x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files

John Ross and Eryk Michael Smith

Formosa Files is the world"s biggest and highest-rated Taiwan history podcast. We use an engaging storytelling format and are non-chronological, meaning every week is a new adventure - and, you can just find a topic that interests you and check out that episode...skip stuff that isn"t your thing. The hosts are John Ross, an author and publisher of works on Taiwan and China, and Eryk Michael Smith, a journalist for local and global media outlets. Both Ross and Smith have lived in Taiwan for over two

history

All Episodes

00:25:44

S2-E18 - Teresa Teng 鄧麗君 - "Asia's Eternal Queen of Pop"

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/06/30

Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun 鄧麗君) was arguably Asia's first pop superstar, a singer from Taiwan who won hearts across thecontinentand the world. Teng got so famous in behind-the-bamboo-curtain China that PLA air force defectors to the Republic of China (Taiwan) cited her music as an inspiration for literally flying to freedom. Teresa Tengrecorded more than 1,500 songs in Mandarin,Taiwanese, Cantonese, Japanese, English, Indonesianand Italian -- and is credited with laying the foundations of popular

en

00:29:19

S2-E17 - The Brief and Often Forgotten Kingdom of...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/06/23

Koxinga's eldest son, Zheng Jing, -- theruler of theshort-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 a wet nurse. But Zheng Jing survived and soon after becameruler-warlord upon Koxinga's sudden death. Koxinga (鄭成功) and his armies had defeated the Dutch in modern-dayTainan, but their goal wasn't Taiwan. They wanted to use Formosa as a base from which to retake China and restore

en

00:26:12

S2-E16 - Ang Lee in the Spotlight: His Story from...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/06/16

Two-time AcademyAward 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 wife’s insistence to keep pursuing his filmmaking dreams, Lee would likely have given up and opened a Chinese restaurant instead! Luckily for the world, that didn'thappen. Here's the story of one of the greatest modernmovie directors, the man behind “The Wedding Banquet,”

en

00:28:57

S2-E-15 - "123 Freedom Day" Taiwan's Shadowy...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/06/09

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 "Free China" on Taiwan, the ROC. The choices made by these captives were not, however, free from influence. Every side in the conflict had an angle that would benefitthemselves, and each tried to steer the POWs to making the "right choice." Some of this "steering" involveddrastic

en

00:28:23

S2-E14 - Taiwan's Shadowy Involvement in the Korean...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/06/02

It's 1950 and a war-weary world is at it again. Communist China pours fuel onthe conflict in Korea by sending in a quarter of amillion soldiers. ROC PresidentChiang Kai-shek has, from the start, offered to send his Nationalist troops.MacArthur is now, more than ever, determined to use them. But American president Truman continues to say "No!" and he fires MacArthur over the general's resistance to Washington's policy of containing the war. Taiwan, however, would end up playing a central role in the

en

00:23:51

S2-E13 - A Cruise on an Opium Clipper to Takao...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/05/26

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 Cruise in an Opium Clipper," this is the story of how a British merchant ship carrying chests of opium found its way to Takao -- modern-day Kaohsiung. Today, of course, opium is mostly illegal, but as you'll hear... back then it was quite popular, and considered by many to be no

en

00:27:04

S2-E12 - "The National Game" -- Taiwan Falls in and...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/05/19

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 surprisingly -- the arrival of the Nationalists in 1949, baseball was officially ignored for the most part, which helped usher in a "Golden Age'' for the game and its rise to the status of "national game." But harnessed for political and material gain, baseball would be tarnished by

en

00:14:58

A Formosa Files INTERVIEW: ICRT General Manager Tim...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/05/15

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, a 30+ year Taiwan resident, has spent most of his years here working for ICRT, and is today the station's GM. In this new Formosa Files interview feature, Tim Berge talks to Eryk about where ICRT came from, waxes nostalgic over the 'golden era' of the 1980s-90s, give info on how

en

00:27:13

S2-E11 - Taiwan's Nearest Neighbors - the 1,000+...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/05/12

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 Yonaguni Island, part of what is today Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Formerly it was part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, itself a vassal state of first Ming China, and then Japan after a 1609 invasion from Kyushu. In 1879, Japan officially annexed the islands into its empire, and then turned

en

00:26:47

S2-E10 - Christian Samurai – Japan’s Katana Diplomacy...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/05/05

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 diplomatic and trade relations. In 1609 and 1616, the Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, hoping to establish indirect trading links with China, sent two larger missions to Taiwan. They were led and manned by Christian samurai from the island of Kyushu, which in the late 1500s had

en

00:25:49

S2-E9 - The Murder of Pai Hsiao-yen and the Alexander...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/04/28

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 kidnappings, killings, rapes, police manhunts and shoot-outs. The climax comes in November when Chen Chin-hsing (陳進興), the sole survivor of the trio, takes foreign hostages; South African militaryattaché to the ROC, McGill Alexander and his family are held at gunpoint at their Taipei

en

00:27:07

S2-E8 - Makalu Gao: The Taiwanese Climber Who...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/04/21

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 least -- but the record may need to be corrected. Here's the story of Makalu Gao, who survived a death sentence: an overnight stay at the top of the world -- without food or oxygen -- as well as the tale of numerous heroes who helped save Gao, and others, over thosedeadly days in

en

00:27:00

S2-E7 - Dr. Peng Ming-min (1923-2022) - Part 2:...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/04/14

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, militarizedisland? Hint: A team of brave supporters, some forgery, and a whole lot of chutzpah. Hear the conclusionof the tale of the amazing life of the late Dr. Peng Ming-min.

en

00:24:18

S2-E6 - Dr. Peng Ming-min (1923-2022) - Part 1 - The...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/04/08

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 after returning to Taiwan -- to name just a few of the amazing parts of his life story. In part one of this tale, we delve into Dr. Peng's background and take you up to the day of his arrest in Taipei in 1964. ------------------- UPDATE: Not long after recording this episode, it

en

00:23:21

S2-E5 - Tragedy on Taiwan's Majestic Mountains

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/04/07

Two-thirds of this island ismountainous, 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 3,000 meters, when things go wrong up there, they can go very wrong.

en

00:25:30

S2-E4 - Searching for the "Motherland"

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/03/31

Western-styleadoption (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 shocking "brother-sister/husband-wife" arrangement! And -- for a time -- quite a few girls, in particular, were adopted by American, Australian and European parents, who raised the children back in their home countries. Several of these foreign-raised Taiwan-born girls would

en

00:25:58

S2-E3 - The Lamey Island Massacre

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/03/24

In 1622 and then again in 1631, crew members (including foraging parties and shipwrecksurvivors) from Dutch ships were killed by the aboriginal people on Lamey Island, what is today’s Pingtung County’sXiao Liuqiu (小琉球). The Dutch East India Company’s regional headquarters in Batavia (Jakarta) sent orders to the Dutch commanders on Taiwan to: “Completelydepopulate the island... as a warning to others!” And this,sadly, was done. The Lamey islanders were killed or deported, mostly to Taiwan but some

en

00:24:05

S2-E2 - Thomas Barclay: The Man Who Helped Save a City

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/03/17

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 imperialtroops as they march for the rebel capital of the self-declared Republic of Formosa, Tainan. Japan's General Nogi is losing patience. If Tainan doesn't surrender, he might just level the city with artillery. But a group of locals and foreign missionaries embark on a brave quest that would lead to the oldest city in

en

00:26:12

S2-E1 - The CIA vs. Made in Taiwan Nukes

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/03/10

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 Nationalists' retreat to Taiwan interrupted those early ambitions, but when the PRC successfully detonated a nuclear device in 1964, CKS stepped up efforts to develop nukes. This secret program continued after the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975 and came surprisingly close to success

en

00:09:56

Bonus Mini-Episode: Eryk Calls John for a Chat About...

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files ·

2022/02/24

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.

en

326 results

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Biography Flash

Inception Point Ai