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Ep 325 | 3 Perspectives in Taiwan Why the Great Recall Failed

Release Date: 08/24/2025

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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When we decided to travel back to Taiwan to cover the vote to recall 24 KMT legislators on July 26th we had no idea how things would turn out. The Great Recall (or da ba mian) as it came to be known in Taiwan, was notable not just because it led to a record number of 31 KMT legislators in total being put up for a recall vote. What was most impressive about is that it was a nationwide effort that started at a grassroots level by everyday people.

It’s been incredible to watch everything leading up to the Great Recall. Going back to last May in 2024 during what came to be known as the Bluebird Movement when tens of thousands of people and upwards of 100,000 took to the streets of Taiwan in a series of protests against controversial bills proposed in the legislative yuan. What happened during the Bluebird Movement protests is said to be what in part galvanized citizens to organize the recall campaigns.

I can’t deny that our hopes were high for the results of the July 26th recall vote and after we learned that none of the KMT legislators were successfully recalled, we did our best during the remaining days of our time in Taiwan to try to make sense of the results by talking to a number of our friends and peers.

What you’ll hear in this episode are some sound bites from conversations we had on July 30th with Rath Wang, Safe Spaces Senior Policy Fellow and Dennis Chen, Chairman of Wikimedia Taiwan. They shared their observations and thoughts on why the recalls failed, the recall campaigners and what the results of the recall vote could mean for President Lai.

Later that day I also spoke with Morrison Lee a Taiwanese businessman who went to China on what was supposed to be a 48-hour trip and ended up getting detained and stuck there for nearly 4 years. Morrison talked about his personal involvement in the recall effort also shared his thoughts on why the recall votes failed.

As mentioned, recall campaign groups succeeded in putting up a total of 31 KMT legislators for a recall vote. Another 7 legislators will be up for a recall vote on August 23rd.

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