Will Buckingham | 白忠修
Writer (HELLO, STRANGER, Granta 2022) & philosopher. In Tainan, Taiwan, with a foot in Scotland. Faculty @ Parami University, Myanmar. Director @windandbones.bsky.social
https://www.willbuckingham.com
https://www.windandbones.com
- Reposted by Will Buckingham | 白忠修My life is momentarily brightened every time I remember that this sketch of a startled foreigner shouting “Wa! There’s a snake!” at a coiled mountain pit viper is how Yushan National Park decided to illustrate a board detailing proper hiker-snake interactions.
- Our proof copy of the latest from @windandbones.com has arrived, and @drhannahstevens.bsky.social and I are going through now. It looks gorgeous. We're so excited by this collection, bringing together writers in Gaelic & Taiwanese, and we're on schedule to publish mid-June! tinyurl.com/taigael
- You can't say "we're becoming an island of strangers, and this is scary", and then claim that you are not setting out a vision that is steeped in—and that seeks to fuel—xenophobia. An obsessive fear of strangers is literally what xenophobia is.
- Many things over the past decade have done or are doing incalculable damage to the UK. Immigration is not one of them. But this spineless rush to embrace xenophobic far-right rhetoric is. I'm speechless with anger at the utter disgrace of it.
- I spent this afternoon putting together a few thoughts on Confucius, and the art of not being annoying. www.willbuckingham.com/confucius-no...
- Going through old notes on my phone. This must have meant something once, but I have no idea what or when.
- New purchase. An excellent use of 30NTD. @drhannahstevens.bsky.social is seeking to discourage me from playing it too often.
- We're waiting with considerable excitement for our proof copies of this to arrive, brought by our friendly local postie here in Tainan.
- Four writers, four stories, and four languages, bringing together the cultures of Scotland and Taiwan. Pre-order your copy of Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese and Gaelic over at the Wind&Bones Books bookshop! books.windandbones.com/product/taig... #shortstories #book #Taiwan #Scotland #fiction
- I really enjoyed this piece by Wayne Chen about Taiwan's widespread and really-not-very-legal rooftop construction, reading it as a kind of wayward and idiosyncratic creativity. www.wechanism.com/the-wayne-po...
- This is an excellent resource for #Burmese speakers wanting to make small-talk with foreigners in English. From a language textbook I picked up a few years back. I also love the Burmese transliteration of the English sentences.
- The Omnibus edition of my book, Hello Stranger, is available on BBC Sounds for the next 28 days. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
- It's a good time for local criminals in Kaohsiung, as local police officers are found napping on the job.
- Just a reminder that numerologists and diviners get a special shout out from the Taiwan tax office.
- I won big in the Taiwan Uniform Invoice Lottery last time round, so yesterday I went to the 7-Eleven to collect my 200 NTD prize. The big question now: do I go on a wild spending spree and spiral into hedonistic excess, or do I invest my winnings?
- Reposted by Will Buckingham | 白忠修We are delighted to announce that we have successfully been awarded a grant from Creative Scotland for Tâigael Sounds! This is literature, but in audio form. Through this funding, we will produce high-quality audio recordings of the stories featured in our upcoming book Tâigael.
- Today is the last day to pre-order our collection of stories translated between #Taiwanese and #Gaelic (and English and Mandarin), and get a shout-out in the published book. Tomorrow, we send off the final proofs, then start work on the audio versions. #translation #literature @windandbones.com
- This story about Penghu reminds me of growing up in small-town Norfolk, where, at a local carnival, the staff from the lasagna factory threw bricks of frozen, congealed pasta into the crowd from a moving vehicle, leading to significant injuries among the revellers. en.rti.org.tw/news/view/id...
- There are just three days left to pre-order Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese & Gaelic, and to get a big shout out for your support in the acknowledgements of the print book — a cheer of gratitude that will echo down the ages. #Taiwanese #tâigí #Gaelic books.windandbones.com/product/taig...
- Next Sunday, you can listen to the omnibus edition of my book Hello, Stranger on BBC Radio4 Extra. See it as the edited highlights, or a compilation of all the racy bits. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
- In my favourite new coffee shop in #Tainan, preparing my philosophy salon for this afternoon, where we'll be talking about work, virtue, the Protestant work ethic, lying flat 躺平 and lots more.
- Reposted by Will Buckingham | 白忠修[Not loaded yet]
- Thomas Carlyle: "In Idleness alone is there perpetual despair..." Cats:
- Heading back from 無有為 Bookstore & Café Nothing in Tainan, after their incredibly friendly Taiwanese language reading group. It’s been a hoot.
- Making myself useful by putting together a presentation on the usefulness of uselessness (無用之用) for Saturday's philosophy salon.
- I have just worked my way through all 1350 typewritten pages of the Maryknoll #Taiwanese language textbooks. My spoken language is still scrappy as anything, but getting even this far feels like a triumph of the human spirit. 😂
- I'm very much looking forward to talking about the philosophy of work at our @windandbones.com philoosphy salon at the Wansha Performing Arts Centre here in #Tainan next Saturday. Any philosophers in town, do come along. The event will be in Mandarin and English.
- I love #Taiwan temple tigers when they look kind of awkward and apologetic.
- For those folks who are celebrating #Easter (and those who are not), here's a mural from 鹽水天主聖神堂, the frankly wild Catholic Church in Yanshui 鹽水 just up the road (more info here: www.twtainan.net/zh-tw/attrac...).
- Something I wrote about writing, suffering, questioning, and — most importantly — whether cats can make jokes. www.willbuckingham.com/writing-suff...
- Just spotted that an omnibus edition of my book, Hello, Stranger, from @grantabooks.bsky.social will be on BBC Radio4 Extra this May 3rd. Check out the link here. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... Oh, and you can find links to buy the book here: stranger.willbuckingham.com.
- Something I wrote for my friends at Indigo Seowon in Korea, about stories, testimony and the possibility and home. www.willbuckingham.com/story-like-t...
- I had so much fun yesterday talking to Naomi Sím (沈宛瑩 / Sím Oán-Êng) about writing in small languages, translation, and why we should think less about being creative writers, and more about being strategic writers. www.willbuckingham.com/writing-as-s...
- I very much approve of this use of “hearty”, here meaning heart-shaped.
- Coming from the UK, this feels astonishing. Imagine if UK train prices hadn't risen *at all* since 1995... focustaiwan.tw/business/202...
