Taiwan Dining Archives - Talking Taiwan Podcast

Talking Taiwan Top 5 of 2025 Award Winner – End of Year Review Ep 338

Felicia Lin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 13:35:32 +0000

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.

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 26^th. 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 13^th 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.

The Charm of Tainan Taiwan’s Oldest City: A Talk with Author and Historian Jinyu Hsieh (謝金魚) Ep 337

Felicia Lin — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 13:48:55 +0000

In July of 2024, we brought talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference (TAC), East Coast at Westchester University.

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 400^th anniversary.

This episode is sponsored in part by the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York.

Talking Taiwan’s 2025 Inaugural Fundraising Gala! Ep 332

Felicia Lin — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 02:39:55 +0000

Get Access to the Replay of the Talking Taiwan Gala Make a Donation at Humanitix

https://events.humanitix.com/talking-taiwan-2025-fundraising-gala

For Free Access the Replay 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 30^th 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 memorable, magical night and if you’re wondering what you missed out on it, don’t worry, later on in the episode I’ll be sharing how you can watch the replay that we made of the event. We’ll also share the Humanitix link where you can make a donation to watch the replay of the Talking Taiwan Gala.

At the gala I interviewed comedian Esther Chen, Thomas Duh of DAE Tea, artist Kaarina Chu MacKenzie, and Jonny Lee, President of TAP-NY (Taiwanese American Professionals- NY chapter). And that’s what we’ll be sharing in this episode.

The Real Life “Love in Taipei” Story: Virtuoso Musician Couple Antoine Boyer and Yeore Kim Ep 329

Felicia Lin — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:21:32 +0000

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

The Boba Guys: Andrew Chau and Bin Chen Bubble Tea Entrepreneurs Bridging Cultures for 11 Years Ep 288

Felicia Lin — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 12:05:39 +0000

Early last year I spoke with Boba Guys co-founders Andrew Chau and Bin Chen. At the time Andrew had just gotten back from visiting Taiwan and other parts of Asia, so it was interesting to hear his observations. Andrew and Bin shared so many great nuggets.

We talked about how they got started with a pop-up shop while working fulltime and how they continued to so even after they opened their first few stores Other topics covered include how Boba Guys weathered the pandemic, Andrew and Bin’s book called The Boba Book, and how they see boba as a way to bridge cultures.

What has Boba Guys been up to since we spoke? Lots of interesting collabs with other brands, and the release of a loyalty program called “Passport” which gamifies the experience through loot boxes instead of linearly earning points to redeem for a drink.

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

How Andrew and Bin first met when they both worked at Timbuktu
How they decided to start a bubble tea business
Andrew’s recent trip to Taiwan and the other Taiwanese Americans he met up with while there
Andrew’s thoughts on Taiwan’s bubble tea scene
How they started with a pop-up shop
How they have not taken any VC (venture capital) money
The social costs and risks of being an entrepreneur
How other Taiwanese American entrepreneurs like Steve Chen and Kevin Lin mentored them
How Andrew does advising for the small business council and testified in Washington D.C. on behalf of small businesses
How they were working on Boba Guys Japan when the pandemic hit
How Boba Guys dealt with the pandemic
The biggest challenges they’ve experienced
The third wave of boba
The meaning of the word boba and how Andrew’s mom reacted to the name Boba Guys
How Boba Guys name their drinks
Their book, The Boba Book and how they choose their co-author Richard Parks
What happened when they went to Taiwan and tried to determine which tea shop invented bubble tea
The Boba Guys’ merchandise and aardvark mascot
The Boba Home Kit and how they created a boba kit that was on Williams Sonoma
How they teach people how to make boba online
How they have mentored other entrepreneurs

Passport to Taiwan 20th Anniversary Catching Up with Rapper Dwagie and Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry Ep 285

Felicia Lin — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 08:33:48 +0000

On May 26^th we stopped by the annual Passport to Taiwan in New York City’s Union Square Park and I caught up with a few of our past guests, Taiwanese hip hop and rap artist, Dwagie who performed at this year’s Passport to Taiwan, and Lisa Cheng Smith who was also there with her Yun Hai co-founder Lillian Lin her co-founder. Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry 雲海 offers a selection of premium ingredients for Taiwanese and Chinese cooking online and at their shop located in Brooklyn.

I spoke Dwagie about his thoughts on the protests that have been happening around the legislative yuan in Taipei. Stay tuned for our next episode which will cover the protests around the legislative yuan that started around May 17^th.

I also spoke to Lillian and Lisa, co-founders of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry about what it was like to have President Tsai Ing-wen visit their shop in Brooklyn, and a few of their products including their qq dragon T-shirt and dried mango.

To learn more about Dwagie check out episode 50 of Talking Taiwan and to learn more about Yun Hai check out episode 135.

Michelle Krusiec: Acclaimed Actor, Writer, and Director Talks About Dealing with Institutional Racism and her Sources of Inspiration Ep 279

Felicia Lin — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 17:35:55 +0000

Last September I had the pleasure of interviewing actor, writer and director Michelle Krusiec. Her IMDB page displays an impressive list of acting roles dating back to 1992.

We talked about the different phases of her career starting with her one-woman show, Made in Taiwan, which earned her much critical acclaim. She wrote, directed and acted in it in her 20s. Then there was her first main character role in a feature film, Saving Face, a film that put her on my radar and so many others’ in 2004. In 2020 she portrayed the legendary Anna May Wong in the Netflix series Hollywood. Stepping into that role helped her to rethink the institutionalized racism that she’s experienced as an actor. Michelle also talked about her directorial projects, and expressed her thoughts on the SAG-AFTRA strike, and so much more.

March is Women’s History Month and so we thought this would be the perfect time to release the first episode 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: www.natwa.com

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

How she got on the path of acting
The stereotypical Asian roles she took on early in her career
The struggles she’s faced in her acting career
How playing the role of Anna May Wong helped her to rethink the institutional racism that she’s faced as an actor
Her first leading role in a feature film (Saving Face)
How she grew up she didn’t see many people who looked like her on television and longed to change that
How Michelle prepared for her role in Saving Face by going to Taiwan to learn Mandarin
How Michelle prepared for her role as Anna May Wong in the Netflix series Hollywood
Michelle’s directing projects
Michelle’s one woman show Made in Taiwan and how it opened doors for her and got her a deal with ABC TV
How anti-Asian hate became more prevalent during the pandemic but was around long before
Her upbringing and how it impacted her early career
Michelle’s Washington Post op ed piece
How a fortune teller impacted Michelle’s adoption
The connection between Made in Taiwan and Michelle’s short film, Bite
Michelle’s short film Nian
Michelle’s thoughts on motherhood and parenthood
The writing/directing projects that Michelle is working on
Michelle’s thoughts on the SAG-AFTRA strike
Michelle’s support for SB 805, a bill that supported funding for nonprofit theaters
How Michelle was affected by the BLM (Black Lives Matter) demonstrations that arose during the pandemic
Michelle’s advice to others who want to pursue acting or directing
Michelle’s connection to Taiwan

Love in Taipei: Our Interview with Award Winning Film Director Arvin Chen Ep 252

Felicia Lin — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00:56 +0000

My guest on this episode of Talking Taiwan is the film director Arvin Chen. He just directed Love in Taipei, the film adaptation of Abigail Hing Wen’s bestselling YA novel Loveboat, Taipei.

If you’re a long-time listener of Talking Taiwan you may remember when I interviewed Abigail about her bestselling YA novel. That success was preceded by 12 years of writing and over 20 drafts of the novel. It was also in that episode that she announced that Loveboat, Taipei was going to be made into a film.

I remember watching her journey afterward on social media as the film was being shot in Taiwan during COVID. Arvin directed the film version of the book Love in Taipei and I had a chance to speak to him recently about the film.

Some of you may be familiar with some of Arvin’s other films, Au Revoir Taipei, Will You Love Me Tomorrow? and Mama Boy.

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

The iconic scenes of Taipei that are captured in the film, Love in Taipei
What it was like shooting at the Grand Hotel because Arvin got married there
Some of Arvin’s favorite scenes from Love in Taipei
The challenges of shooting huge crowd scenes
Arvin’s favorite types of scenes to shoot
What it was like shooting in Taiwan during COVID
How the casting was an open call and what that process was like
How Arvin usually writes and directs his films, but Love in Taipei was adapted from the YA novel Loveboat Taipei and Arvin was not involved with the screen adaptation
Arvin’s directing approach to Love in Taipei
How to capture the essence of the Loveboat experience
The Loveboat program and what it is
Parallels between Arvin’s experience of going back to Taiwan in his 20s and that of the characters of the film Love in Taipei
What has changed and stayed the same about Taipei since Arvin went there to live and work in 2001
How Taiwanese food has been softly exported around the world
The music that was selected for Love in Taipei
The Mandarin Chinese language version of the Whitney Houston song, How Will I Know
The role of or choreography in Love in Taipei
How Ashley Liao had to learn modern dance moves in a matter of weeks for her role as Ever Wong
If anything unexpected happened during the filming of Love in Taipei
What Arvin likes about the romantic comedy genre
What it was like to co-write the script for Arvin’s latest film Mama Boy
Changes in the Taiwanese film industry over the last 20 years
How Taiwan has a thriving film industry because of commercial filmmaking and local film crews with technical know how to work on an American movie
How Arvin’s films could be someone’s introduction to Taiwan or a Taiwanese movie
Films that introduced Taiwan to Arvin and that Arvin would recommend people watch
A more recent Taiwanese film that Arvin would recommend
How working with film director Edward Yang influenced Arvin
How Arvin’s directing style differs from Edward Yang’s
What it is about Taipei that inspires Arvin
What Arvin has been working on and what we can expect from him in the future
What Arvin hopes that audiences come away with after watching Love in Taipei

Kaarina Chu Mackenzie: On Her Immersive Art Exhibit “The Night Market” Ep 247

Felicia Lin — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 06:41:13 +0000

During the pandemic, Kaarina Chu Mackenzie turned to art to find a sense of home. What resulted were a series of paintings inspired by the Raohe Night Market in Taipei. That became an immersive art exhibit called The Night Market which ran at the Bobble Haus, a gallery, shop and event space in New York City’s Lower East Side. While the exhibit has closed, some of Kaarina’s artwork can still be seen until the end of this month at the “On The Way” art gallery and tea shop experience curated by Jocelyn Hu and Thomas Duh at 48 Hester St, in New York City.

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

How the pandemic led Kaarina to focus more on creating paintings which later became part of an immersive art exhibit called The Night Market
How Kaarina designed the immersive art exhibit at the Bobble Haus
How she brought the night market experience to life at the opening reception of her art exhibit by and engaging all the senses through sound, light, and food
How the art that Kaarina created was also a reaction to the Asian hate that happened during the pandemic
How creating The Night Market exhibit was Kaarina’s way of creating a community for herself
How and why Kaarina paints on large life-sized canvases
How she hopes people feel when looking at her art
Kaarina’s connection to Taiwan and upbringing in China
Kaarina’s future plans for her night market series
How Kaarina plans to explore her Taiwanese heritage and wants to use her art to create discourse and to connect with others
How Kaarina deals with people who challenge her about her identity
Kaarina’s advice for people who want to take the path of being an artist

Ed Lin: Our Interview LIVE at Passport to Taiwan Ep 242

Felicia Lin — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 01:43:14 +0000

Author Ed Lin stopped by to chat with me in the Talking Taiwan podcasting booth at Passport to Taiwan. This is the first of several live interviews we recorded at our outdoor on-location podcasting booth. We touched upon a broad range of topics, many that we’ve covered here in the past on Talking Taiwan. In fact, this gives us a good excuse to share some of our past episodes in the related links section for this episode on our website. On the other hand, my conversation with Ed brought up a few good ideas for future topics and guests that we should have on Talking Taiwan.

As Ed and I were talking, you’ll hear us talking to some of the people who walked by and stopped by to say hello, among them were of some of our supporters, mutual friends and a previous Talking Taiwan guest another Lin, Peter Lin who’s band the Asian American Jazz Collective performed at Passport to Taiwan that day. That’s the thing about Passport to Taiwan, when you’re there you never know who you’ll run into. We were also thrilled to meet and talk to some of our listeners who stopped by our booth.

For those of you in New York City, you can catch Ed Lin performing in Short Stack 2 at the Ma-Yi Theatre from June 15-18. We’ll include a link to purchase tickets online on the Talking Taiwan website.

CORRECTION: The restaurant that Ed refers to in the interview as 688 is actually the 886 Restaurant. The film that Ed mentions as Taipei Au Revoir is Au Revoir Taipei.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by NATWA, the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association.

NATWA was founded in 1988, and its mission is:

to evoke a sense of self-esteem and enhance women’s dignity,
to oppose gender discrimination and promote gender equality,
to fully develop women’s potential and encourage their participation in public affairs,
to contribute to the advancement of human rights and democratic development in Taiwan,
to reach out and work with women’s organizations worldwide to promote peace for all.

To learn more about NATWA visit their website: www.natwa.com

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

What Ed’s been working on lately
How Ed will be performing in Short Stack 2 at the Ma-Yi Theater from June 15-18 to benefit Heart of Dinner, a community organization aiding and feeding working-class AAPI seniors throughout the city
Ed will be speaking at the TANG (Taiwanese American Next Generation)/TAC (Taiwanese American Conference), which will be at West Chester University from July 1-4
Taiwanese soft power and how it compares to that of other island nations like Ireland or Jamaica’s
People who will be stopping by to be interviewed in the Talking Taiwan podcasting booth at Passport to Taiwan
The upcoming movie adaptation of the novel Loveboat Taipei
Things to do in the first 24 hours upon arriving in Taiwan
Ximending Red House in Taipei
The bells of Kaohsiung Harbor public art project (Echo Across the Harbor)
The band Chthonic and how their song Supreme Pain for the Tyrant makes reference to Peter Huang, who tried to assassinate Chiang
How activist Yuri Kochiyama encouraged Ed when he was a student at Columbia University working on bringing Asian studies to the campus
How the Taiwanese and Taiwanese diaspora are becoming more outspoken and proud of their identity
How the Famous Porkchop House on Doyers Street in New York City’s Chinatown was renamed Taiwan’s Porkchop House
Cannabis use in Taiwan

Taiwan Dining Archives - Talking Taiwan Podcast

Talking Taiwan Top 5 of 2025 Award Winner – End of Year Review Ep 338

Related Links:

The Charm of Tainan Taiwan’s Oldest City: A Talk with Author and Historian Jinyu Hsieh (謝金魚) Ep 337

Related Links:

Talking Taiwan’s 2025 Inaugural Fundraising Gala! Ep 332

Related Links:

The Real Life “Love in Taipei” Story: Virtuoso Musician Couple Antoine Boyer and Yeore Kim Ep 329

Related Links:

The Boba Guys: Andrew Chau and Bin Chen Bubble Tea Entrepreneurs Bridging Cultures for 11 Years Ep 288

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

Related Links:

Passport to Taiwan 20th Anniversary Catching Up with Rapper Dwagie and Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry Ep 285

Related Links:

Michelle Krusiec: Acclaimed Actor, Writer, and Director Talks About Dealing with Institutional Racism and her Sources of Inspiration Ep 279

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

Related Links:

Love in Taipei: Our Interview with Award Winning Film Director Arvin Chen Ep 252

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

Related Links:

Kaarina Chu Mackenzie: On Her Immersive Art Exhibit “The Night Market” Ep 247

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

Related Links:

Ed Lin: Our Interview LIVE at Passport to Taiwan Ep 242

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

Related Links: