Asian mental health Archives - Talking Taiwan Podcast

Taiwan American Voices Remembered on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11 | Ep 362

Felicia Lin — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 06:40:34 +0000

This year marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11. September 11, 2001 when four commercial passenger airplanes were hijacked by terrorists linked to the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda. Two of the planes struck the World Trade Center in New York City causing the twin towers to collapse and a third plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The passengers and crew of the fourth plane fought the hijackers, and the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Close to 3,000 people were killed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Several different figures have been published, but according to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum 2,977 people were killed.

Do you remember where you were when 9/11 happened?

I remember where I was on September 11, 2001, when I heard that the World Trade Center twin towers in New York had collapsed after being struck by two hijacked planes.

I was actually in Taiwan and all alone in my parent’s apartment in Kaohsiung. I had relocated to Taiwan from New York, just a few months before 9/11. The way I found out about the whole thing was a phone call from my Mom telling me what had happened. I remember being in disbelief and immediately turning on the TV and seeing CNN reporting on it.

25 years have passed since that tragic day.

What happens when there’s a generation of Americans who have no recollection of 9/11? That’s something that my guest on this episode, David has thought about. David found a personal connection to 9/11 through the personal stories of the Taiwanese who died on 9/11. His hope is that by sharing the stories of the Taiwanese who lost their lives on 9/11, younger Taiwanese Americans can find a connection to 9/11.

Puma Shen (沈伯洋) DPP Taipei Mayoral Candidate’s Vision for Taipei City: Our FULL INTERVIEW | Ep 361

Felicia Lin — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:00:29 +0000

The last time that Taipei elected a mayor from the Democratic Progressive Party was Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 1994. At the time it seemed like some kind of a breakthrough because Taipei is known to be a Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang stronghold. During his tenure as mayor of Taipei, Chen Shui-bian had a very high public approval rating of over 70% to nearly 80%. In spite of this he was not reelected for a second term. Instead, the Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was elected mayor of Taipei. Now nearly 30 years have passed and none of the DPP mayoral candidates have been able to get elected in Taipei since. Will this year’s DPP candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) be able to break the spell?

In this episode you’ll learn about more about who Puma Shen is and what his vision for Taipei City is.

Puma is an Associate Professor at National Taipei University’s Graduate School of Criminology, Co-Founder of Doublethink Lab, Co-Founder of Kuma Academy, and this year’s Taipei City mayoral candidate for Democratic Progressive Party.

Akio Yaita (矢板明夫) Outspoken Taiwan Advocate: In Taiwan I Can Make a Bigger Contribution | Ep 355

Felicia Lin — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:19:09 +0000

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.

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 engagement in Taichung. While Akio was in the lobby of a hotel, a Chinese man approached him and punched him in the face. The man, surnamed Liao (廖) was later arrested at the Taichung International Airport. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council described the attack as the “first case of transnational repression” in Taiwan since China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law took effect on July 1. After the attack Akio has said that he will not be intimidated.

What timing it’s turned out to be for us to be sharing our interview with Akio Yaita now. You’ll get know about his backstory and how you can follow him and his work.

This episode is sponsored in part by the Pacific Times.

Cony Hsieh Kaohsiung Pride President Focuses on LGBTQ+ Issues and Reforming Taiwan’s Military | Ep 350

Felicia Lin — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 07:48:09 +0000

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.

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 Pride Month!

Cony has a master’s degree from the Graduate Institute of Gender Education at National Kaohsiung Normal University.

Related Links:

Get Exclusive Access to the REPLAY VIDEO of the 2026 Talking Taiwan Gala by making a contribution of $50 or more: https://events.humanitix.com/talking-taiwan-2026-fundraising-gala

Cony Hsieh’s podcast 微叛逆ê副駕 (which has been translated as “The Slightly Rebellious Co-pilot): https://podcasts.apple.com/tw/podcast/%E5%BE%AE%E5%8F%9B%E9%80%86%C3%AA%E5%89%AF%E9%A7%95/id1547207923?l=en-GB

Kaohsiung Pride: https://www.instagram.com/khpride/

What Led to Taiwan’s Same Sex Marriage? Ep 83

What Led to Taiwan’s Same Sex Marriage? Ep 83: https://talkingtaiwan.com/what-led-to-taiwans-same-sex-marriage-ep-83/

Taiwan Hosts WorldPride 2025: Our Conversation with Darien Chen and Amazin LeThi Ep 162

Taiwan Hosts WorldPride 2025: Our Conversation with Darien Chen and Amazin LeThi (Episode 162): https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwan-hosts-worldpride-2025-our-conversation-with-darien-chen-and-amazin-lethi-ep-162/

What Caused the Cancellation of WorldPride Taiwan 2025? Our Discussion with David Yu Ep 220

What Caused the Cancellation of WorldPride Taiwan 2025? Our Discussion with David Yu Ep 220: https://talkingtaiwan.com/what-caused-the-cancellation-of-worldpride-taiwan-2025-our-discussion-with-david-yu-ep-220/

General Yu (于北辰): Former 4-Star General of Taiwan Army Shifts from KMT to Independent Ep 256

General Yu (于北辰): Former 4-Star General of Taiwan Army Shifts from KMT to Independent (Episode 256): https://talkingtaiwan.com/general-yu-%e4%ba%8e%e5%8c%97%e8%be%b0-former-4-star-general-of-taiwan-army-shifts-from-kmt-to-independent-ep-256/

The post Cony Hsieh Kaohsiung Pride President Focuses on LGBTQ+ Issues and Reforming Taiwan’s Military | Ep 350 appeared first on Talking Taiwan Podcast.

Nymphia Wind Brings Taiwan’s Betel Nut Beauty Culture to the New York Pride March | Ep 349

Felicia Lin — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:57:10 +0000

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.

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 Olympiad.

Right before the New York City Pride March on Sunday, June 28th, we were invited to an event where Nymphia shared her creative vision behind this year’s Taiwan Pride float. We also had a chance to meet the other betel nut beauties Yolanda Mesula and Tina Banana, who would be joining Nymphia on the float. After Nymphia’s initial comments, I did have a chance to ask her a question and to get some other soundbites.

Jotham Hung: Ceramic Artist and Educator on Finding Meaning and Fulfillment in Living a Creative Life – TUF Part 3 | Ep 348

Felicia Lin — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 06:35:29 +0000

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 sponsored by the Taiwanese United Fund (TUF). TUF is an arts and culture foundation that celebrates the cultural heritages of Taiwanese Americans. Established in 1986, the foundation’s mission is to facilitate cultural exchange between the Taiwanese American community and other American cultural communities, hoping to enrich and expand our cultural experiences.

John Enger Cheng: On his Creative Process and How Inspiration Finds You Working TUF Part 2 | Ep 347

Felicia Lin — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:49:27 +0000

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.

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 Arts, which is located in Taichung

John Enger Cheng is Designer, Co-founder, and Creative Director of the design practice Winnow+Glean, and a visual artist known as @madebyenger on Instagram. You can find his work on madebyenger.com

We will be releasing a YouTube video of my interview with John for listeners who’d like to see some of the visuals referred to in this episode. You can find it soon on Talking Taiwan’s YouTube channel.

Vickie Wang (王宇平) On Who Gets to Be Taiwanese and Stand-Up Comedy Part 2 | Ep 344

Felicia Lin — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:51:28 +0000

In part two of our interview with Vickie Wang (王宇平), she talked about how the COVID lockdown of 2022 in Shanghai affected her mental health, her thoughts on the Great Recall movement in Taiwan last year, how she questions her Taiwanese-ness i.e. if she’s Taiwanese enough, generative propaganda, and how she got into stand-up comedy.

Vickie Wang a writer, interpreter, and stand-up comedian born and raised in Taiwan. Now based in New City York she co-produces a monthly stand-up show called Wang’s World Comedy.

Vickie will be emceeing this year’s Talking Taiwan Fundraising Gala on Friday, May 1.

As our emcee Vickie will bring her signature wit and energy to the evening. Purchase tickets to the Talking Taiwan

Fundraising Gala or to make a contribution visit: https://events.humanitix.com/talking-taiwan-2026-fundraising-gala/tickets

Dr. Shih-Fen Chen 陳時奮 A Scholar with a Responsibility to Reveal the Truth Ep 341

Felicia Lin — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:26:52 +0000

Last July, we brought Talking Taiwan to the 2025 Taiwanese American Conference, West Coast. While we were there, I sat down to speak with Dr. Shih-Fen Chen (陳時奮), who’s also been known by his pen name Wēngdáruì (翁達瑞). Dr. Chen is Professor Emeritus at Ivey Business School, and a Professor at Western Washington University. He’s an outspoken political commentator, self-described as a scholar with a sense of responsibility to reveal the truth.

This episode is sponsored in part by the Pacific Times (太平洋時報).

China’s Alarming Gray Zone Tactics Around Taiwan and its Neighboring Nations in Asia Ep 340

Felicia Lin — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:35:06 +0000

Back in April 2021 we covered news about a record breaking 25 Chinese air force aircraft including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). At the time 25 seemed like an alarming number. It was the largest incursion by Chinese military planes into Taiwan’s ADIZ to date.

To be clear these sorts of activities had been going on long before this and long before September of 2020 which is about the time that Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense started to publicly report China’s incursions.

China’s People’s Liberation Army has shown no signs of letting up. The PLA’s gray zone tactics have also included the use of drones and balloons. Incursions by warplanes and naval ships into the airspace and waters surrounding Taiwan are now a daily occurrence. And they have completely shattered the record 25 aircraft in Taiwan’s ADIZ many times over.

Major military exercises have included the Joint Sword-2024A. Three days after Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te’s inauguration on May 20 of 2024, China’s PLA conducted two days of military exercises in the air and sea space around Taiwan.

More recently, at the end of 2025 on December 29 and 30, People’s Republic of China (PRC) military forces carried out a large-scale exercise in the air and ocean areas around Taiwan called “Justice Mission-2025.” These two days of PLA military exercises involved at least 200 warplanes.

Unfortunately these types of gray zone tactics by China have become commonplace and while they have been more widely reported on, even more troubling are the other gray zone tactics that the PRC has been levying on Taiwan, which include the presence of Chinese owned and operated oil rigs in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and on January 16th the New York Times reported that China quietly mobilized thousands of fishing boats twice already, most recently in the first few weeks of this new year.

Quoting from the New York Times, “By January 11, they had assembled into a rectangle stretching more than 200 miles. Maritime and military experts said the maneuvers suggested that China was strengthening its maritime militia, which is made up of civilian fishing boats trained to join in military operations.”

This was not the first time. A month earlier on December 25th the Times reported that “about 2,000 Chinese fishing boats assembled in two long, parallel formations on Christmas Day in the East China Sea. Each stretched 290 miles long, about the distance from New York City to Buffalo, forming a reverse L shape.”

According to the New York Times, “The unusual formations were spotted by the chief operating officer of ingeniSPACE, a company that analyzes data, and were independently confirmed by The Times using ship location data provided by Starboard Maritime Intelligence.”

About ingeniSPACE:

ingeniSPACE is a geospatial intelligence company integrating remote sensing data across multiple phenomenologies. We are an insight-as-a-service platform delivering all weather day-night multi-temporal understanding around the world. Our intelligence extends the “executive decision making time” that public sector and commercial leaders need to make well-informed decisions.