Lao Ren Cha (Jenna)

it's an unfortunate name for a beetle

oh I know, my sister lives in (heh heh) Tooting.

The British gunboat what now

Book Review: Revolutionary Taiwan New ways of looking at Taiwanese history to frame current issues clearly

A book review of Revolutionary #Taiwan by Catherine Lila Chou and Mark Harrison

laorencha.substack.com/p/book-revie...

A Curvaceous Wreck Spending most of my adult life in Asia helped convince me that I was irredeemably fat, when I merely wasn't skinny. I'm still in Asia, and still feeling the effects of that self-esteem wrecking ball.

It took me awhile to write this and even longer to post, but it's really how I felt after finding a picture of myself from 2003

laorencha.substack.com/p/a-curvaceo...

Fortunately I've never heard of this guy

As someone on facebook just said, Taiwan was "assigned Chinese at birth" lol

Transgender Self-ID and Taiwanese Identity Some pro-Taiwan people who call themselves progressive oppose trans rights and self-ID. That's incongruous with supporting Taiwan.

In which I take on No Self-ID and the #Taiwan Statebuilding Party for being anti-trans

laorencha.substack.com/p/transgende...

E-17- JENNA CODY’S FAVORITE TAIWAN FICTION

I'm on the Bookish Asia podcast talking about my favorite #Taiwan fiction!

open.spotify.com/episode/2MUk...

It's flash-bang opinion time There's a lot going on in Taiwan, and I have thoughts

I have lots of short-form opinions about current events in #Taiwan. Enjoy these bite-sized thoughts before Lunar New Year gets into full swing

laorencha.substack.com/p/its-flash-...

I really guessed it might be a BBC (former BBC?) journalist whose first name starts with C but, I don't know for sure.

When it comes to Taiwan, read a damn poll before you opine Nicholas Kristof's NYT piece reads like something not just out of another year, but another generation.

Nicholas Kristof's recent NYT op-ed about #Taiwan set my teeth on edge. This is what happens when you lived in Taiwan half a century ago and asked two friends instead of reading a fucking poll

laorencha.substack.com/p/when-it-co...

Almost everyone is wrong about the Venezuela/Taiwan "thing" MRT Zhongxiao Fuxing, for no reason at all

Not everyone is wrong, but most people are.

laorencha.substack.com/p/almost-eve...

ugh and I thought Nathan Attrill was alright. Guess I'll have to re-evaluate that.

For the Taiwanese legislature, every accusation is a confession I'm really starting to hate these jokers in a system that's fast becoming Oops All Constitutional Crises

Do I really need to explain why the #Taiwan legislature are doing a "nuh-UH I'm rubber and you're glue and I locked the principal out of the classroom" strategy?

laorencha.substack.com/p/for-the-ta...

Book Review: Making Punches Count Batto and Beaulieu take sordid tales of legislators punching, pushing and shoving and turn it into data to explore the who, why, where and a bit of how legislative brawls happen

I review Nathan Batto and Emily Beaulieu's book about brawling in legislatures in #Taiwan, #Ukraine and beyond!

laorencha.substack.com/p/book-revie...

I have heard of cases where the PRC took citizenship away, though. You can't renounce as far as I know (and I don't really know), but they can swipe it from you. Of course, until they want to kidnap you, at which point you've always been Chinese!

it is totally insane for sure. I don't even like that some other countries have such laws (e.g. Japan), but not much I can do about it and not really my business.

It probably won't, because lots of very rich people are dual citizens. But even if it did, I don't know how the US would find people with dual nationality. It's not like it's recorded in a database.

In theory Japan can revoke your citizenship if you gain another citizenship and won't then renounce it, but in practice there are plenty of dual nationality Japanese who simply never tell Japan that they have another citizenship and there's no obvious way for them to get caught.

This is stupid, but there are countries that already have laws like this, including China and Japan. IIRC Germany used to be this way but apparently isn't anymore? And in every case it's very difficult or impossible for the countries with these laws to find "violators".

I can't think of a better name though. The ROC is dead in the water, the country is Taiwan. I suppose it could just be Taiwan without any need for calling it a republic or whatnot.

Does anyone still believe in the ROC? I'm being facetious, but only somewhat.

I'm being facetious, but really only a little

laorencha.substack.com/p/does-anyon...

Ten More Great Books About Taiwan An addition to my 2020 post, brought to you by free time and more reading

Ten more books about #Taiwan? Don't mind if I do

laorencha.substack.com/p/ten-more-g...

Quick edit: it's available as a hard copy everywhere BUT Amazon US (which is very weird, but Amazon sucks, so whatyagonnado)

Book Review: Ghost Nation If you want to recommend a book to clarify what Taiwan is about and why Taiwan matters, this is the one.

I think I've found the best book to give friends and loved ones to learn more about #Taiwan, available for pre-order or Kindle now

laorencha.substack.com/p/book-revie...

Book Review: The Translator's Daughter A good book, but I hadn't expected so much death.

That's not to say I didn't like it!

laorencha.substack.com/p/book-revie...

Taiwan's foreign policy has no scruples But are scruples more important than survival?

And I'm not sure how I feel about it.

laorencha.substack.com/p/taiwans-fo...

Handling a Little Grass My Taiwanese friend and I had very different approaches to someone in a cafe whom we both felt was being rude. I still don't know who was right.

I dunno. Who, in this dispute that was ultimately about what freedom of speech does or doesn't mean in #Taiwan, was right? Probably not the Little Grass, but perhaps my friend.

laorencha.substack.com/p/handling-a...

I hope by 'fixed' you mean both 'made better' and also 'neutered'