I’ve been in Taipei for the past week, reacquainting myself with a city that I first fell in love with back in 1989 when I came here right out of high school to study Mandarin. Living in Taipei back then was a somewhat surreal experience. People were still hurting from nearly four decades of martial law that led to many of the massive societal cleavages the nation still grapples with today.

But it was also a time of great hope. The first green shoots of pluralism started to appear in the 1990 presidential election, paving the way for what would eventually become one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies.