In this week's episode, we delve deep into the LGBTQ movement in Taiwan. Our guest, Wen Liu, brings her expertise as an assistant research professor at Academia Sinica, adding valuable insights into the history and evolution of queer rights in Taiwan.

Wen Liu and our host, Sophia Yan, explore the movement's origins, its pivotal moments, and the courageous individuals who paved the way for progress.

Furthermore, the conversation touches on the challenges that lie ahead for the LGBTQ community in Taiwan, providing a nuanced understanding of the ongoing struggles and areas that require attention and support.

This week, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, China reporter at Axios, joins host Joanna Chiu to dive deep into her latest book, Beijing Rules. In its pages, Bethany details China's sophisticated strategy of leveraging its economic prowess, manipulating both access and denial, to shape the behavior of individuals, governments, and companies globally.

Bethany illustrates how entities are compelled not just to avoid crossing Beijing's red lines, but also to actively support the CCP's interests. Joanna and Bethany discuss the exclusive reporting covered in the book, including China's interference in a Zoom memorial for the Tiananmen massacre and the misuse of the Sister City programs. The latter reveals how an initiative meant to foster exchanges between local governments has been exploited by Beijing to undermine US interactions with Taiwan.

Yet, as Bethany emphasizes, this situation isn't set in stone. With the right policies, democracies can safeguard their values while still fostering economic relations with China. She critiques the prevailing assumption that economic freedom and democratic freedom are one and the same. One suggestion is to put sanctions on Chinese companies that execute Beijing's authoritarian censorship.

Don't miss this compelling episode where challenging questions are posed about democracy's relationship with commerce in an increasingly interconnected world.

Journalist Clarissa Wei and chef Ivy Chen join us this week to talk about their new book Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation. According to host Solarina Ho, Made in Taiwan is both timeless and timely, and is more than a recipe book. It's a celebration of Taiwanese culture and its people through its unique culinary identity. 

In this episode, we discuss how food fits into discussions around identity, common culinary misconceptions, Indigenous and Hakka influences, how Clarissa and Ivy designed the recipes, as well as the contrast between Western coverage of cross-straight tensions and the local mood and mindset. This episode is jam packed with a lot of behind-the-scenes tidbits and discussions of Taiwan's history and culture — make sure to tune in! 

We're flying into fall with new episodes two weeks in a row! Scholar and author Julia Lovell is in conversation with host Lijia Zhang about her role as chief organizer of The Hidden Century, an exhibition currently on display at the British Museum until October 8th. The exhibition is the first of its kind to pay tribute to the creative expression and individuality of the Qing dynasty – an era usually more associated with foreign aggression, violence, and turmoil than culture or artistic expression. Lijia talks to Julia about how she curated the exhibit, specific artifacts on display, and changing perceptions of the Qing dynasty. The episode also touches on Julia's academic career. 

About Julia Lovell: 

Lovell is professor of Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Lovell is a translator of Chinese literature, and has also written books such as The Politics of Cultural Capital: China's Quest for a Nobel Prize in Literature and The Great Wall: China Against the World 1000 BC – AD 2000. Lovell has also written articles on the topic of China for the likes of The Guardian, The Times, and The Economist.

Happy end of summer! We're continuing our Taiwan series with Yun-Ching Ko, campaign director for the Taiwan Innocence Project (TIP), the only NGO in Taiwan that's committed to exonerating the wrongfully convicted by providing legal services and working to reform the judicial system. In this episode, Ko delves into her work with host Sophia Yan and discusses cases she has worked on. Those interested in criminal justice won't want to miss this episode. 

About TIP: "Taiwan Innocence Project (TIP) was founded in 2012 to address the issue of wrongful conviction in Taiwan.

We provide pro bono legal services for the wrongfully convicted, work to redress the causes of wrongful convictions, and support the exonerated after they are proven innocent. We also urge to reform the criminal justice system and seek institutional changes to prevent innocent people from entering a flawed legal process in the first place.

TIP only accepts post-conviction cases that claim to be innocent, either with flawed forensic evidence or severe due process violation. We also seeks to support our clients during and after exonerations.

We hope to create an open and dynamic space that can spur more public discussion and the exchange of ideas to resolve the problem of wrongful conviction. We hold training workshops for attorneys, ask experts from different disciplines to give talks, and hold campus tours to share the stories of the innocent people and to show documentaries about their lives.

In 2015, we officially joined the Innocence Network, and became the second member in Asia. In 2018, we, along with innocence organizations and activists from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, co-signed the “Statement of the Asian Innocence Movement Activists,” collectively devoting ourselves into addressing wrongful convictions in Asia." 

Author Abigail Hing Wen joins NüVoices to discuss her NYT best selling YA novel, Loveboat, Taipei and its film adaptation Love in Taipei, based on the summer study tour that started more than half a century ago.

For the price of a plane ticket and about $400, diaspora students between 18 and 23 from the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere participated in the government-subsidized, six-week language and cultural summer program. At its peak during the 1990s, some 1,000 students descended onto Taiwan every summer to have fun, escape from parents, and connect with their roots. Nicknamed after the 1970s/80s American TV show for the lasting relationships that developed, attendees found deep and lasting bonds. There are other cultural study opportunities and programs for youths and young adults today, but the "Love Boat" as many knew it shrank and changed considerably over the last two decades along with the changing political tides in Taiwan.

In this episode, Abigail discusses the program and its history, her own experiences with the tour, the legendary stories and escapades that sprang from the students' experiences, and what it was like to make a film adaptation for a new generation of diaspora youth.

Love in Taipei is available for streaming now through Paramount+

This week, we’ve reached the 100th episode of the NüVoices podcast! To celebrate, we’ve brought together hosts Megan Cattel, Solarina Ho, and Sophia Yan for a panel discussion with a grab-bag of topics – from geopolitical current events to pop culture. 

We’ll be discussing the recent news of Coco Lee’s death, and the hosts share their favorite songs as well as what the singer meant to them. They’ll also dive into U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to Beijing during a time of worsening relations between the two countries.

On a slightly lighter note, the hosts also discuss the Netflix show Never Have I Ever about an Indian-American teenager and her family reconciling the two cultures and coming to terms with the intergenerational differences within the family.

We would like to take this 100th episode to thank all our listeners and especially our Patreon subscribers! NüVoices is a non-profit organization and we appreciate all your support – even if it’s just a recommendation of the podcast to your friends. 

For the next half year leading up to the elections in Taiwan, we will be bringing you a mini-series focusing entirely on the island, from domestic politics to its relationship to neighboring China.

For this first installment of the Taiwan mini-series, host Sophia Yan speaks to Yu-Jie Chen, an assistant research fellow from Academic Sinica who focuses on Human Rights and International relations with a specific focus on cross-strait relations.

Not only does Yu-Jie provide listeners with one of the clearest, most succinct summaries of three hundred years of Taiwanese history, but she also delves into how political and personal identities on the island have changed in the past three decades. With cross-strait tensions worsening in recent years, what does the future hold for Taiwan? 

Yu-Jie also explains how the ambiguity of the 1992 Consensus has caused the modern-day complexities in the region. 

Taiwan is so much more than the occasional headline, so make sure you don’t miss this episode!

"Commercial dating agencies that facilitate marriages across national borders comprise a $2.5 billion global industry. Ideas about the industry are rife with stereotypes—younger ... brides being paired with older Western men. These ideas are more myth than fact, Monica Liu finds in Seeking Western Men."

This week, NüVoices host Solarina Ho speaks with sociologist and assistant professor Monica Liu about her new book, Seeking Western Men, which explores the phenomenon of global internet dating and cross-border marriages, particularly among middle-aged, divorced women in China. She discusses the grievances women in China have with society and their own failed marriages, and why some believe a better life exists through this route. But reality is often very different. Liu explains why, and how the experiences of these women challenge scholars and others to rethink conventional notions of race and class. She also shares her experiences as an academic doing research in China and how that has evolved over the last decade.

This week, NüVoices co-host and editor of the podcast, Megan Cattel speaks to Charlotte Ming and Beimeng Fu, two founders of the Far & Near Substack newsletter. 

Far & Near aims to depict China in all its complexity by shining a light on the country's visual journalism and showing the human side of some of the biggest headlines coming out of the country. At a time where in-depth, on-the-ground reporting on China is becoming all the more stripped down, Far & Near is a much-needed glimpse into the everyday reality for people living in China.

Beimeng and Charlotte can sometimes spend up to 45 hours working on a single issue. The newsletter has covered topics from the residents living in the apartment blocks that were abandoned during constructions due to the real estate crisis, to the nation's outrage over the Chained Woman last year. During the A4 protests, they provided a guideline for foreign journalists to help protect the identities of protestors, which became a popular document used by newsrooms worldwide.

During the course of the episode, Beimeng and Charlotte talk about their work for the newsletter as both a labor of love  and a much needed perspective from inside China. With more magazine and newspaper closures in recent days, Beimeng and Charlotte are determined to do all that is necessary to increase readership and make the newsletter a project for the long-term.