The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files Podcast By John Ross and Eryk Michael Smith cover art

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files

By: John Ross and Eryk Michael Smith
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About this listen

Now streaming season five, the world's biggest and highest-rated Taiwan history podcast, Formosa Files, releases ENGLISH episodes every THURSDAY, as well as one short CHINESE episode on WEDNESDAYS. Formosa Files: The Taiwan History Podcast uses an engaging storytelling format and is non-chronological, meaning every week is a new adventure. John Ross is an author and publisher of works on Taiwan and China, while Eryk Michael Smith is a writer and journalist for local and global media outlets. Both hosts have lived in Taiwan for decades and call the island home. Email: formosafiles@gmail.comJohn Ross and Eryk Michael Smith World
Episodes
  • Bad Manners & Book Crimes: How an American Op-Ed Sparked Taiwan’s Self-Awareness Movement – S5-E15
    May 29 2025

    In 1963, a 32-year-old American grad student in Taipei wrote a newspaper editorial complaining that Taiwanese people were great at treating friends kindly, but kind of awful in public.


    Within days, he had unintentionally launched a nationwide student movement for civility, morality, and self-awareness. But this student-led push for better manners would also lead to arrests, prison time, and even psychiatric detention.


    In this episode, we tell the strange true story of the “Self-Awareness Movement,” how it exploded from one opinion piece, and explain how it contributed (or didn’t) to Taiwan’s public behavior transformation. Listen as we go from the sharp-elbowed chaos at bank counters and bus stops of the 1960s to today’s orderly lines and the quiet pride of the MRT.



    SHOW NOTES, TRANSCRIPTS, pics, links, and more at formosafiles.com



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    30 mins
  • EXTRA FOR HARDCORE LISTENERS! Hear the entire story of Japanese doctor Takagi Tamoe in this unedited, 27-minute version
    May 22 2025

    For those of you who want more specific info, here is the entire conversation John Ross enjoyed with Dr. Jimmy Lee on the remarkable life of Dr. Takagi Tomoe, one of colonial Taiwan’s most influential figures.

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    27 mins
  • Takagi Tomoe: The Japanese Doctor Who Devoted Himself to Taiwan – S5-E14
    May 22 2025

    In 1902, Dr. Takagi Tomoe arrived in newly-colonized Japanese Formosa as a seasoned Japanese medical expert sent here to battle bubonic plague – one of the many tropical sicknesses that killed thousands of local people each year. Takagi had a rare sense of empathy. Unlike many of his peers, he encouraged local students to attend his medical school (even letting them speak Taiwanese). This brilliant Japanese and German-trained doctor helped create Taiwan’s medical system – and also, in an unexpected twist, Takagi was tasked with managing the company that’s today known as Taipower. In this largely forgotten story, Taipei physician Dr. Jimmy Lee joins John Ross to tell the story of how Dr. Takagi became one of colonial Taiwan’s most influential figures.


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    21 mins
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This podcast is very unique in many ways. It's in English. It tells Taiwanese history from Taiwanese's perspective and it's honest! They also started the Chinese-speaking episodes. A good opportunity to polish my Chinese.

The best Taiwanese History podcast in English

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