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Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang

A Deep Local Narrator with profound affection for this island, Formosa

Nobody Ever Told Me Vol. XV · Echoes of the Long Arrival III

Sep 4, 2026

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5 min read

Nobody Ever Told Me Vol. XV · Echoes of the Long Arrival III

There is no genealogy. My father never explained. I worked it out from a place name.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
He Asked for Thirty YearsVol. XIV · Echoes of the Long Arrival II

Aug 28, 2026

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8 min read

He Asked for Thirty YearsVol. XIV · Echoes of the Long Arrival II

We were looking for a train station. The tomb was on the way.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Vol. XIII Where the Road StopsEchoes of the Long Arrival I

Aug 21, 2026

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4 min read

Vol. XIII Where the Road StopsEchoes of the Long Arrival I

Route 26 ends at Xuhai. We hadn't meant to buy coffee.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Vol. XII · The Man Who Fried Squid

Aug 14, 2026

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4 min read

Vol. XII · The Man Who Fried Squid

Echoes of the Original Heart III

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Vol. XI · The Walls She Didn't See

Aug 7, 2026

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14 min read

Vol. XI · The Walls She Didn't See

A Danish traveler has been to Taiwan three or four times. She still only ever had one day for Tainan.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Vol. X · The Man Who Would Not Be Named

Jul 31, 2026

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9 min read

Vol. X · The Man Who Would Not Be Named

Three hundred years ago, someone taught Taiwan how to bring water to the plains. He would not tell anyone his name. The land remembered him anyway.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Vol. IX · What Bavi Left Behind

Jul 24, 2026

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9 min read

Vol. IX · What Bavi Left Behind

A storm passed. A lake formed. Two friends from Wisconsin ate stinky tofu in Taiwan.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Vol. VIII · The River My Mother Grew Up Beside

Jul 17, 2026

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5 min read

Vol. VIII · The River My Mother Grew Up Beside

The North built a tunnel. The South had a river. Both are quiet love.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
VOL. VII · Echoes of Now III Beneath the Pearl: The Village That Lives Beneath the Reservoir post

Jul 10, 2026

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5 min read

VOL. VII · Echoes of Now III Beneath the Pearl: The Village That Lives Beneath the Reservoir post

Last month I wrote about Taiwan's Pearl String - the four-century reservoir network keeping our water flowing. This week I drove an hour from my home to see the other half of that story: nine Atayal villages drowned in 1957 to make the first pearl possible.Ricky Wang | July 10, 2026

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
VOL. VI · Leiden Files IV - The River That Wasn't Mattau

Jun 26, 2026

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5 min read

VOL. VI · Leiden Files IV - The River That Wasn't Mattau

In July 1629, sixty-three Dutch soldiers walked into a river they thought was the Mattau. It was not. It was the river that runs past my father's village — the one the Dutch later renamed Murderers' River.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
VOL. V · Echoes of Now A Pearl String, 400 Years in the Making

Jun 19, 2026

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3 min read

VOL. V · Echoes of Now A Pearl String, 400 Years in the Making

In May 2026, Zengwen Reservoir held 11.2 percent...

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
VOL. C · Echoes of NowEast Africa to Tainan, Then and Now

Jun 12, 2026

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4 min read

VOL. C · Echoes of NowEast Africa to Tainan, Then and Now

A Boy from Gombe, a Map We've Seen Before 🛕

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
How Formosa Clothed the Samurai 🛕

Jun 5, 2026

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4 min read

How Formosa Clothed the Samurai 🛕

100,000 skins a year. For four decades, Taiwan's forests supplied Japan's elite. Then the wild went quiet.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Leiden Files II - The Black Guard

May 29, 2026

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4 min read

Leiden Files II - The Black Guard

Some of them came from Africa. Some had been Dutch slaves at Fort Zeelandia. In 1661, they raised their muskets at their former masters.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
Leiden Files I — 1654: The Year Heaven Sent a Sign

May 22, 2026

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4 min read

Leiden Files I — 1654: The Year Heaven Sent a Sign

A black cloud rose over Tainan one Sunday in May. The Dutch governors didn't see locusts. They saw the Book of Exodus.

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang
More Than a Map

May 16, 2026

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2 min read

More Than a Map

An Invitation to Hear the Echoes of Taiwan

Ricky Wang
Ricky Wang

Echoes of Formosa

Decoding the island's cultural DNA — every Friday from Taiwan.

© 2026 Echoes of Formosa.
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