“Don’t ask why nobody is doing this, you are the NOBODY.”

Confronted with frequent natural disasters—such as earthquakes and typhoons—and ongoing political challenges, including Chinese coercion, Taiwan has cultivated a resilient and highly creative civil society. Within this dynamic ecosystem, civic technology stands out as a distinctive force, blending grassroots activism with digital innovation to tackle complex social and governance problems.

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Communications Associate Yuchen Lee and Summer 2025 Intern Tracy Weener interview Ipa Hsiao-wei Chiu (瞿筱葳), the Co-Founder of Taiwan’s largest civic tech community, g0v (台灣零時政府). Ipa explains what makes Taiwan's civic tech community unique and how it thrives throughout this past decade, highlighting ‘openness’ as the core value of this long-standing digital activism.

Useful links

• g0v’s website: https://g0v.tw/intl/en/

• The book on Taiwan’s civic tech community and the story of g0v, “The NOBODY Movement: Civic Hackers and Digital Activism in Taiwan”: https://a.co/d/6QI27cP

• g0v Summit 2026: https://summit.g0v.tw/2026/

• Sch001 零時小學校 (g0v Elementary School): https://sch001.g0v.tw/

• The Minecraft Project by g0v Elementary School : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj4M7d3qBtk

Taiwanese (台語), also known as Tâi-gí, is the most widely spoken native language in Taiwan. During both the Japanese colonial period and subsequent martial law era (1949-1987), Taiwanese and other indigenous languages faced severe repression. While democratization has restored the freedom to speak Taiwanese openly, new challenges have emerged. As fewer young people speak the language, the question looms: how can this once-flourishing mother tongue survive in an era of globalization?

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Communications Associate Yuchen Lee and 2025 Ya-Hui Chiu Summer Fellow Carissa Cheng interview Aiong Taigi, a Taiwan-based American YouTuber dedicated to preserving and promoting Taiwanese. Aiong shared his experience learning Taiwanese as a foreigner, and how Taiwan’s language policies have evolved from the martial law period to today’s democratic society.

Useful links

• Aiong Taigi: https://www.youtube.com/@AiongTaigi/featured

• Chiok-eng-tâi 足英台三聲道磅米芳: https://www.youtube.com/@saveTaiwanese/featured

• Mary Knoll Taiwanese Textbooks: https://journeytothewestresearch.com/tag/maryknoll-taiwanese/

• Taiwanese singer Hsieh Ming-yu (謝銘祐): https://open.spotify.com/artist/38kvukZeDwVBlhLnVVCKWw

• Website that archives lyrics of Taiwanese songs (台語正字歌詞): https://hackmd.io/@Et47FKHKRS2m83n-aEjwAA/HkqwImgdU

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, GTI Senior Programs Manager Adrienne Wu and Intern Trinity Tai interview Honghong Tinn, the author of Island Tinkerers and an assistant professor at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Drawing upon her research of influential Taiwanese “tinkerers,” Dr. Tinn talks about how Taiwan’s rise in high-tech industries has contributed to its international image and engagement.