2024/11/30 New Bloom Newsletter
FREEZE! Bluebird Movement, Hong Kong 47, TDOR, Myanmar
Hi everyone, Yo-Ling here with the next installment of the New Bloom Newsletter! There was quite a lot that happened in the second half of November…
New Bloom News
The KMT has been especially active this month, with legislator Weng Hsiao-ling proposing an amendment to remove treason penalties for signs of allegiance to the PRC, as well as pushing forward an attempted amendment to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act from July that threatens to freeze the Constitutional Court. This attempt to raise the requirement of attending justices needed to make judgments from the simply majority of eight to ten. Seeing as eight justices retired in October at the end of their terms, this move would effectively halt Constitutional Court proceedings. Multiple protests by lawyers, citizens, and even former Constitutional Court Justices were h eld on Jinan Road in front of the Legislative Yuan, with over 2,000 gathering for what Economic Democracy Union convenor Lai Chung-chiang framed as the first autumn demonstration of the Bluebird Movement. In addition to the Constitutional Court freeze, the KMT has also attempted to freeze the National Communications Commission through similar adjustments to quorum.
The second half of November also saw public controversy after two deaths, one involving a workplace suicide and the other involving the sudden death of a Taiwan Railways driver.
In Hong Kong, the “Hong Kong 47”—pro-democracy activists, lawyers, journalists, and academics—were sentenced earlier this month, marking the first and largest mass sentencing under the Hong Kong National Security Law, which was passed in 2020. Those sentenced included Benny Tai (10 years imprisonment), Gwyneth Ho (7 years), and Joshua Wong (4 years and 8 months), with the total sum of sentences adding up to over 200 years.
In Japan, Taiwanese author Li Kotomi publicly came out as transgender on Transgender Day of Remembrance after years of harassment and forced outing by anti-gender accounts in Taiwan.
DAYBREAK Events
(Please see our Facebook page for all upcoming and past events)
2024/11/14 | Stories of Taiwan: Short Story Club Vol. 11 台灣故事短篇小説讀書會
[Summary by: event host Rosalyn (she/her)]
Almost 20 participants gathered at New Bloom to discuss Sabrina Wang 黃麗群's short story "Cat Sickness" 《貓病》-- in its original Chinese version (2006) and English translation translated by Jeremy Tiang (2015 in Books From Taiwan).
While we had many return attendees, the majority of participants were coming to the event for the first time, with one person traveling all the way from Taoyuan, and two few people dropping in during their visits from California.
Although organizing the Short Story Club always has been a group effort, Kevin Wang was the main facilitator of this event, supported by discussion group hosts Rosalyn, HL and Michelle. One reason why Sabrina Huang’s “Cat Sickness” was chosen as a text was due the author’s influence on many other contemporary Taiwanese writers; indeed, Short Story Club regulars may identify thematic connections to our Vol. 3 text “Peeling Off”《剝落》by Hsin-Hui Lin 林新惠 – including female identity, urban alienation, and body horror.
At the beginning of the event itself, Rosalyn led us in a warm up where we generated hand-drawn and AI depictions of the main characters. Then we divided into English & bilingual small group discussions.
Some of the themes we discussed included:
escalating horror plot structure and the main character's mental (un)reliability
the difficulty of translating certain concepts and terms related to feminine sexuality and seduction (i.e. 媚態) into English
the role of older women in society, how women's bodies are represented, and the confluence of the human and animal
(A participant’s depiction of the narrator from Sabrina Huang’ “Cat Sickness”)
2024/11/20 | Giving Burmese Voices an Outlet to the World: A Conversation About Insight Myanmar
[Summary by: New Bloom community member Rosalyn (she/her)]
About a dozen people gathered at New Bloom to hear Joah McGee, the founder of Insight Myanmar, talk about how he created his podcast to amplify diverse voices from Myanmar. Joah shared the story of how he initially visited Myanmar in 2003 to practice meditation, and how he eventually endeavored to live and work in Burma as a trainer and teacher of English. His podcast was initially focused on mediation, but following the military coup in February 2021, the platform expanded its mission to respond to the crisis. Joan spoke about how the interviews aim to feature contrasting voices on divergent Burmese histories, perspectives and narratives.
One memorable interview that Joan highlighted was titled “Twelve Years in Burma” which featured 82-year old Friedgard Lottermoser, a key figure who lived in Burma from 1959 to 1971, a period of time when very few foreigners were able to visit the country.
After a short introduction, the event opened up to a Q&A and discussion. A few of the questions that were asked were on the process on how guests are selected. To which Joah responded how he always looks for people with a story to tell, such as people who might have something to say about the influence of their faith on their outlook. He also touched upon how his guests often need to grapple with the decision to speak on a public podcast, and what information about their perspective of the on-going civil war that they want to share.
The audience also was curious about the impact of the podcast on local Burmese and overseas audiences. In response, Joah spoke on the feedback on overseas Burmese, especially after the military coup, who were grateful to hear diverse personal narratives on what was happening on the ground. We talked about how Taiwan and the rest of the world can respond to the crisis through nuanced conversation building, while also respecting the privacy and intent of those dialogues. In addition, we also touched on Burmese connections to Taiwan such as Little Burma and the Milk Tea Alliance.
2024/11/24 | Trans Day of Rememberance Memorial Ceremony 2024跨性別紀念日紀念儀式
On November 24th, New Bloom hosted an event organized by ISTScare and Trif Trans Bar to commemorate Transgender Day of Rememberance this year. Please see this post for a full event summary by community members Micah, Hammie, and Oyana.
2024/11/30 | 破土中英語言交換 / New Bloom Mandarin-English Language Exchange
On November 30th, New Bloom hosted a language exchange event for people in Taipei who are involved in politics, social movements, activism, writing, the arts, and scholarly research and want to practice their Mandarin and English conversational skills. The theme for this exchange was colonialism. Please be checking New Bloom’s socials for future language exchange events, which we plan to host regularly on a monthly basis. Participants are welcomed between 2 and 6 pm on Saturdays with free entry, though attendees are expected to purchase a drink.
That’s it for this Newsletter! Here is what we have planned for December so far (FB event pages coming soon!):
Coming up
Trif Trans bar is still doing their weekly transgender bar pop-up every Friday
Coffee Hours are still being held from 2PM to 6PM every Saturday for folks to come and hangout or co-work
2024/12/14: Pop-up event for Palestine and Lebanon
2024/12/21: Drawing event held during DAYBREAK Coffee Hours
2024/12/28: End-of-Year Trans/Nonbinary Sapphic Party!