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

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. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/collective-memory-collective-trauma-a-conversation-with-meng-chiang-ep-339/ 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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/collective-memory-collective-trauma-a-conversation-with-meng-chiang-ep-339/

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: https://talkingtaiwan.com/talking-taiwan-top-5-of-2025-award-winner-end-of-year-review-ep-338/   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: https://talkingtaiwan.com/talking-taiwan-top-5-of-2025-award-winner-end-of-year-review-ep-338/

In July of 2024, we brought talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference (TAC), East Coast at Westchester University.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/the-charm-of-tainan-taiwans-oldest-city-a-talk-with-author-and-historian-jinyu-hsieh-%e8%ac%9d%e9%87%91%e9%ad%9a-ep-337/   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 400th anniversary.   This episode is sponsored in part by the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/the-charm-of-tainan-taiwans-oldest-city-a-talk-with-author-and-historian-jinyu-hsieh-%e8%ac%9d%e9%87%91%e9%ad%9a-ep-337/

To commemorate its anniversary on December 10th, we thought this would be a great time to reshare one of our most popular CLASSIC episodes, an interview we did with Taiwan Democracy fighter Dr. Linda Gail Arrigo, Ai Linda (艾琳達) in 2024 about events leading up to the HISTORIC Kaohsiung Incident. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-linda-gail-arrigo-taiwan-democracy-fighter-talks-about-events-leading-up-to-the-kaohsiung-incident-classic-ep-336/ Last year when we were in Taiwan in January for the presidential election, we were privileged to meet Dr. Linda Gail Arrigo, Ai Linda (艾琳達) in Taipei and sat down for a one-on-one interview. Few have experienced such historic events first-hand in the way Linda has, as she speaks from the doorstep of history. Linda talked about the era and events that precipitated the Kaohsiung incident, also known as the Formosa Incident, which is widely considered the watershed moment in history that led to Taiwan's democratization. The Kaohsiung Incident happened in December of 1979 During this interview Linda talked about how, in 1975 she had been sent to observe a trial that had been stated to be an open trial but when she arrived there, she saw that it wasn't. In the face of intimidation by the Taiwan Garrison Command officers, she chose to speak up about the injustice she saw, and reported it to Amnesty International. To me, Linda's self-directed action was a moment of historic defiant courage.  Thank you Linda Gail Arrigo, Ai Linda (艾琳達) for sharing your story and for advocating for the people of Taiwan. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-linda-gail-arrigo-taiwan-democracy-fighter-talks-about-events-leading-up-to-the-kaohsiung-incident-classic-ep-336/

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.    Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/what-taiwan-can-learn-from-ukraine-a-panel-hosted-by-fapa-part-2-ep-335/   It was a very substantive discussion that we wanted to record and share with FAPA's permission to our listeners. This episode part two is the second half of the panel discussion. To listen to the first half of the panel discussion listen to the previous episode, episode 334.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/what-taiwan-can-learn-from-ukraine-a-panel-hosted-by-fapa-part-2-ep-335/

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.    Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/what-taiwan-can-learn-from-ukraine-a-panel-discussion-hosted-by-fapa-part-1-ep-334/   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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/what-taiwan-can-learn-from-ukraine-a-panel-discussion-hosted-by-fapa-part-1-ep-334/

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." Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/does-taiwan-have-the-will-to-fight-ep-333/   Later on in the interview we also talked about how Taiwan could leverage its diaspora. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/does-taiwan-have-the-will-to-fight-ep-333/

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 [email protected] with the Subject Line: 12 MORE     Talking Taiwan's inaugural fundraising gala was on April 30th 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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/talking-taiwans-2025-inaugural-fundraising-gala-ep-332/

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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/author-and-speaker-dr-yang-szu-pang-%e6%a5%8a%e6%96%af%e6%a3%93-dont-think-youre-too-small-to-make-a-difference-ep-331/

Wang Guo-ren's deer sculpture measures well over 10 feet if you include its antlers. 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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/eco-art-on-island-the-deer-god-and-wearable-art-now-at-governors-island-house-17-ep-330/   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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/eco-art-on-island-the-deer-god-and-wearable-art-now-at-governors-island-house-17-ep-330/