“Hakka culture is not mainly about grand buildings or eye-catching symbols. It's not only about history and festivals. Instead, it lives quietly in everyday life, in our food, our language and our family relationships.”

Characterized by their hospitality and distinctive food culture, the Hakka (客家) are one of Taiwan’s major ethnic groups, comprising about 20 percent of the population. Over the years, however, the Hakka language has experienced a sharp decline in everyday use. Hakka TV (客家電視), a public media platform, leverages creative programming to foster appreciation of Hakka culture while working to revive this beautiful language. Today, it is also expanding its reach to engage a broader international audience.

In the first episode of Taiwan Salon Season 5, GTI Communications Associate Yuchen Lee interviews Paul Shiang (向盛言), Director of Hakka TV, and I-Li Lo (羅亦娌), Program Manager of Hakka TV. Through various TV programs, their work not only sheds light on the vibrant Hakka culture, but also engages in a dialogue with the broader world through their unique Hakka perspectives.

Useful links

• Hakka TV website: https://www.hakkatv.org.tw/
• The trailer of Black Tide Island: https://youtu.be/FNxWjoJgPKI?si=9C8DJ24SL-fNHUei
• The trailer of Gold Leaf: https://youtu.be/7ysn_oBRv_w?si=2RatZkQVbqgqoh82
• TV Program Octopus News special series on the Russo-Ukraine War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDS7YdawwCI

“Don’t ask why nobody is doing this, you are the NOBODY.”

Confronted with frequent natural disasters—such as earthquakes and typhoons—and ongoing political challenges, including Chinese coercion, Taiwan has cultivated a resilient and highly creative civil society. Within this dynamic ecosystem, civic technology stands out as a distinctive force, blending grassroots activism with digital innovation to tackle complex social and governance problems.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Communications Associate Yuchen Lee and Summer 2025 Intern Tracy Weener interview Ipa Hsiao-wei Chiu (瞿筱葳), the Co-Founder of Taiwan’s largest civic tech community, g0v (台灣零時政府). Ipa explains what makes Taiwan's civic tech community unique and how it thrives throughout this past decade, highlighting ‘openness’ as the core value of this long-standing digital activism.

Useful links

• g0v’s website: https://g0v.tw/intl/en/

• The book on Taiwan’s civic tech community and the story of g0v, “The NOBODY Movement: Civic Hackers and Digital Activism in Taiwan”: https://a.co/d/6QI27cP

• g0v Summit 2026: https://summit.g0v.tw/2026/

• Sch001 零時小學校 (g0v Elementary School): https://sch001.g0v.tw/

• The Minecraft Project by g0v Elementary School : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj4M7d3qBtk

Taiwanese (台語), also known as Tâi-gí, is the most widely spoken native language in Taiwan. During both the Japanese colonial period and subsequent martial law era (1949-1987), Taiwanese and other indigenous languages faced severe repression. While democratization has restored the freedom to speak Taiwanese openly, new challenges have emerged. As fewer young people speak the language, the question looms: how can this once-flourishing mother tongue survive in an era of globalization?

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Communications Associate Yuchen Lee and 2025 Ya-Hui Chiu Summer Fellow Carissa Cheng interview Aiong Taigi, a Taiwan-based American YouTuber dedicated to preserving and promoting Taiwanese. Aiong shared his experience learning Taiwanese as a foreigner, and how Taiwan’s language policies have evolved from the martial law period to today’s democratic society.

Useful links

• Aiong Taigi: https://www.youtube.com/@AiongTaigi/featured

• Chiok-eng-tâi 足英台三聲道磅米芳: https://www.youtube.com/@saveTaiwanese/featured

• Mary Knoll Taiwanese Textbooks: https://journeytothewestresearch.com/tag/maryknoll-taiwanese/

• Taiwanese singer Hsieh Ming-yu (謝銘祐): https://open.spotify.com/artist/38kvukZeDwVBlhLnVVCKWw

• Website that archives lyrics of Taiwanese songs (台語正字歌詞): https://hackmd.io/@Et47FKHKRS2m83n-aEjwAA/HkqwImgdU

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Senior Programs Manager Adrienne Wu and Intern Trinity Tai interview Honghong Tinn, the author of Island Tinkerers and an assistant professor at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Drawing upon her research of influential Taiwanese “tinkerers,” Dr. Tinn talks about how Taiwan’s rise in high-tech industries has contributed to its international image and engagement.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Senior Programs Manager Adrienne Wu and Intern Diarra Molock interview KJ Chang, the founder of Mizo Games. KJ explains how Mizo Games—through board games like 2045 and Raid on Takao—combines fantasy, Taiwan’s history under Japanese colonization, and current cross-Strait tensions to create uniquely-Taiwanese playing experiences.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Senior Programs Manager Adrienne Wu and Intern Diarra Molock interview Hsin-mei Cheng, the screenwriter and producer behind the series Zero Day Attack, which depicts the events surrounding a Chinese attack on Taiwan. With Hsin-mei, we discuss the importance of using popular culture to bring difficult-to-discuss topics to mainstream audiences and the challenges of producing such stories.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Senior Programs Manager Adrienne Wu and Communications Associate Yuchen Lee interview Chris Horton, a freelance journalist based in Taipei. Chris talks about his journey to Taipei, international news coverage of Taiwan, and his upcoming book, Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, host and GTI Program Manager Adrienne Wu interviews Director of Research Caroline Fried and Director of Engagement Siwei Huang from the Center for Asia Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI). For our season four premiere we speak with Caroline and Siwei about CAPRI’s work, the importance of being nonpartisan when doing policy research, and the challenges and opportunities of being a Taiwan-based think tank.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Program Manager Adrienne Wu interviews Dr. Chen-Yu Chiu, the CEO and the principal architect of Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre for World Citizens in Turkiye, about opportunities and challenges for Taiwanese civil society organizations when they are based abroad and the unique role that Taiwan plays when it comes to supporting humanitarian aid.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Program Manager Adrienne Wu and Fall Intern Yuchen Lee interview Jay Lin, the founder and CEO of both Portico Media and GagaOOLala, to discuss GagaOOLala’s role as a global LGBTQ+ streaming platform and how the pink economy can benefit Taiwan.