We may try, but it’s not often our travel scrapbooks look as vivid as artist Felicia Liang’s. Liang’s art often depicts the cuisine, still life, and everyday objects of the Asian American experience. In 2022, as she prepared for a trip to Taiwan, she grabbed a set of color pencils, her preferred medium. There, she would sketch a range of foods and scenes she encountered during her three-month stay: scenes of Taiwanese breakfast, cafe eats, local sweets, and colorful dumplings. The contents of her travel journal would eventually become her second published book; called “Taiwanese Homecoming,” it is a compilation of these colorful sketches bound within a minimalist green cover designed to look like a Taiwanese passport.
Liang is primarily based in the Bay Area, California and her work can be found in publications like Teen Vogue, Glamour, the Gothamist, New York Magazine, Taiwan Plus, and more. As a longtime fan of her work, I was excited to speak to her about her journey as an artist and creative, and the trip to Taiwan that started as an escape and became a homecoming.
The following interview was edited for length and clarity.
How did you get your start as an artist?
I actually drew a lot as a kid. I started drawing after work in 2015 just to do something different. I did a project called “#100DAYSIANS” that I self-published into a book and then I took some illustration courses. The book got me my first solo show in New York in 2017; that achievement planted the seed that art and illustration could potentially become a career.
I did art on the side up until 2019. I was still working at a corporation then. I quit to go freelance. The pandemic happened, and it was not ideal, but I slowly built my business from there. I primarily worked as a freelancer to start, and then I opened an online shop to sell my art prints. The business just kind of grew from there.
Did working corporate change your approach to an art career or influence your approach to it at all?
I would say the thing I took from corporate was it taught me how to deal with clients and how to maintain good client relationships, which I think is vital when you’re working with clients for illustration projects.
It’s funny that you asked what corporate has taught me. I think part of working in life too is just finding out what you’re not good at and the things you don’t enjoy. The corporate career, I think, just wasn’t for me. I guess I’m competent at what I do. I was a project manager, I was a consultant. I could do it, but I don’t think it was something I really enjoyed doing. It wasn’t my natural skill set. But I took what I could from it and it helped me a lot with client relationships.
How did you come to develop your current color pencil sketched scrapbook aesthetic?
When I started drawing in 2015 on the side, I used colored pencils. They were accessible and it was easy to do. It’s still my favorite medium of choice. A lot of my work now is digital. Especially when it comes to client work, it is a lot faster. But I love pencil to paper, textures put in with gradients.
So with the sketchbook and thatparticular colorful aesthetic, that developed because when I went to Taiwan, I just grabbed a small box of colored pencils. I grabbed whatever colors I wanted. I didn’t think much about it. Maybe there was some intuition there, but I think it was just a set that I had and it forced me to just work with the colors that I had. I had a lot of fun doing that. At the moment, that’s been the aesthetic I gravitate towards.
It’s great! Something I struggle with in plating Taiwanese food is that a lot of our food is brown or beige. To see it drawn out in this vibrant way, made me think twice and think about the potential for colors there. You know some things can just look kind of goopy or slimy.
Yeah! Like the ô-á-chian and the QQ stuff. It’s cool and it tastes great but it doesn’t look pretty.
Exactly! I was amazed at how you managed to add these vibrant visual dimensions to these types of dishes, and even work pinks and fuschia into it.
I think just even the colors of the architecture and the environment of Taiwan inform some of the visual language, especially the grains.
What are some of the challenges for an artist that you feel people might not be aware of?
Something I more recently identified is how tiring and taxing it can be over time when I’m always marketing myself or putting myself and my art out there to be critiqued. I’ve talked to a couple artists about this too, [about] social media and how I’m grateful for it because I’ve reached people I couldn’t [have reached] by myself. I think it’s just the cost of performance sometimes. I’ve done it for so many years now. It can get kind of tiring sometimes. It’s not just making art for myself. So I’m trying to find that balance.
Pursuing art or any kind of non-traditional career, it’s always tough. Success is never guaranteed. The world is not built for artists to thrive. So continue to believe in yourself and find the right people to continue what you’re doing.
Your art has been featured in some notable places. What for you has been the most meaningful accomplishment?
I feel like everywhere, whether it’s client work or someone’s walls or gifting a coloring book to their grandma, they’ve all been really great for me. The most unexpected place has been the UC Berkeley Library. It’s in their archives. I went to UC Berkeley and it’s funny that I didn’t major in arts there but my art is in the library. I see libraries and even bookstores as places of history and places to learn so it’s pretty cool to think that some of my artwork, especially some of my Taiwanese and Bay Area artwork are all in there.
What led you to take the “Homecoming” trip?
I actually didn’t go with the intention of it being like a homecoming. 2021 was a bit hard for me because I had a wrist injury. I was limited in the type of work I could do. I was feeling a bit scattered and we were all in the throes of the pandemic. It was in my mind that it would be cool to be in Taiwan for a little bit of time, especially with both my paternal grandparents getting older. My partner is also Taiwanese American. His mom retired and moved to Taiwan so he has extended family there too. We both were lucky enough to take time off in 2022 to do it. I didn’t go in with any kind of intention. I just wanted to escape. But the trip ended up being a lot more restorative for me, not even for my art but just for myself.
Were you able to spend a lot of time in Taiwan prior to this trip?
This is the longest continuous stretch, but I always went as a kid. My parents wanted me to spend time with my cousins, my aunt, and my grandparents. So I went a lot as a kid right up until middle school and then it tapered. I went a couple of times in college. In the last 5 or 6 years I tried to go every other year at least.
My trips before have been so short—seeing family and having this go-go-go pace while getting over jetlag. Going as an adult is super different. Usually when I’d go there, it was just for family and maybe we would have a day to ourselves, but being able to spend three months there, while a lot of it was still with family, we got to explore the island on our own, got to make our own friends that aren’t our relatives. I think that it’s renewed my relationship with Taiwan.
What are some new discoveries you made with Taiwanese food?
I actually didn’t realize how sweet the palate is there, especially compared to how I eat here. That was just interesting to me. Even the savory dishes were kind of sweet, the cocktails were sweet.
I didn’t realize how flavorful and yummy the food is without having to use a lot of spices. It’s just the ingredients themselves and the sauce that they use was enough to make it incredibly flavorful.
My partner and I had a weird fascination with how the Taiwanese interpreted Western foods. It’s odd, kind of interesting, and strange at the same time.
Right! Like cocktail wieners and tuna on pizza or something like that.
Yeah! And also with shrimp.
How was the extended experience with your family? Did that shape your work with “Taiwanese Homecoming”?
I think [the influence manifested] more implicitly or subconsciously. Just having spent extended time, especially with my grandma and my aunt, we were able to have conversations that were more than just small talk. Maybe it was me just feeling closer to them. I don’t know if it was directly reflected in my artwork, but I’m sure it had an impact.
It just felt more like home to me. That in itself just made me more reflective about my work. A lot of my earlier works were about the broader Asian American experience. I was trying to cast a wider net. It’s not a bad thing, but I think over time, I kind of watered myself down a little bit to attract a larger audience. Being in Taiwan, being with family, influenced my art.
Something I learned was that getting more specific with who I am and what I enjoy can help [me] be more universal. I’ve [met] folks who aren’t Taiwanese, but they see my journal spread, they see my book, and it still really hits with them because I think they see parts of their own cultures and upbringings there too. I just feel more like me. I feel more comfortable with myself.
If you only had 24 hours in Taiwan, what would you eat and what would you do?
I’d probably land there early in the morning like I usually do and I would get breakfast. I love fan tuan so I would eat all the fan tuan, and I’d probably just walk around. I think in the mornings, it’s very quiet so I would just kind of walk around there, I don’t even care where I am. I would make sure to go to all the bookstores and gift shops. I love going to those. I would have an afternoon coffee somewhere at a coffee shop.
I’d also get a haircut. It’s really affordable and they do a really good job. I would obviously see my family, see my grandma. I would walk around Dadaocheng. I love that place and all the architecture. I would probably grab food at Ningxia and then a late night rechao meal.
“Taiwanese Homecoming” and more of Liang’s work can be purchased through her Etsy site. For more about Liang and her upcoming events, visit felicia-liang.com.
Felicia Liang is a Taiwanese American artist, illustrator, and printmaker. Her work is a constant exploration of her identity and emotions, and how the communities and cultures she’s around uniquely shape them. She loves making colorful food, still life, and cityscape illustrations and seeing her art on walls around people’s homes, on menus, on merchandise, and sometimes in the newspaper.
Tiffany Ran is a chef and writer based in Seattle, Washington. Her writing has been featured in Seattle Magazine, Vice Munchies, Goldthread, Seattle Weekly, Lucky Peach, and more. She runs a Taiwanese pop-up called Babalio Taiwanese Pop Up, showcasing lesser known dishes and aspects of Taiwanese cuisine. She is very passionate about tracing and contributing to the growing recognition of Taiwanese cuisine in the U.S.
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