Talking Taiwan

We had a beautiful day on Sunday at the Passport to Taiwan in New York City's Union Square Park. Congratulations to the Passport to Taiwan team for making the event a huge success! The park was packed and food lines were long. We were so glad to be invited to be a part of it. For us it was a welcome change of pace. It's not often that we get to meet our listeners in person! Related Links: https://...

This year the Passport to Taiwan will be returning to New York City's Union Square Park on Sunday, May 28 th  from 12 noon to 5:00pm. It will be the first in-person Passport to Taiwan in three years since the pandemic, and we are looking forward to it!   Talking Taiwan will be there with a special live on-location podcasting studio. Read on to learn more about what we have planned.    Related Link...

How is it that I haven't done an episode about bubble tea? It's surprising that of all the things related to Taiwan, that I've covered on this podcast, I haven't covered this one.   Last year I heard that April 30 th was National Bubble Tea Day when I saw a tweet by President Tsai Ing-wen. So I got to work planning to release an episode about bubble tea for this year's April 30th. Related Links: T...

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and my guest on this episode of Talking Taiwan, Peter Lin is here to talk about the Asian American Pacific Islander or AAPI Jazz Fest which is coming up on May 20 th  in Newark, NJ. The AAPI Jazz Fest celebrates the diversity of the pan-Asian jazz community with a full day of performances and panels. Peter is Founder of Yardbird Entertainment and Produc...

This past Saturday, April 29 th was the first TaiwanFest of the year in New York City. So we decided to go check it out and see what businesses and community organizations were there. Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwanfest-nyc-2023-talking-taiwans-live-stream-coverage-in-the-rain-ep-236/  For this episode we tried out somet...

 This episode is a follow up on episode 233 that covered Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen's 48-hour transit through New York from March 29-31 en route to Central America.   When Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen left Taiwan to go on a ten-day state trip to Central America to meet with Taiwan's diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize. She first transited through New York from March 29-31 en route to Ce...

In part two of our interview with T.H. Schee we talked about what concerns in particular that Taiwan should have about AI, ChatGPT and Baidu's chatbot Ernie.   ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI in partnership with Microsoft, which is its largest investor. It was released in November of 2022. And in case you're wondering, GPT stands for: generative pre-trained transf...

On March 29th Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen left Taiwan to go on a ten-day state trip to Central America to meet with Taiwan's diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize. In a pre-departure speech, President Tsai shared that the theme of her trip "Meeting Democratic Partnership, Fostering Shared Prosperity" expresses our determination to foster deeper exchange and cooperation between Taiwan and our...

Last year I spoke with T.H. Schee about Taiwan's civil defense preparedness in episode 178. This was a hot topic of discussion in Taiwan after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2023. It made the military threat that the people of Taiwan face from the People's Republic of China very real. A year has passed since Russia's invasion and I wanted to bring T.H. back for a follow up conversatio...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/eric-chang-on-the-unfolding-situation-at-the-legislative-yuan-during-the-sunflower-movement-ep-231/   The Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, which started in protest to the passage of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA), happened nine years ago, on the night of March 18, 2014. I was in Ta...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/rur-architecture-what-inspired-the-team-to-design-the-taiwan-music-center-and-kaohsiung-port-terminal-ep-230/ The Kaohsiung Port Terminal just opened on March 6 th  and I had a chance to speak with Jesse Reiser AR'81 and Nanako Umemoto AR'83 of Reiser+Umemoto, RUR Architecture, the architects beh...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/robert-tsao-founder-of-umc-pledges-to-donate-usd-100-million-to-taiwans-military-cause-ep-229/   In December we spoke with Robert Tsao, founder of UMC, who in August of 2022 pledged to donate 100 million U.S. dollars to help Taiwan defend itself. In 2011 he moved to Singapore and became a citizen...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/commemorating-the-228-massacre-taboos-scars-stigmas-and-an-essential-lesson-in-taiwan-history-ep-228/   228, February 28, 1947 is an important date in history for Taiwan. In Taiwan it is a national holiday known as 228 Peace Day, and since 228, which is also known as the 228 Massacre is just arou...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/courtney-donovan-smith-of-taiwan-report-shares-his-analysis-on-taiwans-2022-nine-in-one-local-elections-ep-227/   With Taiwan's next presidential election set for early 2024, what are the implications of Taiwan's  2022 "Nine-in-One" Local Elections  that took place back in November? We've invited...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/ed-hill-talks-about-his-off-broadway-debut-and-comedy-special-candy-and-smiley-ep-226/   Ed Hill is a Vancouver based Taiwanese comedian on his first national North American tour. We spoke about his early years in Canada, his connection to TAIWANfest and how his overachieving Asian tendencies cam...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/spark-accel-a-virtual-accelerator-for-taiwanese-american-entrepreneurs-ep-225/   SPARK Accel is a personalized 4-week virtual accelerator for Taiwanese American entrepreneurs. At the end of the program there will be a virtual pitch competition and a chance for participants to win up to $15,000. S...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/andrew-klerck-blindness-later-in-life-could-not-stop-this-thriving-entrepreneur-ep-224/   Andrew Klerck is the founder of Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs, a group that serves foreigners who want to start a business in Taiwan. He spoke with me about how much you need to start a business in Taiwan, and...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/graci-kim-from-new-zealand-diplomat-to-new-york-times-best-selling-author-ep-223/   Graci Kim is a New York Times Bestselling author of the  Gifted Clans  series. In 2012, she was interviewed for Talking Taiwan about her cooking show called Graci in the Kitchen. We've invited her back to give us...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/ep-222-lost-episodes-graci-in-the-kitchen/   Here's a Lost Episode of Talking Taiwan from 2012 featuring Graci Kim. At the time she had a YouTube show called Graci in the Kitchen, and she talked about some of the episodes that were in the works. Next week we'll be sharing our follow up interview...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/talking-taiwan-2022-top-5-award-winner-end-of-year-review-ep-221/   A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   It's that time of year again… time to reveal the top 5 Talking Taiwan episodes of the year.   As we were preparing for this last episode of the year I reflected on this past year and...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/what-caused-the-cancellation-of-worldpride-taiwan-2025-our-discussion-with-david-yu-ep-220/   A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   In August the news broke that WorldPride 2025 was no longer going to be hosted by Taiwan.   Less than a year ago, InterPride and Taiwan had celebrated the s...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-karen-chung-shares-secrets-of-language-learning-and-challenges-taiwanese-students-face-learning-english-ep-219/   A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Dr. Karen Chung is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of National Taiwan Universit...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-mark-chen-talks-about-his-years-of-service-in-taiwan-ep-217/   A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   In part one of my interview with Dr. Mark Chen (episode 212) we talked about his advocacy work for Taiwan in the U.S. and the impact of the Kaohsiung Incident on Taiwan's democratizati...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/ep-217-lost-episodes-karen-chung-on-the-echo-method/   A Note from the Host Felicia Lin Here's another one of the lost episodes of Talking Taiwan that we discovered were recorded back around 2012. Yes that's 10 years ago when Talking Taiwan was just being created. Next week we'll be bringing this...

Related Links: To view all related links for this article, click link below: https://talkingtaiwan.com/j-w-henley-author-of-migrante-reveals-the-plight-of-migrant-workers-in-taiwan-ep-216/ A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: J.W. Henley , author of Migante discusses how the plight of migrant workers in Taiwan came to him, and all the research that was involved. Joe Henley is Freelance Wri...