RED BRICK DAILY 紅磚日報

31/10/2024

Odd books, a mysterious (hijacked ?) plane crash in Taichung that killed one of the richest men in the Chinese movie industry, the death of Australian PM Holt (by, Eryk believes, a shark with an Aussie accent) shortly after visiting Taiwan ... Woah ... the Formosa Files dudes are going down some rabbit holes this week.

Need a break from typhoons (Taiwan)? Need to escape the non-stop election-related noise (USA)? Or maybe you simply would like to hear John and Eryk babble about a c…

25/10/2024

OK, so it's VERY unlikely that she went into battle topless -- and he almost certainly DIDN'T strap an anchor made of gold to himself and jump into the sea to escape capture...but these are the stories that are told about this pirate couple (then and now) -- AND, even WITHOUT those embellishments, these two lived incredible lives of plunder and pillage, commanding a pirate fleet of hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of buccaneers.

She loved o***m, handsome pirates, and spoke English... plus she allegedly (it's almost certainly not true) sometimes went into battle topless! He was a pirate warl…

20/10/2024

26/09/2024

Can an AI create a podcast you might actually want to listen to?
Listen and judge. --It's only 14 minutes long. But I think you might be as surprised as I was.

What does AI have to do with footbinding in Taiwan? Well, it's a 13-min mini episode, so you're just gonna have to listen and find out. Check the show notes for mor…

20/09/2024

Did you know that when the United Nations voted to admit “Red China” in 1971, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan called up President Richard Nixon and suggested that the United States quit the UN and become an “observer” in protest?

PLUS: Check out my Richard Nixon impersonation! :)

Did you know that when the United Nations voted to admit “Red China” in 1971, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan called up President Richard Nixon and suggested…

06/09/2024

NEW ON FORMOSA FILES:

Tales of Taiwan from 1997-1998 via the Lonely Planet travel guidebook (4th edition) by Robert Storey.

My hometown of Kaohsiung does not get a good review from Mr. Storey, but happily, a lot has changed since 1997-98. :)

Lonely Planet travel guidebooks provided some of best info on a new destination in the pre-internet era, and the late Robert Storey (1954-2017) wrote quite a few of…

22/08/2024

I was amazed to learn that all water buffalo in Taiwan are the descendants of a group from Indonesia - they were put on a ship by the Dutch in 1648 and sent to Taiwan!

That's just one story from my awesome chat with former Dutch diplomat, Taiwan democracy campaigner, and current George Mason University Taiwan history professor Gerrit van der Wees.

Did you know that all the water buffalo in Taiwan are the descendants of a group of these bovines from Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies)? These poor water …

18/08/2024

Beautiful animation + never-before-seen-footage, interviews, and more --- Mike Chinoy's new documentary on CK Yang and Rafer Johnson is awesome. Got to The Taiwan History Podcast - Formosa Files for a recent chat with Chinoy about it and go to the TAIWAN PLUS DOCUMENTARY YouTube channel to watch it for FREE

19/07/2024

Assassinations have changed history many times, but they really aren't a good idea... even if you take morality out of the picture. You never know who will succeed the fallen person or the larger ramifications (See: WWI + WWII).

Japanese princes, Taiwanese activists, a Korean martyr, American generals and presidents, Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo. It’s an action-packed episod…

28/06/2024

Communist China: Taiwan has been "a part of China" since before the universe formed!

Historical Fact: Taiwan was "apart" from China for most of China's history -- in fact, the great Qing emperor Kangxi had to be PERSUADED to take it (and 212 years later when the Japanese showed up -- the Qing STILL didn't control all of it).

And, of course, the CCP has NEVER ruled Taiwan -- What's more, before 1942, the CCP advocated that Taiwan should become independent from the Japanese Empire.

The current Beijing authorities make bombastic claims as silly as “Taiwan has been part of China since the dawn of the universe!!” The reality, however, is quite di…

21/06/2024

A rare gem! NBC radio docu-drama from 1944!
Listen to an old-timey radio program about Formosa as it was one year before the end of WWII.

It’s January 1944 and the tide of WWII has changed. Though it will be a long hard grind, victory is on the horizon. To “better inform the American public,” about th…

31/05/2024

You've probably seen the classic 1958 movie based on the heroic missionary to China, Gladys Aylward, who later set up an orphanage in Taipei. In this encore episode, we've got some interesting "extras," such as:
1. Why it was filmed in Wales - instead of Taiwan.
2. Why the missionary rather disliked the movie.
3. Why Gladys Aylward's Taiwanese friends were super unhappy with her, as well as with the movie company, and finally:
4. Why Aylward called Ingrid Bergman "a wicked woman."
https://www.formosafiles.com/encore-s4-the-inn-of-the-sixth-happiness-aylward-ingrid-bergman/
Foreigners in Taiwan 外國人在台灣
Formosan Association for Public Affairs - Northern California Chapter
Michigan Taiwanese American Organization
Taiwan Is An Independent Nation - 台湾是一个独立国家

Gladys Aylward and Ingrid Bergman: The former, a British-born Christian missionary to China and Taiwan, the latter a three-time Academy Award winner. However despit…