

"Calls for Securitization Likely In the Wake of the Metro Stabbing" by Brian Hioe

A mass stabbing that killed three and injured eleven has shocked Taiwan. The attacker, Chang Wen, later killed himself in an apparent su***de after falling from the roof of the Eslite Spectrum Nanxi in Taipei, with the injured or killed mostly in the vicinity of Taipei Main Station or Zhongshan. What happens now, in the wake of the stabbing?

A mass stabbing that killed three and injured eleven has shocked Taiwan. The attacker, Chang Wen, later killed himself in an apparent su***de after falling from the roof of the Eslite Spectrum Nanxi…

Celebrate the closeout of 2025 with your New Bloom community! Come celebrate the new year on the eve before new year’s e...
22/12/2025

Celebrate the closeout of 2025 with your New Bloom community! Come celebrate the new year on the eve before new year’s eve with us–a perfect event for those looking for something to do before the actual night of the new year.

Help put our Daybreak Café ledger back in black with your support through entry covers and drink purchases, and enjoy a great evening with friends new and familiar.

Taipei Pen Club 台北隨意畫聚 will take place as usual for our artistic friends, plus DJ sets downstairs and other fun TBA. See you next Tuesday!

"KMT Continues with Efforts To Revive CtiTV" by Brian HioeNew legislation advanced by the KMT has been accused of seekin...
22/12/2025

"KMT Continues with Efforts To Revive CtiTV" by Brian Hioe

New legislation advanced by the KMT has been accused of seeking to restore CtiTV to coveted primetime spot Channel 52. CtiTV, the previous occupant of the Channel 52 slot, was taken off air after losing its broadcast license.

New legislation advanced by the KMT has been accused of seeking to restore CtiTV to coveted primetime spot Channel 52. CtiTV, the previous occupant of the Channel 52 slot, was taken off air after…

"'This Is The End': Up or Down; Wing It or Let Fall" by Shengmei MaNear the end of the veteran journalist Scott Simon’s ...
21/12/2025

"'This Is The End': Up or Down; Wing It or Let Fall" by Shengmei Ma

Near the end of the veteran journalist Scott Simon’s NPR program, Weekend Edition Saturday, on November 1, 2025, Simon asked Sir Anthony Hopkins to read the poem at the close of his memoir We Did OK, Kid (2025). The poem is T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915), a poem of exhaustion and despair vaguely recalled by Hopkins’s frail, dementia-stricken father at Sandown Beach on, possibly, the Isle of Wight, now recited live, on the air, by the 88-year-old Hopkins. Bereft over the memoir’s “we”—his late father and the aging of the titular “kid”—Hopkins choked up again and again, begging out of the reading around the lines “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me.” “I can’t do any more of that,” Hopkins apologized to Simon, “it kills me.”

Near the end of the veteran journalist Scott Simon’s NPR program, Weekend Edition Saturday, on November 1, 2025, Simon asked Sir Anthony Hopkins to read the poem at the close of his memoir We Did OK, Kid (2025). The poem is T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915), a poem o...

"'Eyes of the Sky' Elaborates the Oceanic World of the Tao" by Brian HioeSyaman Rapongan's "Eyes of the Sky" proves the ...
20/12/2025

"'Eyes of the Sky' Elaborates the Oceanic World of the Tao" by Brian Hioe

Syaman Rapongan's "Eyes of the Sky" proves the latest work by the noted Indigenous author to be translated into English. Following up on the translation of his "Eyes of the Ocean," roughly a prose bildungsroman of Rapongan’s early life, Eyes of the Sky serves to further elaborate the “oceanic world” of the Tao.

Syaman Rapongan's "Eyes of the Sky" proves the latest work by the noted Indigenous author to be translated into English. Following up on the translation of his "Eyes of the Ocean," roughly a prose bildungsroman of Rapongan’s early life, Eyes of the Sky serves to further elaborate the “oceanic wo...

台灣外交部長為何將巴勒斯坦界定為類敵國? by 丘琦欣外交部長林佳龍在 11/12 舉行了公開記者會,結果竟是一場非比尋常的外交失誤,還默認了支持種族滅絕。
19/12/2025

台灣外交部長為何將巴勒斯坦界定為類敵國? by 丘琦欣

外交部長林佳龍在 11/12 舉行了公開記者會,結果竟是一場非比尋常的外交失誤,還默認了支持種族滅絕。

外交部長林佳龍在 11/12 舉行了公開記者會,結果竟是一場非比尋常的外交失誤,還默認了支持種族滅絕。

"Is Taiwan on the Verge of a Constitutional Crisis?" by Brian HioeTaiwan may be on the verge of a constitutional crisis,...
18/12/2025

"Is Taiwan on the Verge of a Constitutional Crisis?" by Brian Hioe

Taiwan may be on the verge of a constitutional crisis, with Premier Cho Jung-tai refusing to sign legislation passed by the legislature. Cho’s refusal to sign such legislation occurs with the support of President Lai Ching-te.

Taiwan may be on the verge of a constitutional crisis, with Premier Cho Jung-tai refusing to sign legislation passed by the legislature. Cho’s refusal to sign such legislation occurs with the support…

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台北市萬華區艋舺大道110號1樓
Taipei
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