On Friday, September 12th at the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza which is across from the UN Headquarters, in New York representatives from the Taiwan United Nations Alliance or TAIUNA, an NGO from Taiwan, held a press conference urging the UN to include Taiwan in its system. TAIUNA Youth Representatives performed a dance, a white protest of Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN.

September is when the UN General Assembly takes place and delegates from TAIUNA have been coming to New York for the past twenty years to call for Taiwan’s membership in the UN. This year is the 80th anniversary of the United Nations and the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly High-level Week runs from September 22-30th.

The following day, Saturday, September 13th was the UN for Taiwan rally and march which has been organized by the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York since 1992.

The annual press conference and UN for Taiwan Rally are reminders of Taiwan’s long-standing isolation from the international community.

Related Links:

In July of 2024, we brought talking Taiwan to the 53rd annual Taiwanese American Conference, east Coast at Westchester University, where I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Taiwan's, former vice President, Dr. Chen Chen (陳建仁). We talked about how Dr. Chen was trained to be an epidemiologist and was initially reluctant to go into politics, but then fate intervened and changed his mind when SARS hit Taiwan in 2003, and his experience handling the SARS outbreak as Taiwan's Minister of Health played an important role preparing him to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as Taiwan's Vice President.

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-chen-chien-jen-former-vp-of-taiwan-reflects-upon-his-life-in-politics-and-as-a-public-servant/

I asked Dr. Chen why it's important for Taiwan to be a member of the WHO World Health Organization and about the challenges he's faced as the Vice President and Premier of Taiwan. how he overcame them and why he decided not to run as Vice President with Tsai Ing-wen for a second term.

And finally, for some context, at the time of the interview, the Bluebird movement had emerged in Taiwan a month and a half earlier. I touched upon this with Dr. Chen briefly at the end of the interview.

At the time, more than a hundred thousand people in total had taken to the streets of Taiwan in a series of massive protests. It was a very public objection to controversial bills passed by Taiwan's opposition controlled Legislative Yuan. After interviewing Dr. Chen, I was left thinking if only the world had more politicians like him with a public service mindset, the world would be a better place.

This episode is sponsored in part by the Taiwanese American Council of Greater New York.

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/dr-chen-chien-jen-former-vp-of-taiwan-reflects-upon-his-life-in-politics-and-as-a-public-servant/

In this episode of Talking Taiwan we sat down to speak with Eugenie Chao who describes herself as Taiwanese American maker, educator, and musician who works in the intersection of ceramics, sound, and history. Her exhibit at the Taiwanese American Arts Council House 17 on Governors Island aptly named Listening Vessels, features ceramic objects turned musical instruments created by Chao and is on display until September 7th.

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/working-in-the-intersection-of-ceramics-sound-and-history-taiwanese-american-maker-eugenie-chao-ep-326/

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

• What came first for Eugenie music or working with clay?

• What made her combine ceramics with music?

• Where did that idea come from?

• How did she get interested or start working with clay?

• Eugenie’s musical training and what instruments she plays?

• What was her early artwork like?

• How her artwork has evolved over time?

• What does it mean to work at the intersection of ceramics, sound, and history?

• What is her creative process is like?

• How sound affects her artwork?

• How she decides the size of the objects she creates?

• The challenges involved with making large scale pieces vs pieces that can be made by hand

• How does the size of an object affects the sound it makes

• The ceramic instruments from ancient cultures that inspire her, how she discovered them and what was their purpose

• What inspires you? Where do you get your inspiration?

• Eugenie’s connection to Taiwan

• How Eugenie considers herself a maker and not an artist

• What can we expect to see and experience from Eugenie’s Listening Vessels exhibit at the TAAC house on Governors Island

• The most ambitious or challenging piece of work that Eugenie has made

• How Eugenie deals with a creative block

• Eugenie’s future projects can we expect to see from you?

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/working-in-the-intersection-of-ceramics-sound-and-history-taiwanese-american-maker-eugenie-chao-ep-326/