Podcast Episodes

Taiwan’s 1930s Pop Boom, and Its First Pop Queen – S5-E18

Season 5 Episode 18

Han Cheung, the man behind Taiwan in Time, the long-running history column in the Taipei Times, returns to tell the story of Taiwan’s first pop star. Liu Ching-hsiang 劉清香  was singing Taiwanese opera…

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

Popeye, Prison, Soy Sauce and Satire: Bo Yang 柏楊 – S5-E17

Season 5 Episode 17

Bo Yang 柏楊 (1920-2008)  was a Chinese historian, author, dissident, provocateur, and one of Taiwan’s most controversial commentators. After arriving in Taiwan in 1949 with the fleeing KMT, he almost …

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Taiwan vs. South Korea - A Conversation with Author Chris Tharp

Season 5

Fellow “Asian tigers” South Korea and Taiwan share strikingly similar modern histories: Chinese influence, Japanese colonization, Cold War struggles, rule by military strongmen, economic miracles, an…

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago

Teresa Teng 鄧麗君 – “Asia’s Eternal Queen of Pop” (2025 Remastered Re-release)

Season 5

It has now been 30 years since the passing of Teresa Teng 鄧麗君, the legendary Taiwanese singer who transformed Asian pop music, and even influenced regional politics. But three decades have not dimmed…

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago

Calculating Fate: Taiwan’s Fortune-Telling Fever of the ’90s – S5-E16

Season 5 Episode 16

Some people bought Tamagotchis in the '90s. Others? They paid birds to predict their future. In this week’s episode, we take a glimpse into Taiwan’s wild obsession with fortune-telling — and what it …

Published on 2 months, 4 weeks ago

Shanghai–Taiwan Connections, Part 1: Mark Kitto on Helen Zia’s “Last Boat” — BONUS EPISODE

Season 5

Some have called Taipei a “mini-Shanghai.” If true, the emphasis might need to be on the word “mini.” The population of the greater Shanghai area is nearly 30 million, some six million more than the …

Published on 3 months ago

Taipei Times “Taiwan in Time”– Han Cheung, the man behind the excellent weekly history newspaper column – A FORMOSA FILES INTERVIEW

Season 5

You've read his work (or you should); this awesome guy has been pumping out informative weekly history columns (and now YouTube videos) for close to a decade. His name is Han Cheung (learn how to pro…

Published on 3 months ago

Bad Manners & Book Crimes: How an American Op-Ed Sparked Taiwan’s Self-Awareness Movement – S5-E15

Season 5 Episode 15

In 1963, a 32-year-old American grad student in Taipei wrote a newspaper editorial complaining that Taiwanese people were great at treating friends kindly, but kind of awful in public. 

Within days, h…

Published on 3 months, 1 week ago

EXTRA FOR HARDCORE LISTENERS! Hear the entire story of Japanese doctor Takagi Tamoe in this unedited, 27-minute version

Season 5

For those of you who want more specific info, here is the entire conversation John Ross enjoyed with Dr. Jimmy Lee on the remarkable life of Dr. Takagi Tomoe, one of colonial Taiwan’s most influentia…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Takagi Tomoe: The Japanese Doctor Who Devoted Himself to Taiwan – S5-E14

Season 5 Episode 14

In 1902, Dr. Takagi Tomoe arrived in newly-colonized Japanese Formosa as a seasoned Japanese medical expert sent here to battle bubonic plague – one of the many tropical sicknesses that killed thousa…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago