Ep 365 | Wan-jen Lin (林宛蓁): Shipbuilding Techniques Meet Architecture and Public Art in Kaohsiung

Wan-jen Lin (林宛蓁) is an award-winning architect who has worked on Weiwuying (衛武營) National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts  along with her husband Ching-Mou Hou (侯慶謀) Together they formed studio HOU x LIN, an architecture and urban design firm, and some of the projects that they have worked on as studio HOU x LIN include the Echo Across the Harbor (大港迴聲) public art installation located at Kaohsiung's Penglai Commercial Port, and the Kaohsiung Train Station.   Just recently, in September of 2026, Echo Across the Harbor won the Artistic Creation Award at Taiwan's 10th Public Art Awards, presented by the Ministry of Culture. And in 2024 Echo Across the Harbor won Japan's prestigious Good Design Award for its contribution to urban public facilities and waterfront architecture.   Hearing Wan-jen talk about the building and design of Echo Across the Harbor and Weiwuying (which is sometimes also referred to as Kaohsiung's opera house or performing arts center) is like a mini-masterclass in persistence, patience, creativity, collaboration, and planning. Especially notable is how both of these projects used shipbuilding techniques. Also, many of the manufacturers, builders or materials used for the Echo Across the Harbor project were sourced from the harbor area where the project is located.   This episode is part of the trailblazing Taiwanese women 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.     Related Links:

While Felicia was away attending the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations (WFTA) meeting, that was held in Helsinki, Finland this year, back in New York the annual UN for Taiwan Rally was taking place on Saturday, September 12th. Kaju was there and he spoke with Dr. Dean Shih (史書華) who is now serving as President of TAIUNA, Taiwan United Nations Alliance. We met and interviewed Dr. Shih last year at the Taiwanese American Conference West Coast, so this was a follow up episode of sorts. Kaju also spoke with Anna Tung.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/u-n-for-taiwan-rally-and-taipei-mayoral-race-dr-dean-shih-%e5%8f%b2%e6%9b%b8%e8%8f%af-ep-364/   One of the topics that came up was China's attempts to reinterpret UNGA Resolution 2758 as based on its One China Principle. As noted in previous episodes of Talking Taiwan covering the UN for Taiwan rally, Taiwan specifically, is not mentioned once in the over 150 words that make up UNGA Resolution 2758.   For those interested in reading the complete text of UNGA Resolution 2758 we will include a links to places where you can read the full text in the Related Links section for this episode.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/u-n-for-taiwan-rally-and-taipei-mayoral-race-dr-dean-shih-%e5%8f%b2%e6%9b%b8%e8%8f%af-ep-364/

In July of 2025, we brought Talking Taiwan to the Taiwanese American Conference West Coast hosted in San Francisco/Silicon Valley, where we interviewed several of the conference's speakers. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/from-the-sunflower-to-the-bluebird-and-great-recall-movement-a-conversation-with-dr-dean-shih-%e5%8f%b2%e6%9b%b8%e8%8f%af-ep-363/ Dr. Dean Shih (史書華). Dr. Shih is a dentist by training and he shared how he got involved in Taiwan's social movements and the Great Recall. This interview was recorded before July 26th, the first vote to recall 24 Chinese Kuomintang legislators. This episode is sponsored in part by the Pacific Times (太平洋時報). Stay tuned for our follow up interview with Dr. Shih. We caught up with him when he was in recently New York at the annual UN for Taiwan rally in September. Special thanks to Mei-Ling Lin for her translation assistance with this episode   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/from-the-sunflower-to-the-bluebird-and-great-recall-movement-a-conversation-with-dr-dean-shih-%e5%8f%b2%e6%9b%b8%e8%8f%af-ep-363/

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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwan-american-voices-remembered-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-9-11-ep-362/   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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwan-american-voices-remembered-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-9-11-ep-362/

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?   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/puma-shen-%e6%b2%88%e4%bc%af%e6%b4%8b-dpp-taipei-mayoral-candidates-vision-for-taipei-city-our-full-interview-ep-361/   In this episode you'll learn about more about who Puma Shen (沈伯洋) 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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/puma-shen-%e6%b2%88%e4%bc%af%e6%b4%8b-dpp-taipei-mayoral-candidates-vision-for-taipei-city-our-full-interview-ep-361/

In July Puma Shen (沈伯洋) who's currently a Legislator in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan came to the U.S. for an eight-day trip. 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.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/meet-puma-shen-%e6%b2%88%e4%bc%af%e6%b4%8b-the-democratic-progressive-party-legislator-running-for-taipei-mayor-ep-360/   It's been nearly 30 years since Taipei has elected a DPP mayor and Puma most definitely has an uphill battle because Taipei voters usually vote for politicians from the Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang. According to a poll released by Taiwan Brain Trust in May, the incumbent Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) led DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) by more than 20 points.   Puma gave a talk when he was in New York on July 24th and many people showed up to hear him speak. We were at his talk and wanted to share some translated highlights from it. We recorded Puma's entire talk on July 24th and it's on Talking Taiwan's YouTube channel if you'd like to watch it. Incredibly the video now has over 60,000 views!   More exciting news for us…   I've been following Puma's career since he founded Doublethink Lab in 2019, so I was excited to finally have a chance to sit down with him for an interview just 2 days after he officially registered as the DPP candidate for Taipei Mayor. We will share a short clip from the interview at the end this episode before we release the entire interview soon.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/meet-puma-shen-%e6%b2%88%e4%bc%af%e6%b4%8b-the-democratic-progressive-party-legislator-running-for-taipei-mayor-ep-360/  

Earlier this year, in March we met and interviewed 13-year-old artist Ashton Yeh right before the opening of his debut exhibition in New York. Born in Taiwan Ashton moved to Japan to immerse himself in his passion for animation and Japanese Manga. He has already had successful solo shows in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Philippines. Ashton's artwork is a vibrant portal of monsters, pop-culture-inspired creatures, and imaginative worlds.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/ashton-yeh-13-year-old-taiwanese-imaginative-artist-does-exhibitions-around-the-world-ep-359/   We had a lot of fun meeting and speaking with Ashton. What a creative and expressive young man he is! Ashton gave us a personal walkthrough of his exhibit, telling us about the stories and ideas behind each of his pieces of artwork, so if you'd like to see and hear even more about Ashton's artwork, be sure to visit Talking Taiwan's YouTube channel where we'll be sharing that video.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/ashton-yeh-13-year-old-taiwanese-imaginative-artist-does-exhibitions-around-the-world-ep-359/

Vincent Hsu (徐崇育) is a Taiwanese bassist, composer and the leader of Vincent Hsu & Soy La Ley Afro-Cuban Jazz band. We sat down to speak a few days before his concert, Spirits from Both Sides. The concert was held on August 15th at Flushing Town Hall with Vincent and Arturo O'Farrill- a six-time GRAMMY Award winner and two-time Latin GRAMMY Award winner. Hsu planned to premiere a big-band arrangement of his Taiwanese Trilogy Music Suite (台灣人三部曲), at the August 15th  performance. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/vincent-hsu-%e5%be%90%e5%b4%87%e8%82%b2-award-winning-taiwanese-jazz-bassist-composer-bridges-cultures-through-his-musical-works-ep-358/ We talked about the parallels between Taiwanese folk culture and Afro-Latin spiritual beliefs and how his musical composition, Taiwanese Trilogy Music Suite, draws inspiration from Taiwanese Hakka writer Chao-Cheng Chung (鍾肇政). Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/vincent-hsu-%e5%be%90%e5%b4%87%e8%82%b2-award-winning-taiwanese-jazz-bassist-composer-bridges-cultures-through-his-musical-works-ep-358/

We were invited to help out with book packing for an organization called Books for Taiwan, which was spearheaded by Amy Lin (賴淑娟). In July the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in New York gave Amy the Community Spirit Award and we are sharing her inspiring story in this episode. The concept behind Books for Taiwan, is pretty straightforward. They collect children's books and ship them to schools, organizations and businesses in Taiwan. Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/books-for-taiwan-founder-amy-lin-changes-lives-one-book-at-a-time-ep-357/ Books for Taiwan collects books that are stored at a warehouse donated to them located in New Jersey and volunteers gather regularly throughout the year to pack up books to be put on pallets and shipped over to Taiwan. Books for Taiwan has been around for over 20 years and they have already shipped over 1.3 million books to Taiwan. In this episode you'll learn how you can get involved and help out with this meaningful project. We'll list how you can donate to and learn more about Books for Taiwan below in our related links section.     Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/books-for-taiwan-founder-amy-lin-changes-lives-one-book-at-a-time-ep-357/

This year Taiwanese Waves is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and will be back at SummerStage in New York City's Central Park's Rumsey Playfield on Sunday August 16th. Doors open at 5:00pm. When Taiwanese Waves debuted in 2016, it set an all-time record for the highest single-day attendance at SummerStage. And since then it's continued to introduce audiences to Taiwanese Music. This year's lineup includes Golden Melody Award regulars 9m88, YELLOW and ØZI. You'll also be hearing the psychedelic sounds of Mong Tong and from Taiwanese American singer-song writer Chance Emerson, and finally New York's Chinatown Records will spin tracks from past Taiwanese Waves alumni. Related Links: