highlighting taiwanese america

  • Home
    • About
    • Community Organizations
  • Submissions
  • Stories
    • Interviews
    • Perspectives
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Community Orgs
    • Food & Travel
    • Social Issues & Politics
  • Projects
  • 2026 Taiwanese American Memoir Book Club
  • Creative Writing Prizes
  • Gift Guides
  • Bookshop
  • Parenting Resources
  • Contact
  • Donate

TaiwaneseAmerican.org

  • Home
    • About
    • Community Organizations
  • Submissions
  • Stories
    • Interviews
    • Perspectives
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Community Orgs
    • Food & Travel
    • Social Issues & Politics
  • Projects
  • 2026 Taiwanese American Memoir Book Club
  • Creative Writing Prizes
  • Gift Guides
  • Bookshop
  • Parenting Resources
  • Contact
  • Donate
Yagyu: Fiction by Grace A. Lin Yagyu: Fiction by Grace A. Lin
A Beginner's Guide to Understanding a Possible Invasion of Taiwan A Beginner's Guide to Understanding a Possible Invasion of Taiwan
Creating an Archive Through Sound and Community: A Conversation with Angie QQ, Curator of SOUNDS OF TAIWAN Creating an Archive Through Sound and Community: A Conversation with Angie QQ, Curator of SOUNDS OF TAIWAN
Understanding Our Parents Through the Stories They Never Told: A Glimpse Into 1970s Rural Taiwan Understanding Our Parents Through the Stories They Never Told: A Glimpse Into 1970s Rural Taiwan
The Surreal, Dehumanized, and Fractured: A Conversation with Elaine Hsieh Chou The Surreal, Dehumanized, and Fractured: A Conversation with Elaine Hsieh Chou

Featured Stories

FeaturedGift Guides

2025 Taiwanese American Small Business Gift Guide

Every holiday season, we return to this special tradition: gathering the makers, dreamers, and small business owners who infuse Taiwanese American creativity into their craft. What began years ago as a simple community roundup has grown into one of our most beloved annual traditions—a celebration…

Read More »

Creative Writing Prizes

Translation is a gift: Creative Nonfiction by brenda Lin

緣 The first word I translated from Mandarin to English for my husband was 緣. We had met on a summer study abroad program in St. Petersburg during White Nights, when, at the end of each day, the sun dipped below the horizon, just grazing the night, before it glided back up into the sky, and we…

Read More »

Arts & CulturePerspectivesSocial/Politics

We Build Museums So We Can Someday Stop Building Cages: A Taiwanese American Reflection from the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park

This essay was originally written for my personal newsletter, but I hope its reflections on heritage, human rights, and ethical imagination may resonate with the broader Taiwanese American community. 🫶 Hello from Taipei, where I’ve collected so many museum pamphlets and cute paraphernalia that…

Read More »

Facebook
Instagram
Add this #TaiwaneseAmerican Memoir Book Club to yo Add this #TaiwaneseAmerican Memoir Book Club to your 2026 reading challenge!⁠ In celebration of the growing canon of Taiwanese American memoirs (and manifestos), we are delighted to host a year-long reading series next year to enjoy and discuss these texts ✨together✨.⁠ ⁠ 🖥️ Join us on the third Sunday of every month for a virtual (Google Meets) casual yap about the selected text! We will meet for 60-90 minutes, depending on attendance, with one session dedicated to each book. You can join any number of book club discussions throughout the year. They will be facilitated in English and open to all!⁠ ⁠ 🍿Can’t join us and/or prefer in-person book clubs? At the conclusion of our virtual discussions, we’ll post a community discussion guide for you to host your own reading group!⁠ ⁠ 🔗 Read the full announcement, schedule, and RSVP instructions here (and linked in bio): https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/projects/2026-memoir-book-club/⁠ ⁠ Hope to read more with you all next year!⁠ ❤️🥰🫶
We're pleased to share "Yagyu" by 2025 Betty L. Yu We're pleased to share "Yagyu" by 2025 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prize finalist (adult category), Grace A. Lin, described by the judges as "an absorbing tale of the complex memories stirred by baseball, intertwined with Taiwanese history."⁠ ⁠ "Wayne’s father interjects here and there with terse comments. On this particular night, they watch the news, and the anchors announce the finalists for this year’s Little League World Series. Taiwan has made it once again. Except in the international sporting world—as well as on the toy flag that Wayne has just uncovered—they call it Chinese Taipei. Wayne’s father turns to the others with a look of entertainment, waving his chopsticks at the TV. “Propaganda,” he states, as his eyes go back to his pork hock. He hunches his neck toward his bowl to sink his teeth into the dense meat, tearing it off the bone with a swift turn of the neck."⁠ ⁠ Read the full piece at TaiwaneseAmerican.org.⁠ ⁠ Grace A. Lin @dtfdumpling is a writer who lives in both Knoxville, TN and Detroit, MI. ⁠
Longtime guest contributor Eric Tsai @taitsai has Longtime guest contributor Eric Tsai @taitsai has teamed up with his TaiwanPlus @taiwanplusnews colleague Jaime Ocon @jaime.ocontw to create a balanced, informative video series responding to a very real and deeply felt anxiety among many Taiwanese Americans—especially young people—amid constant headlines about a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.⁠ ⁠ Recognizing how often Taiwanese identity is framed almost exclusively through geopolitics, the series offers an accessible, grounded resource that draws directly from expert analysis and firsthand experience embedded with Taiwan’s military, with the goal of bringing clarity, context, and calm to an overwhelming conversation.⁠ ⁠ Read more about their BTS vision (exclusive for @taiwaneseam_org) and watch the video series on TaiwaneseAmerican.org.⁠ ⁠ #taiwanplusnews #geopolitics #taiwanplus #taiwaneseamerican⁠
Angie QQ, founder of East Never Loses and A Pure P Angie QQ, founder of East Never Loses and A Pure Person Press, created SOUNDS OF TAIWAN with Taiwanese composer Lim Giong and other friends to be an archive of Taiwan’s past and present. The project uses a collection of Lim Giong’s personal field recordings as its foundation. Angie QQ became the curator and A&R of the archive, reaching out to producer friends to contribute to the record and beyond. ⁠ ⁠ It would take five years for SOUNDS OF TAIWAN to be released– and it finally was, last month on November 6. 6. But as Point Hsu, a mentor and “guiding force” in the creation of the record, said to Angie before he passed away, SOUNDS OF TAIWAN came out when it was supposed to come out. “Whenever it comes out, it’ll feel right." ⁠ ⁠ Read Angie QQ's full conversation with Taipei-based journalist Sara Conway, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/12/angie-qq-sounds-of-taiwan/⁠ ⁠ #angieqq #soundsoftaiwan #apurepersonpress #limgiong #taiwaneseamerican #taiwaneseamericanmusic
COMING TO NYC -- A Story That Lives Within US: Ada COMING TO NYC -- A Story That Lives Within US: Ada is a mixed-media exhibition curated by @naomichan.art to explore the life of Ada Lin, a fictionalized narrative shaped by real stories and oral histories of Taiwanese immigrants building new lives in the U.S. ⁠ ⁠ Bringing together 12 artists across installation, painting, ceramics, performance, and mixed media, the exhibition draws on the artists’ personal insights and lived experiences. ⁠ ⁠ 📍 Location: @crossingart⁠ 559 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011⁠ 📅 December 18, 2025 — January 3, 2026⁠ Tues–Sat, 10:30 AM–6:00 PM⁠ 🌟 Opening Reception: Dec 18, 6–8 PM⁠ ⁠ Featured artists: James Hsieh, Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia, Chihyang Hsu, Chiya Huang, John Chia Hsuan Kuo, Hung-Ju Kan, Danny Liu (Amazonas), Munus Shih, Jason Cole Mager, Leigh Wen, Yalan Wen, and Sherry Yang⁠ ⁠ #AStoryThatLivesWithinUsAda #TaiwaneseAmerican #CrossingArt
"As the year comes to an end, families in the U.S. "As the year comes to an end, families in the U.S. are probably entering a season filled with gatherings: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything in between. I imagine it feels a bit like Lunar New Year in Taiwan. I often wonder: when you get together with your family, do you feel closer to them, or somehow even farther away?"⁠ ⁠ In this Perspectives piece, Mandarin teacher Jane Liu reflects on the limits of language alone, and how true intergenerational communication becomes possible when we think more deeply about the circumstances and histories that shape the people we love.⁠ ⁠ Read the full piece, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/12/jane-liu-understanding-parents-stories/⁠ ⁠ #janesmandarin #abt #taiwaneseamerican #taiwanesemandarin
20 years ago, @hochie71 registered the TaiwaneseAm 20 years ago, @hochie71 registered the TaiwaneseAmerican.org domain to start constructing a living archive of second-generation Taiwanese Americans. He envisioned it as a space for us to find each other and explore our heritage, identity, and values in community, and to make the gifts of connection and belonging accessible to people everywhere. A peek into our archives reveals his decades of bringing people together in a time when it was “hard to be Taiwanese.” Today, we flourish in that foundation: an abundance of storytellers across every medium, creators and small businesses (just look at our annual gift guide!), and thoughtful, principled leaders who navigate daily what it means to be proud of our identity, in service to our broader communities. This Giving Tuesday, we humbly invite you to support our work. We are fully volunteer-run with so many dreams for our community. Your contributions sustain community initiatives, such as compensating writers, funding our annual Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prize, and encouraging other indie initiatives.感謝 for being our people! Find us at taiwaneseamerican.org/donate (also linked in bio).
This weekend for our NYC community! ⁠ #Taiwanese This weekend for our NYC community! ⁠ #TaiwaneseAmerican screenwriter's Golden Horse-nominated film, ROSEMEAD, opens in New York City THIS WEEKEND! Strong opening attendance will determine whether this powerful film, based on a true story, will expand to screen nationally.⁠ ⁠ Based on the award-winning Los Angeles Times article by Frank Shyong, ROSEMEAD follows an ailing woman who discovers her teenage son’s violent obsessions and must go to great lengths to protect him and the darkness he is drawn to.⁠ ⁠ Tickets are available via Fandango: https://www.fandango.com/new-york-city_ny_movietimes?date=2025-12-05
NEW on TaiwaneseAmerican.org: Professional bookwor NEW on TaiwaneseAmerican.org: Professional bookworm Esther Fung interviews Elaine Hsieh Chou about her short story collection, "Where Are You Really From."⁠ ⁠ From a world in which men can purchase mail order brides to a deceptively playful story about a dollhouse, this book demonstrates Chou’s ability to explore themes of violence and desire, representation and family bonds, and the intersection of art, sexuality, and identity. ⁠ ⁠ Linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/11/elaine-hsieh-chou-interview/
It was such a gift to speak with co-organizers Li It was such a gift to speak with co-organizers Li and Kimberly, who are leading a delegation of Asian American farmers on the exquisitely planned Taiwan Food and Farm Tour. In collaboration with farmers in Pinglin, Yilan, and Hualien, they’re building transnational relationships grounded in fieldwork and farming: modalities that can mend the harms of migration, displacement, assimilation, and shared histories of occupation and war.⁠ ⁠ “We hope that by identifying these common challenges we will foster solidarity and discover ways to support regenerative farming on both sides of the Pacific,” shares Li Schmidt.⁠ ⁠ “We see sharing our inspirations before the trip, as well as the lessons learned afterwards, as opportunities for deeper political education,” adds Kimberly Chou Tsun An. “Harnessing this knowledge allows us to connect big-picture topics to everyday concerns, and to understand how we can shift narrative and culture even with small steps, starting with ourselves and our communities.”⁠ ⁠ Read the full Q&A at the link in bio:⁠ https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/10/taiwan-food-and-farm/⁠ ⁠ Follow @taiwanfoodandfarmtour for daily updates from the delegation. 🌾✨
🎁🥹 Our Annual Taiwanese American Gift Guide 🎁🥹 Our Annual Taiwanese American Gift Guide is here!! By community, for community: featuring Taiwanese American founders, creators, artisans, writers, and small businesses you love. This gift guide grows every year because YOU help lift up these makers who so thoughtfully infuse their heritage and imagination into their work. When you shop from this guide, you support: - Taiwanese American entrepreneurs and artists - Women, queer, and immigrant-owned businesses - Community-rooted creators committed to ethical sourcing and thoughtful production - Diasporic storytelling in all its forms Swipe, shop, share! The gift guide is linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/11/2025-gift-guide/
What a privilege to speak with @taiwanplus produce What a privilege to speak with @taiwanplus producer Eric Tsai for #ZoomInZoomOut about Taiwanese American community-building! EIC Leona Chen talks about how almost 20 years ago, @hochie71 built @taiwaneseam_org as a “living archive” for the “endless possibilities for Taiwanese Americans” and how growing up in Taiwanese America + being raised by first generation elder-activists has taught her to treat Taiwan’s complexity as an opportunity for creativity. 🎥: Watch the full interview (15 minutes), linked here and in bio. https://youtu.be/v15TtVGjoSk 💛: Gratitude to Eric Tsai, Alec MacDonald, and the @taiwanplus production team; and everyone on the @taiwaneseam_org team over the years, plus all our friends who make an appearance in the full video, including our author/illustrator community, @tafnc1 @tafagram and @yunhaishop 💖Can you believe we turn 20 soon?!
We're excited to bring back our "Made by Taiwanese We're excited to bring back our "Made by Taiwanese American" Small Business Holiday Gift Guide! If you're an artisan, small retailer, or creator offering heritage-inspired or handmade items, we’d love to feature your products.⁠ To nominate a TA-owned small business you love, please tag them in the comments. ⁠ ⁠ ✨ Businesses - please fill out the form, linked here and in our bio: https://forms.gle/kcdHzNHm36FzYeYu8 ⁠ Let’s make it easy to shop small and support #TaiwaneseAmerican businesses this season! 🌟 ⁠ ⁠ If you've previously been featured in our gift guides, please feel free to participate again! We're so grateful to support you in any way we can. Please note that not all submissions are guaranteed coverage and are subject to editors' curation.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #smallbusiness #asianamerican
🥜When @thelimestand brought Taiwan's enigmatic 🥜When @thelimestand brought Taiwan's enigmatic peanut ice cream roll to Portland this summer, we couldn't help but notice that their giant block of peanut brittle had traveled an awfully long way to meet its new match in locally-sourced Oregon Strawberry and Vanilla Bean ice creams. ⁠ ⁠ 🍨Our Food Editor Tiffany Ran got the scoop on how 80 pounds of peanut brittle made their way from "some guy's living room" in rural Taiwan to Portland, and how The Lime Stand's take on the peanut ice cream roll makes a unique tradition work in a new way.⁠ ⁠ 🔗Linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/10/the-lime-stand-portland/
"Translation is an interpretive dance, speaking in "Translation is an interpretive dance, speaking in another person’s voice, moving through the world through their gestures. There is an intense becoming that happens, a settling into, a rooting down. And all of this action occurs in the liminal space between languages."⁠ ⁠ In "Translation is a gift," brenda Lin explores translation as a form of devotion — the thread that binds languages, generations, and the stories mothers tell their daughters.⁠ ⁠ Moving between myth, anthropology, and literary memory, Lin reflects on what it means to return to language as a home, a gift, and an inheritance.⁠ ⁠ brenda Lin is a Taipei-based writer, translator, and author of Wealth Ribbon: Taiwan Bound, America Bound. She is currently translating Indigenous Taiwanese author Apyang Imiq’s essay collection Growing Up in a Tree Hollow.⁠ ⁠ Read the full piece. linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/10/translation-is-a-gift-creative-nonfiction-by-brenda-lin/
About

Founded in 2006, TaiwaneseAmerican.org is a web portal site highlighting many of the interesting people, events and organizations that make up Taiwanese America. It is both a volunteer-driven website and a non-profit organization that intends to connect and promote those who identify with the Taiwanese identity, heritage, or culture. By establishing our niche within the broader Asian Pacific American and mainstream communities, we hope to collectively contribute to the wonderful and diverse mosaic that America represents.

© 2026 TaiwaneseAmerican.org