Episodes
A Formosa Files INTERVIEW: Dr. Dafydd Fell from SOAS takes us on a Mini-Deep Dive into Taiwan's Alternative Political Parties
Dec. 20, 2022
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…
S2-E37 - A Cunning Count Contemplates Colonizing Formosa
Dec. 15, 2022
Ever heard of Count Maurice Benyovszky? He's not well known in Taiwan, but after this Polish-Slovakian-Hungarian semi-nobleman had a chance encounter with this island in 1771, he wrote a travel account that remained influent…
S2-E36 - Annette Lu – from Prison to the Presidential Office
Dec. 8, 2022
A fighter for women's rights, human rights, freedom of speech, and democracy, you can disagree with Annette Lu's politics (or with some of her very controversial comments) ...but you can't deny the impact this outspoken woma…
S2-E35 - Colonial Tourism: Japanese Visit their Model Colony, While Tokyo Brings Indigenous Taiwanese to “The Motherland” to Show Off “Civilization”
Dec. 1, 2022
We travel back to 1920s Taiwan, first in the company of Terry’s Guide to the Japanese Empire and then follow a Tokyo travel bureau itinerary for Japanese tourists to the island. Ride the rails with us as we visit Shinto shri…
S2-E34 - "Galloping Oxen" - Emperor Kangxi’s Jesuit Mapmakers in Taiwan
Nov. 24, 2022
Between the late 1600s and mid-1800s, there was no Western presence on Taiwan. There were, however, a couple of special Western visitors of whom the wonderfully-named Joseph-Anne-Marie de Moyriac de Mailla was the most notab…
A Formosa Files INTERVIEW: Tobie Openshaw on the Saisiyat Story of Taiwan's "Little People"
Nov. 17, 2022
The Saisiyat Indigenous people in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties have a famous story about magical “little people” or “dwarfs” called the Koko’ ta’ay. The legend goes that tensions between the tribe and the “dwarfs” led to an i…
S2-E33 - Taiwan's Musical Garbage Trucks - And the Sounds of the 1990s!
Nov. 10, 2022
Many new arrivals to Taiwan are perplexed to hear music from an "ice cream" truck playing almost every day, until they discover that those tunes mean it's time to take out your trash. Today, we've got the history of musical …
S2-E32 - “Defectors from the PRC to Taiwan, 1960-1989: The Anti-Communist Righteous Warriors” - Part Two
Nov. 3, 2022
Picking up on last week's conversation between the University of Southern California East Asian Studies Center's Li-ping Chen and author Andrew D. Morris -- a very special collaborative double episode with Formosa Files -- w…
S2-E31 - “Defectors from the PRC to Taiwan, 1960-1989: The Anti-Communist Righteous Warriors” - Part One
Oct. 27, 2022
Formosa Files is delighted to announce a very special episode in collaboration with the University of Southern California’s East Asian Studies Center and the New Books Network! The USC’s Li-ping Chen recently interviewed And…
S2-E30 - The Mysterious Death in Taipei of India's Most Controversial Nationalist
Oct. 20, 2022
Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, fellow Indian pro-independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose advocated taking up arms against the British. WWII presented a golden opportunity for this, and in an "enemy of my enemy" move Bose escaped fro…
S2-E29 - The "Most Powerful Witness" to Modern Taiwan's History: Wu Zhuo-liu (吳濁流) - Part One
Oct. 13, 2022
Sadly, the bloodshed and sorrow that began on February 28, 1947 (228) is the foundational story of post-Japanese Taiwan. Wu Zhou-liu (吳濁流), an ethnically-Hakka poet, writer, and journalist, was born in 1900 and died in 1976,…
Bonus Episode: A Look Back and a Peek Forward
Oct. 6, 2022
As Formosa Files gets ready to end Season 2 and move into Season 3 (fingers crossed), John and Eryk pick season highlights, answer listener questions, talk about topics for upcoming episodes, and discuss those less-than-tidy…
S2-E28 - "Happy" Holidays!
Sept. 29, 2022
Eryk said to John, "All the traditional festivals celebrated in Taiwan have sad -- or even horrific -- backstories!" John said, "Really? Hmm... I doubt that." And so we recorded this episode, in which we tell the tales behin…
S2-E27 - Ghost Planes and the Japanese Fighter Pilot who Became a God
Sept. 22, 2022
John loves aviation stories and in this episode we've got two: the first raises some serious questions about an oft-told "ghost plane" tale, while the second features a heroic young Japanese Zero fighter pilot who perished i…
S2-E26 - Taiwan's First Civilian Martyr: Teacher Lin Ching-chuan (林靖娟)
Sept. 15, 2022
Preschool teacher Lin ran back into a burning bus six times, saving as many kids as she could, before succumbing to the flames on her seventh rescue attempt. Lin's body was found with her arms around four children...four of …
S2-E25 - Searching for Black Gold in Taiwan
Sept. 8, 2022
Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s two expeditions of 1852–1854 pried open Japan. Less well known is that one of the American ships visited Keelung in northeastern Taiwan to investigate the harbor and its coal resources. And compl…
S2-E24 - Cats Big and Small
Sept. 1, 2022
Virtually everyone on this island knows the famous feline folktale: "The Tiger Aunt." In this episode, we tell that tale -- relying for source material on Taiwanese folktale translator and collector Fred Lobb's wonderful boo…
S2-E23 - Separated Sisters
Aug. 25, 2022
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…
A Formosa Files INTERVIEW: Manuel Tsao Talks to Eryk About the 100+ Year-Old Jhuzimen Hydro Power Plant - 竹仔門發電廠
Aug. 21, 2022
The Jhuzimen Hydro Power Plant (竹仔門發電廠) was built by the colonial Japanese authorities in 1908 -- in what's now Meinung District (美濃區), Kaohsiung City. Manuel Tsao is a German national in the renewable energy business who ha…
Bonus Episode: "Taiwan in 100 Books" - A Priest on Orchid Island Meets Sanmao (三毛)
Aug. 18, 2022
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…
S2-E22 - USS Tang: The Most Successful US Submarine of WWII
Aug. 11, 2022
War is not glorious, and shouldn’t be glorified. But war does provide the chance to be brave, and bravery can be glorious. Such was the case of Commander Richard O’Kane and the crew of the USS Tang. In 1944 the American subm…
Special CURRENT EVENTS Episode: Why hasn’t the PRC invaded Taiwan?
Aug. 4, 2022
We've gotten so many questions from Formosa Files listeners about the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan that we thought we'd do a round-up of previous attempts, fill in some history from 1949 to 2014 or so, and tell you…
S2-E21 - Taiwan's Global Shipping Empire - EVERGREEN
July 28, 2022
Go virtually anywhere in the world and you'll see them: green shipping containers with large white letters reading "EVERGREEN." The company is one of the biggest and best in the shipping world, while also having a hand in ai…
Bonus Episode: "Taiwan in 100 Books" - A Martial Arts Hoax
July 20, 2022
In this special episode, we talk about where the inspiration for the Formosa Files podcast came from, and share an excerpt from the podcast's origin source: John Ross' 2020 book "Taiwan in 100 Books." After our quick chat, …