Echopedia

Hsin-Cheng Hsiao (蕭新晟)

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Hsin-Cheng Hsiao (蕭新晟)

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Hsin-Cheng Hsiao
  • Chinese: 蕭新晟
  • Era: 1982
  • Geography: Taiwan; New York (US, post-Sunflower era)
  • Core roles: engineer, scientist, civic-tech organizer
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who

Education

  • UCLA — 2005 — B.S., Physics — 2007 — M.S., Physics

Employment

  • BetterPT — Senior Software Engineer — (2017-) — New Power Party (時代力量) — Chief Technology Officer — (2018-2019)

Role in the Community

Corpus records place Hsiao at the intersection of New York’s post-Sunflower Taiwanese organizing scene and Taiwan’s “Third Force” politics:

  • National Treasure Project (國家寶藏): Co-founded, with 林育正 and 莊士杰 (NY-state research assistant professor), the 國家寶藏 project starting summer 2017: photographing and digitizing Taiwan-related historical documents held at the US National Archives and the UN file room in New York, and publishing them online (website, Facebook page, mobile app) to offer a US third-party view of Taiwan’s history. Hsiao — described in the reporting as a 新創科技業者 (startup tech entrepreneur) — designed the website. He noted ~60 million Taiwan-related records at the National Archives, ~16,000 processed at launch, with plans to extend to Japanese and Dutch colonial-era archives. See TWJ 轉載自由時報：國家寶藏計畫. A FAPA retrospective places the project in the lineage of overseas Taiwanese advocacy, describing 國家寶藏 as a project “因海外g0v黑客松醞釀而成” — consistent with its 2017 TACEC/OTD hackathon debut below. See [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys320|Our Journeys #320]].
  • 國家寶藏 hackathon debut (2017 TACEC): The project was premiered publicly as a hackathon track at the 2017 U.S. East Coast Taiwanese Summer Camp (TACEC, 2017-07-01~04, West Chester University, PA), run by 海外台灣青年陣線 (OTD); the 國家寶藏 team “搜索到所有 美國官方有關台灣議題的記錄文件” among 8 OTD projects, per 楊遠薰’s eyewitness column 海台青與黑客松. Hsiao later led a 國家寶藏 project team at the OTD hackathon workshop (海外台灣青年陣線). Community coverage: “挖掘史料 台美人推國家寶藏計畫” ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/tw-85|TAH story #85]], 2017-07-10) and “台青年探索台灣史 美國國家檔案局挖寶” ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/relate-tw-86|TAH story #86]], 2017-09-21). The effort is recorded as Taiwan National Treasure Foundation 國家寶藏基金會.
  • Cafe Philo New York: In the post-Sunflower years Cafe Philo’s New York chapter was particularly active, holding weekly talks and forums near Times Square, using offices that Hsiao used for his company — a hub where passing Taiwanese experts spoke on topics from pineapple farming to Taiwanese-language cinema, alongside US-based Taiwanese-American pro-Taiwan organizing. See [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/our-journeys-373|TAHS Our Journeys #373]].
  • Electoral politics: Per the same community memoir, Hsiao ran for Taipei city councillor in Nangang–Neihu in 2018 — one of several people linked to New York overseas-organizing groups (alongside 謝佩芬, 林彥甫, 李柏毅) who later ran for office in Taiwan under the DPP or third-force parties such as OTD-adjacent networks. The TAH Who’s Who entry records him as Chief Technology Officer of the New Power Party (2018–2019). See [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whos-who-1927-hsin-cheng-hsiao|TAH Who’s Who #1927]].
  • Departure from the New Power Party: During the 2019 NPP internal split over party line (路線問題), following the exits of legislators 林昶佐 and 洪慈庸, Hsiao — then a party 決策委員 — left the NPP alongside lawyer 陳雨凡; 吳崢 and 林亮君 followed in November 2019. See TWJ：時代力量退黨風波.

HOLD: conflict — the republication header dates the 國家寶藏 report 2017-09-19 (自由時報), but the article text says the project started “last summer” and the website went online “recently”, implying a 2018 original; launch year not auto-merged.

HOLD: conflict — this page said the 國家寶藏 project started “summer 2017”; the Taiwan National Treasure Foundation org page dates the launch (旅美台人蕭新晟、林育正、 莊士杰) to summer 2016, with the site + app launching 2017-09. Kept both as-is; 2016 start vs 2017 public debut (2017-07 TACEC hackathon) may reconcile.

HOLD: conflict — the Our Journeys memoir says he “ran” for councillor in 2018 (election outcome unstated); TAH Who’s Who lists the NPP CTO role for the same period. Kept both as-is.

Family

No filled family fields on the TAH profile.

Sources

Corpus re-grep (2026-10-10, slice 10081500-32)

  • Re-grep 蕭新晟/Hsin-Cheng Hsiao/新晟 across works/articles/sources/events/topics: no new person-name hits beyond those already absorbed (our-journeys-373, own TAH #1927, works index, sources page, two TWJ articles). Related-project grep (國家寶藏 / National Treasure / hackathon) surfaced 4 previously-unlinked records now absorbed above: 楊遠薰 海台青與黑客松 column, org page taiwan-national-treasure-foundation, TAH stories #85 and #86. One new HOLD (2016 vs 2017 launch). 1 deepened.

Corpus re-grep (2026-10-11, slice 10101200-30)

  • Re-grep 蕭新晟/Hsin-Cheng Hsiao/新晟 across works/articles/sources/events/topics: same 6 hits as prior slices, no new person-name records. Related-project grep (國家寶藏 / National Treasure) surfaced 1 previously-unlinked record now absorbed: Our Journeys #320 (FAPA retrospective, 國家寶藏 “因海外g0v黑客松醞釀而成” — supports the hackathon-origin framing). 1 deepened, 0 new HOLDs.

Corpus re-grep (2026-10-12, slice 10110805-30)

  • Re-grep 蕭新晟/Hsin-Cheng Hsiao/新晟 across works/articles/sources/events/topics: same 6 hits as prior slices, no new person-name records. Related-project grep (國家寶藏 / National Treasure) returned 3 additional files: two are duplicates of already-linked records — 楊遠薰’s 海台青與黑客松 column re-archived at 20240523010214_root_3260cd0bdf2f84d7 (same column, 2024-05-23 Wayback snapshot) and a site-index page listing the 2017-07-10 自由時報 report already linked via our-journeys/tw-85. The third, national-treasure-taiwanese-identity (“Finding the Treasure”), is about the 2004 film National Treasure and Taiwanese-American identity — a false name-match, NOT the 國家寶藏 project. 0 deepened, 0 new links, 0 new HOLDs.

Corpus re-grep (2026-10-13, slice 10121100-16)

  • Re-grep 蕭新晟/Hsin-Cheng Hsiao/新晟 across works/articles/sources/events/topics: same 6 hits as all prior slices, no new person-name records. Broadened surname grep (蕭新/Hsin-Cheng) surfaced 4 files, all false name-matches to different people: 蕭新煌 (sociologist, TWJ 2025-03-23, 2025-10-13, 2025-11-10) and 蕭新泉 (TWJ 2026-01-15). Related-project grep (國家寶藏/Cafe Philo) returned only already-linked records. Page already fully deepened (2026-10-12); 0 deepened, 0 new links, 0 new HOLDs.

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