TAIWAN HISTORY - Formosa Files Episodes

Among the too many killings committed in the lawless year of 1997 was the execution of 21-year-old Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), a soldier convicted of a horrific crime after a forced confession. Chiang went to his death maintaining his innocence, and 14 years later in 2011, he was posthumously cleared of all wrongdoing. John and Eryk tell this harrowing story, disagree on capital punishment, and discuss the death penalty in Taiwan. They end with a case John brings up of a serial killer from the 1970s-80s who certainly "deserved" his fate.

It's the Fourth of July! Happy 247th Birthday, America! It's estimated that around 80,000 U.S. nationals live and work in Taiwan; most, however, do so in the north. But the U.S. State Department has never forgotten southern Taiwan! The American Institute in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Branch (AIT/K), has been serving both Taiwanese and American citizens in the southern port city since 1979. AIT/K's area includes the south, southeast, and outer islands such as Penghu. Check out this fun conversation Eryk recently had with outgoing AIT/K Branch Chief Tom Wong about his time in tropical Taiwan.

John and Eryk have been commissioned to tell the tale of Weiwuying as this new Kaohsiung landmark turns five: in part two, we've got challenges galore to overcome, disputes to settle, and finally, a glorious ending as, more than arguably, one of the world's finest performing arts venues opens in 2018. Happy Birthday, Weiwuying!

As this already-iconic structure and performance center turns five, John and Eryk have been commissioned to tell its tale: it's a 40-year saga of a century-old military base becoming a park and home to, more than arguably, one of the world's finest performing arts venues. Happy 5th birthday, Weiwuying! (2023)

Now that we're well into Formosa Files season three, your co-hosts add some background to stories we've told, try to clear up misconceptions about the ROC’s exit from the United Nations, make some “controversial” comments on Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and finally, we agree that Mongolia is an independent country, which the Republic of China (Taiwan) also agreed is a fact, in 2002.

Author of The Final Struggle, Ian Easton, sits down for a long chat with Eryk about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It's remarkable how close to extinction the CPP came, not once, but thrice. This is a story of spies and counterspies, moles and defectors, violence, treachery and death. Listen to Ian Easton's case on how much we've underestimated the CCP, and how democratic governments, international institutions... and people of all freedom-loving societies, need to "wake up" to the reality of what the CCP is: an authoritarian near-superpower wedded to a fanatic Marxism/Leninism ideology that seeks a new world order, controlled, of course, by a modern emperor in Beijing.

Have you been to the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, 衛武營國家藝術文化中心, more commonly called Weiwuying? If not, you really should as it totally lives up to the hype, and is now the best such venue in Taiwan. You may have heard stories or seen TV programs about how hard it was to build "the largest ship on land," or "the largest performance center under one roof," but you can't beat hearing about it directly from one of the people who helped lead the team: Dutch architect Friso van der Steen. Trust us: it's a marvelous tale. Visit www.npac-weiwuying.org for more info on Weiwuying in both English and Chinese.

The Taiwan News recently did a feature on Formosa Files (link below), and in the article, this episode from 2021 is mentioned. We thought we'd re-release it for any new "Formosa Filers" who missed it the first time around. This is a fascinating tale of a Taiwanese man (Japanese Formosan, to be exact), who survived the Long March with Mao Zedong, and was then sent back to Taiwan to build a spy network and prepare for a communist invasion. Many thanks to the Taiwan News for their detailed feature on Formosa Files. https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4910533

You'll see the "Blue Sky, White Sun, and Red Earth" flag everywhere across Taiwan, and each year, streets are lined with this banner to celebrate Double Ten Day on October 10th. But is it really the flag of Taiwan? Who designed it? Today's episode is all about the ROC flag: an engrossing tale involving Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a martyr, warlords, and more. Learn about the various flags which contended for the honor to represent the Republic of China. Had fate gone differently, there might have been a five-striped banner flying from Taiwan’s flagpoles, or a really strange "hippy" one. Scroll down and you'll find it, as well as all the other flags talked about in this episode.

Ever daydreamed about traveling to East Asia and studying under the great martial arts masters? American Chris Bates did just this, first coming to Taiwan in 1976 to study Mandarin and train in martial arts. Follow Chris’ journey, from meeting the eccentric Liao Wuchang (the Monkey Boxer), training under the retired general and Shaolin master Kao Fanghsien, to getting a wife. John and Chris also discuss other notable figures, including Donn Draeger and Robert Smith, two Americans who helped bring East Asian martial arts to the West. Chris would gravitate toward the internal Chinese martial arts (xingyiquan in particular), training since the early 1980s under the acclaimed Hong Yixiang and his sons. In fact, Chris has just translated Blurred Boundaries, a magnificent biography of the late Master Hong. Chris wraps things up talking about his latest book, the timely novel Rise of the Water Margin.

The SS President Hoover was a ship ahead of its time, with innovative engine designs, air conditioning in all cabins, and space for almost a thousand passengers. But just seven years after being commissioned, the ship ran aground just off Green Island, which in 1937 was a part of the Japanese Empire. Listen to this week's story for a riveting adventure involving a possibly intentional bombing, a journey along the unfamiliar East Coast of Formosa in the dark, a shipwreck, drunken sailors, and some heartwarming pre-WWII kindness between Japan and America

Decathlete athletes are special. The sport is TEN events: sprint 100 meters, then 400 meters, then race 1500 meters; then comes 110 meters with hurdles you have to jump, then it's on to the long jump, the high jump, pole vaulting, discus throwing, javelin throwing, and finally, shotput. It's exhausting just reading that list, let alone doing it. But Maysang Kalimud, from the Amis Indigenous group in Taitung, won silver in the decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Competing against his friend, American Rafer Johnson, Maysang Kalimud, better known by his Chinese name, CK Yang (楊傳廣 1933-2007), lost the gold medal by a hair's breadth, and became the first Olympic medalist from Taiwan. The man the international press called “The Iron Man of Asia,” may have been the greatest all-round athlete to ever compete for Taiwan. We love this story, so we're re-releasing it this week – enjoy!

"The Sand Pebbles," which tells the story of the USS San Pablo, a US Navy gunboat operating in China in the 1920s, was shot in northern Taiwan over the winter of '65-'66. The movie was directed by Robert Wise, of "The Sound of Music fame, and starred "the King of Cool" Steve McQueen. The film was the 4th highest-grossing movie of 1966 but the shoot was a less-than-inspiring experience for much of the cast and crew (to put it mildly). "Bad Boy" McQueen exhibited plenty of the behavior he was known for and – of course – the weather in northern Taiwan in the winter wasn't friendly to the moviemakers. Listen to this week's Formosa Files episode for the whole story.

Joyce Bergvelt's book Lord of Formosa is a novel, but she's an author who has extensively studied the Dutch colonial period and the main characters involved. Lord of Formosa, therefore, might be closer to a history book than fiction. Listen to John speak with Joyce as they discuss the complicated, brash, and violent personality of Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功) and hear the details of how this pirate-warlord Ming loyalist clashed with Frederick Coyett, the Dutch governor of Formosa (who was actually Swedish).

Join us as we try to answer some questions we've gotten, such as "What is Whisby and... just why?" You'll also discover Eryk's shameful secret (he loves betel nuts!), and hear John's opinion on re-introducing the extinct clouded leopard.

Long hailed as a “historic diplomatic breakthrough,” the reality is that US president Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to China has been rather oversold. Yes, the brief Mao-Nixon meeting did start a thaw in relations, but Nixon may have given more than he got. Here’s a gripping tale of geopolitical strategy, grand ambition, secret trips, betrayal and blunders. As well as covering the famous summit which would give rise to the expression, “like Nixon going to China,” we also touch on Chiang Kai-shek’s own plans for “going to China” via Vietnam and the Soviet Union.

Some of the earliest photos we have of Taiwan were taken by a British photographer who visited the southwest of the island in 1871. Taking pics back then was far from “point and shoot.” It was “get inside portable darkroom, grab delicate glass plate, cover with chemical A, then B, then C, then expose the plate to light, then more...” and on and on. We owe John Thomson a debt of gratitude for his short but significant expedition to “photograph wild Formosa!” In particular, his images of the “Pingpu” (Plains) Indigenous peoples of the Tainan and Kaohsiung hinterlands captured the twilight of their old ways.

Arguably the single most important event in Taiwan’s history – and certainly the most dramatic story – was the arrival in 1661 of warlord and Ming loyalist Koxinga (鄭成功 Zheng Chenggong). After a fierce struggle, Koxinga evicted the Dutch, who had established a successful settlement in southwestern Taiwan in 1624. This clash is the subject of “Lord of Formosa,” a wonderful novel by Dutch writer Joyce Bergvelt. Too epic a historical story for just one episode, in the first of this special two-part series, John chats with Joyce about the Dutch East India Company (the VOC). What was the VOC and why was it here in Taiwan? And why on earth were the Dutch importing bricks from Europe and exporting deer skins to Japan?

Eight happinesses? If you’ve heard of or seen the famous movie about the remarkable British missionary Gladys Aylward, you'll know that the film (which was originally set to be shot in Taiwan) was called “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.” Well, like many parts of her story, things were changed for the big-screen adaptation with Swedish megastar Ingrid Bergman. And Aylward – who founded an orphanage in Taipei in the late 1950s, and died in Taiwan in 1970 – didn't like the movie version one bit. Here's an incredible story about an incredible woman.

All languages borrow words from other languages. These “loanwords” often come with fascinating historical backstories, their adoption the result of encounters by traders, scholars, and adventurers; and the result of colonialization, as was the case with Taiwan, 1895 to 1945, when many Japanese words came into the Taiwanese language. And because the Japanese are themselves such prodigious borrowers, many of these words were originally from other languages. Find out why English owes such a debt to Cantonese, why John loves “tea,” and why Eryk doesn’t want to “kowtow.” Whether you’re an “obasan” or a “joss-pidgin-man,” we think you’ll enjoy our look at lovely linguistic loanwords.

Today, the district of Madou (麻豆區) in Tainan City is home to about 43,000 people. It has a pleasant small-town feel, an economy mainly based on agriculture, in particular, a citrus fruit called the pomelo ( 柚子). Back in the 1620s, when the Dutch arrived, Madou -- then called Mattau -- was inhabited by the Siraya (西拉雅族), a Taiwanese Indigenous group. Siraya resistance to Dutch expansion would lead to bloodshed and bring about a major turning point in early Taiwan history. Join Formosa Files as we visit the childhood home of Chen Shui-bian and recount the clash of cultures in the 1600s. You can also hear us stumble over some lines and words – John learns how to pronounce “pomelo” – in this "raw" edition. We left our mistakes in the episode to give listeners a look behind the scenes.

Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was a highly controversial two-term ROC president (2000–2008). How “A-Bian” studied and fought his way out of rural poverty to the highest office, thus bringing 55 years of continuous KMT rule to an end, is the single greatest personal political story in modern Taiwanese history. Sadly, though, this fairytale would have a tragic ending, with a troubled second term and Chen later doing prison time for corruption. But in today’s episode, we look at the early years: his stoic parents, his remarkable local teachers, and the struggles and triumphs that shaped him.

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 film “pretty woeful... it's so bad, it's funny.” That's an unfairly harsh assessment, likely coming from the difficulties encountered making the movie on location in Taiwan back in the winter of 1979-80.

With their fearsome winds and dramatic downpours, typhoons have long been a part of Taiwan's history. Join Formosa Files for a look at a few notable typhoons that have hit Taiwan in more recent times, as well as some interesting asides, such as: When did typhoons get names? Why did they once only use female names? And, do typhoons do anything good for Taiwan?