Sep 19

Sep 19 Talking Taiwan: Stan from Poland: YouTuber Covers Political Commentary, Interviews, and News of Taiwan

I met Stan Kwiatkowski, better known as YouTuber Stan from Poland 斯坦-波蘭ê台灣囡仔, at this year’s Taiwanese American Conference where he was one of the speakers. His YouTube channel now has over 200,000 subscribers. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, the first thing you’ll notice after going to his YouTube channel is how fluently he speaks Mandarin Chinese in practically all of the videos. The content that Stan and his wife produce for their YouTube channel consists of political commentary, interviews and news with a focus on topics related to Taiwan’s political situation and security. Stan also has some English videos on the Love Taiwan YouTube channel. We’ll share links to both of these YouTube channels on TalkingTaiwan.com for this episode.

[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]

I interviewed Stan in person when he was in New York in July. We started off talking about some of the key dates in Taiwan’s history such as the 228 massacre of February 28, 1947, and ended up discussing his thoughts on Taiwan’s upcoming presidential elections in January of 2024. If you’d like to watch my interview with Stan, we will also be posting a video of it to Talking Taiwan’s YouTube channel. Here’s our interview.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

How Stan got interested in Taiwan
How Stan started his YouTube channel which took five years to get up to 200,00 YouTube subscribers
Stan’s first YouTube video on his channel was about Poland’s independence day (November 11)
How there are parallels between the democratization of Poland and Taiwan
What brought Stan to Taiwan
What Stan’s time in Taiwan was like
Poland’s pursuit of independence in the early 20thcentury
The misperception that Poland was previously a communist country by the will of its people but the constitution was amended by Stalin
How Stan’s sees parallels between Poland’s democratization and Taiwan’s
How Stan and his wife’s perspectives shape the content they create for their YouTube channel
How a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp opened up a conversation about Taiwan’s Green Island
Stan’s view of Taiwan before he came to Taiwan and how it’s changed
Stan’s upbringing and aptitude for languages
Poland’s anti-communist law
Stan has made about 10 videos about Poland’s transitional justice and democratization
The challenges to Taiwan’s transitional justice
The challenges Taiwan faces in reforming its constitution, official name of the country and anthem
How Stan’s YouTube channel reached its first milestone of 100,000 subscribers
How Stan has covered the topics of the how the World Health Organization won’t let Taiwan join as a member, how Taiwan developed its own vaccine, the National Security Law in Hong Kong, mafia affiliated YouTubers in Taiwan
Stan has livestreamed during the U.S. presidential elections and about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The research that Stan does for his YouTube videos
How Stan hopes that his viewers learn not to believe in propaganda and that they will go deeper and do research, and consult difference sources of information/news
Stan tries to create 2 videos and do one livestream a week
How difficult it is to predict which YouTube videos will get more views
The most popular videos on Stan’s YouTube channel
What Stan has learned about himself from the experience of building his YouTube channel
How Stan also works as a freelance interpreter
Stan’s reflections on some of the people he’s interviewed: General Yu, Miao Poya, Freddie Lim, Kira Rudyk
How more people are learning about and from Taiwan
Stan’s most pressing concerns about Taiwan
The different types of Chinese propaganda that is harmful to Taiwan
How Chinese propaganda and disinformation could impact the outcome of Taiwan’s elections
How Stan hopes more people will create content about Taiwan and debunking Chinese propaganda
Sources to learn about Taiwan that Stan recommends for people who don’t read Chinese
Stan’s thoughts on the fear of Taiwan being attacked by China
What Taiwan must do to protect itself from China’s attack
Stan’s thought on Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election in 2024
Why it’s important for people to vote in Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election in 2024
Ko Wen-je and the Taiwan People’s Party
The Rally for Justice that happened in Taipei on July 16
The U.S. support of Taiwan
What happened when Stan asked random people in the streets of New York City whether or not the U.S. should support Taiwan
U.S. support of Taiwan vs. Vietnam
What is most rewarding and challenging about the work Stan does for his YouTube channel
Stan’s opinion of how the U.S. would react if China attacked Taiwan
How much longer Stan sees himself creating political commentary and news-related videos
Stan’s thoughts on Taiwan’s upcoming presidential elections (in January 2024)

LISTEN to Episode 248: Stan from Poland: YouTuber Covers Political Commentary, Interviews, and News of Taiwan HERE

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Sep 19 Talking Taiwan: Stan from Poland: YouTuber Covers Political Commentary, Interviews, and News of Taiwan

[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

Related Links:

LISTEN to Episode 248: Stan from Poland: YouTuber Covers Political Commentary, Interviews, and News of Taiwan HERE

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