YouTube

This blog began 12 years ago in Taiwan, 2010. I was living there and had just got the Panasonic GH1 from the local family run dealer on a street I called “Camera Avenue” because it had about 40 camera stores all independently run and all in one place in downtown Taipei. Learning about the fascinating history of the island from my girlfriend and her father, who served in the military under the rule Chiang Kai-shek, I shot the four pieces you see on this page. Make sure you have the sound on.

Had Chiang Kai-shek won the civil war in China, modern-day history would look very different. There would be no communist party of China.

A delicate truce exists today and close economic ties between the two warring sides. Taiwan is a flourishing democracy with one of the major parties wanting closer ties to Beijing and the other fiercely independent and rejecting any overtures to be assimilated into a communist system.

Taiwan is also an economic powerhouse vital to the world’s semiconductors industry. Home to companies such as AMD, Foxconn, Asus and TSMC, with numerous manufacturing facilities including ones owned by Canon and Sony. The island also has a thriving filmmaking scene.

What could possibly go wrong?

Read moreOne step closer to WWIII – Throwback to my Taiwan footage and experience living there