{"id":262,"date":"2010-05-05T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ta100people.wpengine.com\/?p=262"},"modified":"2010-05-10T00:57:40","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T07:57:40","slug":"dmae-roberts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/dmae-roberts\/","title":{"rendered":"Dmae Roberts – Writer and Media Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland, OR<\/p>\n

Taiwan has accomplished so much despite a history of occupation and without recognition by the United Nations or the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"roberts.dmae1\"<\/strong>Who are you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan, the daughter of an American serviceman from Oklahoma and Taiwanese World War Two survivor who was sold to work as a bonded servant when she was two. My family lived in Taiwan and Japan till I was eight, and we travelled around before settling in rural Oregon town where we were the only interracial family. The isolation and discrimination my family endured inspired me to become a writer and artist to make sense of the world and my racial identity. I\u2019ve traveled throughout Asia and Europe, but still call Oregon my home. I live in Portland with my husband and twin Tabby kitties. My younger brother is the only surviving member of my immediate family though we\u2019ve got relatives in Taiwan we recently met. I\u2019m very involved in the arts community in Portland and believe in the power of creativity to bring peoples together.<\/p>\n

What do you do?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>I\u2019ve dedicated the last 25 years to public radio producing documentaries and features about arts and multicultural issues that have aired on NPR programs. My radio work has garnered two Peabody awards: The first for \u201cMei Mei, A Daughter\u2019s Song\u201d a harrowing account of her mother’s childhood in Taiwan during WWII and the second for \u201cCrossing East\u201d an eight-hour documentary series about Asian American history, the first on public radio. I received the Asian American Journalists Association recognized me for Dr. Suzanne Ahn award for civil rights and social justice. I\u2019ve been honored with a United States Artist (USA) award. I\u2019ve also worked in theatre as an actor\/playwright. My play \u201cPicasso In The Back Seat\u201d won the Oregon Book Award. I\u2019m currently working on my memoir\u00a0 “Lady Buddha and the Temple of Ma” about my mom, our complex relationship and my time as her caregiver during her fight with breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Why are you proud to be of Taiwanese heritage?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>As a first generation Taiwanese American, I\u2019ve often explained Taiwan to people who still confuse it with Thailand. I\u2019ve felt ambivalence identifying as Taiwanese rather than Asian or Multiracial Asian. Adding Taiwanese to my mixtures offered too much complexity for normal conversations. Yet I feel a kinship with this small island that has some of the most hardworking people I\u2019ve met. Taiwan has accomplished so much despite a history of occupation and without recognition by the United Nations or the World Health Organization. Taiwan has endured and adapted and is a tremendous testament to the work ethic. I feel pride in this Taiwanese spirit through my mom\u2019s strength and industriousness. She survived war and poverty to come to America and worked hard at a plywood mill to help support our family. By the time she retired, she owned three properties, something she was proud of till the day she died.<\/p>\n

What does the future of Taiwanese America look like to you?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>I would like to see Taiwan Americans and Taiwan receive greater recognition. The recent \u201cWrite in Taiwanese\u201d campaign was inspiring. I\u2019d like to see TV, film and radio programs in popular media dedicated to Taiwanese content. I\u2019ve been writing a lot about Taiwan lately for my memoir and some of the memories I have shared shows how new this country still is to the vast American audience. I\u2019m hoping with greater awareness in America, Taiwan won\u2019t face occupation again and be recognized as the phenomenal independent country it is.<\/p>\n

Any additional information you would like to share? <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>For more about my work go to my site… http:\/\/dmaeroberts.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A lot of my memories of Taiwan are associated with foods I haven\u2019t seen anywhere else in Asia or America. As a five-year-old, I remember loving hard boiled eggs simmering in a wonderful spicy soy sauce. When I went as a 20 year old, my ears perked up when the man yelling \u201cbazan\u201d would cry out to sell steamed sweet rice with little bits of peanuts and shrimp wrapped in banana leaves. When my mom and I went to Taiwan together we\u2019d buy giant papaya and star fruit for breakfast every morning and dine on fresh produce and dozens of varieties of tofu products I haven\u2019t seen in America \u2014ever. I even love stinky tofu and thousand year old egg \u2014yum!<\/p>\n

\"roberts.dmae2\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland, OR Who are you? I was born in Taipei, Taiwan, the daughter of an American serviceman from Oklahoma and Taiwanese World War Two survivor who was sold to work as a bonded servant when she was two. My family lived in Taiwan and Japan till I was eight, and we travelled around before settling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-100"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}