In his third year of university, Tsai Wen-pei began travelling out to Jinshan to report on energy issues along Taiwan’s north coast. Reporters file the story and move on. That is how the job works. He stayed — and he has been there for six years. He is not from Jinshan, and nobody invited him. It took more than a year before a town that saw him as an outsider was willing to take him in. Over those six years, he and his team built three things: a podcast called Wave Talks, now past 100 episodes, every one of them about Jinshan and the people who live there; a co-living space called Wave House, where anyone curious about the town has somewhere to stay; and a restaurant, Fish Route Kitchen, at the trailhead of the historic Fish Route, telling Jinshan’s history through local ingredients. When Typhoon Krathon struck in 2024, they picked up tools themselves and repaired eight damaged homes. This talk is not about how to build a successful business. It is about three harder things — How does an outsider earn a community’s trust? How do you tell the story of a fishing town nobody has heard of, well enough that people want to listen — and that visitors from abroad want to come? And how does the young man who decided to stay, six years ago, look back on that decision now? This talk is for you if — you are wondering what you will actually do after you graduate; you are interested in local revitalization, cultural content, podcasting or sustainability; you teach, and you are looking for a real community partner your students can work with.
Youth · Exploration · Place Designing a Global Narrative from Wave in Jinshan
🌏Crossings Lecture Series｜Session 1
Speaker Tsai Wen-Pei
Co-founder, Wave in Jinshan
Chair, Taiwan Youth Sustainable Development Association
Rising Star Award, 6th Regional Revitalization Awards
☘️Date & Time Thursday, 8 October 2026, 12:10–14:00
☘️Venue Room R3216, Building 3
☘️Open to All YZU students, faculty and staff｜60 seats LunchBoxed lunch provided — please indicate when registering
☘️Register 【Link /https://pse.is/9p2hxa 】by Monday, 5 October. Places are limited.
Organized by the International Language and Culture Center (ILCC), Yuan Ze University
Two hours over lunch, with someone about your age, on how a place became his life’s work.
