Best Blogs Asia Directory

Steven Crook: Taiwan’s consummate cultural notetaker

By Trista di Genova, The Wild East

(Pick up a copy of next month’s ‘Centered on Taipei’ magazine to see this interview in print.)

Steven Crook, a Briton who’s been in Taiwan since 1991, is an amazingly versatile freelancer. He’s worked as a government project consultant, copy editor for Taiwan News and the Government Information Office’s Taiwan Headlines website, and as managing editor of the now-defunct FYI SOUTH magazine.

His resume by no means stops there. He’s penned over 600 articles for an astonishing variety of media outlets, as well as three books about Taiwan: ‘Keeping UpRead more…

Taiwan Architecture: A Festival of Junk


How and why the island’s modern-day architecture evolved into such a sad state — an aesthetically offensive living museum of bile-inspiring monstrosities

By Trista di Genova
The Wild East

A few years ago, when producer Will Tiao and his crew were scouting locations for the film ‘Formosa Betrayed’, they discovered to their chagrin that present-day Taiwan looks “nothing” like it did in the 1970s. Virtually nowhere could they find the look or feel of olden days. They ended up filming in Thailand.

My first impression of Taiwan in 2002 is constantly reconfirmed: It’s like Mexico, except you… Read more…