Honghong Tinn

Island Tinkerers: Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan’s

I am heading to Stanford University to give a book talk on Thursday, March 5. Below are more details about the venue and time.
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM (Pacific)
Philippines Conference Room (C330)
Encina Hall, 3rd Floor
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
aparc.fsi.stanford.edu/events/islan...

Island Tinkerers: Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan’s Computing Industry Published in East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (Vol. 19, No. 4, 2025)

Thanks to EASTS and Dr. Juyoung Lee for publishing a generous review of my book Island Tinkerers! Happy lunar new year holidays🏮 to EASTS editorial office and Dr. Juyoung Lee.
Full text is available at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Dr. Juyoung Lee: www.mh.sinica.edu.tw/UserDetail.a...

The deadline for submitting proposals to SIGCIS 2026 annual meeting has been extended to Mon, 2/23.

How Taiwan Became the Chipmaker for the World A new book tells the story of the island-nation’s transformation into a central hub for technological development and manufacturing.

"As the world appears entranced by faster chips and smarter electrical brains, elevating a company like TSMC to mythical status, few are pausing to ponder what the computing power is for—and who powers the computers?"
I review Honghong Tinn's important new book, Island Tinkerers, in @thenation.com:

How Taiwan Became the Chipmaker for the World A new book tells the story of the island-nation’s transformation into a central hub for technological development and manufacturing.

"Against all the saber-rattling, myth-making, and visions of world domination, [Island Tinkerers] offers a timely intervention and powerful antidote."

@thenation.com reviews @honghongtinn.bsky.social's fascinating #OpenAccess contribution to the history of computing technology:

SIGCIS 2026 CFP: Known Error The Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) welcomes submissions to their 17th Annual Conference SIGCIS 2026: Known Error 🧯⚠️🪠 🚩 June 17-18 2026 | School of Informatio...

Submissions for our upcoming hybrid conference, SIGCIS 2026: Known Error (June 17-18, Berkeley, CA) are due 2/16. Dwai Banerjee is our keynote speaker. See the full CFP here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

North American Taiwan Studies Association has a call for paper for the 31st Annual Conference, June 26- June 28, 2026
Indiana University Bloomington. The theme is Resonance/Dissonance — Taiwan Studies, Knowledge Production,
and Power Asymmetry.

www.na-tsa.org/home

I am so excited to discover an new YouTube channel about Taiwan by Dr. Sarah Plovnick!
跟台灣研究的專家們分享 Sarah Plovnick 博士的 YouTube 頻道 “台灣沙拉”！
www.youtube.com/@TaiwanSalad

Call for Papers n° 19 : Towards New Social and Historical Studies o... Abstracts are due by January 16, 2026. Today public opinion on generative artificial intelligence is deeply divided. Techno-optimistic promises clash with ethical critiques, against the backdrop of...

Sharing a call for paper, "Towards New Social and Historical Studies of Artificial Intelligence," for a special issue of RESET, edited by Valentin Goujon (médialab, Sciences Po), Mathilde Fichen (HT2s, Cnam), and Alexander Campolo (Durham University). journals.openedition.org/reset/6250

Job opening in the field of the history of computing: networks.h-net.org/jobs/69559/b...

Happy Publication Day to those who celebrate...README is out in the world via @mitpress.bsky.social

mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...

My new book is a book about books about computing...enjoy!

The Microchip Titans | Los Angeles Review of Books Mason Wong reviews three books related to US-China tech industries and global competition.

"[An] important intervention complicating the historiography of technological development in Asia."

@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social covers @honghongtinn.bsky.social's "Island Tinkerers" in a joint review of books on US-China tech industries & global competition:

I just did a zoom talk with Digital Materialities working group at the the Center for Internet and Society (CIS, CNRS) in France at cis.cnrs.fr/materialites.... The seminars are fully run by PhD students! It's amazing they created an event poster for my talk.
感謝法國數位物質性研究會的研究生邀請我做線上演講!今秋有三個演講與台灣有關。

U Board of Regents threatens reprimand, action on designation for doctors group Attorney General Keith Ellison says he pushed for agreement after the university walked away from negotiations.

The University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents unanimously passed a resolution Thursday morning saying its official doctors’ group “unlawfully” negotiated a $1 billion deal with Fairview Health Services that harms the U’s interests.

Job opening: Feminist/ Queer Science & Technology Studies:
jobs.calpoly.edu/en-us/job/55...

U of M blasting new Fairview deal with university physicians as ‘hostile takeover’ The health system and U doctors are announcing an agreement for medical school funding -- a deal the university is rejecting.

The University of Minnesota is battling in public with its own physician group and Fairview Health Services, the nonprofit group that owns the U’s teaching hospital in Minneapolis.

So thankful for writer Joyce Yen(顏擇雅)'s endorsement of 科技造浪者, the traditional Chinese version of my Island Tinkerers! I haven't been able to see the physical copy of the book, but it's on Google Play's Books (tinyurl.com/te45du8h)! Link to Yen's short book review: www.facebook.com/share/p/14fR...

感謝 Hansen Hsu 以及 Mountain View 電腦歷史博物館邀請我週二去演講，很高興有機會遇到了很多熱情的觀眾，認識新朋友(特別是康乃爾北加州校友會的John Lin！)，以及跟幾位好久不見的朋友敘舊！這次也有機會可以拍下博物館裡一些展覽的電腦，元件，或資訊，下學期教電腦史的課程的時候，可以用來更新我原來的投影片！（平時上課我已常簡短播放電腦歷史博物館所製作的影片或訪問！）。

CHM Live | Taiwan Rising: The Origins of a High-Tech Industry YouTube video by Computer History Museum

My talk at Computer History Museum is on YouTube now. Thanks to Hansen Hsu and CHM for hosting my talk on Tuesday! Acer's Micro-Professor II computer (1982) was displayed at the reception! Thank you, Dag Spicer, Shinyi Hsieh, Jofish Kaye, John Lin, and Ling-Fei Lin! www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6fu...

A podcast on my book Island Tinkerers is available today. Thanks to senior programs manager Adrienne Wu at Global Taiwan Institute for arranging the interview and publishing the podcast! 華府的智庫「全球台灣研究中心」幫我做了一個關於我的新書以及台灣科技產業的軟實力的訪談，是智庫的經理吳至芳主持的「台灣沙龍」這個節目的最新一集喔，歡迎大家線上收聽！謝謝至芳！
mailchi.mp/globaltaiwan...

I will be talking with Dr. Hansen Hsu, curator of the Software History Center, about my book Island Tinkerers at Computer History Museum on November 4 (7 - 8:15pm PST). Below is a registering link for attending in person or online:
computerhistory.org/events/taiwa...

Excited to see that my book Island Tinkerers (@mitpress.bsky.social) is reviewed in the Los Angeles Review of Books. lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

I am looking forward to my visit to the University of Pittsburgh on Monday, October 6. My talk is scheduled at 2pm at 4130 Posvar Hall, hosted by Asian Studies Center. www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc/events/i...

Many thanks to questions from Drs. Jennifer Alexander, Jennifer Gunn, Jeff Yost(@justcode.bsky.social), Anna Graber, Hiromi Mizuno, Adam Negri, and more. They, & many audience members, have been to my other presentations on & off campus! I am grateful for their generous support & valuable feedback!

Libraries and consortia interested in supporting the growing Direct to Open program can make their commitment through November 30, 2025. Learn more about this groundbreaking initiative and how your institution can participate: mitpress.mit.edu/mit-press-ex...

Thanks to the Direct to Open (D2O) initiative of the MIT Press! My book was able to be published open access and reached many readers around the world!

@dukepress.bsky.social @goldsmithspress.bsky.social

my T&C review of Engineers & the Two Taiwans by Kuo-Hui Chang, Gary Downey & Bono Po-Jen Shih. a concise, perceptive study of the politics of apolitical engineering & fine complement to other histories of Taiwanese S&T, eg @honghongtinn.bsky.social's Island Tinkerers.

muse.jhu.edu/article/965841

Many thanks to the feedback and questions from ECE colleagues!

I focused on four examples of tinkerers in my book Island Tinkerers: (1) a group of technical aid program participants (in the 1960s), (2) Quanta Computer founder Barry Pak-lee Lam, (3) Acer Computer founder Stan Shih, and (4) TSMC founder Morris Chang.