Talking Taiwan

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   A-Doc, the Asian American Documentary Network was established in 2016 by one of the Co-founders, Grace Lee (known for the award-winning The Grace Lee Project and other documentary films) and is a resource and network for nonfiction filmmakers at all different stages of their career. I spoke with Grace about the organization, and its "Stories of the Co...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   What a fun, spirited conversation I had with my guests Valerie Soe and Kristina Wong! We could certainly use more conversations like this in this post-COVID-19 world. We talked about the Auntie Sewing Squad, a sewing circle formed during the global Coronavirus pandemic, that has taken on making masks first for frontline medical and essential workers,...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Since I've stepped into the role of Producer of this podcast, in addition to being the host, we've been working on consistently delivering quality content, and on releasing previously unreleased episodes. In doing so, it's allowed me to revisit some of our previous guests like Peter Lin who is a jazz musician and trombone player who I interviewed in 2...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Peter Lin, is a trombone player, leader of the jazz band, The Lintet, and music teacher. He is a man who wears a lot of different hats! In March of 2018, Peter spoke with me about his career as a professional musician, the difference between being a bandleader versus a sideman, and how he met jazz legend Slide Hampton. We also talked about the Lintet'...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Scott Simon, Professor in the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies and Co-holder of the Research Chair in Taiwan Studies at the University of Ottawa spoke with us about an article he wrote for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute which served to sound a warning to the global community about China's lack of transparency. In the case of the COV...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: I invited Emily Chen on to Talking Taiwan as a guest to talk about how she manages to homeschool during the coronavirus when having her kids home full-time during this pandemic. The idea for this episode came from a Google doc that was created and shared by Emily on Facebook. The link to it is listed below in the related links section of this post. You'...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Since Taiwan has received a great deal of recognition globally for its successful containment of COVID-19, I've been looking to interview a medical professional about Taiwan's response and handling of the Coronavirus. Special thanks to Dr. Han Mingrong (韓明榮) for his help in connecting me with Dr. Brian Chang who is located in Taipei, Taiwan.    I s...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   I'm pleased to welcome Dr. Wilson Wang back on to Talking Taiwan after five years for what turned out to be a very in-depth conversation, about the Coronavirus crisis in New York. Dr. Wang spoke with me about the COVID-19 pandemic from both a science-based and human perspective. This interview with Dr. Wang was recorded last week on March 30th, 2020....

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   What does a robot, Jedi and Wi-Fi have to do with the Ebola crisis? In 2015 I spoke with Wilson Wang a medical doctor by training, who was a Senior Clinical director at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) at the time. We spoke about his work with IRC on the 2014 Ebola outbreak and his career in medicine and public health.     As we deal with the...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   Earlier this year I went to Books of Wonder (in New York City's Upper Westside) to attend a book launch event for  Loveboat, Taipei . There I heard the book's author, Abigail Hing Wen speak frankly and openly about her 12-year writing career and journey leading up to getting her first book  Loveboat, Taipei  published. All too often when we hear of su...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: For many overseas born Chinese and Taiwanese, the Love Boat Taiwan language culture study program was quite the cultural phenomenon and rite of passage. We are dedicating two episodes of Talking Taiwan to the topic. The first will feature Asian American Studies professor and filmmaker Valerie Soe who's made a documentary film called Love Boat: Taiwan. L...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: February 28th is a national holiday in Taiwan and it's just around the corner. But how many know the somber significance behind the date and what it commemorates? Author Jennifer J. Chow has written a novel inspired by the 228 Incident (which refers to February 28, 1947). I spoke with her about the 228 Incident and how it relates to her novel, The 228 L...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: I conducted an interview with author, musician, and journalist Joe Henley, about his latest book, Bu San Bu Si, and his first book, Sons of the Republic. In writing Bu San Bu Si, Joe clearly drew upon his multi-disciplinary background. The book after all is about a Taiwanese punk band and the struggles that the musicians face in reconciling their punk p...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   In this episode of the Talking Taiwan podcast, I continue my conversation with Gerrit van der Wees about the Taiwan Communique, and how it revealed the truth of Taiwan's White Terror Era. Taiwan Communique is a publication that was started in 1980, during Taiwan's martial law era, a dark period in Taiwan's history in which there was extreme censorship...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: I recently invited Gerrit van der Wees, to share his perspectives on the outcome of the recent 2020 Taiwan presidential election.  Gerrit is the former editor of the Taiwan Communique magazine, a publication that was dedicated to the human rights and democracy of Taiwan. He has also worked for FAPA as a senior policy advisor and currently teaches the hi...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   With the Taiwan Presidential Election of 2020 coming up in Taiwan on January 11th,I thought it would be a good idea to do a podcast about this particular topic. Recently I spoke with Chieh-Ting Yeh, the Editor-in-Cheif of Ketagalan Media, Vice-chairman of the Global Taiwan Institute and longtime watcher of Taiwan politics. This episode should give you...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: This is an interview with Trigg Brown and Josh Ku of Win Son, a Taiwanese restaurant in NYC. Here are comments from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: When I sat down to interview Trigg Brown and Josh Ku about their Taiwanese American restaurant, Win Son, they talked about their shared a love of food, and how they used to trek all the way out to Flushing...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: Learn all about Taiwan's growing startup community and all of the resources available for budding entrepreneurs in this episode of the Talking Taiwan podcast. If you want to know how to start a business in Taiwan, there's a book written about it, and not surprisingly, it's called How to Start a Business in Taiwan. The author of that book, Elias Ek, the...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: When I heard the historic news of May 24th, that Taiwan's Constitutional Court had ruled that marriage is not strictly defined as being between a man and a woman, it was exciting to know that Taiwan was poised to be the first country in Asia to legalize gay marriage. Even though I've been involved with the Taiwan float in the New York Gay Pride Parade t...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: Did you know that there's an annual flower show in New York featuring Taiwanese culture and orchids from Taiwan? Actually, I didn't know this until one of my listeners reached out to me and told me about the upcoming Taiwan: A World of Orchids exhibit at the Queens Botanical Garden. Since I'm based in New York, I feel it's my obligation to promote and i...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: Last year was the first year that there was a Taiwanese Waves concert at the Central Park Summerstage and it was smashing success! Thousands of people were introduced to Taiwanese musicians Anpu (also known as Deserts Xuan), Wonfu, and Sunset Rollercoaster. This year Taiwanese Waves has been invited back to Summerstage. Recently, I sat down to talk with...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: I first learned about Treya, an up-and-coming musician with an amazing voice about two years ago, when she was profiled on  TaiwaneseAmerican.org . From then on she was definitely on my radar to have as a guest on the Talking Taiwan, but somehow the timing was just not right for it. As I waited for the stars to align, I've had the pleasure of experienci...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: It's that time of year again here in New York City. Spring is upon us, and as the weather warms up you'll find street fairs popping up all around the city. I've already run into a couple of them. If you have ever been in the city at this time of year, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's hard to miss it when you come across blocks and blocks of a wi...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: When Gus, the producer of Talking Taiwan suggested that I do an interview with David Frazier, co-founder and Festival Director of the Urban Nomad Film Festival, which first started in Taipei in 2002, I was intrigued. And after speaking with David about Urban Nomad, I found myself wishing that I'd be in Taipei at the time of the festival! We talked about...

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin: I love talking to entrepreneurs and small business owners. It's always interesting to learn how they started and have continued to build their businesses. For this episode I had the pleasure of speaking to Michael Forncrook about how he started a craft beer business in Taiwan. We spoke at great length, and what a lot of listeners don't know is that we d...