[{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Richard J Evans","ar_views":"131","ar_id":"2003829126","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-26","ar_head":"Book review: Her lips are sealed","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Ever since the end of the second world war, when Germans somewhat belatedly realized what the rhetoric of the Nazi years had done to their country, it has been a basic requirement of politicians in Germany that they should be boring. The very few postwar political figures whose speeches were excitin","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/26\/2003829126","photo":{"ar_id":"2003829126","ph_attr":"","ph_cap":"<i>Freedom: Memoirs 1954 \u2013 2021<\/i>, by Angela Merkel.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/26","ph_fname":"p11-241226-the book.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/26\/p11-241226-the book.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/26\/thumbs\/p11-241226-the book.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"","ar_views":"561","ar_id":"2003829067","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-25","ar_head":"The real-life violence behind \u2018Squid Game\u2019","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"A factory turned into a battlefield, riot police armed with tasers and an activist who spent 100 days atop a chimney \u2014 the unrest that inspired Netflix\u2019s most successful show ever has all the hallmarks of a TV drama.This month sees the release of the second season of Squid Game, a dystopian vision o","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/25\/2003829067","photo":{"ar_id":"2003829067","ph_attr":"Photo: Reuters\r\n","ph_cap":"People on Sunday dressed as guards from the series <i>Squid Game<\/i> attend an event at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium ahead of the release of the series <i>Squid Game: Season 2<\/i> tomorrow in Jakarta, Indonesia.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/25","ph_fname":"P12-241225-305.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/25\/P12-241225-305.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/25\/thumbs\/P12-241225-305.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Amy Hawkins \r\n","ar_views":"33361","ar_id":"2003829068","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-25","ar_head":"What is \u2018neijuan,\u2019 and why is China worried about it?","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"On the Chinese Internet, the country\u2019s current predicament \u2014 slowing economic growth, a falling birthrate, a meager social safety net, increasing isolation on the world stage \u2014 is often expressed through buzzwords. There is tangping, or \u201clying flat,\u201d a term used to describe the young generation of C","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/25\/2003829068","photo":{"ar_id":"2003829068","ph_attr":"Photo: AP","ph_cap":"A group of students from the elite Tsinghua University, who celebrated their end of semester dressed in Qing Dynasty attire, in July shop at a convenience store in Beijing, China. The word neijuan became a meme after a student at the university was photographed working on a laptop computer while riding a bicycle.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/25","ph_fname":"P12-241225-301.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/25\/P12-241225-301.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/25\/thumbs\/P12-241225-301.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Steven Crook","ar_views":"2570","ar_id":"2003829008","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-24","ar_head":"Obituary: The \u2018snake man\u2019 who educated thousands about Taiwan\u2019s natural wonders","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Some people will never forget their first meeting with Hans Breuer, because it occurred late at night on a remote mountain road, when they noticed \u2014 to quote one of them \u2014 a large German man, \u201cdown in a concrete ditch, kicking up leaves and glancing around with a curious intensity.\u201dThis writer\u2019s fir","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/24\/2003829008","photo":{"ar_id":"2003829008","ph_attr":"Photo courtesy of the Breuer family","ph_cap":"Hans Breuer\u2019s enthusiasm for nature photography extended to plants and insects.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/24","ph_fname":"p12-241224-HB Photo.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/24\/p12-241224-HB Photo.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/24\/thumbs\/p12-241224-HB Photo.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Courtney Donovan Smith \u77f3\u6771\u6587","ar_views":"510","ar_id":"2003829009","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-24","ar_head":"Donovan\u2019s Deep Dives: Rising Northeast Asian tensions and instability","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Tensions are rising all across Northeast Asia, not just in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has been escalating claims over the Senkaku Islands (which Taiwan calls Diaoyutai, \u91e3\u9b5a\u53f0), Okinawa and the Russian Far East. North and South Korean relations have been deteriorating rapidly, and they may have just ba","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/24\/2003829009","photo":{"ar_id":"2003829009","ph_attr":"Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons ","ph_cap":"Some of the islands found in the Diaoyutai Island chain, also known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/24","ph_fname":"p12-241224-islands.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/24\/p12-241224-islands.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/24\/thumbs\/p12-241224-islands.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Michael Turton","ar_views":"948","ar_id":"2003828951","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-23","ar_head":"Notes from Central Taiwan: Luzon vs Formosa redux","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Several recent articles have explored historical invasions of Taiwan, both real and planned, in order to examine what problems the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) would encounter if it invaded. The military and geographic obstacles remain formidable.Taiwan, though, is part of a larger package of is","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/23\/2003828951","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828951","ph_attr":"GRAPHI: TT","ph_cap":"","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/23","ph_fname":"p12-241223-globe.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/23\/p12-241223-globe.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/23\/thumbs\/p12-241223-globe.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Han Cheung","ar_views":"1201","ar_id":"2003828924","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-22","ar_head":"Taiwan in Time: Bridging the perilous \u2018Roaring Gate\u2019","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"With raging waters moving as fast as 3 meters per second, it\u2019s said that the Roaring Gate Channel (\u543c\u9580\u6c34\u9053) evokes the sound of a thousand troop-bound horses galloping.Situated between Penghu\u2019s Xiyu (\u897f\u5dbc) and Baisha (\u767d\u6c99) islands, early inhabitants ranked the channel as the second most perilous waterway ","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/22\/2003828924","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828924","ph_attr":"Photo courtesy of Academia Historica","ph_cap":"A photo of the Penghu Great Bridge taken in 1975.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/22","ph_fname":"P12-241222-001.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/22\/P12-241222-001.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/22\/thumbs\/P12-241222-001.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Aishwarya Kumar","ar_views":"1146","ar_id":"2003828862","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-21","ar_head":"Bride, groom, spy: The wedding detectives","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"From an anonymous office in a New Delhi mall, matrimonial detective Bhavna Paliwal runs the rule over prospective husbands and wives \u2014 a booming industry in India, where younger generations are increasingly choosing love matches over arranged marriage.The tradition of partners being carefully select","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/21\/2003828862","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828862","ph_attr":"Photo: AFP","ph_cap":"A vendor selling spy cameras on Dec. 10 attends to a phone call inside his shop at a market in New Delhi.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/21","ph_fname":"p12-241221-303.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/21\/p12-241221-303.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/21\/thumbs\/p12-241221-303.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Kanis Leung","ar_views":"799","ar_id":"2003828863","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-21","ar_head":"\u2018Las Vegas of the East\u2019 brings wealth but at a cost","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"When Portugal returned its colony Macao to China in 1999, coffee shop owner Daniel Chao was a first grader living in a different world.Since then his sleepy hometown has transformed into a bustling gaming hub lined with glittering casinos. Its once quiet streets are now jammed with tourist buses. Bu","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/21\/2003828863","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828863","ph_attr":"Photo: AP","ph_cap":"Chinese and Macau flags are yesterday seen during a flag-raising ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of Macao\u2019s handover from Portugal to China, in Macao.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/21","ph_fname":"p12-241221-301.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/21\/p12-241221-301.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/21\/thumbs\/p12-241221-301.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Ami Barnes","ar_views":"738","ar_id":"2003828804","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-20","ar_head":"Travel: \u2018A Veo Veo Yu,\u2019 greetings from the Tsou","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"For the authorities that brought the Mountains to Sea National Greenway (\u5c71\u6d77\u5733\u570b\u5bb6\u7da0\u9053) into existence, the route is as much about culture as it is about hiking.Han culture dominates the coastal and agricultural flatlands of Tainan and Chiayi counties, but as the Greenway climbs along its Tribal Trail (\u539f\u9109","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/20\/2003828804","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828804","ph_attr":"Photo: Ami Barnes","ph_cap":"Hikers explore a raised boardwalk trail through Tefya\u2019s grove of giant camphor trees.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/20","ph_fname":"p12-241220-photo4.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/20\/p12-241220-photo4.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/20\/thumbs\/p12-241220-photo4.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Lindsey Bahr","ar_views":"394","ar_id":"2003828805","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-20","ar_head":"Movie review: Fresh energy in \u2018Lion King\u2019 prequel","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Mufasa: The Lion King has one very important thing going for it: an original story.That may seem like faint praise or at least a very, very low bar in the grand scheme of things. But in a landscape where Disney continues to remake its animated catalog in slightly different, and usually less interest","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/20\/2003828805","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828805","ph_attr":"Photo: AP","ph_cap":"Characters Afia, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, left, Mufasa, voiced by Braelyn Rankins, center, and Masego, voiced by Keith David, in a scene from<i> Mufasa: The Lion King<\/i>.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/20","ph_fname":"P11-241220-331.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/20\/P11-241220-331.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/20\/thumbs\/P11-241220-331.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"","ar_views":"364","ar_id":"2003828806","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-20","ar_head":"Hungarian Lego artist wows with his very grand designs","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"To build his giant Lego structures which usually take hundreds of thousands of bricks, Hungarian artist Balazs Doczy first must solve major \u201cengineering challenges.\u201d\u201cEvery structure has an Achilles\u2019 heel. Once it is solved, the rest of the work is easy,\u201d the 48-year-old said.He needed 90 helpers for","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/20\/2003828806","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828806","ph_attr":"Photo: AFP","ph_cap":"A 36-meter-high tower of Lego plastic bricks is seen in May 2014 in front of the St Stephen\u2019s Basilica as a local Lego fan, Hungarian artist Balazs Doczy, right, presents his miniature construction of the basilaca with the tower in Budapest.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/20","ph_fname":"P11-241220-335.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/20\/P11-241220-335.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/20\/thumbs\/P11-241220-335.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Hollie Younger,","ar_views":"432","ar_id":"2003828740","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-19","ar_head":"Restaurant review: Neon lights and numbing spice","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Saturday night lights beckon us to the Instagram-lovers paradise that\u2019s been blowing up our for-you pages recently with its neon signs, mahjong tiled walls and red-hot spicy hot pots. Spicy Lucky Spot (\u8fa3\u5409\u9ede\u6b63\u5b97\u6210\u90fd\u4e32\u4e32\u9999) in Songshan District (\u677e\u5c71) is arguably the most Instagrammed hot pot experience in Taip","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/19\/2003828740","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828740","ph_attr":"Photo: Hollie Younger","ph_cap":"The exterior of Spicy Lucky Spot in Taipei\u2019s Songshan District.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/19","ph_fname":"p12-2419-Photo3-1.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/p12-2419-Photo3-1.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/thumbs\/p12-2419-Photo3-1.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Courtney Donovan Smith \u77f3\u6771\u6587","ar_views":"562","ar_id":"2003828741","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-19","ar_head":"Donovan\u2019s Deep Dives: How northeast Asia\u2019s unresolved conflicts of the past are rearing their ugly head","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"In northeast Asia the Cold War in many ways never ended and a series of interconnected stalled conflicts might be heating up. If any line could be said to divide northeast from southeast Asia, it would be the Tropic of Cancer. Fittingly, it runs right through Taiwan. For most of Taiwan\u2019s history it ","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/19\/2003828741","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828741","ph_attr":"Photo: AFP","ph_cap":"A US Air Force B-1B bomber, right, South Korean Air Force F-15K fighter jets, center, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jets, center, and US Air Force F-16 fighter jets, top left, fly in formation last month during a joint air drill in the eastern airspace of the South Korean southern island of Jeju. South Korea.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/19","ph_fname":"P12-241219-305.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/P12-241219-305.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/thumbs\/P12-241219-305.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Nicola Davis ","ar_views":"372","ar_id":"2003828742","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-19","ar_head":"Humanity\u2019s Martian heritage must be preserved: scientists","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Just as the outline of an iron-age hut or remains of a Roman sword cause excitement today, archaeologists of the future could be brushing Martian dust off metal and marveling at one of Nasa\u2019s rovers.Researchers have said that such instruments, as well as other forms of human activity on Mars, includ","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/19\/2003828742","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828742","ph_attr":"Photo: AFP\r\n","ph_cap":"The moon on Dec. 15 pictured behind buildings in Beijing.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/19","ph_fname":"P11-241219-315.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/P11-241219-315.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/thumbs\/P11-241219-315.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Luke Harding","ar_views":"82","ar_id":"2003828743","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-19","ar_head":"Book review: A \u2018sleeping beauty\u2019 now besieged","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"In 1994 the writer Julian Evans went on a 10-day cruise down the Dnipro River. Ukraine had won its independence three years before. The journey took Evans along an ancient route used by the \u201crestless Vikings\u201d who established Kyiv. His ship \u2014 the Viktor Glushkov \u2014 stopped off at Crimea and Yalta. Its","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/19\/2003828743","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828743","ph_attr":"","ph_cap":"<i>Undefeatable: Odessa in Love & War<\/i>, by Julian Evans.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/19","ph_fname":"p11-241219-book.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/p11-241219-book.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/19\/thumbs\/p11-241219-book.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Andrew Dalton","ar_views":"447","ar_id":"2003828679","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-18","ar_head":"Popeye and Tintin enter US public domain in 2025","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting next year. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the US on Jan. 1. That means they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/18\/2003828679","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828679","ph_attr":"Photo: AP","ph_cap":"A helium-filled Popeye balloon on Nov. 26, 1959 floats above the 33rd Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/18","ph_fname":"P12-241218-311.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/18\/P12-241218-311.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/18\/thumbs\/P12-241218-311.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"","ar_views":"468","ar_id":"2003828680","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-18","ar_head":"China\u2019s new UK embassy plans spark anger","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"As Britain\u2019s new Labor government bids to reset long-fraught ties with China amid a suspected spy scandal, another issue could mar relations: Beijing\u2019s controversial plans to open the largest embassy in the UK. China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/18\/2003828680","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828680","ph_attr":"Photo: AFP","ph_cap":"A man on Dec. 6 stands at the main entrance to the site of the former Royal Mint in London , favored by the Chinese authorities for it\u2019s new embassy.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/18","ph_fname":"P12-241218-301.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/18\/P12-241218-301.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/18\/thumbs\/P12-241218-301.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"By Courtney Donovan Smith \u77f3\u6771\u6587","ar_views":"926","ar_id":"2003828620","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-17","ar_head":"Donovan\u2019s Deep Dives: China\u2019s unannounced war games \u2018new normal\u2019","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"The latest military exercises conducted by the People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did not follow the standard Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formula. The US and Taiwan also had different explanations for the war games. Previously the CCP would plan out their large-scale military exercises and w","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/17\/2003828620","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828620","ph_attr":"Photo: AFP\r\n","ph_cap":"This handout photo taken and released by Taiwan\u2019s Coast Guard on Dec. 12 shows a Taiwanese coast guard ship, left, monitoring a Chinese coast guard ship, a few nautical miles from Taiwan\u2019s northeastern coast.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/17","ph_fname":"P12-241217-303.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/17\/P12-241217-303.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/17\/thumbs\/P12-241217-303.jpg"}},{"ar_sbhdtease":"","ar_byline":"","ar_views":"726","ar_id":"2003828621","ar_sbhdbody":"","ar_section":"Features","ar_pubdate":"2024-12-17","ar_head":"Scientists struggle to explain record surge in global heat","dp_urlname":"feat","ar_desc":"The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory \u2014 and scientists are still trying to figure out why.Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent an","ar_url":"News\/feat\/archives\/2024\/12\/17\/2003828621","photo":{"ar_id":"2003828621","ph_attr":"Photo: EPA-EFE","ph_cap":"People yesterday cool off during an extreme heatwave at St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne, Australia. Extreme heat warnings are in place for multiple states as a sweltering heatwave brings one of the hottest December days in years.","ph_fpath":"2024\/12\/17","ph_fname":"P12-241217-310.jpg","ph_url":"images\/2024\/12\/17\/P12-241217-310.jpg","ph_url_thumbs":"images\/2024\/12\/17\/thumbs\/P12-241217-310.jpg"}}]