Medical Professionals Archives - Talking Taiwan Podcast

KITA Foundation: Mapping the Path of the Trailblazers that Paved the Way for Taiwan’s Democracy and Freedom Ep 342

Felicia Lin — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:34:57 +0000

So in the vein of reflecting on the past, this year I thought I’d share my interview with Sabrina Liu and Meng Chiang who are part of the team that makes up the KITA Foundation, an organization that was formed as an oral history project to understand who are the trailblazers that paved the way for Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.

Every year we try to dedicate an episode of Talking Taiwan to 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.

However, the 228 Massacre is not confined to this single date in history. There were circumstances leading up what happened on February 28th and there were also subsequent events after February 28th which escalated into bloody violence and massacres leading to what some refer to as the March Massacre.

Under the authoritarian Chiang regime, and Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang, 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. For decades there was denial and suppression of 228 by authorities in Taiwan, and generations dared not speak of 228.

228 was absent from high school textbooks until relatively recently. To learn more about the specifics of 228 I invite you to listen to some of our past episodes on the topic. We recommend episodes 309, 277, 228, and 172.

In an effort to confront its authoritarian past, in recent years Taiwan has taken steps to acknowledge historical sites of injustice such as buildings where military police fired on civilians on February 28, 1947. Around this time of year, around February 28 and leading into March, it’s a time to reflect on the past, and what we can learn from it.

Collective Memory, Collective Trauma: A Conversation with Dr. Meng Chiang Ep 339

Felicia Lin — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:29:48 +0000

At the end of 2024 I sat down with Dr. Meng Chiang, the Executive Director of the 2024 Taiwanese American Conference- East Coast. We had a really wonderful heart-centered conversation about the conference theme Collective Memory and that led to collective trauma as it relates to the Taiwanese and Taiwanese American communities. We talked about the 4 types of trauma responses, the 4 Fs- flight, fight, freeze and fawn and post-traumatic growth.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Sharon Huang, who passed away in December of 2025. She was a dear friend, mother, wife, sister, auntie, a community organizer and a cornerstone of the Taiwanese American community, especially in New York where she resided. Most notably she and her husband Patrick Huang ran the Brooklyn Artists Studio (BAS) and have supported the Taiwanese American Arts Council (TAAC) and Talking Taiwan. Together they have advocated for Taiwan democracy, human rights, and culture. The loss of Sharon is felt by so many who knew and loved her, she leaves behind family in the U.S. and Taiwan.

Mengchun “Meng” Chiang, PhD (she/her/hers), is a member of the Taiwanese American community. She has served in various community leadership roles, most recently as Executive Director of the Taiwanese American Conference East Coast (TACEC) in 2024.

Professionally, Meng is the founder of CHI Executive Consulting, LLC, where she provides leadership coaching and consulting services, specializing in workplace inclusion and organizational wellness. She is passionate about empowering leaders from diverse backgrounds, helping them enhance their communication, negotiation, and inclusive leadership skills. Meng regularly facilitates workshops to help leaders integrate their identities into effective leadership practices that drive business success and personal growth.

Meng is a licensed clinical psychologist with affiliations to Harvard Medical School, Carnegie Mellon University, the Tepper School of Business, and National Taiwan University. Her experience spans education, training, and leadership roles. She pioneered the Leadership and Connection for Asian Women+ Leaders program and served as Assistant Director of Training at Carnegie Mellon University.

In her free time, Meng enjoys traveling, practicing loving-kindness meditation, listening to music, taking walks, and grocery shopping.

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.

Author and Speaker Dr. Yang Szu Pang (楊斯棓) : Don’t Think You’re Too Small to Make a Difference Ep 331

Felicia Lin — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:57:56 +0000

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 related to Hsiao Bi-khim, the current the Vice President of Taiwan.

Special thanks for translation assistance provided by Dr. Lee-Yuan Liu.

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

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

Felicia Lin — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 01:00:13 +0000

In July of 2024, we brought talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference, east Coast at Westchester University, where I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Taiwan’s, former vice President, Dr. Chen Chen (陳建仁). We talked about how Dr. Chen was trained to be an epidemiologist and was initially reluctant to go into politics, but then fate intervened and changed his mind when SARS hit Taiwan in 2003, and his experience handling the SARS outbreak as Taiwan’s Minister of Health played an important role preparing him to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as Taiwan’s Vice President.

I asked Dr. Chen why it’s important for Taiwan to be a member of the WHO World Health Organization and about the challenges he’s faced as the Vice President and Premier of Taiwan. how he overcame them and why he decided not to run as Vice President with Tsai Ing-wen for a second term.

And finally, for some context, at the time of the interview, the Bluebird movement had emerged in Taiwan a month and a half earlier. I touched upon this with Dr. Chen briefly at the end of the interview.

At the time, more than a hundred thousand people in total had taken to the streets of Taiwan in a series of massive protests. It was a very public objection to controversial bills passed by Taiwan’s opposition controlled Legislative Yuan. After interviewing Dr. Chen, I was left thinking if only the world had more politicians like him with a public service mindset, the world would be a better place.

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

Understanding the History of Taiwan through Dr. Jerome Keating (Classic) Ep 311

Felicia Lin — Sun, 18 May 2025 12:10:43 +0000

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.

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.

Dr. Jerome Keating 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

Aftermath of his Medical Mission to Ukraine One Year Later: Dr. Jung Tsai Ep 297

Felicia Lin — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 09:09:39 +0000

Last year in August of 2023 I interviewed Dr. Jung Tsai about the medical mission to Ukraine that he had organized. If you haven’t already had a chance to hear my first interview with Dr. Tsai about his medical mission to Ukraine, check out Episode 251: Dr. Jung Tsai: On His Courageous Medical Mission to Ukraine for Taiwan.

This past July we took Talking Taiwan on the road to the 53^rd annual Taiwanese American Conference, East Coast that was held at Westchester University. And we set up an on-location podcast studio there. Dr. Tsai was one of the speakers at TAC, so nearly a year after his return, we sat down with him to hear how his medical mission went.

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

TH Schee: Lessons Taiwan has Learned from the Nantou and Hualien Earthquakes Ep 281

Felicia Lin — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 14:38:03 +0000

Someone who last lived through Taiwan’s most powerful earthquakes teaches us ways to hedge our chances of surviving them.

On April 3, 2024 at 7:58am (in Taiwan) an earthquake that’s been reported as measuring 7.2 and 7.4 hit Hualien which is located on Taiwan’s east coast. The last major earthquake of similar magnitude was 25 years ago on September 21^st, 1999 in Nantou, which is located in central Taiwan. The earthquake also referred to as the 921 earthquake killed over 2,400 people, and left over 100,000 people homeless.

In this episode I’m bringing back one of our previous guests onto this podcast, T.H. Schee, who I interviewed about civil defense in Taiwan. In that interview T.H. mentioned that it was his firsthand experience with the 921 earthquake that made him concerned about disaster preparedness and civil defense. I asked T.H. to share his recollection of the 921 earthquake and thoughts on how Taiwan’s disaster response has improved since then. By most reports the death toll from the Hualien earthquake was around 13 at the time of this interview.

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

Where T.H. was during the Hualien earthquake on April 3, 2024 and during the earthquake on September 21, 1999 in Nantou
The situation in Puli, after the earthquake on September 21, 1999 in Nantou
How around 5,000 buildings collapsed and another 5,000 buildings were damaged in Nantou
How people in the mountainous area of Nantou were stuck there for a month
How a volunteer guard patrol group was formed to protect people who were camped outside
How the damage in Puli was so extensive that navigation assistance needed to be provided to volunteer assistance groups
How a state of emergency was declared on the fourth day of the earthquake
Most of the deaths from the Hualien earthquake have been due to landslides and rockfalls rather than building collapses whereas most of the deaths in 1999 were due to building collapses
How there were around 10,000 aftershocks within a month after the 921 earthquake
Why people needed to camp outside after the 1999 earthquake in Nantou
How police station and schools collapsed (in Nantou) and students had to relocate to another building as a temporary school
How T.H. witnessed the death of three of his neighbors in Nantou
How it took three years for buildings to be rebuild in Nantou
Lessons from the 921 earthquake included a change in building codes, changes in laws regarding disaster response
How businesses including TSMC in the Hsinchu Science park had to be shut down for five days in 1999
How the stock market had to be shut down in 1999
How Tai Power had to make improvements to the power grid to make it more resilient in case of natural disasters
How Taiwan has offered humanitarian assistance to others e.g. the earthquake in Turkey in 2023
How medics who went to Nantou were poorly prepared because they did plan on bringing enough food for themselves
How ATMs didn’t work in Nantou after the earthquake
The first response to the Hualien earthquake
How the train between Yilan and Hualien was repaired within a day
How notifications after the Hualien earthquake were not sent to people in New Taipei
How well prepared people in Taiwan are for earthquakes
How the Tzu Chi foundation has been providing support to those affected by the earthquake in Hualien
Do’s and don’ts after an earthquake
How it is important to get buildings checked after an earthquake
How aftershocks can cause landslides and it not advisable to go into the mountains
The earthquake that happened in New York on April 5^th and comparing the notification system in New York with the notification system for earthquakes in Taiwan
How to be prepared for an earthquake (have a flashlight, whistle and bottled water)
Do’s and Don’ts during an earthquake and aftershocks
How Taiwan’s government used to be a strong party state system in 1999, but after the 921 earthquake they learned the value of working with civil society and there were legal reforms
A few months after the 1999 there was a change in government when people voted for Chen Shui-bian in 2000
How TSMC resumed 80% of its capacity within a day after the Hualien earthquake
T.H.’s gym 4SC Crossfit and the training and workshops the support and offer related to disaster preparedness and civil defense

Our Post Presidential Election Analysis 2024 with Courtney Donovan Smith Ep 274

Felicia Lin — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 15:45:38 +0000

As part of Talking Taiwan’s Election Tour, we spoke with Courtney Donovan Smith a week after Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections. Lai Ching-te of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected president with 40.05% of the vote. Hou Yu-ih the Kuomintang’s (KMT) presidential candidate got 33.49% of the vote and Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) got 26.46%. It was the first time in Taiwan’s history that any political party has been elected for three consecutive four-year terms in office. The DPP won an unprecedented third presidential term but lost its majority in the legislature. We talked about how ballot counting in Taiwan is highly transparent and also about how the Taiwan People’s Party could have a crucial role in the legislature, and if the TPP will suffer the same fate as Taiwan’s other third parties

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

Reflections on the 2024 election compared to past elections
How the election of Lai Ching-te has earned the DPP an unprecedented third term in office
How Terry Guo had expressed interest in running for president
The opposition unity ticket deal that fell through
Taiwan’s first direct presidential election in 1996
How ballots are counted in Taiwan
How voting is done in Taiwan
Donovan’s thoughts on if the Taiwan People’s Party will survive as a third party
Taiwan’s third political parties and what has happened to them
The 2000 election in which Lien Chan was the KMT presidential candidate and James Soong ran as an independent presidential candidate
The origin of the terms “Pan Green” and “Pan Blue
The possibility that Hou You-yi could be recalled as mayor of New Taipei City
Comparing the recall of Hou You-yi with the recall of Han Kuo-yu
What the election results tell us about how people feel about the Democratic Progressive Party
How Ko Wen-je has managed to attract many young voters
How voting results may have differed if the presidential election were not a three-way race
What could happen with the Legislative Yuan speaker and deputy speaker positions

Sean Su: Observations on Election Day 2024 from Kaohsiung, Taiwan Ep 272

Felicia Lin — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 13:11:03 +0000

Talking Taiwan is on an Election Tour and we traveled down to Kaohsiung where I cast my vote in Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election. Voting booths opened at 8am on January 13^th and we spoke with Sean Su, midday on election day. He was also in Kaohsiung to cast his vote. Sean shared some of his observations and we talked about the alarming text message alert many in Taiwan received on January 9^th. I remember reading the text about a missile flyover on my phone just as Kaju and I arrived in Kaohsiung on the high-speed rail. Sean is Co-Producer of Taiwan Report. Known for jump starting Keep Taiwan Free. He is also a frequent guest on ICRT.

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

Sean’s observations on election day in Kaohsiung
How if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te wins it would be the first time in history that an incumbent party after eight years in office is re-elected
Courtney Donovan Smith’s recent article about Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election, which mentions that Ko Wen-je’s YouTube subscribers have surpassed one million
The DPP’s rally that was held at Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on January 11
Ma Ying-jeou’s comments that Taiwan has no choice but to trust Chinese leader Xi Jinping
The text message alert from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on January 9^th that stated in English that there was a missile flyover Taiwan airspace
Bilingual 2030
The case of the two Michaels from Canada that were kidnapped by China
How China conducted a series of missile tests in the waters surrounding Taiwan, including the Taiwan Strait in 1995 in response to President Lee Teng-hui’s visit to Cornell University and in 1996 before Taiwan’s first direct presidential election
What China would need to do in order to successfully invade Taiwan

Medical Professionals Archives - Talking Taiwan Podcast

KITA Foundation: Mapping the Path of the Trailblazers that Paved the Way for Taiwan’s Democracy and Freedom Ep 342

Related Links:

Collective Memory, Collective Trauma: A Conversation with Dr. Meng Chiang Ep 339

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

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Author and Speaker Dr. Yang Szu Pang (楊斯棓) : Don’t Think You’re Too Small to Make a Difference Ep 331

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

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Understanding the History of Taiwan through Dr. Jerome Keating (Classic) Ep 311

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

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Aftermath of his Medical Mission to Ukraine One Year Later: Dr. Jung Tsai Ep 297

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TH Schee: Lessons Taiwan has Learned from the Nantou and Hualien Earthquakes Ep 281

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

Related Links:

Our Post Presidential Election Analysis 2024 with Courtney Donovan Smith Ep 274

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

Related Links:

Sean Su: Observations on Election Day 2024 from Kaohsiung, Taiwan Ep 272

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

Related Links: