Ever heard of the film "Attack Force Z"? No? Don't worry... almost no one has. Filmed in Taiwan, this WWII story featured both Mel Gibson and Sam Neill, long before they became major Hollywood stars. Gibson later called the …
At the turn of the 20th century, Japan was on a roll. After taking Formosa and Penghu from Qing China in 1895, Japan beat mighty Russia in 1905. Eager to show the world its newfound economic strength – and to highlight the s…
You're hiking in the hills of Taichung in the early 1990s and suddenly come across ... an orangutan? What's more, this massive great ape is um ... in need of some, um ... "affection," and gets handsy. An unlikely scenario, r…
This week we have another snippet from the audiobook of John's 2020 book, Taiwan in 100 Books. This extract tells the tale of Janet Montgomery McGovern, a feisty anthropologist who managed to cut through the red tape and off…
We generally don't discuss politics very much on this podcast, but, when one of the world's most well-established international experts on politics in Taiwan is gracious enough to be willing to chat – we're gonna talk politi…
Imagine this: It's 1949. You and your family live in Fujian, China. A friend invites you to the island of Kinmen for a short vacation. You hop on a ferry and, a 10-kilometer ride later, you're on Kinmen. While there, your ho…
In this special episode, we thank listeners and talk briefly about season two (We are now being listened to in 90 countries/regions!!), and share an excerpt from the audiobook of John Ross' 2020 "Taiwan in 100 Books" related…
Why is "Kaohsiung" spelled so strangely? Shouldn't it be closer to "Gao-Shung"? (Or we could just use Hanyu Pinyin, "Gāoxióng"). Well, many names in Taiwan are spelled with the Latin alphabet, using a romanization system pop…
Kaohsiung Harbor was, in the late twentieth century, one of the world's busiest ports, but back during the time of the Opium Wars, it was still a rather secluded and hard-to-find place. Based on the somewhat embellished "A C…
Taiwan's only English radio station, International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT) has been a part of millions of Taiwanese -- and many an expat in Taiwan's -- lives since it took over from the US military in 1979. Tim Berge, …
April 1997. Taiwan’s crime story of the century starts with the kidnapping and murder of a celebrity’s 12-year-old daughter by a trio of hardened criminals. In the seven-month crime spree that follows, there are more kidnapp…
Western-style adoption (as in a couple taking a baby home from an orphanage) has not been and is still not very common in Taiwan. But there are plenty of local ways kids find new homes here, including a now-abandoned, rather…
It's 1895 and Formosa has officially become part of the Japanese Empire. Not everyone on the island is super happy about this, and bursts of violent resistance are put down by imperial troops as they march for the rebel capi…
The Second Opium War (1856-1860) lead to the opening of Danshui, near Taipei, and Anping (Tainan) as treaty ports. Soon after, the Qing authorities opened Takao (Kaohsiung) and Keelung to foreign ships. First came the foreig…
![[Encore] Japan Puts Paiwan Indigenous Taiwanese on Display at London Expo (1910)](https://images.podpage.com/https%3A%2F%2Fs3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fredwood-labs%2Fshowpage%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2F906601c1-483b-470d-9e73-f345cd16d853.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=100&s=72af3ca16f606986dc38279de3793cac "[Encore] Japan Puts Paiwan Indigenous Taiwanese on Display at London Expo (1910)")
![[Encore] Taiwan's Orangutan Craze and the Terrors of the Tiger Trade](https://images.podpage.com/https%3A%2F%2Fs3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fredwood-labs%2Fshowpage%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2F66ac9455-e963-4fb0-9d53-bcd897120328.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&w=100&s=0fc33831f9b8579460be8449ad9cb087 "[Encore] Taiwan's Orangutan Craze and the Terrors of the Tiger Trade")
