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Ep 314 | A Conversation With Wen-Jen Deng Taiwanese Fiber Artist and Curator Ming Turner

Release Date: 06/21/2025

Ep 338 | Talking Taiwan Top 5 of 2025 Award Winner End of Year Review

Talking Taiwan

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: But before revealing the Top 5 episodes of 2025, let’s take look back on 2025, which was a busy year for Talking Taiwan! We hosted the inaugural Talking Taiwan Fundraising Gala at the elegant Eichholtz showroom in New York City in April. It was truly a magical memorable night. In April we were also invited to speak at the North American Taiwanese American Women Association’s...

Ep 337 | The Charm of Tainan Taiwan's Oldest City: A Talk with Author and Historian Jinyu Hsieh (謝金魚)

Talking Taiwan

In July of 2024, we brought talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference (TAC), East Coast at Westchester University. Related Links: Jinyu Hsieh (謝金魚), one of the speakers at TAC is a writer and a historian. I sat down to talk to her about the charm of Tainan, located in southern Taiwan. It is the oldest city in Taiwan and was founded in 1624. In 2024, Tainan was celebrating its 400th anniversary. This episode is sponsored in part by the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York. Related Links:

Ep 336 | Dr. Linda Gail Arrigo: Taiwan Democracy Fighter Talks About Events Leading Up to the Kaohsiung Incident (Classic)

Talking Taiwan

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: Last year when we were in Taiwan in January for the presidential election, we were privileged to meet Dr. Linda Gail Arrigo, Ai Linda (艾琳達) in Taipei and sat down for a one-on-one interview. Few have experienced such historic events first-hand in the way Linda has, as she...

Ep 335 | What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine: A Panel Discussion Hosted by FAPA - Part 2

Talking Taiwan

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. Related Links: It was a very substantive discussion that we wanted to record and share with FAPA’s permission to our listeners. This episode part two is the second half of the...

Ep 334 | What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine: A Panel Discussion Hosted by FAPA - Part 1

Talking Taiwan

Ep 333 | Does Taiwan Have the Will to Fight?

Talking Taiwan

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: Later on in the interview we also talked about how Taiwan could leverage its diaspora. Related Links:

Ep 332 | Talking Taiwan's 2025 Inaugural Fundraising Gala!

Talking Taiwan

Get Access to the of the Talking Taiwan Make a Donation at Humanitix For Free Access the 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 30th here in New York City at the elegant Eichholtz showroom in Chelsea. The gala was a celebration of Taiwanese American cuisine, culture and community. We had Peter Lin’s AAPI Jazz Collective perform, and food catered by 886 Restaurant, DAE tea and Taiwan Beer. It was a...

Ep 331 | Author and Speaker Dr. Yang Szu Pang (楊斯棓): Don't Think You're Too Small to Make a Difference

Talking Taiwan

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 about a broad range of topics from how to be financially prepared to care of aging, ailing parents to his most recent book, It Only Takes One, where the title of the books comes from and how it’s...

Ep 330 | Eco Art on Island: The Deer God and Wearable Art Now at Governors Island House 17

Talking Taiwan

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: Inside of the house we spoke with Julia Hsia about her exhibit “Wear Enough” which includes artifacts made with paper and receipts. In September we ventured over to Governors Island to meet artists in residence Wang Guo-ren and his sculpture entitled...

Ep 329 | The Real Life "Love in Taipei" Story: Virtuoso Musician Couple Antoine Boyer and Yeore Kim

Talking Taiwan

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 You and I. If you’d like to know more about Antoine you can check out Kaju’s in-depth interview with Antoine on YouTube Related Links:

More Episodes

We recently sat down with Wen-Jen Deng one of the artists in residence at the Taiwanese American Arts Council’s House 17 on Governors Island and Ming Turner, curator of Wen-Jen’s art exhibit :The Embedded Stitch- Contemporary Fiber Art, which is currently showing at Tenri Cultural Institute until June 28th

According to Deng’s curator Ming Turner, “Deng is a core member of the influential Taiwanese artist collective, Hantoo Art Group. Her early works were primarily oil paintings which incorporated embroidery and collage using traditional Taiwanese floral fabrics. Deng often draws inspiration from Taiwanese food culture— her earlier pieces explored the island’s distinctive betel nut culture, while more recent works have focused on everyday culinary traditions and the cultural heritage of the Sirayu Pingpu people.”

Special thanks to Ming Turner for translation assistance during this interview.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

Wen-Jen’s upbringing in Taiwan and how she knew she wanted to be an artist
What Wen-Jen thinks an artist’s role in the world is
Why Wen-Jen studied art in France and how she was inspired by Marc Chagall
How Wen-Jen started off doing oil painting as an artist
How Wen-Jen switched from using oil paint as her medium to fiber and textiles
How Wen-Jen worked in a textile shop making Chinese dresses while she was a student in France
Why her early source of inspiration was food
Her series of work that focused on lotus shoes and pig’s hooves (pigs feet), betel nuts, and other everyday Taiwanese cuisine
How Wen-Jen discovered her mother’s was from the Siraya tribe during her 2017 residency at Soulangh Cultural Park in Tainan, and that inspired her to move her focus from food to indigenous culture
How Wen-Jen learned indigenous weaving techniques
How Wen-Jen’s mother was a seamstress but Wen-jen did not pick out any of those skills from her mother
How Wen-Jen taught herself to embroider when she was working in the textile shop in France
How all of the embroidery and sewing on Wen-Jen’s works are done by hand
How in the process of weaving and embroidering Wen-Jen gets in a focused state of meditation
The field work that Wen-Jen does related to her artwork
Ming shared some of her thoughts on the significance of Wen-Jen’s artwork
Wen-Jen’s artwork “Oyster Noodles” which will be on display at the TAAC Governors Island House 17
How Taiwan’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy has impacted artists in Taiwan
How artists in Taiwan get funded
How Wen-Jen’s sculptural piece which is shaped like the island of Taiwan and shows its topography will be displayed at the TAAC House 17 on June 21

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