Episodes
S2-E20 - Mr. and Mrs. Giles
July 14, 2022
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…
S2-E19 - Golf in Taiwan: A Surprisingly Long History
July 7, 2022
Some might think golf came with U.S. troops after WWII, but the origins of this sport in Taiwan actually go much further back. Listen to this episode for stories of Japanese colonial officials discovering golf as the "new co…
S2-E18 - Teresa Teng 鄧麗君 - "Asia's Eternal Queen of Pop"
June 30, 2022
Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun 鄧麗君) was arguably Asia's first pop superstar, a singer from Taiwan who won hearts across the continent and the world. Teng got so famous in behind-the-bamboo-curtain China that PLA air force defectors…
S2-E17 - The Brief and Often Forgotten Kingdom of Dongning 東寧王國
June 23, 2022
Koxinga's eldest son, Zheng Jing, -- the ruler of the short-lived Kingdom of Dongning (1661-1683) -- almost lost his head in his late teens. Daddy Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) twice ordered his execution for fooling around with…
S2-E16 - Ang Lee in the Spotlight: His Story from Pingtung to Hollywood
June 16, 2022
Two-time Academy Award winning director Ang Lee (李安) is probably the most globally famous person from Taiwan. But this Pingtung-born movie master actually started out wanting to be an actor. And, if it had not been for his w…
S2-E15 - "123 Freedom Day" Taiwan's Shadowy Involvement in the Korean War - Part Two
June 9, 2022
The Korean War would almost certainly have ended much earlier but for the tricky question of what to do with Chinese POWs. The 21,000 Red Chinese soldiers captured were finally given a choice: go home to China...or go to "Fr…
S2-E14 - Taiwan's Shadowy Involvement in the Korean War - Part One
June 2, 2022
It's 1950 and a war-weary world is at it again. Communist China pours fuel on the conflict in Korea by sending in a quarter of a million soldiers. ROC President Chiang Kai-shek has, from the start, offered to send his Nation…
S2-E13 - A Cruise on an Opium Clipper to Takao (Kaohsiung)
May 26, 2022
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…
S2-E12 - "The National Game" -- Taiwan Falls in and out of Love with Baseball
May 19, 2022
After the Americans introduced baseball to Japan in the late 19th century, Japan took the game John Ross might call "a corruption of cricket" to their new colonial possession, where it became a hit. Surviving -- somewhat sur…
A Formosa Files INTERVIEW: ICRT General Manager Tim Berge
May 15, 2022
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, …
S2-E11 - Taiwan's Nearest Neighbors - the 1,000+ Kilometer-Long Ryukyu Island Chain
May 12, 2022
Taiwan lies at the heart of what's called the "first island chain," a boring name for a long line of amazing islands that stretches from Borneo to Russia’s Kuril Islands. The main island of Taiwan's closest neighbor is Yonag…
S2-E10 - Christian Samurai – Japan’s Katana Diplomacy in Taiwan
May 5, 2022
After unifying Japan’s warring states, supreme feudal lord Hideyoshi launched a massive invasion of Korea. In 1593, a year into this Imjin War of 1592-1598, he sent an envoy to Taiwan on a doomed mission to establish formal …
S2-E9 - The Murder of Pai Hsiao-yen 白曉燕 and the Alexander Family Hostage Crisis
April 28, 2022
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…
S2-E8 - Makalu Gao 高銘和 : The Taiwanese Climber Who Survived a Night on Mt. Everest
April 21, 2022
The high number of deaths during the 1996 Mt. Everest climbing season supplied a tragic plotline for books, movies, and documentaries. Taiwanese climbers did not come out of these accounts looking competent -- to say the lea…
S2-E7 - Part 2: Dr. Peng Ming-min 彭明敏 (1923-2022) - Escaping Taiwan and a Hero's Return
April 14, 2022
How do you get a famous, one-armed democracy activist -- who is under house arrest and being watched 24/7 by the authorities -- off of a well-guarded, militarized island? Hint: A team of brave supporters, some forgery, and a…
S2-E6 - Part 1: Dr. Peng Ming-min 彭明敏 (1923-2022) - The Incredible life of a Democracy Fighter
April 8, 2022
Dr. Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) was a Taiwanese pro-independence/pro-democracy activist who lived an exceptional life - losing an arm in a WWII US air raid, witnessing the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and being arrested for sedition …
S2-E5 - Tragedy on Taiwan's Majestic Mountains
April 7, 2022
Two-thirds of this island is mountainous, and climbing the mountains -- or even just driving across them -- is an awesome experience. But, woe be to those that are unprepared... or, sadly, just unlucky. With many peaks over …
S2-E4 - Searching for the "Motherland"
March 31, 2022
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…
S2-E3 - The Lamey Island Massacre
March 24, 2022
In 1622 and then again in 1631, crew members (including foraging parties and shipwreck survivors) from Dutch ships were killed by the aboriginal people on Lamey Island, what is today’s Pingtung County’s Xiao Liuqiu (小琉球). Th…
S2-E2 - Thomas Barclay: The Man Who Helped Save a City
March 17, 2022
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…
S2-E1 - The CIA vs. Made in Taiwan Nukes
March 10, 2022
After the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, nations around the world began thinking about acquiring nuclear weapons of their own. Among them was China, then ruled by supreme leader Chiang Kai-shek. The Nation…
Bonus Mini-Episode: Eryk Calls John for a Chat About Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples
Feb. 24, 2022
When did people first get to Taiwan? Was there a land bridge? Plus... a few interesting legends. A short phone call that's a fun intro to Taiwan’s prehistory.
S1-E26 - Bonus Episode - What Were the Dutch Doing in Formosa Anyway?
Feb. 7, 2022
The Dutch were expelled from southwestern Taiwan by a pirate warlord and Ming loyalist Koxinga in 1662. Their relatively brief stay of 38 years was marked by impressive achievements and lasting impacts. But why they were the…
S1-E25 - From Russia With Love: ROC First Lady Faina Chiang 蔣方良
Jan. 25, 2022
In 1933, on a winter’s night in the Russian town of Yekaterinburg, Faina Vakhreva -- then 17 years old -- was walking home and became the unwanted subject of attention of a Russian man who began harassing her. A 23-year-old …