Talking Taiwan

Dr. Hsing-Huan Wang is Chairman of the Taiwan Statebuilding party. Last July we sat down to speak with him at TAC-WC, the Taiwanese American Conference West Coast hosted in San Francisco/Silicon Valley.  We talked about how he went from studying Buddhist philosophy and aspirations to pursue academic research as a professor, to accidentally becoming a politician. The Taiwan Statebuilding has a clea...

Happy Pride month! Cony Hsieh is President of the Kaohsiung Pride Parade Association. We recently spoke with Cony about her experience as a lesbian woman serving in Taiwan's military, and how she hopes her research on gender issues in the military can help push for reform in Taiwan's military. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/cony-hsieh-kaohsiung-pride-president-focuses-on-lgbtq-issues-and...

This year's Taiwan Pride Float at the New York City Pride March was inspired by Taiwan's Betel Nut Beauty culture. The concept and design was conceived by Nymphia Wind, who was already an established drag queen in Taiwan when she won RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 in 2024. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/nymphia-wind-brings-taiwans-betel-nut-beauty-culture-to-the-new-york-pride-march-ep-349...

Jotham Hung is a ceramic artist and educator based in Southern California reflecting on his early experiences with art. Late last year I sat down to speak with Jotham about his evolution and journey to becoming a full-time educator artist and he shared the dark moment that led to his creative process which has resulted in pieces that reflect the themes of deconstruction & reconstruction, damage &...

Late last year, I sat down to speak with John Enger Cheng about the early roots of his creativity in childhood, his creative process as an artist, what it means to him to be Taiwanese American and how that shows up in his art. We also talked about how he maintains a creative practice and believes that inspiration finds you working. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/john-enger-cheng-on-his-c...

We sat down to speak with George Yin, Board Chair of the Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation & Political Law Attorney about his interest in supporting the arts, why he thinks it's important to do so, and how so-called "non-artists" can support the arts and more specifically artists in their community. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/george-yin-arts-advocacy-can-be-a-lifelong-passion-tuf-p...

We stepped out in the drizzling rain for this year's Passport to Taiwan on Sunday, May 24th in New York City's Union Square Park, and were happy to see that the weather hadn't put much of a damper on the number people that came out for this annual tradition. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/passport-to-taiwan-2026-making-our-rounds-with-taiwanese-community-organizations-fapa-tccny-natma-ep...

In part two of our interview with Vickie Wang (王宇平), she talked about how the COVID lockdown of 2022 in Shanghai affected her mental health, her thoughts on the Great Recall movement in Taiwan last year, how she questions her Taiwanese-ness i.e. if she's Taiwanese enough, generative propaganda, and how she got into stand-up comedy. Vickie Wang a writer, interpreter, and stand-up comedian born a...

Vickie Wang (王宇平) is a writer, interpreter, and stand-up comedian born and raised in Taiwan. She's lived in Shanghai, China for nearly a decade, where she started doing stand-up comedy under censorship. Last year I sat down to interview Vickie. in part one of my interview with Vickie, we talked about the perceptions and attitudes that many Taiwanese have about the Chinese, and on the other end...

Every year we try to dedicate an episode of Talking Taiwan to 228, an important date in Taiwan's history, marking the 228 Massacre. 228 stands for February 28 1947. February 28th is now commemorated as a national holiday in Taiwan known as the 228 Peace Memorial Day. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/kita-foundation-mapping-the-path-of-the-trailblazers-that-paved-the-way-for-taiwans-democra...

Last July, we brought Talking Taiwan to the 2025 Taiwanese American Conference, West Coast. While we were there, I sat down to speak with Dr. Shih-Fen Chen (陳時奮), who's also been known by his pen name Wēngdáruì (翁達瑞). Dr. Chen is Professor Emeritus at Ivey Business School, and a Professor at Western Washington University. He's an outspoken political commentator, self-described as a scholar w...

Back in April 2021 we covered news about a record breaking 25 Chinese air force aircraft including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers that entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ). At the time 25 seemed like an alarming number. It was the largest incursion by Chinese military planes into Taiwan's ADIZ to date.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/chinas-alarming-gray-zone-ta...

At the end of 2024 I sat down with Dr. Meng Chiang, the Executive Director of the 2024 Taiwanese American Conference- East Coast. We had a really wonderful heart-centered conversation about the conference theme Collective Memory and that led to collective trauma as it relates to the Taiwanese and Taiwanese American communities. We talked about the 4 types of trauma responses, the 4 Fs- flight, fig...

It's time to reveal the Top 5 episodes of Talking Taiwan in 2025. What's notable about these 5 episodes is that they are among the most popular Talking Taiwan episodes of all time.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/talking-taiwan-top-5-of-2025-award-winner-end-of-year-review-ep-338/   But before revealing the Top 5 episodes of 2025, let's take look back on 2025, which was a busy year for...

In July of 2024, we brought talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference (TAC), East Coast at Westchester University.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/the-charm-of-tainan-taiwans-oldest-city-a-talk-with-author-and-historian-jinyu-hsieh-%e8%ac%9d%e9%87%91%e9%ad%9a-ep-337/   Jinyu Hsieh ( 謝金魚 ), one of the speakers at TAC is a writer and a historian. I sat down to tal...

To commemorate its anniversary on December 10th, we thought this would be a great time to reshare one of our most popular CLASSIC episodes, an interview we did with Taiwan Democracy fighter Dr. Linda Gail Arrigo, Ai Linda (艾琳達) in 2024 about events leading up to the HISTORIC Kaohsiung Incident. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-linda-gail-arrigo-taiwan-democracy-fighter-talks-about-ev...

Earlier this year, on March 30, at the Taiwan Center in Flushing NY, FAPA (Formosan Association for Public Affairs) hosted a panel discussion, Lessons from the Battlefield: What Taiwan Can Learn From Ukraine. Representatives from the Ukrainian community, Razom for Ukraine and Dignitas Ukraine and FAPA discussed how NGOs can strengthen advocacy, humanitarian aid, and international collaboration.   ...

Earlier this year, on March 30, at the Taiwan Center in Flushing NY, FAPA (Formosan Association for Public Affairs) hosted a panel discussion, Lessons from the Battlefield: What Taiwan Can Learn From Ukraine. Representatives from the Ukrainian community, Razom for Ukraine and Dignitas Ukraine and FAPA discussed how NGOs can strengthen advocacy, humanitarian aid, and international collaboration.   ...

I recently sat down with Dr. Raymond Kuo, Director of RAND's Taiwan Policy Initiative and Catherine Kish, Research Assistant and Chinese Language Specialist at RAND to talk about their War on the Rocks article, "Taiwan's Will to Fight Isn't the Problem." Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/does-taiwan-have-the-will-to-fight-ep-333/   Later on in the interview we also talked about how Taiwan c...

Get Access to the  Replay  of the Talking Taiwan Gala Make a Donation at Humanitix https://events.humanitix.com/ talking-taiwan-2025- fundraising-gala   For Free Access the  Replay of the Talking Taiwan Gala Give Us Your Feedback by emailing podcast@talkingtaiwan.con with the Subject Line: 12 MORE     Talking Taiwan's inaugural fundraising gala was on April 30 th  here in New York City at the eleg...

Dr. Yang Szu Pang ( 楊斯棓 ) is an author and speaker. He has donated 100% of his books royalties to causes and organizations that he cares about. He has been invited to speak at several Taiwanese American conferences and communities across the country. In July of 2024 he sat down to speak with at the Taiwanese American Conference East Coast which was held at Westchester University. We talked abou...

Wang Guo-ren's deer sculpture measures well over 10 feet if you include its antlers. Constructed completely of fallen pieces of wood and tree branches that have been colorfully painted, the deer seems to have magically taken up residence on the lawn outside of the Taiwanese American Arts Council House 17.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/eco-art-on-island-the-deer-god-and-wearable-art-no...

In this episode, the husband-and-wife team, gypsy jazz and classical guitarist Antoine Boyer and chromatic harmonica player Yeore Kim shared about their real life "Love in Taipei" story. He's from France and she's from South Korea, so music was their first common language. We also talked about how they navigate their partnership as life partners and as musical partners, and their debut duet album ...

On Friday, September 12 th  at the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza which is across from the UN Headquarters, in New York representatives from the Taiwan United Nations Alliance or TAIUNA, an NGO from Taiwan, held a press conference urging the UN to include Taiwan in its system. TAIUNA Youth Representatives performed a dance, a white protest of Taiwan's exclusion from the UN. Related Links: https://talkingt...

In July of 2024, we brought talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference, east Coast at Westchester University, where I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Taiwan's, former vice President, Dr. Chen Chen ( 陳建仁 ) . We talked about how Dr. Chen was trained to be an epidemiologist and was initially reluctant to go into politics, but then fate intervened and changed his min...