Talking Taiwan

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

I first learned about Treya, an up-and-coming musician with an amazing voice about two years ago, when she was profiled on TaiwaneseAmerican.org. From then on she was definitely on my radar to have as a guest on the Talking Taiwan, but somehow the timing was just not right for it. As I waited for the stars to align, I've had the pleasure of experiencing her perform live several times. Now it's time for me to have her on Talking Taiwan as a guest, and the timing couldn't be better as Treya is in the midst of a Pledge Music campaign to raise funds for her first album. She's running a sort of crowdfunding campaign, which I happen to know a thing or two about. So I am really thrilled to be able support her at this time, and to let others know about her huge talent. On top of all this I have the distinct honor of being the first on record to have done an audio interview with her!

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

Treya's thoughts on Taiwan and being Taiwanese and American

Her musical inspirations and influences

Treya's music writing process and her sources of inspiration

How she deals with writer's block

Working on her first album and her Pledge Music Campaign and what she has planned for it

How you can support Treya's Pledge Music Campaign and what she is offering at different contribution levels

Her thoughts on musicians independently producing their own music

Related Links:

To learn more about Treya, visit her website: http://www.treyamakesmusic.com/

To support Treya's Pledge Music campaign visit: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/treya

Treya on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treyamakesmusic/

Hello Taiwan: http://www.hellotaiwan.us/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

It's that time of year again here in New York City. Spring is upon us, and as the weather warms up you'll find street fairs popping up all around the city. I've already run into a couple of them. If you have ever been in the city at this time of year, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's hard to miss it when you come across blocks and blocks of a wide New York City avenue that are closed off to traffic, and bustling with pedestrians instead. You'll smell the aroma of mouthwatering foods wafting in the air, and see a variety of vendors hawking their wares. Imagine a massive flea market and a block party all rolled into one.

In the summer New York City is known for its free, open air, outdoor, public events with all sorts of cultural offerings ranging from classical music performances in Central Park to screenings of blockbuster movies at one of the Hudson River Park piers.

Most notable for the Talking Taiwan podcast and our listeners, is the Passport to Taiwan, an outdoor festival dedicated to celebrating everything related to Taiwan. The festival takes place every May in Union Square Park and is a chance for the public to experience Taiwanese culture. There are arts and crafts demonstrations, community organizations represented, the ever-popular Taiwanese food stalls, and live music performances. Passport to Taiwan has been going on for 14 years and last year an estimated 10, 000 people were in attendance.

The Hello Taiwan concert series was born out of the Passport to Taiwan and brings musical artists from Taiwan to New York to perform at the festival. This year's Hello Taiwan musical artists are truly representative the ethnic diversity of Taiwan.

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ysanne Spevack, the producer of this year's Hello Taiwan Tour. Ysanne herself is an accomplished musician who works with up-and-coming musical artists. I was really impressed with how she has embraced Taiwan and the Taiwanese music industry, which she compared to the U.K.'s. That's high praise indeed! This year's Hello Taiwan Tour runs May 24-29. Learn more about Hello Taiwan in this episode of the Talking Taiwan podcast.

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

What is the Passport to Taiwan

The origins of Hello Taiwan and the Hello Taiwan tour

The musical artists who will be performing at Hello Taiwan: Gina Can, Sean Huang, and Biung

Taiwan's music industry and how it compares to the U.K.'s

Hello Taiwan tour dates

Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan's equivalent of the Grammys

Ysanne's advice for aspiring musicians

Related Links:

Hello Taiwan Website

Link: www.hellotaiwan.us/

Hello Taiwan Facebook Page

Link: www.facebook.com/HelloTaiwanRocks//

Music videos featuring musicians performing in the 2017 Hello Taiwan Tour: Sean Huang (singing to a woman dressed in a cockroach costume), Gina Can and Biung: Link: http://www.hellotaiwan.us/2017.html

Treya's Pledge Music Campaign is now LIVE

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/treya

To purchase tickets

Link to purchase tickets to the May 27th Hello Taiwan concert at Joe's Pub featuring Sean Huang, Gina Can, Biung and Treya https://www.joespub.com/Tickets/Calendar/PlayDetailsCollection/Joes-Pub/2017/H/Hello-Taiwan/

Talking Taiwan Episode 45 About the 13th Annual Passport to Taiwan

Passport to Taiwan website

Learn about Taiwan in New York

Link: www.p2tw.org/

Ysanne's personal website

http://www.helloysanne.com

Ysanne's company website for Cherry Plum Media http://cherryplum.media

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

When Gus, the producer of Talking Taiwan suggested that I do an interview with David Frazier, co-founder and Festival Director of the Urban Nomad Film Festival, which first started in Taipei in 2002, I was intrigued. And after speaking with David about Urban Nomad, I found myself wishing that I'd be in Taipei at the time of the festival!

We talked about how the Urban Nomad Film Festival is more than just a film festival. In the past it has featured poetry readings, live bands, exhibits, parties, and a host of other interactive events.

At a glance, the Urban Nomad is part film festival, part music festival. But it is more than that. The goal of the festival's organizers has been to create a community-oriented event. David explained that the festival was inspired by punk rock's DIY ethic, and described the Urban Nomad Film Festival as participatory event and "a live art project."

Learn where the name of the festival "Urban Nomad" came from, the fascinating evolution of the festival and what it takes to run a festival like this. The Urban Nomad Film Festival is definitely something worth checking out if you're in Taipei in the spring. To learn more, visit their website: www.urbannomad.tw

How the festival has evolved since it first started in 2002

Where the name of the festival "Urban Nomad" came from

What the Urban Nomad Film Festival is

What it takes to run a festival like the Urban Nomad Film Festival

The people and supporters of the festival

Highlights from past Urban Nomad Film Festivals

The New York connection to the Urban Nomad Film Festival

The types of films that premier at the Urban Nomad Film Festival

Related Links:

www.urbannomad.tw (Urban Nomad Film Festival website) www.facebook.com/UrbanNomad.tw (Urban Nomad Film Festival Facebook page)

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

I love talking to entrepreneurs and small business owners. It's always interesting to learn how they started and have continued to build their businesses. For this episode I had the pleasure of speaking to Michael Forncrook about how he started a craft beer business in Taiwan. We spoke at great length, and what a lot of listeners don't know is that we do most our podcasts long distance, via Skype. For this interview I was in New York, and Michael was in central Taiwan. It might not come as a surprise that we've the occasional technical glitch, but it happened a record number of times during my interview with Michael. We actually had to hang up and reconnect four times! So I want to thank Michael for sticking it out with me and for supporting Talking Taiwan. We had such a fascinating conversation about a range of topics including what type of beer is healthier, the steps to brew beer at home, gypsy brewers, and advice for expats wanting to start a business in Taiwan.

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

How and why PB Craft hosts beer brewing classes

Beer brewing in Taiwan and Asia

Michael's company PB Craft

The B2B agricultural food marketplace, that Michael is developing. He describes it as the Aliba or B2B Amazon for food products and beverages

Can beer be considered healthy and what kind of beer is healthier?

The benefits of beer spas

How to brew beer at home

Unique craft beer flavors

What is a gypsy brewer?

The craft beer industry in Taiwan and Asia.

The challenges of running a business with your spouse

Advice for expats interested in starting a business in Taiwan

Entrepreneurship in Taiwan

Beer Brewing Steps:

Related Links:

http://www.pbcraft.com (B2B beer and beverage consulting and materials supplier) http://www.diybeersupply.com.tw (B2B online store)

http://AgriGoGo.com (new BB Agriculture Marketplace)

金鼎軒自釀啤酒 DIY Beer Supply Home Brew Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/%E9%87%91%E9%BC%8E%E8%BB%92%E8%87%AA%E9%87%80%E5%95%A4%E9%85%92-DIY-Beer-Supply-Home-Brew-483634355030591/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Ed Yen is a Taiwanese music producer, music executive, entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, audio engineer, theater designer, film score, commercial composer, A&R manager and vocal coach. He is the Executive Producer of Taiwan Music Express and CEO Of GCA.

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

For this episode of Talking Taiwan, I stopped by the CMJ 2014 Taiwan Music Express press conference to interview Dwagie (大支), one of the hip hop artists who will be performing at the CMJ Music Taiwan Night Showcase in October. Dwagie is known for writing about social issues and most notably has collaborated with the Dalai Lama.

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

• Where Dwagie's name comes from and what it means
• Dwagie's early musical influences
• How Dwagie grew up listening to the music of Nas
• How Dwagie will be collaborating with Nas
• How Dwagie has met and worked with the Dalai Lama
• Many of Dwagie's songs are about social issues like Facebook and the Sunflower Movement
• Why Dwagie writes songs about social issues
• Dwagie has written songs about stray animals and is a vegetarian
• Dwagie's experience and involvement with the Wild Strawberries Movement and Sunflower Movement
• How the Sunflower Movement has impacted Taiwan's society
• Who Dwagie will be collaborating with next
• Dwagie's advice to aspiring musicians

Related Links:

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

https://talkingtaiwan.com/tt050-dwagie/

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Around the time of the Sunflower Movement in 2014, which was a protest in response to Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou attempting to force passage of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (a trade pact between Taiwan and China), the Taiwan Voice Facebook page quickly became a major source of news about the movement. Students and activists occupied Taiwan's Legislative Yuan (Taiwan's parliament) from March 18-April 10, 2014. Sophie Ping-Ya Hsu spoke about how the Taiwan Voice Facebook page got started, her involvement in it and its impact.

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

· How the Taiwan Voice Facebook page got started

· How Taiwan Voice started in part to support the students who occupied the Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014

· Sophie's background and connection to Taiwan

· How Sophie got involved in the Taiwan Voice and met the others in the group

· How the Taiwan Voice Facebook page was getting a thousand likes per day

· Sophie's contribution to running the Taiwan Voice Facebook page was as an editor, she scanned through Chinese-language social media posts for information and news ideas, to coordinate with English translators and to post to the Taiwan Voice Facebook page

· Sophie recruited people to help run the Taiwan Voice Facebook page

· The core group that started Taiwan Voice Facebook were 10-15 individuals

· Initially news and information related to social justice issues were posted to the Facebook page without any filtering

· How Taiwan Voice made an impact in creating awareness about Taiwan over social media

· How Taiwan Voice helped to gather momentum from abroad for the Sunflower Movement

· How Taiwan Voice was a quick source of news about Taiwan

Related Links:

Taiwan Voice Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TaiwanVoice

Sunflower Movement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement

Legislative Yuan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_Yuan

Ma Ying-jeou: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Ying-jeou

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Eric Tsai and Jenny Wang on Outreach for Taiwan talk to host Felicia Lin about Outreach for Taiwan.

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Here is an interview with Author Ed Lin on his Book, Ghost Month.

Ed Lin talks about his latest novel - Ghost Month - which is his 5th book featuring Detective Robert Chow. The story centers around a mysterious murder that occurs in Taipei, Taiwan, during the 7th month of the lunar calendar. Mr Lin also talks about the writing process and his experiences as a novelist.

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Here is an interview with Echo Lin on Anti-Nuclear Protests in Taiwan.

Echo Lin explains her role as Secretary General of the Environmental Jurist Association, an international group of legal professionals concerned about the lack of legislative frameworks that protect our planet from ourselves. She specifically discusses the controversies surrounding Taiwan's 4th Nuclear Power plant and why this remains a hot-button issue even nearly 30 years after it was approved by Taiwan's Legislative Yuan.