Travel
To Boldly Go Where Tour Busses Fear to Tread
An article on alternative methods of travel by Lonely Planet Author Joshua Samuel Brown
Year: 2018
A Nihilist’s Guide to Sun Moon Lake
A Nihilist’s Guide to Sun Moon Lake is a story that didn’t make it into Formosa Moon, and probably for good reason. Stephanie and I traveled to this fabled tourist destination for the book, and actually had a wonderful time. …
Formosa Moon Launch Party!
Joshua Samuel Brown (Vignettes of Taiwan, Lonely Planet Taiwan) and Stephanie Huffman cordially invite you to a book launch party for their latest book, Formosa Moon, at Taipei’s Red Room! Published by Things Asian Press, Formosa Moon is a romantic …
The Famous Doctor Ho. Illustration by David Lee Ingersoll
The Famous Doctor Ho
Unable to sleep (damn this insomnia,) I woke up and checked my email to find that the Famous Doctor Ho has, as the Naxi people of Yunnan, China say, “Gone to the Mountain.” I wrote about the good doctor for …
Windsurfing competition in Penghu, Taiwan
Wind Warriors of the Pescadores
On the subject of windsurfing in Taiwan, one of the strangest years of a life with no shortage of strange years was spent living on an archipelago called Penghu, halfway between Taiwan and China. It’s a remote, beautiful and extremely …
If found, congratulations. You're a sweatshop inspector.
Memoirs of a Dog Meat Man
Author’s Note: Outside of my work for Beijing Scene in 1999, Memoirs of a Dog Meat Man was probably my first serious bit of journalism. The brief backstory is that in 1998 I was hired by a company called Cal …
I Get Interesting Gigs (Follow Alana)
I get interesting gigs here in Taiwan, and since I already can tell this is going to be a series I’ve decided to go with the format “I Get Interesting Gigs” (Name of Gig in ellipses, in this case Follow …
Alpacas and Kitties and Coffee (Oh My)
Taiwan’s Alpaca Cafe was someplace we’d been meaning to visit for almost a year but hadn’t made it to for a variety of strange reasons. We’d heard about it last year, a large cafe and restaurant in Sanzhi, a town …
Taiwan Fight Club. (Photos by David Hartung)
Taiwan Fight Club
“Calling into the ring…Joshua!” It’s a hot August night in Taipei, and I am about to be beaten up in public. Standing across the ring (if you can call a cement square taped on a cement barroom floor a ring) stands …
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Does Humor Belong in Diplomacy?
Humor is a tricky thing to translate, which is a pity since humor is also such a good icebreaker. Last week I gave a talk on promoting tourism in Yunlin (an agricultural county in Taiwan), and while they didn’t bring …