After hearing about Team Taiwan’s historic gold medal baseball win at the Premier 12 on November 24th I reached out to Richard Wang who I previously interviewed in 2020 about how Taiwan was the only place on the planet where professional baseball was being played during the COVID pandemic and since the entire world was watching, it led to English broadcasts of Taiwan’s baseball games. Related Link: https://talkingtaiwan.com/team-taiwans-historic-gold-medal-baseball-win-our-conversation-with-richard-wang-ep-299/ Well, it turns out that Richard was at the Tokyo Dome for Premier 12 and even ..read more

In July we brought Talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference, East Coast (aka TAC-EC) at West Chester University where we set up an on-location podcast studio and I interviewed 12 people in 3 days. It was pretty nonstop but it was well worth it. One thing we strive to do with Talking Taiwan is to record oral histories, so it was my pleasure to sit down with several of TAC-EC’s past organizers to talk about the conference’s history.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/oral-histories-by-three-tac-ec-past-organizers-talking-with-terry-tsao-sue-mei-kao-and-powen-w ..read more

Last year in August of 2023 I interviewed Dr. Jung Tsai about the medical mission to Ukraine that he had organized. If you haven’t already had a chance to hear my first interview with Dr. Tsai about his medical mission to Ukraine, check out Episode 251: Dr. Jung Tsai: On His Courageous Medical Mission to Ukraine for Taiwan.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/aftermath-of-his-medical-mission-to-ukraine-one-year-later-dr-jung-tsai-ep-297/   This past July we took Talking Taiwan on the road to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference, East Coast that was held at W ..read more

Since 2020 Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has been reporting the number of incursions China makes by sea and air into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone. These incursions now happen on a daily basis and already the tally for this year alone has surpassed the total number of occurrences that took place last year in 2023.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/psychological-defense-and-practices-to-manage-stress-for-the-people-of-taiwan-a-talk-with-dr-hsiao-wen-lo-ep-296/   Recently, on October 14th, just days after President Lai Ching-te’s Double Ten Day speech, China ..read more

Pasuya Yao (姚文智) is a politician turned film producer. His film production company thuànn TAIWAN, produced the documentary Su Beng, The Revolutionist and more recently the feature film Untold Herstory that ranked third at Taiwan’s box office in 2022. We spoke about Untold Herstory, which is based on a book authored by Tsao Chin-jung (曹欽榮) and published in 2012, the book’s title has been translated as "Bonfire Island: Untold Herstory." It is a collection of interviews of women political prisoners held on Green Island in the 1950s. If you haven’t seen Untold Herstory yet, it will be co ..read more

I recently spoke with Michael Fahey about some developments on human rights related issues in Taiwan, including the anticipated ruling by Taiwan’s constitutional court on the Death Penalty. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/recently-debated-human-rights-issues-in-taiwan-a-conversation-with-michael-fahey-ep-294/ We spoke on September 16th and Taiwan’s constitutional court made its ruling on September 20th. At the time I had spoken to Michael about a campaign and online petition to expand access to dual nationality for long-term foreign permanent residents of Taiwan. To learn mo ..read more

Did you know that there is a campaign underway in Taiwan that is calling for foreign permanent residents to be able to apply for dual nationality, effectively allowing them to obtain Taiwanese citizenship after 5 years without giving up their original passport?   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/dual-nationality-for-long-term-permanent-residents-of-taiwan-discussion-with-michael-fahey-ep-293/   An online petition for this proposal was launched on August 19th and they are trying to collect 5,000 signatures to support it by October 19th: https://join.gov.tw/idea/detail/951 ..read more

In September the UN General Assembly takes place at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. This year, the 79th session of the UN General Assembly opened on Tuesday, September 10th and will conclude on Monday, September 30th. The theme of the General Debate is "Leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations.”   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/un-membership-for-taiwan-a-nyc-press-conference-peace-truck-and-a-rally-ep-292/   Since 1992, the Taiwanese American Council of ..read more

Earlier this summer, in June, I spoke with John Groot the author of An Emergency Preparedness Guide for Expats in Taiwan.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/an-emergency-preparedness-guide-for-expats-in-taiwan-our-discussion-with-survivalist-author-john-groot-ep-291/   John has made the book is available for free on his website and you download a copy of it by >> clicking herehttps://thecultureshack.blog/2023/12/04/emergency-preparedness-guide-for-expats-in-taiwan/   Taiwan is of course no stranger to natural disasters since it often experiences earthquakes an ..read more

The recent Paris Olympics has just passed and may already be fading into memory. This year Team Taiwan won 2 gold medals and 5 bronze at the Olympics. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/my-conversation-with-mike-chinoy-award-winning-journalist-on-his-new-film-decathalon-ep-290/ Do you know when and who won Taiwan’s first Olympic medal? It happened at the 1960 Rome Olympics, which was the first Summer Olympics that was televised in North America. The man who was known as the “Iron Man of Asia,” C.K. Yang won a silver medal in the decathlon. C.K. was of the Amis indigenous tribe from south ..read more