Taiwan Citizenship Archives - Talking Taiwan Podcast

What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine: A Panel Discussion Hosted by FAPA (Part 1) Ep 334

Felicia Lin — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 10:37:45 +0000

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What can Taiwan learn from Ukraine?

Earlier this year, on March 30, at the Taiwan Center in Flushing NY, FAPA (Formosan Association for Public Affairs) hosted a panel discussion, Lessons from the Battlefield: What Taiwan Can Learn From Ukraine. Representatives from the Ukrainian community, Razom for Ukraine and Dignitas Ukraine and FAPA discussed how NGOs can strengthen advocacy, humanitarian aid, and international collaboration.

It was a very substantive discussion that we wanted to record and share with FAPA’s permission to our listeners. This episode part one is the first half of the panel discussion.

Does Taiwan Have the Will to Fight? Ep 333

Felicia Lin — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 12:51:25 +0000

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Does Taiwan have the Will to fight? I recently sat down with Dr. Raymond Kuo, Director of RAND’s Taiwan Policy Initiative and Catherine Kish, Research Assistant and Chinese Language Specialist at RAND to talk about their War on the Rocks article, “Taiwan’s Will to Fight Isn’t the Problem.” Later on in the interview we also talked about how Taiwan could leverage its diaspora.

Talking Taiwan’s 2025 Inaugural Fundraising Gala! Ep 332

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

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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.

Eco Art on Island: The Deer God and Wearable Art Now at Governors Island House 17 Ep 330

Felicia Lin — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:25:03 +0000

Wang Guo-ren’s deer sculpture called the Deer God measures well over 10 feet if you include its antlers. It’s part of Eco Art on Island by TAAC. Constructed completely of fallen pieces of wood and tree branches that have been colorfully painted, the deer seems to have magically taken up residence on the lawn outside of the Taiwanese American Arts Council House 17.

Inside of the house we spoke with Julia Hsia about her exhibit “Wear Enough” which includes artifacts made with paper and receipts.

In September we ventured over to Governors Island to meet artists in residence Wang Guo-ren and his sculpture entitled the Deer God, and Julia Hsia.

This year’s house theme is Eco Art on Island and as you hear at the beginning of the episode we were outside with the lovely sounds of nature like birds, and the more than occasional airplane flying overhead, many of which had to be edited out. Special thanks to Julia Hsia for helping to translate for Guo-ren at the beginning of the episode, before we moved indoors to interview her.

TAIUNA’s White Protest of Taiwan’s Exclusion from the UN Ep 328

Felicia Lin — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 11:04:28 +0000

On Friday, September 12^th at the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza which is across from the UN Headquarters, in New York representatives from the Taiwan United Nations Alliance or TAIUNA, an NGO from Taiwan, held a press conference urging the UN to include Taiwan in its system. TAIUNA Youth Representatives performed a dance, a white protest of Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN.

September is when the UN General Assembly takes place and delegates from TAIUNA have been coming to New York for the past twenty years to call for Taiwan’s membership in the UN. This year is the 80th anniversary of the United Nations and the 80^th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly High-level Week runs from September 22-30^th.

The following day, Saturday, September 13^th was the UN for Taiwan rally and march which has been organized by the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York since 1992.

The annual press conference and UN for Taiwan Rally are reminders of Taiwan’s long-standing isolation from the international community.

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.

Jiho Chang: Why Did the Recall Fail, and How Can the DPP Do Better? Ep 323

Felicia Lin — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 15:47:11 +0000

Why did the recall fail, and how can the DPP do better in the future?

This is a part of our continued coverage of Taiwan’s Great Recall. On July 26th, the people of Taiwan voted on whether or not to recall 24 Kuomintang KMT legislators from all across the island. None of the 24 KMT legislators were recalled. This was a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party that could have benefited from a rebalancing of the legislative yuan since it only has 51 of the 113 seats in the legislative yuan or congress.

Among the concerns that motivated these civil society recall groups to take action were the unchecked visits of KMT legislators with high level officials in China. In April of 2024 KMT caucus convener Fu Kun-chi led a delegation of 17 KMT legislators to China where they met with the head of China’s United Front. When asked the delegation has not been transparent about what was discussed in the meetings with Chinese officials.

Two days after the recall vote, on July 28th , I sat down with Jiho Chang, Keelung City Councilor who shared how he faced a retaliatory recall by the KMT. He discussed his thoughts on the outcome of the July 26th recall vote and what this means for the DPP.

On August 23 another 7 KMT legislators will be put up for a recall vote.

The Great Recall Explained by Courtney Donovan Smith Ep 317

Felicia Lin — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 09:23:28 +0000

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.

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

The Great Recall Movement in Taiwan: A Historic Unprecedented Boots on the Ground Exercise in Democracy Ep 316

Felicia Lin — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 13:39:37 +0000

Have you heard about the great recall movement that’s happening in Taiwan? What’s it all about?

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 from 1% 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 be collected 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

Julien Oeuillet The Voice of South Taiwan Shines a Spotlight on Kaohsiung Ep 315

Felicia Lin — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 08:36:53 +0000

Julien Oeuillet is an independent journalist, known as the Voice of South Taiwan who has produced content for Radio Taiwan International and TaiwanPlus. He is the Founding Editor of IPON the Indo-Pacific Open News.

Back in November of 2024 we interviewed Julien about a broad number of topics including:

How he is very much at home in Kaohsiung
How he got his start in broadcasting and media
What he thinks makes a good and bad journalist especially in Taiwan
How he focuses on putting a spotlight on Kaohsiung and southern Taiwan through his Radio Taiwan International show, The Voice of South Taiwan
His documentary Taiwan’s Little Big Friend about Lithuania and its relationship with Taiwan

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

Why Julien saw the need to start IPON (Indo-Pacific Open News)
Julien’s upbringing
How Julien got started in broadcasting and media
How Julien was taken under the wing of veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker Philippe Dutilleul
How Julien sees himself as a Kaohsiung resident
How Julien has seen Kaohsiung transform
How Julien thinks that Kaohsiung should receive more international attention
Julien’s Radio Taiwan International show, the Voice of South Taiwan
What Julien thinks makes someone a good or bad journalist especially pertaining to Taiwan
Julien’s thoughts on English and education in Taiwan
Julien’s observations on the Taoist nature of people in Taiwan
What is Taiwanese identity
Julien’s connection to Lithuania
Parallels between Lithuania and Taiwan
Julien’s documentary, Taiwan’s Little Big Friend
If Lithuania will keep its Taiwan Representative Office
Julien’s thoughts on China’s fear mongering

Taiwan Citizenship Archives - Talking Taiwan Podcast

What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine: A Panel Discussion Hosted by FAPA (Part 1) Ep 334

Related Links:

Does Taiwan Have the Will to Fight? Ep 333

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Talking Taiwan’s 2025 Inaugural Fundraising Gala! Ep 332

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Eco Art on Island: The Deer God and Wearable Art Now at Governors Island House 17 Ep 330

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TAIUNA’s White Protest of Taiwan’s Exclusion from the UN Ep 328

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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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Jiho Chang: Why Did the Recall Fail, and How Can the DPP Do Better? Ep 323

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The Great Recall Explained by Courtney Donovan Smith Ep 317

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

Related Links:

The Great Recall Movement in Taiwan: A Historic Unprecedented Boots on the Ground Exercise in Democracy Ep 316

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

Related Links:

Julien Oeuillet The Voice of South Taiwan Shines a Spotlight on Kaohsiung Ep 315

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

Related Links: