Taiwan puts itself in yet another interesting position. In many parts of the Chinese-speaking world the Han Chinese have faced systematic homogenization. The incredible diversity of the Chinese has long been perceived as a potential cause for disunity in the successive empires and republics that have ruled over the land that we now call China. Since the days of the Yellow Emperor there have been active attempts to standardize and simplify the Chinese langua...

The car door opens and the sticky, sulfury air rushes in. We're certainly not in a remote spot, the lights of Taipei shine just below the other side of the mountain, and we are parked behind a luxury hot spring resort. Our hosts show us the trailhead behind the resort's utility shed. The trail is wide and semi-maintained but even with my dozen hiking companions, the full moon and the unfamiliar plants make me feel falsely intrepid. There may well be hikers fro...