Talking Taiwan

Talking Taiwan is a Golden Crane Podcast Award Winner, and has been shortlisted in the 2024 International Women’s Podcast Awards “Moment of Visionary Leadership” category. In 2025, it was nominated for the 12th Annual T.O. Webfest Awards in the category of "Best Ensemble Cast in a Podcast". Hosted by Felicia Lin, Talking Taiwan is the longest running, independently produced Taiwan-related podcast that covers political news related to Taiwan and stories connected to Taiwan and Taiwan’s global community. To learn more about Talking Taiwan visit: www.talkingtaiwan.com

Ep 338 | Talking Taiwan Top 5 of 2025 Award Winner End of Year Review 01/02/2026

Ep 338 | Talking Taiwan Top 5 of 2025 Award Winner End of Year Review 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 (NATWA) Annual Conference. For sometime we’ve been watching what was happening with the Great Recall in Taiwan which ultimately led to 24 legislators being put up for a recall vote on July 26th and another seven on August 23. The world had not seen anything like this happen on a national level in a democracy! And after Felicia interviewed a group of highly dedicated recall campaigners, she learned firsthand about the grassroots mobilization efforts that resulted in over one million signatures being collected in support of the recall vote, and she felt this was a historic moment that Talking Taiwan should be in Taiwan to cover. Thanks to an anonymous donor who offered to pay for our flights back to Taiwan and others who made generous donations we were able to travel back to Taiwan for a week to cover the first recall in vote on July 26th. We left shortly after returning from the Taiwanese American Conference- West Coast (TAC-WC) which was held in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the first time we were invited to speak at TAC-WC about our work. While we were at the conference, we also set up an on-location podcasting studio where we interviewed several of the conference’s speakers. We look forward to releasing those episodes very soon in the New Year. It's been an extremely eventful year for Talking Taiwan with many ups and downs. Spending only a week in Taiwan to cover the Recall Vote in July, and trying to conduct interviews, and edit and produce them in that time period proved to be a bit unrealistic and we’ll need to pace ourselves better in the future. It was also crushing to witness the results of the Recall Vote on July 26th with none of the 24 legislators successfully recalled from office. While still recovering from that ordeal in July, we traveled to T.O. Webfest awards in September where Talking Taiwan was nominated in the Best Ensemble Cast category. While we didn’t win, it was our second nomination after being shortlisted at the International Women’s Podcast Awards in 2024 and winning a Golden Crane Award in 2021. As we go into the 13th year of Talking Taiwan, I’d like take a moment to especially thank everyone who has supported Talking Taiwan over the years and made a contribution to help fund our trip to return to Taiwan to cover the Great Recall in July. We also want to thank each and every one of all of our amazing guests for being a part of the Talking Taiwan podcast. Special thanks to our listeners. We remain committed more than ever to producing content that matters to people who care about Taiwan. For links to the top 5 episodes of 2025 visit our website TalkingTaiwan.com. Wishing everyone a Happy Healthy New Year 2026! I’m your host Felicia Lin. Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/39589760

Ep 337 | The Charm of Tainan Taiwan's Oldest City: A Talk with Author and Historian Jinyu Hsieh (謝金魚) 12/29/2025

Ep 336 | Dr. Linda Gail Arrigo: Taiwan Democracy Fighter Talks About Events Leading Up to the Kaohsiung Incident (Classic) 12/14/2025

Ep 335 | What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine: A Panel Discussion Hosted by FAPA - Part 2 12/14/2025

Ep 334 | What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine: A Panel Discussion Hosted by FAPA - Part 1 12/13/2025

Ep 333 | Does Taiwan Have the Will to Fight? 11/22/2025

Ep 332 | Talking Taiwan's 2025 Inaugural Fundraising Gala! 11/07/2025

Ep 331 | Author and Speaker Dr. Yang Szu Pang (楊斯棓): Don't Think You're Too Small to Make a Difference 10/23/2025

Ep 330 | Eco Art on Island: The Deer God and Wearable Art Now at Governors Island House 17 10/13/2025

Ep 329 | The Real Life "Love in Taipei" Story: Virtuoso Musician Couple Antoine Boyer and Yeore Kim 10/03/2025

Ep 328 | TAIUNA's White Protest of Taiwan's Exclusion from the UN 09/25/2025

Ep 327 | Dr. Chen Chien-jen 陳建仁 Former VP of Taiwan Reflects Upon his Life in Politics and as a Public Servant 09/01/2025

Ep 326 | Working in the Intersection of Ceramics Sound and History: Taiwanese American Maker Eugenie Chao 08/29/2025

Ep 325 | 3 Perspectives in Taiwan Why the Great Recall Failed 08/24/2025

Ep 325 | 3 Perspectives in Taiwan Why the Great Recall Failed 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. Related Links: 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. Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/37933295

Ep 324 | A-Mei: The Great Recall Crusader 08/14/2025

Ep 323 | Jiho Chang: Why Did the Recall Fail and How Can the DPP Do Better? 08/03/2025

Ep 322 | Day After Analysis of the Great Recall with Dr Linda Gail Arrigo 07/30/2025

Ep 321 | The Day of Taiwan's Historic Recall Vote 07/30/2025

Ep 320 | First Day in Taiwan, Day Before The Great Recall 07/27/2025

Ep 319 | Taiwanese Waves 2025 is Back 07/24/2025

Ep 318 | Meet Taiwanese YouTuber Ba Jiong 八炯 07/23/2025

Ep 317 | The Great Recall Explained by Courtney Donovan Smith 07/22/2025

Ep 317 | The Great Recall Explained by Courtney Donovan Smith 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. Related Links: 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 Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/37502025

Ep 316 | The Great Recall Movement in Taiwan: A Historic Unprecedented Boots on the Ground Exercise in Democracy 07/05/2025

Ep 316 | The Great Recall Movement in Taiwan: A Historic Unprecedented Boots on the Ground Exercise in Democracy Have you heard about the great recall movement that’s happening in Taiwan? What’s it all about? Related Links: 24 lawmakers, or legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang KMT party are being put up for a recall vote. I don’t think the world has ever seen anything like this happen on a national level in a democracy- 24 lawmakers being recalled from office, and that number is likely to be even higher at the time that this episode gets released. It’s truly unprecedented! This recall vote certainly didn’t happen overnight. It was through dedicated grassroots efforts, of the everyday people of Taiwan. Questions have been raised as to whether the recall efforts are a partisan politically motivated effort on the part of the Democratic Progressive Party to oust KMT legislators. That’s what I wanted to get to the bottom of in this episode as I talked to some of the volunteers who have been boots on the ground in Taiwan’s recall effort. As you’ll hear in this episode, what’s happening in Taiwan is a historic demonstration of the will of the people to exercise their rights in a democracy. The island-wide effort in Taiwan to recall lawmakers has been going on since last year and I sat down to speak to three volunteers Carol, Acho and Eric about how this mass movement has successfully gone through two stages, first signatures from1% of eligible voters in a legislator’s district must be collected to initiate a recall. Then in the second stage signatures from 10% of eligible voters in a legislator’s district must collect to in order for a recall vote to proceed. The hard part is that the signatures on the 1% and 10% petitions cannot be the same. On July 26 Taiwan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) will hold recall votes for now possibly even more than 24 KMT lawmakers. Special thanks to Julien Oeuillet the Founding Editor of IPON (the Indo-Pacific Open News) for his help in making this interview possible. Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode: What the recall movement that’s happening in Taiwan is about Why and how Acho, Carol and Eric volunteer their time and energy in the effort to recall legislators How the recall efforts are targeting pro-CCP Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang KMT legislators How the recall is necessary so that Taiwan’s parliament/legislature can function normally How the first volunteers for the recall met through a LINE group How what happened after the Bluebird Movement protests motivated people to attempt to recall KMT legislators How the Sunflower Movement compares to the recall movement How they vetted volunteers from outside of Taiwan who wanted to help with the recall effort in Taiwan How they dealt with people trying to infiltrate the recall volunteer groups How the recall effort got started with 10 volunteers and has grown to 500 volunteers globally How A-Mei one of the lead recall movement volunteers was targeted by the KMT who accused her and revealed her personal information and identity How the Taiwanese people feel they are at risk of losing their country to pro-CCP KMT legislators How the KMT has smeared and sued recall movement volunteers including Carol How the KMT has broken up recall movement volunteer groups How Carol has put her job on hold to be dedicated to being a leader of her recall movement volunteer group full-time What Carol does as leader of her recall movement group How Acho volunteers for the recall effort by editing and creating videos How Eric volunteers for the recall effort by dealing with the media The types of videos they produce to promote and create awareness of the recall effort How the majority of recall volunteers are women (60% women, 40% men) How over 100 recall volunteers are dedicated full-time to the effort How the women recall volunteers have been confronted by people who don’t support the recall The standard for collecting signatures for the recall Why the KMT’s efforts to recall DPP have failed due to forgery or signatures of the deceased on their recall petitions How the KMT is trying to paint the picture that the DPP are orchestrating the recall of KMT legislators How the recall effort is a grassroots effort not about conflict between the DPP and KMT political parties How there could be more than 24 KMT legislators put up for a recall vote The demographics of the districts that Carol, Eric and Acho are volunteers in for the recall How Acho and Eric balance volunteering for the recall effort with their day jobs How KMT legislators have not offered any explanation of what was discussed in a closed door meeting in 2024 with Chinese officials How public reaction to volunteers of the recall effort has changed over time How the recall volunteers now need to focus on encouraging the public to vote on July 26 How Carol encouraged creativity and idea of the recall volunteers that she manages How the sentiment of the recall volunteers is that we are all in this together How if eight to 10 KMT legislators are recalled there will be a better balance in the legislative yuan How Carol, Eric and Acho feel they are working selflessly for a common goal and that they are taking care of each other How this experience with the recall effort has helped Acho to see how the people of Taiwan can be so united How Carol has seen many recall volunteers evolving How what is happening in Taiwan is important for Asia and other democracies in the world Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/37288850

Ep 315 | Julien Oeuillet The Voice of South Taiwan Shines a Spotlight on Kaohsiung 07/01/2025

Ep 314 | A Conversation With Wen-Jen Deng Taiwanese Fiber Artist and Curator Ming Turner 06/21/2025

Ep 314 | A Conversation With Wen-Jen Deng Taiwanese Fiber Artist and Curator Ming Turner 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 Related Links: 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 /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/37097875

Ep 313 | Passport to Taiwan 2025: Ben Hedges A Laowai's View of China, Ambassador Lee of TECO, and TAAC 06/02/2025

Ep 312 | Jane W. Wang Navigates a Multicultural Hero's Journey (Classic) 05/26/2025

Ep 312 | Jane W. Wang Navigates a Multicultural Hero's Journey (Classic) Since May is both Mental Health Awareness Month and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we think it’s fitting to reshare this episode with Jane W. Wang. Related Links: What we really appreciate about this interview with Jane back in 2021 is how she spoke so openly about how she dealt with her bouts of depression. She also shared how getting back in touch with her roots in Taiwan had a part in leading her to start her coaching practice. While she no longer offers the Multicultural Hero’s Journey course that she refers to in this episode, she is still actively coaching clients. It’s our hope that Jane’s personal story can help destigmatize mental health and create more understanding about the coaching profession. Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode: Jane’s connection to Taiwan How being a third culture kid (TCK) has shaped her identity and life purpose Her career path before becoming a coach Why she wanted to become a coach Her personal journey, the struggles and depression that she dealt with along the way before she became a coach Why she decided not to get a degree in counseling from Columbia University and instead got certified in coaching What is coaching and how it differs from counseling or psychotherapy Jane’s own experiences with coaching, being the person being coached by someone else Jane’s advice on how to pick a coach to work with The challenges Jane faced in becoming a coach The depression and imposter syndrome she experienced in the process of becoming a coach How Jane dealt with her self-judgment and learned to love herself How Jane dealt with three bouts of depression What she learned from going through depression How someone can identify whether or not they themselves or someone they know is experiencing depression How Jane created her Multicultural Hero’s Journey coaching program Who would benefit the most by going through the Multicultural Hero’s Journey coaching program Jane’s advice for people who are interested in becoming a coach What it takes to be a good coach Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/36709990

Ep 311 | Understanding the History of Taiwan through Dr. Jerome Keating (Classic) 05/17/2025

Ep 311 | Understanding the History of Taiwan through Dr. Jerome Keating (Classic) May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and since 1999, Congressman David Wu (OR) and the co-chairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus have supported the celebration of Taiwanese American Heritage Week starting from Mother's Day Weekend, so we thought this would be a good time to reshare one of our most popular episodes, an interview we did with Dr. Jerome Keating in 2020 about the history of Taiwan. Related Links: Few contemporaries are more qualified than Dr. Jerome Keating on understanding the history of Taiwan. He has been living in Taiwan for over 30 years. Initially he came over to Taiwan to work on the MRT. He has written several books about Taiwan. We invited him on to the podcast to talk about this latest book, Taiwan The Struggle Gains Focus. Dr. Keating also reflected on how Taiwan has changed in the past 30 years, and we discussed things past and present including Taiwan’s complicated international status, amendment of the constitution, changing the official name of Taiwan (which is the Republic of China) and redesigning the passport and flag of Taiwan. Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode: What motivated Dr. Keating to write his latest book, Taiwan The Struggle Gains Focus Who the book was intended for and who Dr. Keating writes for How Taiwan has changed in the last 30 years The semi-martial-like atmosphere of Taiwan when Dr. Keating arrived in 1988 Keating’s first book Island in the Stream and what motivated him to write it What intrigues Dr. Keating about Taiwan as a subject matter How the San Francisco Peace Treaty (signed in 1951) left Taiwan in a limbo status How the US position on Taiwan 75 years after World War II is still undecided The circumstances surrounding “Taiwan” aka the Republic of China losing its seat in the United Nations in 1971, which included a proposal to have 2 Chinas in the United Nations The Republic of China and People’s Republic of China’s claims on China How Taiwan has never had a seat in the United Nations The Republic of China framework and constitution that Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang brought to Taiwan Keating’s thoughts on amending Taiwan’s constitution Changing the official name and flag that represent Taiwan Submissions for the new Taiwan passport cover design The Taiwan Civil Government wanting to make Taiwan the 51st state of the United States How Dr. Keating sees Taiwan’s future Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/36604400

Ep 310 | Cathy Erway on The Food of Taiwan 04/16/2025

Ep 310 | Cathy Erway on The Food of Taiwan Last year I came across an article in the Gothamist titled, A Taiwanese food crawl in the East Village with NYC writer Cathy Erway. I have of course heard of Cathy Erway and her cookbook and thought to myself, Why haven’t I had her on Talking Taiwan as a guest yet? For those of you who aren’t familiar with Cathy’s work, she is a James Beard Award-winning food writer and author based in New York City. Her cookbooks include The Food of Taiwan: Recipes From the Beautiful Island and Win Son Presents: A Taiwanese American Cookbook. Her cookbook, The Food of Taiwan which was published in 2015 is the first cookbook from a major U.S. publisher to explore the food culture of Taiwan from home-style dishes to authentic street food. We talked about how publishers rejected the cookbook at first and how it eventually got published. She also has a Facebook page called The Food of Taiwan, and if you’re a Taiwanese food lover, I highly recommend liking and following it. On the page, Cathy shares news about Taiwanese food like where to get the best Taiwanese food in and out of Taiwan, and new Taiwanese restaurant openings. Cathy Erway’s journalism has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Eater, Grub Street, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and more. She is a columnist at TASTE, and received the James Beard Award for Home Cooking journalism in 2019. In 2021, she received the IACP Culinary Award for her column. This episode is part of the trailblazing Taiwanese women's series sponsored by NATWA the North America Taiwanese Women's Association, which was founded in 1988. To learn more about NATWA visit their website, . Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode: How Cathy started off writing a blog called Not Eating Out in New York, which led to her first book, The Art of Eating In Cathy’s cookbook The Food of Taiwan The article in the Gothamist about Taiwanese restaurants in the East Village Cathy’s Facebook page The Food of Taiwan How Cathy has had a Google alert set on the term Taiwanese food for 20 years How things have changed in the 10 years since The Food of Taiwan was published How the owners of Taiwanese restaurants in New York City (Win Son, 886, and Ho Foods) are all friends How Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry has contributed to the interest in Taiwanese cuisine How Cathy learned to cook and her parents’ cooking styles How Cathy’s family is foodies Cathy’s connection to Taiwan What went into creating The Food of Taiwan How the photography of The Food of Taiwan was an important part of the cookbook How The Food of Taiwan got rejected by several publishers How The Food of Taiwan is a snapshot of all the foods in Taiwan including home-style foods and street food, up to 2015, the year it was published How The Food of Taiwan includes foods that are unique to Taiwan How the recipes in The Food of Taiwan suggests substitutions for certain ingredients that might be hard to find How Cathy met Josh Ku and Trigg Brown of Win Son How Cathy collaborated with Josh Ku and Trigg Brown of Win Son on Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook How hard it was to convince the editor to publish The Food of Taiwan Other Taiwanese cookbooks that have been written by Clarissa Wei, Frankie Gaw, Tiffy Chen, and George Lee How Cathy is working on an article about the frozen dumpling business for Taste Topics that Cathy writes about like how tamari is a different product in Japan vs. the U.S. Té Company tea house in the West Village, Yumpling restaurant in Long Island City, Ho Food restaurant in the East Village Cathy’s favorite Taiwanese dish is sān bēi jī (three cup chicken) How Taiwanese breakfast foods are now available at Win Son Bakery and Ho Foods Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/36185020

Ep 309 | 228 Memorial Foundation: Executive Director Nâ Sū Phok (藍士博) on his Work and the Historical Significance of 228 03/29/2025

Ep 309 | 228 Memorial Foundation: Executive Director Nâ Sū Phok (藍士博) on his Work and the Historical Significance of 228 It’s about a month after 228, an important date in Taiwan’s history, marking the 228 Massacre. 228 stands for February 28 1947. February 28th is now commemorated as a national holiday in Taiwan known as the 228 Peace Memorial Day. For this year’s 228 episode, we wanted to release my interview with Nâ Sū Phok (藍士博), the Executive Director of the 228 Memorial Foundation in Taiwan. Last July 2024, I sat down with him at the Taiwanese American Conference at West Chester University about his work for the 228 Memorial Foundation. You may be wondering why we are sharing this episode a month later. Since Sū Phok spoke in Taiwanese Hokkien during the interview, it required translation from Taiwanese into English, and that took a bit longer than anticipated. Secondly, 228 is not a single date in history, subsequent events after February 28th lasted beyond and into March leading to what some refer to as the March Massacre. Here’s a brief summary for those unfamiliar with the 228 Massacre. The first thing to know is that like most significant events in history, they do not just take place on a single date. There are usually circumstances and other happenings that lead up to the date in history. Two years before the 228 Massacre in 1945, at the end of World War II, the Chinese Nationalists (aka the Kuomintang/KMT) had fled from China to Taiwan bringing with them the Republic of China framework. Since then, tensions had been mounting for quite some time. In the case of the 228 Massacre, there were conflicts and protests that began much earlier, leading up to what happened on the night of February 27th, 1947 when Tobacco Monopoly Bureau agents tried to confiscate contraband cigarettes from a 40-year-old woman and brutally knocked her out. When an angry crowd gathered in protest, one of the agents fired a shot into the crowd killing a bystander. Within 24 hours, by the next day, February 28th, the incident had escalated into bloody violence and massacres. More killings happened in March of 1947, which have led some Taiwanese dissidents to call it the March Massacre. Under the authoritarian Chiang regime, what followed after 228 was 38 years of martial law and the White Terror era. Anyone could be disappeared, executed or worse for just saying or doing the wrong thing, or for what was seemingly wrong in the eyes of the authorities. The people of Taiwan were horrified and terrified. Generations dared not speak of 228. 228 was absent from high school textbooks until relatively recently. Denial, distrust, suppression, and the passage of time have made it hard for many to come to terms with 228. If you’d like to learn more, I invite you to listen to our past episodes about 228 that are listed in the Related Links section below. Special thanks to Mei-Ling Lin for her translation assistance for this episode. This episode is sponsored in part by the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York. Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode: What does 228 refer to and what is its historical significance Sū Phok’s background and upbringing How Sū Phok first learned about or heard about 228 If Sū Phok has any family members/relatives that have been impacted by or victimized by 228 Why/How did Sū Phok got involved with the 228 Memorial Foundation Where does Sū Phok’s interest in history comes from Why it’s important to preserve history What the 228 Memorial Foundation does How what the 228 Memorial Foundation does is different from what the Transitional Justice Commission does What Sū Phok’s responsibilities are as the Executive Director of the 228 Memorial Foundation What kind of work Sū Phok was doing before working for the 228 Memorial Foundation How the work of the 228 Memorial Foundation has changed since it was founded in1995 Some of the milestones/major accomplishments of the 228 Memorial Foundation News from early 2024 about how Taiwan’s Transitional Justice Commission identified 42 historical sites The 228 Memorial Foundation’s opinions on historical sites of injustice related to 228 Current initiatives/projects of the 228 Memorial Foundation? What Sū Phok has learned about 228 since working for the 228 Memorial Foundation that he didn’t know before What's on display at the National 228 Memorial Museum Future initiatives/projects of the 228 Memorial Foundation What Sū Phok would like us to consider about 228 and how it might be relevant to the present Related Links: /episode/index/show/talkingtaiwan/id/35918580

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