Sedimentary geochemical records from subalpine Retreat Lake, subtropical Taiwan, document the unstable East Asian monsoon (EAM) climate over the past ~10,300 years, with a weak EAM between ~10.3 and 8.6 ky B.P., EAM intensity peaks between 8.6 and 7.7 ky B.P., and then gradually decrease in response to summer insolation, heat and moisture transport. Our proxy record reveals several weak monsoon intervals that correlate to low sea surface temperatures in the western tropical Pacific and cold events in the North Atlantic, linking the tropical Pacific, North Atlantic, and Polar climates because weak EAM events at ~8.2, 5.4 and 4.5--2.1 ky B.P. also correspond to low values of atmospheric methane and periods of reduced North Atlantic Deep Water formation. We therefore suggest that centennial to millennial scale monsoon variability during the Holocene in the northern subtropics is globally-mediated via a sun-ocean-monsoon-North Atlantic linkage.