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Ep 317 | The Great Recall Explained by Courtney Donovan Smith

Release Date: 07/22/2025

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:

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In Taiwan recall bids have been filed against 35 of the 39 Chinese Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang or KMT lawmakers who were directly elected to the legislative yuan in January, 2024. Recall campaigners have said that they want to restore order to Taiwan’s legislative yuan, by removing pro-China KMT legislators who have passed amendments to expand the legislature’s powers, undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order by paralyzing the constitutional court, cut budgets and made Taiwan vulnerable to infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party.

Just a few days ago we learned that a total of 31 KMT legislators will be up for a vote to be recalled from office. 24 on July 26 and another 7 on August 23.

Since my interview with 3 recall campaigners in episode 316, I thought it would be good to follow up with an explainer video with political commentator and analyst Courtney Donovan Smith about how the recall mechanism in Taiwan works and what led to this mass recall effort.

And in a few days from now our two-person team will be heading back to Taiwan to witness and cover the July 26th recall vote. History is being made in the only way it can be in a vibrant democracy like Taiwan!

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

How the recall mechanism works in Taiwan
Past cases of politicians who have faced a recall vote
Factors leading to the Bluebird Movement and Recall Efforts
The expanded powers of the legislative yuan that were ruled unconstitutional
What happened to paralyze Taiwan’s constitutional court
What has motivated the people campaigning to recall KMT legislators
Why the KMT’s recall efforts against DPP legislators have failed
How Ko Wen-je’s supporters have reacted to his detainment due to corruption charges
DPP involvement with recall efforts
How some of the Kuomintang KMT have shifted from being anti-Communist China to pro-Communist China (PRC)
The historical significance of Taiwan’s mass recall votes of legislators
If the DPP is behind the recalls of KMT legislators
What happens next after the recall vote
The impact of the Sunflower Movement

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