This was the first Oscar nomination for a documentary from Taiwan. “Island in Between”《金門》was a nominee for Best Documentary Short at the 2024 Academy Awards. In this 19-minute documentary, we see Kinmen (Quemoy) through the lens of filmmaker S. Leo Chiang (江松長) and the diverse cast of characters he meets there. Kinmen - made of a set of islands - is governed by Taiwan but sits just 2 miles across from China. Here Chiang portrays an “uneasy peace on the frontline between Taiwan and China.” We...

Alex Khomenko is the organizer of Taiwan Stands with Ukraine 台灣烏克蘭陣線. We talk about conducting citizen diplomacy at a time of war, Taiwan’s humanitarian aid to Ukraine and public donations that amounted to the sending of power generators and ambulances, Taiwan and Ukraine relations, and the internal politics the Ukrainian government may be facing at home. Ukraine has no representatives based in Taiwan. When the war broke out on February 24, 2022, there were around 250 Ukrainians living in...

Reinhard Bütikofer is a familiar name in Europe and Taiwan relations. He has been an MEP since 2009, where he is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, chairperson of the Delegation for Relations with China, and an alternate member of the Committee on International Trade. Reinhard also co-chairs IPAC, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. (This conversation was recorded prior to the 2024 January 13 election in Taiwan.)We discuss the history of Europe-Taiwan relations, how 2016 and...

This 5-episode limited series delves into policy debates within Taiwan that could have implications for the region and beyond. Each episode features Taiwanese local experts and voices weighing in on social, economic and defense issues as they discusses how Taiwanese society is responding to these challenges.From Ghost Island Media in Taipei and the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C, this is "Dispatch from Taiwan." Subscribe -Apple Podcasts: https://gimpod.me/usip-taiwan-appleSpotify:...

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!Prior to moving to Taiwan, Louis Heng had spent time in Singapore, Germany, Malta, and Scotland. Louis’ first time in Taiwan was with the Singaporian military. He then worked briefly as an airline pilot before entering a career in life insurance. In this episode, Louis and Emily talk about relocation with your family, managing and navigating multi-cultural teams, and Germany’s famous Oktoberfest.This episode is a sponsored collaboration with the Taiwan Gold...

As global attention on Taiwan intensifies, so does the significance of the work undertaken by domestic journalists. Today we speak with Taipei-based journalists as Taiwan gears up for its presidential and legislative election on January 13th, 2024. This is a collaboration with the NüVoices Podcast.  Many thanks to the team at NüVoices partnering with us for this collaborative episode.  Today's guests are: Silva Shih -  Head of data journalism at CommonWealth Magazine (天下雜誌) in Taiwan, where...

“Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation” includes over 130 recipes and stories of the food in Taiwan, its history, and its people. It’s been named a Best Cookbook of Fall 2023 by Bon Appetitit, Forbes, Food & Wine, New York Magazine, Eater, and Tasting Table. It was published by Simon & Schuster in September, 2023.Clarissa Wei has been a food journalist for a decade - writing about Asian cuisine in the L.A Times, about Nicaragua for VICE, on China for Goldthread of...

Winner of 2023 Golden Melody Award in Best Arrangement, Jen-Ting Chien 簡任廷 and Jen-Yu Chien 簡任佑 are the two pieces of Twincussion 雙子二重奏. Jen-Ting and Jen-Yu trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. In 2018 they played in Carnegie Hall. In 2023 they were selected for Center Stage, a cultural-exchange program from the U.S. Department of State. The brothers are versatile in Western classical music, Taiwanese folk, and new works by contemporary composers. This episode is fun to listen to,...

Weining Hung 洪維寧 founded LUCfest, a music showcase festival, in 2017 with KK Yeh 葉宛青 (White Wabbit Records). Taiwanese bands first played there before they went international, bands like Outlet Drift, The Fur, Go Go Machine Orchestra, Lücy, and Trout Fresh. When Weining’s not managing the festival, she’s managing Asian talents like Phum Viphurit from Thailand. We talk about her love for music, the “it” factor for a superstar-to-be, and how the live music industry is changing...

She's a “21 Women Who Defined 2021” (VOGUE magazine Australia), a “Change Maker” (Australian Women in Music Award), and a “25 Trailblazers Reshaping Australia” (Sydney Morning Herald, 2022), Jaguar Jonze is a rockstar. The Taiwanese-Australian is also an advocate for mental health, trauma awareness, and MeToo against sexual harassment. “If I can change one person's life and make it all worthwhile, that's what I'm holding on to,” she said about her decision to speak up against sexual...

Harry Wu’s 吳易叡 is a historian of medicine. His book “Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization” was published in 2021 by MIT Press.  “Scientific method is actually a cultural process. Studying science is actually studying a society.”From 2013 to 2021 Wu led the humanities programs at the medical schools of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He’s now Associate Professor at National...

Vivian Chen 陳依靖 was a delegate to APEC and a youth representative to UN forums. Now, she heads Girls in Tech in Taiwan, a non-profit that mentors girls and women in technology. She’s since founded Hepta Protocol and Da0, a collective for civic engagement in digital innovation using Web3.If we are not a part of international organizations, “it's really possible that our rights will be left behind,” she says.This is the podcast edition of Game Changers with Emily Y. Wu - where we speak with...

Tuhi Martukaw 洪簡廷卉 was co-chair of the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) from 2010 to 2015. She’s now a policy advocate, journalist, community organiser, and founder of the Taiwan Indigenous Youth Working Group (LIMA). She’s from the Pinuyumayan Nation, one of the 16 recognized indigenous nations in Taiwan.“We should be in the decision-making process, not just to have someone sitting at the table.”Tuhi Martukaw is also known as Jocelyn...

Rachid Hami’s autobiographical film “For My Country” (2023, "Pour la France") tells story of his younger brother Jallal who passed away in 2012 at the age of 24 from a hazing incident at Saint-Cyr Military Academy. In real life, Rachid and Jallal grew up in Algeria and France, and they spent their final days together in Taiwan.“For My Country” - shot in Taiwan, Monaco, and France - premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. It opens in the theatre in Taiwan on September 28. Support the...

Vivi Lin 林薇 is a global period equity activist. She’s the 2021 recipient of the Diana Legacy Award from the UK - an award for youths aged 9-25 years in recognition of their social action or humanitarian work.Lin founded the NGO, With Red, to solve period poverty, boost education for women’s health, and eliminate stigma surrounding menstrual cycles.“Whenever we talk to people or negotiate with people or lobby with a government, we always try to remove all these obstacles that we already can...

Yani Tseng 曾雅妮 is a former world No. 1 athlete who dominated women's golf when she was 24 years old. She was Number 1 in women's World Golf Rankings for 109 consecutive weeks; Time Magazine’s "100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2012; and the youngest golfer ever to win five major championships. That put her ahead of even Tiger Woods. Today, Yani is 34 years old. She’s fighting off injuries and making a comeback. “I look at who I was when I was 12 years-old. I want to bring out that...

Gena Pan 潘郡瑤 is a co-founder of Double Pump, a media site and community for girls and women’s basketball. She posts game schedules, highlights, and player profiles, covering high school, college, semi-professional, and our national teams. She’s raising the visibility of women through sports."We want to spread the idea that girls can be a better version of herself through playing sports."  This is the podcast edition of Game Changers with Emily Y. Wu - where we speak with emerging leaders...

Annie Ivanova grew up in Bulgaria before moving to Australia. She’s an art curator, an advocate of cultural diplomacy, and the founder of the design firms Anibaba Co. and Studio Ivanova.This episode is a sponsored collaboration with the Taiwan Gold Card Office.Ivanova’s worked with art institutions like ZKM, Centre Pompidou, Ars Electronica, The Barbican, Centre Pompidou, Aaros Museum, Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, and the National Palace Museum...

Happy lunar new year from all of us at Ghost Island Media! At time of this new years greetings recording, we didn't know yet of the mass shooting in Monterey Park in California that took the lives of 10 people on new years eve, Saturday, January 21, 2023. Our deepest condolences to families affected by the horrific tragedy. Our hearts are with our Asian American community.We have new shows waiting to announce this spring. Meanwhile, our newest partner is AmCham, the American Chamber of...

For the last 20 years, a fully professional basketball league simply didn’t exist in Taiwan. And as of 2022, there are now two professional leagues at play: The P. League+ (6 teams) and the T-1 League (6 teams).This is great for basketball fans. But the sustainability of the leagues is much more than fanfare. It’s about the level of play, the audience, attraction, entertainment, coaching, talent, and funding. “There's no reason why Taiwan basketball can't be as good as Japan or Korea or...

As democratic support for Taiwan increases, so has Beijing’s message to the world about its “One China principle” and the myth of a global consensus regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan. The truth is, every country - including Taiwan - has its own “One China policy”. And that policy (according to each country) is not the same as the principle (according to the PRC).It can be confusing. In a fight about international discourse on Taiwan, Beijing’s diplomats and ambassadors are proactively...

Steve Chen was born in Taiwan in 1978 and moved to the U.S. at age eight. After working at PayPal, he co-founded YouTube in 2005 and sold it to Google next year. Steve moved back to Taiwan in 2019 and lives here now with his wife and two sons.  Today’s conversation was a part of the 2022 Taiwanese American Scholarship Fund (TASF) ceremony, a scholarship fund for Taiwanese American students from low-income families. If you are a student in need, please apply:...

Alice and Catherine are two anthropologists whose “jobs” is to write about other people-types… but they can’t stop obsessing over their own sociocultural categories - working-class or elite, Chinese American or Taiwanese American - and whether or not you can hear it in the way(s) they talk. Alice was an intern on The Taiwan Take and Metalhead Politics. This episode was originally aired as a part of “In Training 小鬼登島” - our program for and by emerging creators / interns:...

PTT is one of the most open social media platforms in the Chinese language. Though it’s not more populous than Facebook, it’s arguably more impactful than Facebook here in Taiwan. It’s a reflection of Taiwan's spirited democracy, and it’s used heavily as a source for local journalists. We speak with two INDSR researchers on a year-long project, “A Pilot Study on PTT in the Context of Influence Operations” (批踢踢影響力作戰前導研究）which attempts to identify CCP state actors on the platfor. The...