This was the first Oscar nomination for a documentary from Taiwan. “Island in Between”《金門》was a nominee for Best Documentary Short at the 2024 Academy Awards. In this 19-minute documentary, we see Kinmen (Quemoy) through the lens of filmmaker S. Leo Chiang (江松長) and the diverse cast of characters he meets there. Kinmen - made of a set of islands - is governed by Taiwan but sits just 2 miles across from China. Here Chiang portrays an “uneasy peace on the frontline between Taiwan and China.” We talk about Kinmen, the making of the film, the path to the Oscars, and Chiang’s personal journey fro ..read more

Alex Khomenko is the organizer of Taiwan Stands with Ukraine 台灣烏克蘭陣線. We talk about conducting citizen diplomacy at a time of war, Taiwan’s humanitarian aid to Ukraine and public donations that amounted to the sending of power generators and ambulances, Taiwan and Ukraine relations, and the internal politics the Ukrainian government may be facing at home.  Ukraine has no representatives based in Taiwan. When the war broke out on February 24, 2022, there were around 250 Ukrainians living in Taiwan. Many have had to do the difficult job of citizen diplomacy at a time of war. They have for ..read more

Reinhard Bütikofer is a familiar name in Europe and Taiwan relations. He has been an MEP since 2009, where he is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, chairperson of the Delegation for Relations with China, and an alternate member of the Committee on International Trade. Reinhard also co-chairs IPAC, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.  (This conversation was recorded prior to the 2024 January 13 election in Taiwan.) We discuss the history of Europe-Taiwan relations, how 2016 and 2019 paved the way for an increased level of engagement with Taiwan, and how Bütikofer stays hop ..read more

This 5-episode limited series delves into policy debates within Taiwan that could have implications for the region and beyond. Each episode features Taiwanese local experts and voices weighing in on social, economic and defense issues as they discusses how Taiwanese society is responding to these challenges. From Ghost Island Media in Taipei and the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C, this is "Dispatch from Taiwan."  Subscribe - Apple Podcasts: https://gimpod.me/usip-taiwan-apple Spotify: https://gimpod.me/usip-taiwan-spotify Amazon: https://gimpod.me/usip-taiwan-amazon Episode ..read more

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Prior to moving to Taiwan, Louis Heng had spent time in Singapore, Germany, Malta, and Scotland. Louis’ first time in Taiwan was with the Singaporian military. He then worked briefly as an airline pilot before entering a career in life insurance. In this episode, Louis and Emily talk about relocation with your family, managing and navigating multi-cultural teams, and Germany’s famous Oktoberfest. This episode is a sponsored collaboration with the Taiwan Gold Card Office. Interested in moving to Taiwan? Find out more about this open work-permit and residenc ..read more

As global attention on Taiwan intensifies, so does the significance of the work undertaken by domestic journalists. Today we speak with Taipei-based journalists as Taiwan gears up for its presidential and legislative election on January 13th, 2024. This is a collaboration with the NüVoices Podcast.  Many thanks to the team at NüVoices partnering with us for this collaborative episode.  Today's guests are:  Silva Shih -  Head of data journalism at CommonWealth Magazine (天下雜誌) in Taiwan, where she’s also a managing editor. Silva had previously spent five years at the Financ ..read more

“Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation” includes over 130 recipes and stories of the food in Taiwan, its history, and its people. It’s been named a Best Cookbook of Fall 2023 by Bon Appetitit, Forbes, Food & Wine, New York Magazine, Eater, and Tasting Table. It was published by Simon & Schuster in September, 2023. Clarissa Wei has been a food journalist for a decade - writing about Asian cuisine in the L.A Times, about Nicaragua for VICE, on China for Goldthread of the SCMP. Her writings on the intersection of food and politics appear regularly in the New York Tim ..read more

Weining Hung 洪維寧 founded LUCfest, a music showcase festival, with KK Yeh 葉宛青 (White Wabbit Records) in 2017. Taiwanese bands first played there before they went international, bands like Outlet Drift, The Fur, Go Go Machine Orchestra, Lücy, and Trout Fresh.  When Weining’s not managing the festival, she’s managing Asian talents like Phum Viphurit from Thailand. We talk about her love for music, the “it” factor for a superstar-to-be, and how the live music industry is changing post-COVID. Weining’s advice for emerging musicians? “Get yourself a manager, a team. Then get yourself an agent ..read more

A “21 Women Who Defined 2021” (VOGUE magazine Australia), a “Change Maker” (Australian Women in Music Award), and a “25 Trailblazers Reshaping Australia” (Sydney Morning Herald, 2022), Jaguar Jonze is a rockstar. She is also an advocate for mental health, trauma awareness, and MeToo against sexual harassment.  “If I can change one person's life and make it all worthwhile, that's what I'm holding on to,” she said about her decision to speak up against sexual assault. Tickets to Jaguar Jonze’s show in Taiwan this week:  Nov 1 in Taipei: https://www.indievox.com/activity/detail/2 ..read more

Harry Wu’s 吳易叡 is a historian of medicine. His book “Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization” was published in 2021 by MIT Press. “Scientific method is actually a cultural process. Studying science is actually studying a society.” From 2013 to 2021 Wu led the humanities programs at the medical schools of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He’s now Associate Professor at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan, Taiwan. His current research is on the transnational histories of m ..read more