What type of stones are the most common in Taiwan? The single-convex Chinese style of stones or the Japanese double-convenx style? Is it a political statement to use Yunzi stones in Taiwan?
We don’t like to talk about politics in the Go community, so mostly just utility and customs. And we can buy really cheap plastic stones and boards in stationery stores here (like 100 NTD to 300 NTD, less than 10 USD to just 3 USD), and they tend to be double convex, or “double flat” (those really really cheap ones are really flat, and some are magnetic stones so not flat nor convex). And then for slightly more expensive but affordable ones, especially for Go classes and schools to purchase in bulk, depending on what the teachers and students prefer, there are locally produced ones of either shape, imported ones from the mainland (and there are double convex Yunzi as well), and imported from Korea or Japan (tend to be a bit more expensive). And of course, on the very expensive end, we have the Japanese clamshell stones and high-end boards. But also high-end Yunzi as well (still generally much cheaper compared to clamshell).
Overall, I’d say more double-convex stones than single-convex (most pro games held locally used clamshell stones so they are all double-convex). Although some still love single convex stones just for personal taste (bulk purpose probably just use locally produced stones, much cheaper and no shipping)
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