Ep 330 | Eco Art on Island: The Deer God and Wearable Art Now at Governors Island House 17
Release Date: 10/13/2025
Ep 356 | Taiwanese Waves Celebrates its 10th Year Anniversary at SummerStage in NYC's Central Park
Talking Taiwan
This year Taiwanese Waves is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and will be back at SummerStage in New York City’s Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield on Sunday August 16th. Doors open at 5:00pm. When Taiwanese Waves debuted in 2016, it set an all-time record for the highest single-day attendance at SummerStage. And since then it’s continued to introduce audiences to Taiwanese Music. This year’s lineup includes Golden Melody Award regulars 9m88, YELLOW and ØZI. You’ll also be hearing the psychedelic sounds of Mong Tong and from Taiwanese American singer-song writer Chance...
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Ep 355 | Akio Yaita Outspoken Taiwan Advocate: In Taiwan I Can Make a Bigger Contribution
Talking Taiwan
While we were at last year’s Taiwanese American Conference West Coast in July of 2025 which was hosted in San Francisco Silicon Valley, we sat down with Akio Yaita (矢板明夫), the keynote speaker of the conference. As a senior journalist at Sankei Shimbun Akio has covered Beijing and Taipei. He’s been a strong advocate for Taiwan. In 2024 Akio obtained citizenship in Taiwan and founded the Indo-Pacific Strategy Thinktank. Related Links: As we were working on translating and editing our interview with Akio we were disturbed to learn that on July 6th Akio was assaulted after a speaking...
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Ep 354 | Celebrating TAAC's 10th Anniversary: Island Reverence on Governors Island House 17
Talking Taiwan
The Taiwanese American Arts Council is celebrating its 10th anniversary and third year as an organization in residence on Governors Island. Island Reverence is the theme of this year’s residency. I recently sat down to interview three of the artists in residence at TAAC’s house 17 on Governors Island: Chia-Che Tsou, Dena Paige-Fischer, and Leon Chuang. Chia-Che has a fascinating story about how he ended up becoming an artist. Dena and Leon both coincidentally grew up with parents who are artists. Dena and Leon’s artwork are currently on view at TAAC house 17 on Governors Island...
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Ep 353 | Birdy Explores Universal Themes of Freedom, Limitation and Identity Relevant to Taiwan
Talking Taiwan
We were at the dress rehearsal of BIRDY, one Hung Dance’s most critically acclaimed productions, which will be premiering in New York at NYU Skirball on July 17 & 18th. BIRDY explores the relationship between freedom, limitation, and identity through a distinctive movement language inspired by Tai Chi, traditional Peking opera and contemporary dance. Related Links: We sat down to speak with Lai Hung-Chung, Choreographer and Artistic Director of Hung Dance about his artistic vision for BIRDY and Wei-Ping Chen the dance company’s Operations Director. Lai told us that the themes of...
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Ep 352 | Claire Wang (王婉諭) Chairwoman of the New Power Party Talks About Relaunching the Party
Talking Taiwan
We sat down to speak with Claire Wang (王婉諭), chairwoman of the New Power Party, one of Taiwan political parties, that emerged from the Sunflower Movement. While she never imagined herself going into politics, personal circumstances changed that. She’s a powerful example of transforming personal tragedy into action. Wang is a passionate advocate for progressive values and local democracy, from judicial reform and child protection to housing justice. Now she’s leading a new chapter for the New Power Party. Last July we brought Talking Taiwan to TAC-WC, the Taiwanese American Conference...
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Ep 351 | Dr Hsing-Huan Wang Chairman of the Taiwan State Building Party an Unwavering Voice for Taiwan’s independence
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 clear vision for an independent Taiwan and a Taiwanese Republic. The party also takes a hard line on China as an enemy state. Related Links: This interview was recorded just weeks before the...
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Ep 350 | Cony Hsieh Kaohsiung Pride President Focuses on LGBTQ+ Issues and Reforming Taiwan’s Military
Talking Taiwan
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: She’s also a podcaster and her podcast 微叛逆ê副駕 (which has been translated as “The Slightly Rebellious Co-pilot”) is about LGBTQ+ life experiences and gender issues in the military. She once created 28 days of podcast episodes covering a range of LGBTQ+ experiences for...
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Ep 349 | Nymphia Wind Brings Taiwan’s Betel Nut Beauty Culture to the New York Pride March
Talking Taiwan
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: Nymphia dedicated her win to Taiwan and that same year Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen congratulated Nymphia and invited her to perform at the presidential office. In 2024 Nymphia also appeared on the Taiwan Pride Float at the New York City Pride March. In 2025 Nymphia performed at the Paris Cultural...
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Ep 348 | Jotham Hung Ceramic Artist and Educator on Finding Meaning and Fulfillment in Living a Creative Life TUF Part 3
Talking Taiwan
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 & repair. If you think you’re not creative, don’t write yourself off. Jotham believes everyone is an artist and has the potential to be creative. This episode is...
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Ep 347 | John Enger Cheng on his Creative Process and How Inspiration Finds you Working
Talking Taiwan
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: In this candid conversation, John talks about his artwork that has been inducted into the permanent collection of Taiwanese Art Treasures Preserved Overseas – The Homecoming Exhibition of the Sun Ten Collection at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine...
info_outlineWang 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.
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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 the Deer God, and Julia Hsia.
This year’s house theme is Eco Art on Island and as you hear at the beginning of the episode we were outside with the lovely sounds of nature like birds, and the more than occasional airplane flying overhead, many of which had to be edited out. Special thanks to Julia Hsia for helping to translate for Guo-ren at the beginning of the episode, before we moved indoors to interview her.
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