Talking Taiwan

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   May 15 to June 15th is Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month. To learn more about what Tourette syndrome is, I encourage you to listen to the episode that we did last year with Peter Zhao, episode 129. Peter is a Tourette Activist and has been a guest on Talking Taiwan several times. He's also spoken up about Asian hate crimes.   I really appreciate the o...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   In this episode of Talking Taiwan, my guests are Richard Pearson, the Executive Director of the Western Pacific Fellowship Project and Professor Shelley Rigger. We will be talking about the Taiwan Fellowship Act, a bill which has been decades in the making, and was inspired by the Mansfield Fellowship. This bill which has gotten bipartisan support in...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   This lost episode of Talking Taiwan features blogger Michael Turton. At the time Michael had written over 5000 blog posts for his blog The View From Taiwan. Michael began writing his blog in 2005 and I remember how popular Michael's blog was. That's how I learned about him when I was living in Taiwan, back in the days before social media.     Michael...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Karen Lin is running as the Democratic candidate for Judge of the Civil Court in Queens, New York. Presently, Karen serves as Court Attorney-Referee in Kings County Surrogate's Court. She has also served as a Judge in the New York City Housing Court, adjudicating disputes between landlord and tenants in the Bronx and Manhattan.   We spoke about her cu...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   It's Thursday and we're releasing another "lost" episode of Talking Taiwan! We've discovered some never before published, "lost" episodes of Talking Taiwan that were recorded 10 years ago, when Talking Taiwan was being created, and we've decided to re-release them on Thursdays.   This week's lost episode of Talking Taiwan features Jerome Keating, the...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   In this episode of Talking Taiwan, I'm speaking with Brian Foden. We're welcoming Brian back on as a guest after discovering his lost episode that was recorded 10 years ago. Originally from Canada, he's been living in Taiwan for over 20 years now. We spoke about what Taiwan was like when he first arrived, how it's changed and what life is like for him...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   As some of you may know, I started hosting Talking Taiwan in 2013, but Talking Taiwan was actually created back in 2012. And we've discovered some never before published, "lost" episodes of Talking Taiwan that were recorded 10 years ago! Some of these guests featured in these "lost episodes" may already be familiar to our listeners and some of them wi...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Erin Hale is an American Journalist who has lived and worked across Asia.  She is currently a freelance journalist based in Taiwan. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, The BBC News, The New Statesman, The South China Morning Post, Marie Claire, The Southeast Asia Globe, Forbes.com and other outlets.  ...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Taiwan's Employment Gold Card program has come up in several past episodes of Talking Taiwan. I've been wanting to bring someone on to talk about what it is, who might be eligible for it and how to apply for it. In this episode I spoke with Michael Fahey, an American lawyer who's lived in Taiwan for 30 years. He worked with the Taiwan National Develop...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: Yao Huang is funding minority owned businessess to solve the financial inequality problem. I first met and interviewed Yao Huang, in 2013. She is founder and managing partner of The Hatchery. If you want to learn more about her and the Hatchery you can go back and listen to episode 147 of Talking Taiwan.   Last year I looked her up, wondering what she's...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: Paolo Lising shares his knowledge on starting a business in Taiwan. In February, I did a follow up interview with Paolo Lising, who I've had on as a guest previously along with Ramon Ray in episode 168, which was about solopreneurship. Paolo is the author of  Startup Taiwan:   Foreigners Business Guide , and the founder of MillionDC.com.  Startup Taiwan...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   So much has happened since I interviewed John Fan, one of the co-founders of PicCollage back in December. PicCollage is an app that allows you to create fun things with your photos and videos. It is one of the most popular apps in the photo and video app category in the app store.   We actually spoke the day after Talking Taiwan won a Golden Crane Pod...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Russia's invasion of Ukraine has put the reality of war on display for the world, especially for Taiwan, which like Ukraine, has been under the constant threat of military aggression of an unfriendly neighbor. Because of the war that's been happening in Ukraine there's been talk of how Taiwan must improve its military defense capabilities and prepared...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   April fourth is Children's Day in Taiwan, which is great timing for this interview with children's book author Margaret Chiu Greanias. She spoke with me about her latest book Amah Faraway , which has many of its scenes set in Taipei, Taiwan. Margaret shared how she became a children's book author, what she loves about picture books, how they get creat...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   As she watched the humanitarian crisis unfold due to the war in Ukraine, S. Chien wanted to do something to help. She came up with the idea for the Taiwan Cares project and together with Dr. Monty Wang and Dr. Bo-Chheng Lin, mobilized the efforts of over 30 Taiwanese Americans from New Jersey to raise over $9000 in 24 hours. The funds were used to pur...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Will China attack Taiwan given the current circumstances surrounding the war in Ukraine? My guest on this episode of Talking Taiwan is Kuan-Ting Chen, the CEO of Taiwan NextGen Foundation, which is an NGO (a non-governmental organization) founded in Taipei that focuses on various issues such as Taiwan's soft power, promoting democracy, educational pol...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Jiho Chang tells us the inside story first hand by reliving the Sunflower Movement from Ground Zero. March 18 th  will mark the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Sunflower Movement during which time activists occupied Taiwan's Legislative Yuan in order to protest the passing of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, which was a treaty betw...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   On March 9 th Taiwan Post will be issuing a stamp commemorating the 150 th anniversary of the arrival of Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay in Northern Taiwan. Mackay was unlike most 19 th century missionaries. He has been referred to as the "son-in-law of Taiwan," and was a forward thinker. He was one of the first to oppose the Head Tax imposed...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: Dr. Michi Fu and Dr. Tsuann Kuo are helping 228 Survivors deal with trauma.   This year marks 75 years since the 228 Massacre and this week we continue our discussion on the topic. 228 refers to February 28, 1947, which could be argued is a misnomer because tensions leading up to the massacre of tens of thousands of people had been building for quite so...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   The 228 Massacre has been a subject of taboo for those who have had family who lived through it and the White Terror Era that followed.   The Lunar New Year holiday and celebrations in Taiwan have just ended, but another national holiday will soon be here, the 228 Peace Memorial Day. But what is 228?   It's been, 75 years and as you'll hear from my gu...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   David Kilgour recently wrote an article that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, Winter Olympics — here's why we're calling them the China Genocide Olympics.   For nearly 20 years, he has been outspoken about the human rights abuses and organ trafficking in China. When he and David Matas were asked in 2006 to investigate allegations that the organs of Fal...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Michael Cannings is the Publisher at Camphor Press, a British-Taiwanese publishing house focused on East Asia, that he co-founded with John Grant Ross and Mark Swofford, in 2014. Profit was not the motive for setting up Camphor Press, but promoting books, especially those about Taiwan was. Michael spoke with me about how they weathered the challenging...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   My guests on this episode of Talking Taiwan are serial solo entrepreneurs Ramon Ray and Paolo Lising. Ramon has started 5 companies and sold 2 of them. He is the author of  Grow Your Solo,  a book about how to grow a solo business. Paolo Lising is founder of MillionDC.com, a learning platform for entrepreneurs from developing countries. He is the auth...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   This year, the Lunar New Year falls on February 1 st  and it's the year of the tiger. For those of you familiar with Lunar New year celebrations, you may recall some of the traditions, which might include: wearing the color red, receiving or giving red envelopes, eating special foods, lion dances and firecrackers   My guest on this episode of Talking...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: "If you are listening to this episode as part of a class or institutional program, we'd love to hear from you — please tell us the country, city, and name of the university you are studying and listening from, and give us details  about how this episode is being used as part of a class or an ongoing project, and email us at talkingtaiwanpodcast@gmail.co...