In his novel "The Formosa Exchange," published in 2021, writer Huang Chong-kai presents the reader with a daring fantasy of a great exchange between the inhabitants of two islands, Taiwan and Cuba: 23 million Taiwanese wake up on the island of Cuba, near the United States, the unfamiliar Caribbean Sea stretched out in front of them. Meanwhile, 11 million Cubans find themselves on the island of Taiwan, looking across the strait toward China.
In 2014, Shao Ai-ting, then fresh out of college, opened a backpacker hostel in Taiwan with a few friends, using it as a base to introduce Taiwanese culture to foreign visitors staying there. Over the next two years, she discovered that much of Taiwan's tangible and intangible cultural heritage was disappearing at an astonishing rate. In 2016, Shao and her team set up a website and a fan page on social media, creating their "Bank of Culture."