John chats with veteran Hong Kong-based journalist and author of The Island (2024) Mark O'Neill, who tells us what Taiwan was like in the early 1980s, when he first came to study Chinese.

Despite a mysterious knife attack and various authoritarian elements (such as “mail boxes” for reporting spies and subversives), he loved the country.

Over the next four decades, he made numerous trips back, witnessing and reporting on Taiwan’s transformation from one party rule to an admirable democracy.

The Island is not Mark’s first Taiwan book – earlier works include ones on Buddhist charity Tzu Chi and the National Palace Museum – so he brings both depth and breadth to his entertaining look at the country.