Talking Taiwan

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

In this episode of Talking Taiwan, I'm speaking with Brian Foden. We're welcoming Brian back on as a guest after discovering his lost episode that was recorded 10 years ago. Originally from Canada, he's been living in Taiwan for over 20 years now. We spoke about what Taiwan was like when he first arrived, how it's changed and what life is like for him these days. Brian is a writer/editor and part-time newscaster at ICRT.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• When Brian arrived in Taiwan
• How life is like in Taiwan now that the government has switched away from a zero-COVID strategy
• What life was like in the early period of the pandemic when Taiwan had no local COVID cases
• How Brian manages working remotely and in-person at the office
• Brian started working at ICRT in May of 2000 and worked there full-time until 2004
• Brian's position as morning show news producer at ICRT
• How Brian left ICRT in 2004 and returned in 2012
• Brian's work as a news reader at ICRT
• Brian's background in journalism
• Comparing winters in Regina, Saskatchewan and in Ottawa, Ontario
• How Brian ended up in Taiwan
• How Taiwan has changed in the time that Brian has lived there
• Chen Shui-bian was elected President around the time that Brian moved to Taiwan; it was the first time that a Democratic Progressive Party candidate had been elected President in Taiwan
• The development of Taiwan's MRT system
• The popularity of English learning magazines in Taiwan
• How ICRT has changed over the years
• The podcast series Rick Monday made about ICRT (Radioactive Taiwan)
• The glory days of ICRT and the impact it made on Taiwan's culture and society in the 1980s
• How Brian first got his job at ICRT in 2000
• Brian's advice for anyone considering living and working in Taiwan
• The type of writing Brian does for work
• What Brian found difficult about journalism

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/brian-foden-newscaster-for-icrt-talks-about-how-life-has-changed-in-taiwan-ep-185/

As some of you may know, I started hosting Talking Taiwan in 2013, but Talking Taiwan was actually created back in 2012. And we've discovered some never before published, "lost" episodes of Talking Taiwan that were recorded 10 years ago! Some of these guests featured in these "lost episodes" may already be familiar to our listeners and some of them will be reintroduced with a follow up interview for us find out what they're up to these days.

Stay tuned every Thursday a new "lost" episode of Talking Taiwan.

This "lost" episode of Talking Taiwan features Brian Foden, a proud Canadian. Next week we'll be bringing Brian back on to find out how he's doing and what he's up to these days.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• Where in Canada Brian is from
• What brought Brian to Taiwan
• Brian's work on the ICRT News team
• How he left ICRT
• Brian's travels through South America
• The Brass Monkey in Taipei's pub quiz nights and Brian's pub quiz team The Three Stooges
• Brian shared what kinds of job opportunities there were in writing, editing, recording or for those with a journalism background

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/ep-184-lost-episodes-brian-foden/

Erin Hale is an American Journalist who has lived and worked across Asia.

She is currently a freelance journalist based in Taiwan. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, The BBC News, The New Statesman, The South China Morning Post, Marie Claire, The Southeast Asia Globe, Forbes.com and other outlets.

I came across her work through a recent article she wrote about how Taiwan's banking system is stuck in the 80's. I happened to discover it the same week we released episode 180 with Paolo Lising. In that episode Paolo and I talked about how people in Taiwan still update their account passbooks by running them through dot matrix printers at the bank.

Erin has lived in Asia for seven years. We talked about how she's lived in Hong Kong, China and Cambodia and the reporting she's done on Hong Kong and Cambodia, in addition to Taiwan.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• What brought Erin to Taiwan
• What Erin witnessed of the Hong Kong protests in 2019
• Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement of 2014
• John Lee who was elected to succeed Carrie Lam as Hong Kong's next leader
• How the recent article that Erin wrote for BBC News about how Taiwan's banking system is still stuck in the 80s was inspired by a tweet by Catherine Chou (@catielila)
• The reaction on Twitter to Erin's article and how she used Twitter to crowdsource research for it
• How often Erin uses Twitter to do research for her stories
• How Erin appealed to Twitter for people's experiences voting in the Philippines presidential election
• How Erin deals with bots on Twitter, fake news and disinformation as a journalist
• Taiwan-related visa and immigration issues that Erin has dealt with
• The bureaucracy that Erin has experienced in Taiwan
• How Erin gets ideas or sources for her stories
• Working as a freelance journalist
• What it takes to succeed as a freelance journalist
• What Erin enjoyed about writing the story about banking in Taiwan
• The article that Erin wrote about Taiwan's indigenous people
• What it's been like for Erin to learn Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan and what her goals in studying Chinese are
• How Erin ended up moving to Asia
• Beijing's 'Airpocalypse' in 2013
• How journalists' experiences in China have changed over the last five years
• How Cambodia has changed and become influenced by China

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/erin-hale-on-taiwans-antiquated-banking-system-and-being-an-american-journalist-in-asia-ep-183/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Taiwan's Employment Gold Card program has come up in several past episodes of Talking Taiwan. I've been wanting to bring someone on to talk about what it is, who might be eligible for it and how to apply for it. In this episode I spoke with Michael Fahey, an American lawyer who's lived in Taiwan for 30 years. He worked with the Taiwan National Development Council on Taiwan's Gold Card program. Michael is co-founder of Forward Taiwan, an organization founded to improve Taiwan's immigration laws as they pertain to foreign professionals.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• How people may consider Taiwan small but with its population of 23 million people it could be compared to one of the U.S.'s largest states or a mid-sized European country
• What is the Taiwan Gold Card
• How the Taiwan Employment Gold Card is a four-in-one card: visa, work permit, resident permit, and re-entry permit, that is valid for three years
• After three years Gold Card holders who have been in Taiwan for an average of 183 days can apply for permanent residency in Taiwan
• How there was an increase in Gold Cards issued during the pandemic
• The government of Taiwan's goal of getting to 10,000 Gold Cards issued by the end of the year and a long-term goal of having 100,000 foreign professionals in Taiwan by 2030
• How to apply for a Gold Card
• The eight fields that people can apply to in order to obtain a Gold Card
• The special category of consultation for those who don't fit in to any of the eight fields
• What documentation needs to be provided in order to apply for a Gold Card
• The importance of providing objective evidence of your professional accomplishments (e.g. an award, a measurable accomplishment)
• 60% of Gold Card holders have qualified by meeting the salary qualification in the economy field
• The type of work that Gold Card holders can seek while in Taiwan
• Singapore's Employment Pass program and the backlash it's gotten from Singaporean citizens
• Recent changes to the Gold Card program including the requirement for applying for permanent residence was lowered from five years to three years and different tax incentives
• Changes to ordinary work permit requirements which previously required both a college degree and two years of related experience
• The American Chamber of Commerce Taiwan Business Topics publication
• Useful resources for people applying for a Gold Card including: the Taiwan National Development Council's website Foreign Talent, the Taiwan Employment Gold Card Office Help Desk, Taiwan EZ Permit
• The challenges faced by some Gold Card holders in finding employment in Taiwan
• It's not necessary to speak Chinese to live and work in Taiwan
• If there is something missing or incomplete with a Gold Card application, you will have 30 days to rectify it
• Currently Gold Card applications are taking 4-6 weeks to get approved
• What happens if someone's application for the Gold Card is not accepted
• The most competitive sub field under arts and culture is popular music/TV/movies
• Special considerations for people wanting to live and work in Taiwan
• Considering places to live in Taiwan other than Taipei
• Michael's work with Forward Taiwan
• How Forward Taiwan is working on access to dual nationality for people naturalizing as Taiwanese citizens
• How Michael is transitioning to working on migrant workers issues
• The most meaningful accomplishments of Forward Taiwan: an increased number of countries that Taiwan has working holiday agreements with, making it easier for graduates of Taiwanese universities to stay and live and work in Taiwan
• How the National Development Council came up with Taiwan's Gold Card program and modeled it after Singapore's Employment Pass program
• Taiwan's independent artist work permit

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/michael-fahey-of-forward-taiwan-talks-about-the-gold-card-program-ep-182/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Yao Huang is funding minority owned businessess to solve the financial inequality problem.

I first met and interviewed Yao Huang, in 2013. She is founder and managing partner of The Hatchery. If you want to learn more about her and the Hatchery you can go back and listen to episode 147 of Talking Taiwan.

Last year I looked her up, wondering what she's been up to and reached out to invite her back on to Talking Taiwan as a guest. A lot can happen in 9 years!

I learned that she had done two TED Talks and a stint of standup comedy.

Yao has been focusing on some very big things like solving the problem of financial inequality through a $100 million dollar fund for minority-owned small to medium-sized businesses. And from her social media posts it looks like she's living the life and having a ball at these gatherings called the Wonder Women Dinner Series all across the country.

When I asked her what she's excited about these days she mentioned crypto, blockchain and Web3. To some, these may sound like things of the future but the future is already here. Last year Facebook's name change to Meta was a nod to the metaverse, and earlier in the year, the buzz over a thing called NFTs hit mainstream media. When it comes to understanding NFTs you've got to also understand crypto currency, and blockchain technology. We covered that topic in episode 157: DJ Kaku Trailblazes NFTs in Asia. All of these things together- crypto, blockchain and the metaverse make up Web3.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• What the Wonder Women Dinner Series is
• How the Wonder Women Dinner Series has been going on for 16 years
• How the Wonder Women Dinner Series is a way for women to network, connect, make friendships, and have fun
• How Yao did standup comedy at Caroline's, B.B. King's and around New York City around 2014
• Division One Capital a $100 million fund for women and minority small businesses
• How venture capital only helps 2% of all companies
• How Division One Capital's lending is based on a company's sales or revenues
• How it is difficult it is for women and minorities to secure a loan from a bank
• How loans from traditional banks can be at higher rates than funding obtained from Division One Capital
• How funding from a fund like Division One Capital can stabilize and allow a business to grow
• How Division One Capital was previously called Diana Capital
• How Division One Capital is working with cities' initiatives to help SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses)
• How Yao believes there is a lot of wealth that can be more equally distributed and easily accessed
• The businesses that Yao has helped grow e.g. a Black woman owned HVAC company and a woman-led company in the data security space that has raised $3.5 million
• How crypto, bitcoin and block chain has revolutionized the fintech sector, banking, credit, currency, stocks, and led the wave of Web3
• How important it is to learn about bitcoin and cryptocurrency and how it works
• The bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, FL

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/yao-huang-solving-financial-inequalities-by-funding-minority-owned-businesses-ep-181/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Paolo Lising shares his knowledge on starting a business in Taiwan.

In February, I did a follow up interview with Paolo Lising, who I've had on as a guest previously along with Ramon Ray in episode 168, which was about solopreneurship. Paolo is the author of Startup Taiwan: Foreigners Business Guide, and the founder of MillionDC.com. Startup Taiwan is the second book written to help foreigners wanting to start a business in Taiwan after How to Start a Business in Taiwan, which was written by Elias Ek in 2013. Elias has also been a guest on Talking Taiwan.

I spoke in depth with Paolo about his early interest in entrepreneurship, what brought him to Taiwan, and how he transitioned from journalism to corporate life and the startup scene. We had an in-depth conversation about what went into his book Startup Taiwan. For those wanting the most up-to-date information they should subscribe to a digital version of Startup Taiwan, which Paolo regularly updates on his website StartupInTaiwan.com. He also has a podcast by the same name Startup Taiwan, that I'd recommend you check out.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• Paolo's background and upbringing
• Paolo's career as a journalist covering the Philippines energy sector and banking
• When and how Paolo became an entrepreneur
• Paolo's first business, which was an antique shop in the Philippines
• How Paolo decided to go from being a journalist to pursing an MBA
• How Paolo decided to go Taiwan to purse an MBA degree
• How the MBA program at NTU (National Taiwan University) is taught in English
• Paolo worked at ASUS and Rayliant Global Advisors in Taiwan before getting into the startup scene
• Paolo's current startup in Taiwan, MillionDC.com, which is a learning platform for entrepreneurs from developing countries
• The special needs of entrepreneurs from developing countries
• Where the name MillionDC comes from
• How his bosses at ASUS and Rayliant Global Advisors were supportive of Paolo's interest in starting his own company on his own time outside of his work hours
• How one of the problems for people in the Philippines is having stable internet connection and access to information
• What led Paolo to write Startup Taiwan
• How to Start a Business in Taiwanby Elias Ek
• How so much has changed since 2013 when How to Start a Business in Taiwanby Elias Ek was published and Paolo felt a need to write a book with up dated information
• How Taiwan has changed it policies towards accepting foreigners and allowing them to open up businesses
• The two ways that foreigners can enter Taiwan and start a business: entrepreneur visa and Gold Card visa
• The requirements for an entrepreneur visa include submitting a plan of what you will to do in Taiwan, and the growth potential of your business
• Incubators in Taiwan and the support they provide to entrepreneurs
• The Gold Card visa is for those with expertise in their fields, similar to an APRC (lien Permanent Resident Certificate)
• The requirements for a Gold Card
• The process of writing and doing research for Paolo's book, Startup Taiwan
• There are six steps to starting a business in Taiwan
• How Paolo's book includes interviews with entrepreneurs and case studies
• The KPIs (key performance indicator) for grants given by the government of Taiwan
• The difference and added value of Paolo's book, Startup Taiwan compared to Elias' book, How to Start a Business in Taiwan
• How the interviews in Paolo's book, Startup Taiwan offer some real life examples of what people go through in the process of trying to start a business in Taiwan
• How Taiwan is in general very technologically advanced, but its banking system is not
• Why there aren't many venture capitalists setting up in Taiwan
• How a chop aka seal aka stamp is still commonly used by Taiwan's banks as form of identification
• The inspiration behind the book cover art for Startup Taiwan
• The challenges that Paolo has experienced in doing business in Taiwan
• Common misperceptions that people have about Taiwan or doing business in Taiwan
• If any of the case studies from the book Startup Taiwanhave been translated into Chinese
• How Audrey Tang, Taiwan's digital minister has received a copy of the book and thought the recommendations were helpful informing policies to make Taiwan a startup hub in Asia
• How Paolo wanted the first version of the print version of Startup Taiwanto look like a coffee table art book with grey paper vs. white or off-white
• How there are three versions of the book, Startup Taiwan 1)the print book released in 2020, 2) the online version available at StartupInTaiwan.com which is regularly updated 3) the 2022 version which is available on Amazon Kindle and print (updated up to January 31, 2022)
• If you go to StartupInTaiwan.com you can get a digital version of the book with real time updates based on current events and news
• How it is more challenging for foreign entrepreneurs in Taiwan to get access to funding than local Taiwanese entrepreneurs
• How helpful it is for startups in Taiwan to have at Taiwanese co-founder
• How Startup Taiwan includes both failed and successful case studies
• How Taiwan is a welcoming place for foreigners
• How foreigners need to do research to make sure they are prepared with realistic expectations before coming to Taiwan
• 9 out of 10 startups in Taiwan fail
• What opportunities there are for people who want to do business with Taiwan rather than to do business in Taiwan

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/paolo-lising-startup-taiwan-author-shares-his-knowledge-on-starting-a-business-in-taiwan-ep-180/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

So much has happened since I interviewed John Fan, one of the co-founders of PicCollage back in December. PicCollage is an app that allows you to create fun things with your photos and videos. It is one of the most popular apps in the photo and video app category in the app store.

We actually spoke the day after Talking Taiwan won a Golden Crane Podcast Award. It was a fascinating conversation not only about PicCollage, but about what it was like for John being in Taiwan when it was one of the few places in the world relatively unaffected by COVID at the beginning of the pandemic, and how it attracted COVID refugees that included some of Taiwan's most talented influential diaspora. John also talked about how the startup scene in Taiwan has changed in the ten years that he's lived there.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• How PicCollage is an app that allows you to create fun things with your photos and videos
• How PicCollage as a company that creates a variety of apps related to greetings, video editing, and wellness
• The WOWSHI app inspired by Japanese washi tapes designed to mimic the tactile experience of applying washi tape, which can be a form of relaxation
• The idea for the WOWSHI app came out of the realization that during the pandemic people were looking for ways to de-stress
• How PicCollage was started 10 years ago and was initially designed primarily for the iPad
• 10 years ago apps like Uber, Instagram and Snapchat were still relatively new
• How PicCollage was started in Silicon Valley but has much of its operations in Taiwan
• John's experience as a Taiwanese American having moved to Taiwan and lived there for 10 years
• The challenges of running a business in multiple time zones
• The advantages of running a business in Taiwan
• The freedom and creativity in Taiwan
• The popularity of bubble tea and cat cafes of Taiwan
• How Taiwan is connected to and influenced by China, Japan and the U.S.
• Taiwan's kawaii i.e. cute aesthetic which has been influenced by Japan
• Kawaii culture in the in the campaign for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian
• How Bitmoji was created in 2007
• PicCollage's Silicon Valley values and Taiwanese employees
• How PicCollage has offered its team members U.S. $3,500 to spend on learning about or getting training on something of their own choice
• How PicCollage's values are a mix from Silicon Valley and Taiwan: Always Be Learning. Be Proactive and Overcommunicate. Win As A Team.
• How PicCollage has changed and evolved over time
• John's work experience prior to PicCollage
• What it has been like starting and running PicCollage
• How PicCollage values user feedback and has invited users to come in for user interviews on Fridays
• What they have learned from user feedback e.g. the ability to save/back up the collages on their phone in the cloud
• Artist collaborations with PicCollage have included collaborations with individual artists, Sanrio, and tokidoki
• What it's been like being in Taiwan when it was relatively unaffected by COVID at the beginning of the pandemic, and attracted COVID refugees
• How Taiwan was one of the first countries to be aware of the threat of COVID early on in the pandemic and was prepared due to its prior experience with SARS
• How Taiwan was able to maintain zero COVID cases up until April/May 2021 and attracted COVID refugees, like the founders of Rotten Tomatoes, Twitch and YouTube
• The use of Gather and Kumospace as Taiwan has gone into partial lockdown and adopted working remotely
• How has the startup culture in Taiwan changed in the 10 years that John has been in Taiwan
• How software startups exist in the shadows of Taiwan's two major industries: the semiconductor industry and ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) industry or contract manufacturing industries
• How Taiwan can play a role in the software industry
• How people in Taiwan vs Japan and Korea, are more willing to take a risk and work for smaller companies instead of large companies and conglomerates
• How the startup Gogoro has been able to get a lot of funding
• How Appier went public in Japan
• There's been greater investor interest in Taiwan startups than in the past
• 500 Startups has set up a branch in Taiwan
• How there are more VCs (venture capital) in Taiwan now
• How there are more VCs investing in software
• How Taiwan can excel in creativity and design
• Pinkoi. "the Etsy of Asia" that was started in Taiwan
• GagaOOLala, an LGBTQ+, "Netflix for Asia" that was started in Taiwan
• How Taiwan needs people with senior level experience with product marketing, and engineering management, and this void could be filled by Taiwan's diaspora or those interested in working with Taiwanese companies
• How PicCollage is hiring

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/john-fan-pic-collage-cofounder-creating-jobs-for-taiwans-most-talented-since-2011-ep-179/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has put the reality of war on display for the world, especially for Taiwan, which like Ukraine, has been under the constant threat of military aggression of an unfriendly neighbor. Because of the war that's been happening in Ukraine there's been talk of how Taiwan must improve its military defense capabilities and preparedness, but beyond this, there are people in Taiwan wondering what they themselves can do to be prepared, should Taiwan come under attack.

My guest on this episode of Talking Taiwan, T.H. Schee, a representative of Open Knowledge Taiwan, is one of those people asking these important questions.

We'd like to dedicate this episode to the memories of David Kilgour, who passed away on April fifth at the age of 81 and Peng Ming-min who passed away on April eighth at the age of 98. Mr. Kilgour, who I interviewed recently, was a human rights activist, and a former Member of Canada's Parliament, having served in the House of Commons for nearly 27 years, as Secretary of State for Latin America & Africa from 1997-2002, and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific from 2002-2003.

Dr. Peng Ming-Min was a pro-Taiwan independence/pro-democracy activist. In 1964 he was arrested for sedition for drafting and printing a manifesto advocating for democracy in Taiwan, he served as president of the Formosan Association of Public Affairs from 1986 to 1988, and in 1996 he ran as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate in Taiwan's first direct presidential election.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by the Taiwanese United Fund.

The Taiwanese United Fund is an arts and culture foundation that celebrates the cultural heritages of Taiwanese Americans. Established in 1986, the foundation's mission is to facilitate cultural exchange between the Taiwanese American community and other American cultural communities, hoping to enrich and expand our cultural experiences. To learn more about TUF visit their website http://www.tufusa.org/

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• How T.H. became interested and involved with civil defense
• The 9/21 earthquake in Nantou
• His work with Open Knowledge Taiwan
• What is civil defense
• Great Britain's Air Raid Wardens Service
• How T.H. has been dealing with disaster response for over ten years
• How Taiwan has to deal with disaster response year round due to typhoons and earthquakes
• What is digital first aid
• Taiwan's history of civil defense programs in Kimen and Matsu
• What is covered in Open Knowledge workshops
• The last time that preparedness for war was treated as a priority in Taiwan
• The 1995-1996 missile crisis in Taiwan aka the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
• What Taiwan can learn from what's happening with the war in Ukraine
• The challenge of evacuating from Taiwan since it is an island
• How prepared Ukrainian civilians were for war
• How people can prepare for different levels of crisis: 1) emergency preparation (e.g. power outage/ blackout) 2) natural disaster 3) an attack/invasion/war
• The importance of establishing several reliable sources of information in case of a natural disaster
• The emerging discussion about how to handle an attack on Taiwan
• The importance of being able to identify friend from foe in case of a war in Taiwan
• The importance of first aid knowledge
• How civil defense in Taiwan is mandated by the national police agency/law enforcement in Taiwan
• An explanation of infographics from Open Knowledge that were recently shared on Twitter
• How general citizens could seek to improve their preparedness by enrolling in courses offered by hospitals
• Preparedness for military reservists
• The importance of having secure lines of communication in times of crisis
• Taiwan's Ministry of Defense has published a handbook that outlines the roles and responsibilities of the local and central government in times of crisis; the handbook is irrelevant for civilians
• T.H.'s thoughts on how the government of Taiwan can better prepare its citizens for war
• How the past civil defense programs in Kimen and Matsu prepared and trained civilians for war and what we can learn from them
• How the defense sector is a closed circle and Open Knowledge Taiwan is trying to address civilians' lack of access to defense related information
• Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces
• How it's important for Taiwan to improve bi-lateral and tri-lateral exchanges of information
• Michael Turton's piece in the Taipei Times about Taiwan's preparedness for war
• How it's important to be able to resist the first 72 hours of an attack
• How critical points identified at Open Knowledge Taiwan workshops could be turned into policy recommendations for Taiwan's government

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwans-civil-defense-preparedness-t-h-schee-on-how-to-prepare-for-the-threat-of-an-attack-ep-178/

April fourth is Children's Day in Taiwan, which is great timing for this interview with children's book author Margaret Chiu Greanias. She spoke with me about her latest book Amah Faraway, which has many of its scenes set in Taipei, Taiwan. Margaret shared how she became a children's book author, what she loves about picture books, how they get created and what she's working on next.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by the Taiwan Elite Alliance 優社 and the Taiwanese United Fund.

The Taiwan Elite Alliance 優社 was established in 2000 to promote Taiwanese and Taiwanese American arts and literature, and to protect and enhance the human rights, freedom and democracy of the people in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese United Fund is an arts and culture foundation that celebrates the cultural heritages of Taiwanese Americans. Established in 1986, the foundation's mission is to facilitate cultural exchange between the Taiwanese American community and other American cultural communities, hoping to enrich and expand our cultural experiences. To learn more about TUF visit their website http://www.tufusa.org/

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• How Amah Faraway is written as a reverse poem
• What is a reverse poem
• The reverse poem, "The Lost Generation" by Jonathan Reed that inspired Margaret to write Amah Faraway as a reverse poem
• What inspired Margaret to write Amah Faraway
• How much of the book was based on Margaret's relationship with her amah and on her children's relationship with their amah (Margaret's mother)
• How Margaret's children react to reading her books
• Margaret's memories of visiting Taiwan as a child
• How Margaret got connected with the illustrator of Amah Faraway
• Tracy Subisak the illustrator of Amah Faraway who is half Taiwanese and her special contributions to the book, which included the use of Mandarin Chinese
• The Two Tigers nursery rhyme that amah sings to Kylie in Amah Faraway
• How children's picture books can be written first without an illustrator or written with a specific illustrator, in which case the manuscript and sketches would be sent together to an editor
• How Margaret's first book Maximillian Villainous was created with illustrator Lesley Breen Withrow, and the manuscript and sketches were sent together to an editor
• How the movie Despicable Me inspired the idea for Margaret's first children's book Maximillian Villainous
• When the editor chooses the illustrator for a picture book usually the author and illustrator aren't introduced to each other, and the illustrator works independently to interpret the words of the story in their own way
• How picture books are half about the words and half about the art
• How Margaret decided to become a children's book author
• What Margaret was doing before she became a children's book author
• Margaret's favorite books as a child
• How Margaret decides to write about
• Margaret's writing process
• Margaret writes picture books for ages 3-8 but would like to also write chapter books for middle grade (8-12 years old)
• What Margaret loves about picture books and writing for the 3-8 year old age group
• World Read Aloud Day
• The Five Chinese Brothers, an American children's book written by Claire Huchet Bishop
• What's involved in the process of getting a children's book published
• The challenge of writing a story in 500 words or less
• Children's books that Margaret recommends
• Margaret's next book, Hooked on Books that will be coming out next summer

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/celebrating-childrens-day-in-taiwan-margaret-chiu-greanias-talks-about-her-latest-book-amah-faraway-ep-177/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

As she watched the humanitarian crisis unfold due to the war in Ukraine, S. Chien wanted to do something to help. She came up with the idea for the Taiwan Cares project and together with Dr. Monty Wang and Dr. Bo-Chheng Lin, mobilized the efforts of over 30 Taiwanese Americans from New Jersey to raise over $9000 in 24 hours. The funds were used to purchase and ship urgently needed medical supplies and baby formula to people in Ukraine.

1. Chien is the President of New Jersey Chapter of North America Taiwanese Women's Association.

Dr. Monty Wang is a retired physician.

[INSERT photo of Dr. Bo-Chheng Lin]

Dr. Bo-Chheng Lin, is cofounder of New Jersey Living Well Club and an elder of the New Jersey Taiwanese American Fellowship Presbyterian Church (TAFPC).

I learned about their project Taiwan Cares from an email that was forwarded to me with a touching video created by Shi Chien about how over $9,000 was raised in 24 hours in order to send humanitarian relief to people in Ukraine.

With everything that's been happening in the world today, I think that we need

to tell more stories of the good that people are doing in the world.

The Taiwanese Care project team will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees in cooperation with the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York (TAC-GNY) which has set up the Ukraine-Taiwan Humanitarian Fund Drive. Donors may contact them for details and/or send checks to:

Taiwanese American Council (TAC) of Greater New York

TAC / Taiwan Center

137-44 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354

Make checks payable to TAC/GNY. Please write the following as the check's memo: Ukraine – Taiwan Cares

TAC-GNY is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. After receiving a donation check, TAC-GNY will send the donor a tax-deductible receipt. The fundraising drive ends mid-April.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by the Taiwan Elite Alliance 優社 and the Taiwanese United Fund.

The Taiwan Elite Alliance 優社 was established in 2000 to promote Taiwanese and Taiwanese American arts and literature, and to protect and enhance the human rights, freedom and democracy of the people in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese United Fund is an arts and culture foundation that celebrates the cultural heritages of Taiwanese Americans. Established in 1986, the foundation's mission is to facilitate cultural exchange between the Taiwanese American community and other American cultural communities, hoping to enrich and expand our cultural experiences. To learn more about TUF visit their website http://www.tufusa.org/

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• How the Taiwan Cares Project was initiated
• Dr. Monty Wang talks about how he's visited both Ukraine and Russia and his impressions
• Why they only had 24 hours to raise funds
• How the Taiwan Cares Project team partnered with a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in New Jersey to deliver the supplies to people in need in Ukraine
• Why they decided to purchase urgently needed baby formula and medical supplies to send to Ukraine rather than sending a cash donation
• How Dr. Wang planned what items to order and the quick turnaround time in order to get them delivered to the Ukrainian church
• The Taiwan Care project will be a continued and continuous effort
• How Taiwan has made disaster relief contributions to Japan (Fukushima earthquake) and Indonesia
• How Ukraine's situation is similar and different from Taiwan's
• China's incursions into Taiwan's ADIZ
• How people from Taiwan have donated around $240 million U.S, dollars to Ukraine
• The Holodomor, Ukraine's Great Famine
• Possible future initiatives of the Taiwan Cares project
• The YouTube video S. Chien created about the Taiwan Cares project and the music she used for it
• The Ukrainian folk instrument, the bandura that was banned by Russia
• How they purchased 900 pounds of supplies to send as humanitarian relief to Ukraine
• The design of the Taiwan Cares label and how it includes the Ukrainian words for "Help from Taiwan"

Related Links:

To view all related links for this article, click link below:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwan-cares-humanitarian-efforts-for-ukraine-raise-9000-in-24-hours-ep-176/