Taiwan may be small, but the island nation plays a big role is global politics, culture, and technology. While many people still confuse it with Thailand, that has finally been changing, thanks in part to its growing list of celebrities.
In this article, I’ve compiled over 30 of the most famous people who were born in Taiwan, from historical figures and modern-day politicians to sports stars, musicians, business executives, chefs, and television celebrities.
At the end, I’ve included a few more famous people associated with Taiwan (but not born there) and famous Americans of Taiwanese descent. You may also want to visit my list of things that Taiwan is known for besides its famous people!
Entertainment Celebrities
Here are the biggest Taiwanese names in the television and film industry. These celebrities are just the tip of the iceberg – I’ve handpicked ones that international audiences are most likely to know.
Ang Lee (李安)
Ang Lee probably tops the list of Taiwanese people you’ve actually heard of. The famous Taiwanese director’s list of accomplishments include Life of Pi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hulk.
Lee was born in Pingtung in 1954. Kenting National Park in his native county was even used as a filming location for Life of Pi. Lee moved to the US for university in 1979.
He made his first few films in the US but returned to Taiwan to make Eat Drink Man Woman, which focused on traditional Taiwanese family values (I highly recommend it if you want to learn more about Taiwanese culture!)
His first international breakthrough was Sense and Sensibility, based on a Jane Austen novel.
Jay Chou (周杰倫)
Jay Chou, sometimes called the “King of Mandopop”, is one of the top-selling Taiwanese musicians of all time, having sold over 30 million albums.
Chou was born in Linkou district of Taipei county (today’s New Taipei City) in 1979. As a teen, he was introverted and more interested in music than socializing.
His first album, Jay, released in 2000, quickly took off. Chou became especially popular among overseas Chinese communities like Singapore, Malaysia, China, and Hong Kong.
Besides music, Chou has acted in Hollywood films like The Green Hornet, created a fashion brand called PHANTACi, and runs a musical talent agency, JVR Music.
Jolin Tsai (蔡依林)
If Jaz Chou is the King of Mandopop, then Jolin has similarly been dubbed the “Queen of C-Pop” (Chinese pop music). She has been one of the key musicians that popularized the dance-pop genre in the Chinese-speaking world.
Tsai was born in Xinzhuang district (where I happened to live in Taiwan and my wife’s family still does!) of Taipei county in 1980. At the age of 18, she won a singing competition on MTV Mandarin and her career took off thereafter.
She has stood up for topics such as girl power, minority rights, and standards of beauty. She is the highest paid Taiwanese singer. There’s even a tree in Chishang, a famous cycling destinations in Taitung, named after her, merely because she shared a photo on social media of her standing beside it.
Shu Qi (林立慧)
Lin Li-hui (stage name Shu Qi) is a Taiwanese actress who rose to stardom in Hong Kong. She was born in Xindian district of Taipei county in 1974 but moved to Hong Kong at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career.
One of Shu Qi’s early claims to fame was making the cover of the Chinese version of Playboy. But her reputation was sealed when she starred in three films by the iconic Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (see below).
Since then, she has starred in over 80 films. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons became the top selling Chinese film at the time of its release, while she won the Best Actress award for The Assassin.
Although mainly known in Chinese-speaking communities, she is one of the most successful Taiwanese actresses of all time.
A-Mei (張惠妹)
A-Mei is another of the biggest names in the Taiwanese music industry. She stands out as a Puyuma (Taiwanese aboriginal) performer, born into the Tamalakaw tribe of Beinan township in Taitung. Her Puyuma name is Kulilay Amit.
Her first release, Sisters, sold over a million copies and turned her into an instant star. Logging over 50 million album sales to date, she holds the title for top-selling female Taiwanese musician.
A-mei has even been called the Madonna of Taiwan. Her music is the pride of Taiwanese indigenous peoples and she has spoken out for gender and LGBTQ+ rights.
Teresa Teng (鄧麗君)
We could not cover famous Taiwanese musicians without mentioning Teresa Teng, the so-called “Eternal Queen of Asian Pop”. She is so vital to the history of Asian pop music that people say “Wherever there are Chinese-speaking people, there is the music of Teresa Teng”.
Born in Yunlin in 1953, Teng was raised in a poverty stricken military dependents village (her old house is now a pilgrimage site for fans). After appearing on television as a teen, she switched to singing.
Over the course of her career, Teng recorded over 1700 songs in at least 8 different languages. Her songs have been covered countless times. In the 1980s, when her music was banned in China, Taiwan used to blast it towards Mainland from huge speaker place on Kinmen island.
Eventually, her music was allowed in China and she became immensely popular there – some say even bringing the two sides together. TIME has called her one of the seven greatest female singers, while one poll in China voted her the most influential person since 1949.
Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢)
Hou Hsiao-hsien is considered one of the best film directors of all time. Born to a Hakka family in Guangdong, China in 1947, his family moved to Taiwan shortly after he was born, so for the purpose of this article, I’m considering him Taiwanese.
Hou created some of the most iconic pieces of Taiwanese film, including the historical drama A City of Sadness, considered his masterpiece. The film follows a family during the White Terror period, after the KMT army and thousands of Chinese soldiers fled from China to Taiwan and initiated a decades-long period of oppressive rule on local Taiwanese – Hou’s family would have been among those Chinese immigrants.
Hou’s martial arts film The Assassin is another of his biggest hits. He has been voted the Director of the Decade in the 1990s and 16th on a list of the top-25 film directors of all time.
Mayday (五月天)
While solo pop artists dominate the music scene in Taiwan, Mayday is the country’s most famous musical group and the best-known one outside of Taiwan. They’ve been dubbed the “Beatles of the Chinese-speaking world” and even cite the Beatles as one of their biggest influences.
The pop-rock group currently consists of five members: Monster, Ashin, Masa, Ming, and Stone. The came together in 1995 and rebranded as Mayday in 1997. Mayday’s success grew with every album release. They notably broke a world record for highest concert when they performed on the 91st floor of Taipei 101.
They also smashed the record for most attendees at a concert in Taiwan, beating out the previous winner (Michael Jackson). In 2014, they were the first Chinese-language band to perform at Madison Square Garden in NYC.
Political Celebrities
Here’s a list of Taiwanese political figures worth knowing. For ones who were born outside of Taiwan but played a key roll in the country’s history, see the “Famous People Associated with Taiwan (but not born there)” section below.
Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文)
Taiwan has only had 8 presidents so far, but the one whose name you are most likely to have heard in recent years is Tsai Ying-wen.
Born in Taipei city in 1956, she was the first female president of Taiwan, unmarried, and a known cat lover. Tsai was still very popular at the end of her second term (a rarity for politicians).
Tsai belonged to the DPP party. She was their second president, after Chen Shui-bian (see below) first broke 52 years of KMT rule in 2000. She took office with a landslide win in 2016 and again in 2020. In 2024, she was succeeded by her vice president, Lai Ching-te.
During Tsai’s presidency, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize gay marriage rights. She became a model leader in Taiwan’s impressive handling of the COVID pandemic. TIME called Tsai one of the most influential people of 2020 while Forbes named her the #2 most powerful woman.
Freddy Lim (林昶佐)
Freddy Lim (born Lim Tshiong-tso) is an anomaly among Taiwanese politicians. Before going into politics, he was already famous in Taiwan but for something very different – as the lead singer of heavy metal band Chthonic (see their videos here). How bad-ass is that?
Born in Taipei in 1976, Lim choose his English name after the horror film killer Freddy Krueger. After forming Chthonic in 1995, he often wore corpse-like face paint while performing. The band was is known for the use of traditional Chinese instruments like the erhu.
Lim became increasingly interested in politics. In 2015, he founded the New Power Party, following the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan. The party aims to rewrite the constitution to focus on Taiwan rather than “Republic of China” (still the country’s formal name).
Lim opposes capital punishment (still legal in Taiwan) and the legalization of marijuana (still super illegal in Taiwan).
Lee Teng-hui (李登輝)
Lee Teng-hui was the first president of Taiwan who was actually born in Taiwan. While he belonged to the KMT, the party responsible for the White Terror, his rule marked the end of that period of oppression and he played a key role in the country’s transition to democracy.
Lee was born in 1923 in Sanzhi district on the north coast of Taiwan, during the Japanese colonial period. He had a keen interest in Japan and learned Japanese martial arts. Later, he was a lieutenant in the Japanese army. His Japanese speaking ability was even better than his Mandarin.
After holding the position of Taipei Mayor, Lee became Vice President and then president when Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988.
Not long after the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, there were also major protests in Taiwan, but Lee met with the protestors and supported their objectives. In 1996, he became the first democratically elected president of Taiwan.
Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)
The last Taiwan-born politician I chose to include on my list is Chen Shui-bian. He is especially known for being the first non-KMT president of the Republic of China and for controversies during his political career.
Chen was born in Tainan in 1950. In 1986, around the time the DPP party was first forming, Chen was in prison for the first time, after being found guilty of libel.
Shortly after, he climbed his way up the DPP ladder to become mayor of Taipei and president of Taiwan in 2000. At the end of his first term, he was shot in the stomach, which some thought was a stunt to get re-elected.
After the end of his second term, Chen and his wife were convicted of bribery and he was sentenced to 19 years in prison. He was released on medical parole in 2015. Despite his many controversies, Chen’s period of presidency contributed to a growing sense of Taiwanese (rather than Chinese) self-identify and spirit of independence in the country.
Fun fact: Did you know that the living descendants of Confucius (who lived half a millennium before Jesus) live in Taiwan today? The youngest heir, Kung Yu-jen (孔佑仁) born 2006, is the 80th-generation descendant of Confucius. His father was a senior advisor to the president of Taiwan. Read more facts about Taiwan here.
Sports Celebrities
Taiwan has produced some famous athletes spanning a wide range of sports. See even more in the “Famous People of Taiwanese Descent” section below.
Wang Chien-ming (王建民)
Arguably the single most well-known Taiwan-born athlete is Wang Chien-ming. The MLB baseball player has pitched for the New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals.
Wang was born in Tainan in 1980. He played in Taiwan until he was signed by the Yankees minor league in 2000. He worked is way up to MLB in 2005 and led the team to many wins in 2006-7. During those years he became the pride of Taiwan, where baseball is the most popular sport.
Today, Wang is back in Taiwan and coaches the CTBC Brothers team in Taichung. The documentary Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story deals with struggles Wang faced later in his career such as multiple injuries and extreme popularity in Taiwan.
Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎)
Tai Tzu-ying is one of the world’s best badminton players. She held the No. 1 title in women’s singles for 214 weeks, which is a record in BWF (Badminton World Federation) history.
Tai was born in Kaohsiung in 1994. Her father taught her badminton and she became the youngest player to reach first division in the country. She first reached world No. 1 position in December of 2016 and won a silver medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Currently, Tai is listed as the 3rd best women’s badminton player in the world. She is an inspiration to many Taiwanese youths.
Yani Tseng (曾雅妮)
In the world of golf, Yani Tseng is Taiwan’s most acclaimed athlete. Hailing from Taoyuan city (the location of the main international airport in Taiwan), Tseng is was the youngest golf player (male or female) to win five major championships.
Tseng’s big winning streak occurred from 2011 to 2013, when she was ranked #1 in Women’s World Golf Rankings for 109 straight weeks.
In 2012, TIME magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇)
One more Taiwanese athlete is Hsieh Su-wei, the top performing tennis player ever from Taiwan.
Hsieh came from a family of tennis players in Hsinchu. Known for her unorthodox style of playing, including holding the racket with both hands while hitting from either side, she has been especially successful in doubles. She was at the #1 spot for doubles for 47 weeks.
In total, Hsieh has bagged over $10 million in prize money from her many wins. She has been described as a “a killer on the court who can produce shots that defy geometry and the laws of physics”.
Fashion Celebrities
I only have one Taiwanese fashion celebrity to list here – if you know any others who should be being added, please comment below!
Jason Wu (吳季剛)
Jason Wu of Yunlin, Taiwan (born 1982) is a Taiwanese fashion designer whose name you’re most likely to know. He is best known for designing dresses and dolls for several celebrities.
Wu’s family moved to Vancouver, Canada when he was 9. He learned how to sew dolls and as a teenager was hired to sew doll clothing by a toy company. After design school, he designed dressed for the likes of Ivana Trump.
But Wu’s biggest claim to fame was designing multiple dresses for Michelle Obama, including the one she wore during Obama’s first and second inaugurations.
Wu has also worked for Hugo Boss, launched a line of makeup products, and designed six RuPaul dolls. He is openly gay.
Famous Businessmen & Women
With the 20th largest economy in the world, it comes as no surprise that Taiwan has come big-name business figures.
Terry Gou (郭台銘)
Terry Gou is Taiwan’s most famous entrepreneur and richest person, with a net worth of USD 6.8 billion.
Born in Banqiao district of Taipei county in 1950, Gou founded Foxconn at the age of 24. The company has since grown to become the world’s 20th most successful company. You might recognize the names of a few of the products they make – iPads, iPhones, Nintendos, Xboxes, and Playstations.
Gou attempted to get into politics after he claimed the goddess Matsu told him to in a dream. He lost the bid for KMT presidential candidate in 2016 and again in 2024. For these reasons, some have called him the Donald Trump of Taiwan, and the two have met.
Cher Wang (王雪紅)
Another huge name in the Taiwanese business world is Cher Wang. The Taiwanese entrepreneur was the co-founder of HTC and chipset maker Via Technologies.
Taipei-born (1958) Cher was the daughter of Wang Yung-ching, whose Formosa Plastics Group made him one of the richest people in Taiwan. In the early 2012, Cher herself was listed as the richest person in Taiwan.
Besides being filthy rich, she has donated tens of millions of dollars to charities. However, she has also allegedly given nearly the same amount to anti-LGBTQ+ groups and taken steps to support anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Taiwan.
Jerry Yang (楊致遠)
Ever heard of Yahoo!? One of its co-founders, Jerry Yang, is Taiwanese.
Yang was born in Taipei city in 1968 and moved to San Jose, California when he was 10. While attending Stanford, he met classmate David Filo. Together, they launched Yahoo! in 1994 – it all started out as a website called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web.”
While Americans have largely forgotten about Yahoo!, the site is still popular in Taiwan, Japan, and Mexico.
Today, Yang’s net worth is $2.5 billion. At one point, Yang/Yahoo made a billion dollar investment in China’s Alibaba, which has been called one of the greatest investments in tech history.
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳)
Another Taiwan-born business figure who made it big in the US is Jensen Huang (born Huang Jen-Hsen). Huang was born in Tainan in 1963 and moved to the US as a child.
After completing a Master’s at Stanford, he would go on to found the tech company Nvidia, which today is the third most valuable public traded company in the US, after Microsoft and Apple.
Today, Huang’s net worth is UWD 81.7 billion, making him one of the top-20 richest people on Earth, and more than 10 times richer than Terry Gou (the wealthiest person in Taiwan).
Famous Chefs / Bakers
There’s one famous Taiwanese chef and one baker that you’re likely to hear of if you live in or are visiting Taiwan.
André Chiang (江振誠)
Andre Chiang is Taiwan’s most famous chef. He is best known for his flagship restaurant, Restaurant André, in Singapore. He was born in 1976 in Shilin district (where Taiwan’s most famous night market is located).
Chiang learned to cook from his mother when they lived in Japan and later went to culinary school in France. There he worked his way up to the position of head chef at Le Jardin des Ses, which had three Michelin stars.
Later he moved to Singapore and started Restaurant André. The restaurant was ranked the second-best in Asia and #14 in the Top 50 restaurants in the world. He famously refused to accept two stars from Michelin.
Taiwanese were thrilled when Chiang decided to close his Singapore restaurant and move back to Taiwan, where he opened RAW and now lives here in the Yilan countryside.
Wu Pao-chun (吳寶春)
Wu Pao-chun is a household name in Taiwan, but there’s less chance that you’ve heard of him until now. This Taiwanese baker made headlines in 2010 when he won Master Baker in the bread category in the Bakery Masters competition in Paris.
Wu had humble beginnings in Pintung county, where he was born in 1970. His family was poor, so he learned baking as an attempt to earn some much needed income.
After he moved to Taipei, he apprenticed in bakeries and then developed his own style which included using some out-of-the-ordinary ingredients.
His award-winning bread contained dried lychee, rose, and millet (which Taiwanese aboriginals use to make wine). Today his bakery chain has 9 branches in Taiwan, 2 in China, and 2 in Singapore.
Famous People Associated with Taiwan (but not born there)
Some of the most famous figures in Taiwanese history were not actually born in Taiwan.
Koxinga (鄭成功)
Going back to the country’s founding, Koxinga (Zheng Cheng Gong), a half-Chinese, half-Japanese pirate who expelled the Dutch from Taiwan and founded the first Chinese kingdom there.
He is revered in Taiwan to this day, especially in Tainan, the original capital, where there are temples and shrines dedicated to him.
Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石)
Chiang Kai-shek, the first president (and dictator) of Taiwan (1948 to 1975) was born in Zhejiang, China and fled to Taiwan with his huge KMT army after the lost the Chinese Civil War.
Taoyuan Airport used to be called CKS International Airport, while his huge memorial is a major attraction in Taipei. You’ll see his face on Taiwan’s currency (1, 5, 10 coins and 200 bills). His son, Chiang Ching-kuo, was the third president of Taiwan.
Sun Yat-sen (孫中山)
Sun Yat-sen was the founder of the Republic of China (AKA Taiwan). This Republic ruled China from 1912 to 1949 (Sun died in 1925). When they KMT lost the Chinese Civil war, they fled to Taiwan, where the “Republic of China” remains the country’s official name to this day.
Although he only briefly visited Taiwan three times, he is considered the founding father (國父) of Taiwan, has a memorial in Taipei, and appears on the currency (10, 50 coins and 100 bill). He was born in Guangdong, China.
Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
Ma Ying-jeou was the mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006 and president of Taiwan from 2008 to 2016, right before Tsai Ying-wen.
He was born in Hong Kong but moved to Taiwan when he was 2. He was a KMT leader and improved relations with China following the presidency of pro-independent Chen Shui-bian. Not all Taiwanese loved this, of course, so the actions of him and his party sparked the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014.
Morris Chang (張忠謀)
Morris Chang is the founder and former chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest semiconductor company and largest company in Taiwan.
The company is based in Hsinchu, the “Silicon Valley of Taiwan”. Chiang was born in Zhehiang, China.
Famous People of Taiwanese Descent
While this article has focused on famous Taiwanese people who were born in Taiwan or spent most of their lives there, there are several notable persons of Taiwanese descent, especially Taiwanese-Americans.
Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin, whose rise to fame in the NBA sparked “Linsanity” in the US and in Taiwan, was born to Taiwanese immigrant parents. Even though he was born and raised in the US, he has had to ask the Taiwanese media to leave his relatives in Taiwan alone.
Wang Leehom (王力宏)
Born in New York state to Taiwanese parents, Wang Leehom is famous for many things – as a musician (60 million+ albums sold), actor (including some Ang Lee films), director, environmental activist.
He has been a torch-bearer in the Olympics twice and has been called one of the 100 most inspiring Asian American. He lives in Taiwan now, where he has marriage life and related controversies have brought considerable media attention.
Michelle Wu (吳弭)
Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston since 2021, is also the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants. She is the first female and first non-white mayor of the city.
Constance Wu
Constance Wu, another daughter of Taiwanese immigrant parents, is an actress you probably know from Fresh off the Boat. TIME put her on their list of 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2017.