Kinmen: Now the Battle is for Tourism, part 3/4

By Trista di Genova / published 2005 in Travel & Culture magazine in its abridged form THE BATTLE OF GUNINGTOU The Chinese Nationalist army (KMT), led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), defeated the Japanese in Nanking, but lost the Chinese Civil War to Mao Zedong’s Communists. The KMT then “took

Read more

Taipei graveyard may hold key to White Terror, Part 2

Former ‘tea country’ Before it was a cemetery, it was prime “tea country,” key tea-growing areas on the outskirts of town. Then, after the Chinese Civil War of 1949 and Chiang Kai-shek fled here with Nationalist armies, it became a resting place for lost souls. Sixty years ago, the area

Read more

Taipei graveyard may hold key to White Terror

By Trista di Genova / Originally published in The China Post [China Post no longer exists: broken link removed] Barely a stone’s throw from Taipei 101 and overlooking one of the more scenic views of the city, a small group of foreigners, one Taiwanese and I clamber up the side

Read more

‘Keeping up with the War God’: BOOK REVIEW

Keeping up with the War God, by Steven Crook (Yushan Publications, 2001) Buy it on Amazon.com here This is a fantastic read for anyone who’s already perused all the guidebooks and now wants to delve into some of the deeper historical contexts behind important people, places and mind-bending customs in

Read more