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TaiwaneseAmerican.org

  • Home
  • Stories
    • Interviews
    • Perspectives
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Community Orgs
    • Food & Travel
    • Social Issues & Politics
  • Events
    • National
    • East Coast
    • West Coast
    • Midwest
    • South
  • About
    • Community Organizations
    • Donate
    • Submissions
  • Contact
Alice Lin's YA debut novel "Fireworks" navigates bisexuality, pop fandom, friendship Alice Lin's YA debut novel "Fireworks" navigates bisexuality, pop fandom, friendship
Architecture student, journalist, designer, musician: Eric Lin is all of these and more Architecture student, journalist, designer, musician: Eric Lin is all of these and more
Charles Yu, Shawna Yang Ryan, Alvina Ling Select 2022 Creative Writing Prize Recipients Charles Yu, Shawna Yang Ryan, Alvina Ling Select 2022 Creative Writing Prize Recipients
Oliver Lin's short film "To Add Oil" interrogates identity and duty Oliver Lin's short film "To Add Oil" interrogates identity and duty
We grieve the May 15th Shooting at Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church We grieve the May 15th Shooting at Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church

Featured Stories

Arts & CultureCommunityInterviews

“Amah Faraway” celebrates the joys of bravery and gathering at last

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Author Margaret Chiu Greanias holding a copy of "Amah Faraway" with TaiwaneseAmerican.org founder Ho Chie Tsai[/caption] If you told Margaret Chiu Greanias two decades ago that she would become a published author one day, telling stories based on her…

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CommunityPerspectives

What I learned from a year of asking, “Am I Taiwanese?”

By Angela Yu, co-host of "Hearts in Taiwan" podcast I am Taiwanese American, but it’s taken me a long time and a lot of careful thought to say that. I am also Chinese American, an identity I’ve lived with for much longer. This week marks the one-year anniversary of launching a podcast that my…

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Arts & CultureCommunity

What I Wish Li Bai Knew (Creative Fiction)

Everything I wrote was tinged with the Li Bai poem, "Quiet Night Thoughts." On a whim, I Googled Li Bai and learned that in 725, he ventured from his Sichuan home at 24 years old to wander and write. I also come from a family that left Sichuan, though we settled in Taiwan. Later in life, Li Bai was…

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  • RT @josie_huang: As a 2nd-gen Taiwanese Am, I wondered how others were feeling after the Laguna Woods shooting. It made me think a l… https://t.co/mxBg7n6rrC 5d ago
  • RT @StephanieLinTV: WE ARE GOLDEN An honor to be recognized in Daily News reporting & Breaking News coverage. There is no straight… https://t.co/WWPsI8qYGX 6d ago
  • Such a treat to hear from the 2022 judges+ grand prize finalists of the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing… https://t.co/Vcc3v2fG0G 1 week ago
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Loving this feature in @variety on Taiwanese Ameri Loving this feature in @variety on Taiwanese American filmmaker Georgia Fu and her project, MAPS.  “The title “Maps” is metaphor for the way the film charts the distance work puts between a mother and daughter. It’s an issue Fu faced with her real-life mom, who owned a home décor import and export business.  “My mother was a full-time working mom,” says Fu, whose parents were Taiwanese immigrants. “She was always away when I was a kid. She would travel to Asia a lot and it was just me and my dad growing up. He was sort of a ‘Mr. Mom,’ but I missed my actual mom a lot.”  The daughter in Fu’s film starts as a young child, striving to please her mother and father. Then we see her as a tween, angry that her parents keep her from going out with friends and bitter that her mom travels so much for work. When she starts failing classes and diving headlong into American pop culture, the parents are left speechless and unable to influence her. Eventually, she wins acceptance into a design school in New York, and her father is supportive and proud, while her mother is angry that her daughter wants to go so far away.  Each jump in the daughter’s age is accompanied by a corresponding change in the parents. They start as hard-working, exhausted newcomers to the U.S. and, over time, their health begins to fail and the daughter is drawn back to them.”  MAPS on Vimeo linked here and in bio: https://vimeo.com/714770784/8bc70bd9db
Boston, you’re in for a treat! Playwright Jamie Boston, you’re in for a treat! Playwright Jamie Lin (she/her) is a Taiwanese American theater artist. Both on and offstage, she's passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion, and noodles.  Repost @chuangstage Announcing this brilliant cast of THE GHOST OF KEELUNG!  Actors: Karla Lang, Channing Rion, Yitong Zhu, Malachi Rosen, Jude Torres, and Dylan C. Wack  THE GHOST OF KEELUNG by Jamie Lin
A Radio Play Presentation
Directed by Audrey Seraphin  Performed at Tiger Pavilion at Mary Soo Hoo Park on the Rose Kennedy Greenway
Saturday, June 25, 6:00 PM
Tickets are free with a suggested donation of $10.
>> [LINK IN BIO]  In the present, a woman visits her family home in Taiwan to appease an ancestral wrong. Back in 1956, a young woman begins working at a bar for American sailors and falls for one of them with dire consequences. Presented with live foley sound effects, The Ghost of Keelung is a time-traversing auditory adventure of ancestral love, mistakes, and revenge, hidden in the coastal memories of Taiwan.  This event takes place at the YEAR OF THE TIGER installation by Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong at Mary Soo Hoo Park, as part of the VISIONS/VOICES: YEAR OF THE TIGER performance series on The Greenway.  Co-Produced by Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston, CHUANG Stage, Pao Arts Center, and Rose Kennedy Greenway
"People often write what they know. I incorporate "People often write what they know. I incorporate a lot of my own experiences into my writing, and as someone with Taiwanese immigrant parents, my upbringing naturally finds its way into my stories... and (like the protagonist)I wish I were dating a K-pop idol!"⁠
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Our latest New Creatives interview features Alice Lin @miss_alicelin whose YA novel "Fireworks" follows college-bound Lulu Li, whose old next-door neighbor and childhood friend, Kite Xu has just come home after a meteoric K-pop career in South Korea.⁠
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"As a fairly private person myself, I wanted to emphasize the importance of privacy by illustrating both the good and bad of fandom culture and the price we pay for fame. While K-pop idols are public performers, they are first and foremost humans and shouldn’t have to live up to or meet our ideals. K-pop idols and celebrities in general also have a private life they wish to maintain, and people need to respect that."⁠
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Read the full interview, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2022/06/alice-lin-fireworks-interview/⁠
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#fireworks #yanovel #kpop #taiwaneseamerican
Beaming with pride for @stephanielintv — in 2010 Beaming with pride for @stephanielintv — in 2010, she told us that she hopes to understand and convey the views of minorities and Taiwanese Americans to educate and diversify perspectives in the United States.” We’re so happy to see her being celebrated for doing just that — and doing it very, very well. 🤩✨
As a child, Eric grew up learning classical piano; As a child, Eric grew up learning classical piano; he also spent seven years touring with the Phoenix Boys Choir. It was then in high school that he started writing his first songs and experimenting with song production on GarageBand. After the pandemic erupted in the spring of 2020, Eric was sent home from college, where he'd been studying architecture and journalism, and decided to take a gap year. ⁠
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That gap year gave him the opportunity to explore his interest in music in greater depth. He set up a makeshift home studio in his childhood bedroom and got to work. Finally, in April 2021, Eric released “Cloudboy” before returning to his studies that summer. Then, he released his most recent single “Going Dark” the following year.⁠
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So is he an aspiring architect, journalist, designer, or musician?⁠
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As interviewer Alyssa Lee finds out, Eric Lin is all of these and more.⁠
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Read the newest installment of our New Creatives series, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2022/06/new-creatives-eric-lin-music/
Li-Pei Wu’s memoir is now available for purchase Li-Pei Wu’s memoir is now available for purchase! And SoCal friends, don’t miss his book signing at the Hilton LA/San Gabriel this Sunday.  Born under the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, coming of age under the Kuomintang (KMT) suppression, Li-pei Wu fled the KMT’s atrocities against the Taiwanese and his fellow democracy believers and found a new life in America. But his dream of an independent Taiwan never waned. This is the incredible life story of a skinny boy from Taiwan’s countryside who became an American business leader and democracy advocate for Taiwan.
Through hard work and perseverance, Wu became nationally recognized as a leader in the banking industry starting in Alaska and then Southern California. His business acumen led him to become a bank turnaround expert and CEO. Wu received many accolades from his financial peers and was the subject of numerous cover stories in industry journals. In addition, he formed multiple non-profit, non- partisan public interest groups that sought to promote Taiwanese identity and foster an environment of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He worked tirelessly to promote understanding and friendship between Taiwan and the United States.
In 2004, after almost forty years in his adopted country, Wu renounced his US citizenship to join the Taiwan government as a senior advisor to President Chen Shui-bian and the current President Tsai Ing-wen. He returned to Taiwan in hopes that the Taiwanese people would have the freedoms and liberties he had enjoyed as an American. Today, he resides in Taiwan and remains a respected voice advocating for Taiwan independence.  Linked here and in bio: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2HWK4V1/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_GE3JBWXAH3VRA7NVG2Y9
Add this lineup to your long weekend plans: this * Add this lineup to your long weekend plans: this *free* virtual film festival of Taiwanese films completely shatters preconceptions about the Taiwanese New Wave and Second New Wave periods. Despite their very low budgets and tremendous hardship behind the scenes, the titles in this limited run of restored films from the Golden Age of Taiwanese-language black-and-white cinema explode with themes of longing, lust, adventure, and fantasy. These films thrived despite being created during a time when the Kuomintang government ruled the island under martial law and promoted a “healthy realism” genre of film that only focused on positive themes and traditional moral values.  Curated by Hanna Huang and Joshua Martin, this program will screen six restored black-and-white “taiyupian” from Taiwan’s lost commercial film period of the 1950s–60s. During this period, over 1,200 films were made in black-and-white film and primarily in Taiwanese language. Of these, only 200+ have been identified and logged.  ENDS MAY 31  http://www.lacma.org/event/dreaming
We are pleased to announce the 2022 cohort of hono We are pleased to announce the 2022 cohort of honorable mentions, finalists, and grand prize winners of the Betty L. Yu & Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes, established in partnership with @taiwaneseam_org in honor of Charles Yu’s parents, who are longstanding Taiwanese American community leaders. In its second year, the prize has expanded to include middle school participants. Selected work will be published on @taiwaneseam_org throughout the year.⁠
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Please read our full announcement here for additional comments from the judges: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2022/05/2022-creative-writing-recipients⁠
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#creativewriting #studentwriting #creativenonfiction #creativefiction #poetry #charlesyu #shawnayangryan #alvinaling #taiwaneseamerican
Today, we’re incredibly excited to be launching Today, we’re incredibly excited to be launching TaiwaneseAmerican.org’s “New Creatives” initiative, a series that seeks to highlight up-and-coming Taiwanese/Taiwanese American artists in various fields of creative artistry. ⁠
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Our first guest is Oliver Lin @allreallin, a Taiwanese filmmaker and senior at the Ringling College of Art and Design studying film. Oliver grew up in Taiwan and came across video editing and cinematography at a young age, an event that ultimately ignited his interest in understanding how videos and films are put together. ⁠
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He joined us to discuss his short film, "To Add Oil."⁠
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"In today’s world, the path to obtaining a long term work visa for an international student who graduated from the U.S. education pipeline is more uncertain than ever. With highly polarized debates around immigration, unprecedented job competitiveness, as well as having to place your fate in the hands of a complex visa lottery system, these contributing factors are a tough pill to swallow for individuals who have been told it’s their destiny to work and live in the U.S.⁠
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Consequently, many young Taiwanese have no other option but to return home after graduation where they must reinvent themselves, cradling the hopes of creating a self which goes against their parent’s preordained plan.⁠
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In this story I found myself asking the question, 'why are we never allowed to think that our home(Taiwan) is ever good enough?'"⁠
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This interview series is led by Alyssa Lee.⁠
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Linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2022/05/oliver-lin-to-add-oil/⁠
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Our agony is rooted in love for our community and Our agony is rooted in love for our community and history. So grateful to @jocelynschung for steering us through this grief with wisdom, compassion, and tenderness.  “The collective heartbreak is personal and political, historical and ongoing. The loss can only be communicated by the way I’ve seen my ama pound her chest with her first and wail in pain. Taiwanese American stories have too often been shrouded by a calculated maze of geopolitical ambiguity and violent conflation of Taiwanese and Chinese identity.”  https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2022/05/17/california-church-shooting-taiwanese-americans/9802586002/
An update on alleged motive — The gunman who ope An update on alleged motive — The gunman who opened fire at a Laguna Woods church Sunday appeared to be motivated by political hatred directed at the Taiwanese community, Orange County Sheriff’s officials said Monday.
While investigators provided few details, they said their investigation suggestions the deadly attack was a “politically motivated hate crime.”
“Evidence was collected linking him to this crime based on preliminary information in the investigation, it is believed the suspect involved was upset about political tensions between China and Taiwan,” Sheriff Don Barnes said.  Officials have identified David Wenwei Chou, 68, of Las Vegas as the suspect in Sunday’s shooting at the Geneva Presbyterian Church.  This is an evolving story.  https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-16/laguna-woods-gunman-worked-methodically-but-motive-a-mystery
Taiwanese churches are such a sacred, tender part Taiwanese churches are such a sacred, tender part of our community and diaspora. We mourn with those who mourn.  Our hearts go out to the Taiwanese American victims and congregation of the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA where one was killed and five others were wounded, four critically. The gunman is an unidentified Asian man in his 60s not from the area who was subdued by church attendees. This is an evolving story.  https://www.ocregister.com/2022/05/15/multiple-people-wounded-in-shooting-at-laguna-woods-church/
We appreciate this partnership so much 🫶🏼 • @ilhacandles Did you know that for every sale of our Jasmine Green Tea candle, we donate 10% of net proceeds to @taiwaneseam_org, a non-profit organization that highlights all things Taiwanese American? 🇹🇼🇺🇸
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Starting today, you can now get Jasmine Green Tea in all of our product offerings! We’ve expanded the collection so that you can snag the custom scent in a Travel Tin, Reed Diffuser, and Room + Linen Mist.
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We will continue to donate all Jasmine Green Tea net proceeds to @taiwaneseam_org, whose mission is to connect, inform and promote the people, events and organizations that represent the next generation of the Taiwanese American community! #ilhacandles #taiwaneseamerican
What did @heartsintaiwan co-host Angela Yu discove What did @heartsintaiwan co-host Angela Yu discover from a year of exploring Taiwanese identity?⁠
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She writes: "In our tenth episode 'What does it mean to be Taiwanese?' we surveyed a variety of people whose families come from Taiwan. We heard inclusive responses ranging from “if you love stinky tofu” to “when you think of Taiwan as your home” that made us feel welcome in the identity, aligned by mindset rather than any sort of biological or legal qualification."⁠
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Learn more about Angela's story and their podcast @heartsintaiwan, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2022/05/hearts-in-taiwan-taiwanese-identity/⁠
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#taiwaneseamerican #taiwanese #taiwaneseamericanheritageweek #asianamerican
Happy Mother's Day! We are so pleased to share thi Happy Mother's Day! We are so pleased to share this interview with @margaretgreanias, who also joined us yesterday at @tafestival in a dazzling storytelling lineup of three bay area-based #TaiwaneseAmerican mother-authors writing a better future for all children.⁠
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“Amah Faraway” (illustrated by #TaiwaneseAmerican @tracysubisak) poetically chronicles the emotions of a young San Franciscan girl—inspired by none other than her childhood self—and her nerve-wracking yet fun visit to her parents’ home country of Taiwan. There, for the first time, her Skype-sized grandmother, whom she had only ever known through video calls, becomes a huggable, tangible figure. It’s a change that she has trouble adjusting to at first, but gradually, at her grandmother, her amah’s, gentle beckoning, she comes to embrace what they can share, both faraway and together.⁠
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Read her interview with guest contributor Jessica Cheng, here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2022/05/amah-faraway-margaret-chiu-greanias/
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.

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