Talking Taiwan: Erin Hale: On Taiwan’s Antiquated Banking System and Being an American Journalist Living in Asia
Erin Hale is an American Journalist who has lived and worked across Asia.
She is currently a freelance journalist based in Taiwan. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, The BBC News, The New Statesman, The South China Morning Post, Marie Claire, The Southeast Asia Globe, Forbes.com and other outlets.
I came across her work through a recent article she wrote about how Taiwan’s banking system is stuck in the 80’s. I happened to discover it the same week we released episode 180 with Paolo Lising. In that episode Paolo and I talked about how people in Taiwan still update their account passbooks by running them through dot matrix printers at the bank.
[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]
Erin has lived in Asia for seven years. We talked about how she’s lived in Hong Kong, China and Cambodia and the reporting she’s done on Hong Kong and Cambodia, in addition to Taiwan.
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
What brought Erin to Taiwan
What Erin witnessed of the Hong Kong protests in 2019
Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement of 2014
John Lee who was elected to succeed Carrie Lam as Hong Kong’s next leader
How the recent article that Erin wrote for BBC News about how Taiwan’s banking system is still stuck in the 80s was inspired by a tweet by Catherine Chou (@catielila)
The reaction on Twitter to Erin’s article and how she used Twitter to crowdsource research for it
How often Erin uses Twitter to do research for her stories
How Erin appealed to Twitter for people’s experiences voting in the Philippines presidential election
How Erin deals with bots on Twitter, fake news and disinformation as a journalist
Taiwan-related visa and immigration issues that Erin has dealt with
The bureaucracy that Erin has experienced in Taiwan
How Erin gets ideas or sources for her stories
Working as a freelance journalist
What it takes to succeed as a freelance journalist
What Erin enjoyed about writing the story about banking in Taiwan
The article that Erin wrote about Taiwan’s indigenous people
What it’s been like for Erin to learn Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan and what her goals in studying Chinese are
How Erin ended up moving to Asia
Beijing’s ‘Airpocalypse’ in 2013
How journalists’ experiences in China have changed over the last five years
How Cambodia has changed and become influenced by China
Related Links:
Erin Hale’s website: http://www.erinhale.com/
Erin Hale on Twitter: https://twitter.com/erinhale
Erin Hale’s article for the BBC “Will Taiwan’s banks stay stuck in a ‘1980s’ time warp?”: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60918337
2019–2020 Hong Kong protests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Hong_Kong_protests
Hong Kong Protests (from Human Rights Watch): https://www.hrw.org/blog-feed/hong-kong-protests
Hong Kong’s Protests Explained (from Amnestry International): https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/hong-kong-protests-explained/
Hong Kong’s Umbrella movement of 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Hong_Kong_protests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella_Movement
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/hong-kongs-umbrella-movement-the-protests-and-beyond/
https://qz.com/1714897/what-was-hong-kongs-umbrella-movement-about/
Sunflower movement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement
Lam steps down as fractured Hong Kong faces more uncertainty (an article for Al Jazeera by Erin Hale): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/7/hong-kong-leader-carrie-lam-who-set-off-2019-protests-retires
Beijing loyalist John Lee elected as Hong Kong’s next leader: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097452402/beijing-loyalist-john-lee-elected-as-hong-kongs-next-leader
Chinese name chop (aka seal aka stamp): https://www.thoughtco.com/chinese-chops-seals-2278409
https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/all-about-the-chinese-chop-yinjian/
Paolo Lising Startup Taiwan Author: Shares His Knowledge on Starting a Business in Taiwan (Episode 180): https://talkingtaiwan.com/paolo-lising-startup-taiwan-author-shares-his-knowledge-on-starting-a-business-in-taiwan-ep-180/
Catherine Chou on Twitter: https://twitter.com/catielila
What is a Vox Pop?: https://www.voxpops.com/what-is-a-vox-pop/
Indigenous hunting traditions in sights of Taiwan’s top court (an article for Al Jazeera by Erin Hale): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/5/taiwan-indigenous-hunting-court-ruling
Beijing’s ‘Airpocalypse’ Spurs Pollution Controls, Public Pressure: https://www.npr.org/2013/01/14/169305324/beijings-air-quality-reaches-hazardous-levels
Talking Taiwan Episode 139 featuring Catherine Chou, Kevin Lin, and Jane W. Wang:
Covid 19 Taiwan Fundraiser: Raising Money for Society’s Most Vulnerable (Episode 139): https://talkingtaiwan.com/covid-19-tawain-fundraiser-raising-money-for-societys-most-vulnerable-ep-139/
Reliving the Sunflower Movement from Ground Zero: Jiho Chang Tells the Inside Story (Episode 174): https://talkingtaiwan.com/reliving-the-sunflower-movement-from-ground-zero-jiho-chang-tells-the-inside-story-ep-174/
LISTEN to Episode 183: Erin Hale: On Taiwan’s Antiquated Banking System and Being an American Journalist Living in Asia HERE
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