On a wall in Woolloomooloo, an Australian-themed restaurant in Taipei's business center, hangs a poster advertising the Hong Kong movie "Revolution of Our Times" (2021), which is banned in China and Hong Kong. Alongside the movie image are an anti-nuclear poster and a rainbow flag symbolizing LGBT rights. Below it, 15 newspapers are on display, including the government-supporting Liberty Times and the pro-opposition United Daily News.
The restaurant wall is a fitting example of Taiwan's robust freedom of speech, unique in the Chinese-speaking world, and the island's evolving role as a hub for exiles from less tolerant parts of the region. But Woolloomooloo's traditional British and Australian cuisine -- fish and chips, Earl Grey tea cake and meat pies are popular offerings -- also evokes Taiwan's growing embrace of Britain's famous wartime slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On."
