Chiang Ching-guo -CCK Episodes

Long before social media, Taiwan had an unlikely food influencer: Chiang Ching-kuo (CCK), son of President Chiang Kai-shek. During his frequent inspection tours around the island in the 1970s and 1980s (as premier and later president), CCK cultivated an everyman image by chatting with workers and farmers and stopping to sample ordinary local foods. Sometimes, a visit from CCK was enough to transform an obscure dish or shop into a national tourist attraction. Eryk and John hit the road to follow in his culinary footsteps: from taro ice in Dali, Taichung, to daikon radishes high in the forests of Taipingshan, and finally to Wanluan pork knuckles in Pingtung.

NOTE: Shorter, audio only version also available Long before social media, Taiwan had an unlikely food influencer: Chiang Ching-kuo (CCK), son of President Chiang Kai-shek. During his frequent inspection tours around the island in the 1970s and 1980s (as premier and later president), CCK cultivated an everyman image by chatting with workers and farmers and stopping to sample ordinary local foods. Sometimes, a visit from CCK was enough to transform an obscure dish or shop into a national tourist attraction. Eryk and John hit the road to follow in his culinary footsteps: from taro ice in Dali, Taichung, to daikon radishes high in the forests of Taipingshan, and finally to Wanluan pork knuckles in Pingtung.

From Chiang Kai-shek’s nuclear ambitions to the fallout from Chernobyl and Fukushima, Taiwan’s nuclear story has always been controversial. The ROC once came within months of being nuclear-bomb ready, but today, fission is gone from even civilian atomic power generation. This Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025, voters face a radioactive referendum. The core question? Whether to restart the recently decommissioned Ma’anshan Nuclear Power Plant 馬鞍山核能發電廠 in Kenting, Pingtung County. After years of splitting atoms over this hot topic, a critical mass is forming in a debate that may reveal just how divided the island remains on atomic energy. Join us as we explore the chain-reaction politics of Taiwan’s nuclear dilemma and the referendum which may trigger a U-turn on uranium.  Please follow us on social media, and leave a review or comment. Thanks, it really helps.

If we left in all the material we discover when researching topics, our episodes would be many hours long, so we try to force ourselves not to go down too many rabbit holes. But it’s a problem: we find so many “goodies” that are too good not to share! Our solution: a “Bits and Pieces” episode every now and then. In this first one for Season Five, we’ll look again at Taiwan’s falling population, female dentists, the old custom of throwing teeth on a roof (or burying them), the surprising number of Taiwan-Russia connections, and more.