Reading notes: Taipei At Daybreak
I've been a fan of Brian Hioe's journalism for a number of years now. Being interested in Taiwanese politics while not speaking Chinese, his contributions to making this accessible to foreigners has been tremendous. New Bloom Magazine is a treasure, and thus when I saw that Brian publish a book, I was sure I had to read it.
The book is a sort of semi-autobiographical retelling of the sunflower movement, a pivotal moment in Taiwanese politics, and formative for Brian's generation of political commentators and journalists. It's an event that looms large over contemporary politics, and that I picked up quite a lot on from references. However, it's not something I had a great deal of knowledge about, or understood much at all. Hence I was very eager to read the book. In this aspect, the book is quite successful. It delivers a first person perspective of an activist/journalist during the events of the Sunflower movement. It gives some insight in how this movement started, but mostly what things were like for individuals on the ground.
Where the novel falls short for me is the writing. Brian is a competent journalist, although a bit repetitive at times, and this habit shows through in the book. At times it feels like he is repeating himself much more than establishing recurring themes. This can be a thin line, but Brian fails to establish those themes in new and interesting lights, and thus it all ends up feeling a bit repetitive.
Furthermore, the melodramatic existentialism didn't really do it for me. It didn't really feel that genuine, a bit over the top, and the book could have done without.
Overall the book was still enjoyable, written in a comfortably legible style. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in diving a little deeper into Taiwanese politics and activism.