The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files, is the world's biggest English-language source for audio stories about the history of Taiwan (Formosa).
Every week, the team (Eryk Michael Smith - a permanent Taiwan resident for about 30 years, and John Ross, a permanent resident for over 20 years) provide a 20-30 minute story or two -- in a non-chronological order, meaning one week you might hear a story about the father of Koxinga, and the next, learn about the "forgotten ROC president" Yen Chia-gan.
Now in Season Four, we are sponsored by the Frank C. Chen Foundation of Kaohsiung, we are non-political, non-profit, and have nothing to sell you, nor do we advocate for anything -- other than that Taiwan is an awesome place with an awesome history -- and more people should know this!
Formosa Files eventually plans on releasing episodes in Chinese, but right now we are focused on the world, and people in 130 countries/territories are listening every week. We are on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and pretty much every other podcast platform.
Eryk and John also feel a strong desire to reach the kids of the so-called "Taiwan Diaspora." When their parents left (or fled) Taiwan in the 1960s or 70s, much of the history we now know was not public. We know not all younger Taiwanese-Americans speak Chinese or Taiwanese fluently, and as English is an international language, we are using it to tell stories that even their parents may not know.
We tell stories -- we don't give history lectures!
We are grateful for the sponsorship we have, but we need more help to get more people around the world - as well as people in Taiwan - aware of Taiwan's remarkable history and peaceful transfer to democracy... something almost no other country has done as successfully.
We urge organizations with connections to Taiwanese overseas to check out Formosa Files and, if so inspired, contact us with ideas of how we can do more. Thank you.
Facebook: FORMOSA FILES FB
Email: formosafiles@gmail.com
John Ross / Eryk Michael Smith
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