Founded in 1926, the leftist “Black Youth Alliance” is a rare example of an anarchist organization operating in colonial-era Taiwan. While its influence on the island’s politics would be long-lasting, the alliance itself dissolved after a brief few months. What was the appeal of anarchic ideas to contemporary intellectuals, artists and social activists? What did this alliance actually accomplish? The story unfolds around several main characters, a Taiwan-born Japanese idealist and his Taiwanese student peers, offering a lens into the cultural zeitgeist and ideas circulating among contemporary young, educated circles. The author’s easy-flowing narrative approach handily takes on a serious topic couched within the colors and textures of colonial Taiwan in the mid-early twentieth century.