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Home
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- Community Organizations
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2026 Taiwanese American Memoir Book Club
- Book Club Discussion Guides
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Posted on Monday, February 13th, 2023 at 12:54 pm.

Written by Leona

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Taiwanese American Sophia Chang’s family has pro

Taiwanese American Sophia Chang’s family has produced BB Hot Sauce for over seventy years, starting with her great-grandfather. ⁠
After the passing of her grandmother and other family members, Chang became motivated to capture the stories of her family and the history of the family business. ⁠
She, with the help of a small team, shot her documentary, “A Little Bit Sweet” in 2023, and they’re currently undergoing a secondary round of fundraising to complete the film. ⁠
In this Q&A with Food Editor Tiffany Ran, Chang discusses how she brought a small team to Tainan, Taiwan to capture the stories behind the beloved, storied old sauce company, and the complicated family narratives excavated along the way.⁠
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Sophia and the rest of the team behind “A Little Bit Sweet” are undergoing their post-production fundraising via Seed & Spark through the end of the month.⁠
TaiwaneseAmerican.org is one of this project’s earliest financial supporters and we have signed up in this secondary round to help spread the word and get them to the finish line.⁠
For every share of this Q&A on Instagram and Facebook through April 29, we’ll donate $1, up to $1,000.⁠
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Read the full interview, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2026/04/a-little-bit-sweet-doc/

This weekend in New York! Justice Across Borders i

This weekend in New York!
Justice Across Borders is a groundbreaking international film festival bringing together powerful cinematic stories from Taiwan and the United States to confront the global crisis of wrongful convictions. In a unique collaboration between the Justice Initiative Center@ St. John’s University, the Taiwan Innocence Project, and TheJeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, this one-day event features a series of award-winning documentaries that delve into the lives of those who were failed by the justice system, and those fighting to restore truth, dignity, and freedom. Each screening will be followed by a live Q&A with advocates, filmmakers, exonerees, and justice professionals, creating space for dialogue, learning, and connection across continents. Learn more: https://www.stjohns.edu/academics/schools/college-professional-studies/conferences-and-exhibitions/justice-across-borders WALK-INS WELCOME, tickets not required!

Our April selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN MEM

Our April selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN MEMOIR BOOK CLUB is Grace Loh Prasad's THE TRANSLATOR'S DAUGHTER, and we're thrilled to host Grace for a cozy live chat at the beginning of our session. ⁠
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Born in Taiwan, Grace Loh Prasad was two years old when the threat of political persecution under Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship drove her family to the United States, setting her up to become an “accidental immigrant.” The family did not know when they would be able to go home again; this exile lasted long enough for Prasad to forget her native Taiwanese language and grow up American. Having multilingual parents—including a father who worked as a translator—meant she never had to develop the fluency to navigate Taiwan on visits. But when her parents moved back to Taiwan permanently when she was in college and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she recognized the urgency of forging a stronger connection with her birthplace before it was too late. As she recounts her journey to reclaim her heritage in The Translator’s Daughter, Prasad unfurls themes of memory, dislocation, and loss in all their rich complexity. The result is a unique immigration story about the loneliness of living in a diaspora, the search for belonging, and the meaning of home.⁠
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🖥️ Join us on Sunday, April 19 6PM PT for a guided discussion (Google Meets)! RSVP at the link in bio.⁠
📚We're pleased to partner with AAPI-led, mission-driven @yellowperilbooks to offer 10% off our memoir selections with code TABOOKCLUB10 and 5% off books by Taiwanese Americans with code TWNAMERICANS. 5% of proceeds from these texts will be donated to @taiwaneseam_org.⁠
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Tag us on your reading journey at @taiwaneseam_org #TABookClub!⁠
4w

Inspired by his upbringing in the San Gabriel Vall

Inspired by his upbringing in the San Gabriel Valley with his single Taiwanese mother, Anthony Ma’d directorial debut, GOD & BUDDHA ARE FRIENDS, captures the chaotic, funny, and deeply moving ways families fight for what they believe in.⁠
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✨ God & Buddha Are Friends @godandbuddhaarefriends premieres online today, March 12, on Omeleto, in partnership with NextShark — find it on YouTube!
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✨ Featuring performances by Karin Anna Cheung, Janet Hsieh, Jim Meskimen, Ethan Wang, and Emilie Ong.

DEADLINE EXTENDED!! TaiwaneseAmerican.org is excit

DEADLINE EXTENDED!! TaiwaneseAmerican.org is excited to announce the 2026 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes, created in collaboration with author Charles Yu to uplift and recognize Taiwanese American writers across generations.⁠
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What’s new / continuing in 2026⁠
• Four categories: Middle School, High School, College, & Adult⁠
• Guest Poetry Editor Averylin Cummins (Prize alum!)⁠
• Winners & finalists published on TaiwaneseAmerican.org + cash prize⁠
⁠
Deadline: Tuesday, March 17, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT⁠
Genres: fiction, poetry, personal essay, or creative nonfiction⁠
Eligible writers: Taiwanese heritage, significant connections to Taiwan, or Taiwanese/Taiwanese American subject matter⁠. Up to 5,000 words.⁠
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📝 Submit via Google Form: full guidelines & submission form in bio!

It’s been a few years since we shared a roundup

It’s been a few years since we shared a roundup of resources and readings commemorating the 228 Incident. This year, we’ve put together a short, curated update (with links to past, more comprehensive guides in the article).⁠
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We've also been thinking deeply about how "commemoration" is most useful as a dialogue between the past and the present. To that end, we've included accompanying reflection questions to help us articulate: what kind of relationship do we want to have with Taiwan, Taiwanese America, and the “great unfinished struggles” that continue to shape our lives? How does remembering these histories guide the way we live and engage today?⁠
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Linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2026/02/228-reflection-2026/

“Godfather of Taiwanese America” lore just dro

“Godfather of Taiwanese America” lore just dropped 👀
@taiwaneseam_org founder and prolific Taiwanese American community organizer HoChie Tsai @hochie71 was just a toddler when his family moved to the U.S. But unlike many immigrants, Tsai’s parents were fleeing political repression under martial law in Taiwan. Tsai talks about that legacy, and how that helped to shape his identity first as an Asian American activist and physician.
Listen on ICRT’s TAIWAN TALK, wherever you get your podcasts!
🔗: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-navigating-two-cultures-shaped-asian-american-activist/id572456881?i=1000751670270

Our March selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN MEM

Our March selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN MEMOIR BOOK CLUB is Ingrid Hu Dahl's SUN SHINING ON MORNING SNOW: A Memoir of Identity, Loss, and Living Boldly - with Ingrid joining us for a live Q&A!⁠
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Ingrid Hu Dahl, a mixed-race, queer woman, takes readers on an intimate journey through the challenges of self-discovery—navigating the weight of social, cultural and familial expectations. ⁠
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🖥️ Join us on Sunday, March 15 6PM PT for a guided discussion (Google Meets)! RSVP at the link in bio.⁠
📚We're pleased to partner with AAPI-led, mission-driven @yellowperilbooks to offer 10% off our memoir selections with code TABOOKCLUB10 and 5% off books by Taiwanese Americans with code TWNAMERICANS. 5% of proceeds from these texts will be donated to @taiwaneseam_org.⁠
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Tag us on your reading journey at @taiwaneseam_org #TABookClub!⁠

"We hadn’t meant to cry in the food court below

"We hadn’t meant to cry in the food court below Taipei — and during a Saturday lunch rush hour at that. ⁠
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Author Stefany Valentine @booksbystefany and I connected online in 2024 before she published her debut novel, First Love Language. As Asian American adoptees — her being Taiwanese American and me being Chinese American living in Taiwan — we bonded quickly over Taiwan and our longing for adoptee representation in young adult books. ⁠
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Fast forward one year and suddenly we were meeting in person in Taipei. When we first started chatting, I had been studying Mandarin in Tainan; Stefany was interested in learning Mandarin in Taiwan. Since then, right before First Love Language was released, Stefany is in reunion with her birth mother in Taiwan.⁠
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Now we’re both living in Taiwan: I work a corporate job in Taipei; Stefany studies Mandarin in Taoyuan while living with her birth mother.⁠
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A week before Stefany’s sophomore debut, Love Makes Mochi, was released on January 27, we met up at Taipei 101 to chat about (re)-learning Mandarin as adoptees in Taiwan. But what we didn’t expect were the tears... the feels from having a conversation with someone who just…gets it."⁠
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Read the full, exquisite conversation, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2026/02/stefany-valentine-interview/⁠

Screenshots from two of our virtual events this mo

Screenshots from two of our virtual events this month! 2/15 - Taiwanese American Memoir Book Club! Our February pick was Michelle Kuo’s READING WITH PATRICK - and what a joy to have Michelle Kuo join us for a cozy, introspective discussion on finding and nurturing our inner child, writing and living ethically, and “being honest with our own contradictions.” Join us next month for Ingrid Hu Dahl’s SUN SHINING ON MORNING SNOW. 2/22 - Office Hours with Charlie! To build and encourage a writing community alongside the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes, writer Charles Yu offered a live Q&A for emerging and established writers to share their works-in-progress, ask questions, and get to know each other.
We ended with two generative writing prompts:
1) Write a biography. Anyone you want.
2) Write something that begins: “The first time it happened...” Taiwanese American Memoir Book Club: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/projects/2026-memoir-book-club/
2026 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2026/02/2026-creative-writing-prize/

We're pleased to share this beautiful personal ess

We're pleased to share this beautiful personal essay by Adela Wu, about returning to Taiwan after the death of her father.⁠
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"My dad was the only one who moved and started a new life in California, so far from his family and his home. From what I knew about his move and his life before I was born, he faced numerous challenges, from learning a foreign language to navigating the stress of opening a small business. He then lived with an aggressive type of brain tumor and suffered through numerous surgeries and treatments, while continuing work to support our family.
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'Why?' I wondered out loud to my aunt. 'Why did he do all that?'⁠
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'Ah, your father. He had an American Dream.'"⁠
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Read the full piece, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2026/02/in-grief-returning-to-my-roots/⁠
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Adela Wu, MD, is a second-generation Chinese-Taiwanese American, neurosurgeon, writer, and illustrator, who currently lives in the Bay Area. She is currently working on a hybrid memoir about family, illness, culture, and grief.

TaiwaneseAmerican.org is excited to announce the 2

TaiwaneseAmerican.org is excited to announce the 2026 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes, created in collaboration with author Charles Yu to uplift and recognize Taiwanese American writers across generations.⁠
⁠
What’s new / continuing in 2026⁠
• Four categories: Middle School, High School, College, & Adult⁠
• Virtual Office Hours with Charles Yu (Sun, Feb 22): live Q&A + generative writing (RSVP at link in bio - open to new & past participants!)⁠
• Guest Poetry Editor Averylin Cummins (Prize alum!)⁠
• Winners & finalists published on TaiwaneseAmerican.org + cash prize⁠
⁠
Deadline: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT⁠
Genres: fiction, poetry, personal essay, or creative nonfiction⁠
Eligible writers: Taiwanese heritage, significant connections to Taiwan, or Taiwanese/Taiwanese American subject matter⁠
⁠
📝 Submit via Google Form: full guidelines & submission form in bio!

We’re pleased to share this thoughtful, searchin $We’re pleased to share this thoughtful, searching essay by a guest contributor, who reflects on finding his own questions of identity and belonging unexpectedly mirrored in the 2004 film "National Treasure."⁠ ⁠ Particularly striking to us is his observation that “for waishengren families like [his], the treasure [of identity] includes the effort to make sense of a legacy often seen as complicated or inconvenient.” ⁠ ⁠ In sharing his work, we want to renew our commitment to better holding and refracting the many ways people arrive in and understand our community. Our thanks to this writer for sharing his story; we hope others will be inspired to do the same. Submission guidelines are available on our website.$

In REVOLUTIONARY TAIWAN, co-authors Catherine Chou

In REVOLUTIONARY TAIWAN, co-authors Catherine Chou and Mark Harrison write that “a coherent national Taiwanese story cannot be told in terms that will be understood within the international system,” an order in which Taiwan is said to possess neither territory nor history. Yet it is precisely this contradiction that animates the book’s most generative insights. Taiwanese identity here is not assumed, but historically chosen—“declared rather than assumed; not simply born but inculcated.”⁠
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In this interview, I speak with Catherine about what it means to write tenderly from within that contradiction, why Taiwan’s unfinished revolution deserves new political languages, and Revolutionary Taiwan’s place in the diasporic imagination.⁠
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To support #TaiwaneseAmericans in engaging with this history, we are hosting a giveaway for REVOLUTIONARY TAIWAN!⁠
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HOW TO ENTER:⁠
❤️FOLLOW us at @taiwaneseam_org⁠
❤️COMMENT "REVOLUTIONARY" to participate (one entry per person)⁠
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The winner must be based in the United States and willing to privately share a mailing address. The giveaway will run through 2/20/26; the winner will be announced in stories AND DM'ed from this account only.⁠
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This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Instagram.⁠

As our annual Taiwanese American gift guides have

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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