Check out this article by Dmae Roberts, a two-time Peabody award-winning independent radio artist and writer who has written and produced more than 400 audio art pieces and documentaries for NPR and PRI programs. She has written an essay titled “Other Asian” for The Asian Reporter about how our recent Census 2010: Write in “Taiwanese” campaign re-inspired her to identify as a biracial Taiwanese American.
From The Asian Reporter, V20, #14 (April 19, 2010), pages 6 & 7.
“Other Asian”
When I filled out the Census 2010 form, I checked “other” yet again. It seems I’m forever destined to check “other.” Even though this year’s form had a multiracial or mixed-race category, I opted for “other” in order to “Write in Taiwanese” after I watched a video about how Taiwanese are undercounted in America.
Roberts’ work is often autobiographical or about cross-cultural peoples and is informed by her biracial identity. Her Peabody award-winning documentary “Mei Mei, a Daughter’s Song” is a harrowing account of her mother’s childhood in Taiwan during WWII. Her most recent project has been Crossing East, the first Asian American history series on public radio which just garnered a Peabody award. The eight-hour series took three years to produce and ran on more than 230 stations around the country. Learn more about Dmae Roberts and her work at her website.
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