FORMOSA FILES PODCAST S5-E1 – Taiwan’s Shrinking Population
Did you know that former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文 is the youngest of eleven siblings? Her personal story is a dramatic example of how quickly we’ve fallen from high fertility in the 1950s, when the rate was over six children per woman, to the current birthrate of about one. That’s half of what’s needed to maintain a population. Eryk and John discuss Taiwan’s dramatic demographic changes and explore possible solutions. This is an important subject, an existential threat for Taiwan, which is why we chose it to kick off Season Five of Formosa Files.
Cover left image via Reddit, right image via Big News Network
#formosafiles #podcasts #taiwan #history #formosa
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The Formosa Files podcast is sponsored by the FRANK CHEN FOUNDATION (陳啟川先生文教基金會)
Website: https://www.frank-chen.org.tw/
This top-rated history podcast tells stories from the history of Formosa (Taiwan) from circa 1600 C.E. - 2000 C.E., via interesting, lesser-known short stories presented in a non-chronological order.
HOSTS: John Ross is an author and co-founder of publisher Camphor Press, which specializes in books on Taiwan and China in English, while Eryk Michael Smith has worked as a writer and journalist for multiple media outlets in Taiwan, including the island's only English-language radio station ICRT (FM 100.7). Both Ross and Smith have lived in Taiwan for well over 20 years and call the island home.
