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Board games are enjoying something of a boom in popularity in Taiwan and venues to play these games seem to be popping up everywhere. The L.A. times reports that in just the last 5 years about 50 game cafes have opened in the Taipei area, with another 50 opening elsewhere around the island.

On this episode we speak to a company that’s had a hand in this growth: for more than 10 years Swan Panasia has been  bringing foreign board games to Taiwan and Taiwanese games to the world. But as we hear in this interview, when you’re working with board games there’s more to it than your standard import-export business.

 

To tell us exactly what that is and what is behind the growth of the industry as a whole in Taiwan we speak with one of the company’s co-founders, German expat Johannes Goeth.

Recommended Reading

This recent LA Times article gives some really good background on what’s going on in the board games industry in Taiwan. And here’s one from a few years back from Taiwan Today.

Swan Panasia is helping this foreign born resident of Taiwan publish a game featuring Taiwanese food.

Other ways to listen

Taiwan Talk is broadcast during the 8am and 6pm newscasts on ICRT FM 100 on both Mondays and Tuesdays. Listen over the radio or stream it by clicking on the “live” button at the top of the ICRT homepage.

You can also download episodes of this program online at the ICRT website and on the show’s iTunes page. New episodes are added every Wednesday.

You can learn more about Taiwan Talk at the show page here.

You can also find past episodes on this blog here.

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