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TaiwaneseAmerican.org

Home
- About
- Community Organizations
Submissions
Stories
Projects
2026 Taiwanese American Memoir Book Club
- Book Club Discussion Guides
Creative Writing Prizes
Gift Guides
Bookshop
Parenting Resources
Contact
Donate

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Posted on Friday, June 20th, 2025 at 12:14 pm.

Written by Leona

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“It is not up to Xi. And it is not complicated.”⁠
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In her latest essay for @taiwaneseam_org, writer, translator, and comedian Vickie Wang @vickiefromtaiwan reflects on a lifetime shaped by the constant threat of war, and the overwhelming exhaustion of watching Taiwan treated as a bargaining chip by untrustworthy leaders and hot topic by exploitative pundits. ⁠
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Drawing from her lived experiences in China, Taiwan, and the United States, Wang wearily but firmly reasserts that Taiwan's sovereignty is not hypothetical, and Taiwan belongs to the Taiwanese people.⁠
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Read the full Perspectives piece, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2026/01/taiwan-is-not-up-to-xi-vickie-wang/

We're pleased to share "In the Shadow of a Flag" b

We're pleased to share "In the Shadow of a Flag" by 2025 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prize honorable mention (adult category) G.L. Blandford, described by the judges as "deeply personal" and "inspiring."⁠
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In this memoir-in-progress, Blandford writes: "This story is not an accusation, nor is it an apology. It is an exploration of the shadows we inherit and the truths we must reclaim. It is for those who live in the margins of identity, between nations, races, and the weight of untold stories.⁠
I used to live in the shadow of a flag, defined by lines I did not draw. Now I live in the light of lineage, one that flows like water and stands like rock. One that remembers what the world tries to forget. One that lets my children ride the currents between oceans and mountains, not to escape contradiction, but to become whole within it."⁠
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Read the full piece, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2026/01/gl-blandford-memoir/

Our first selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN MEM

Our first selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN MEMOIR BOOK CLUB is Kaila Yu's FETISHIZED: A RECKONING WITH YELLOW FEVER, FEMINISM, AND BEAUTY. ⁠
Yu is a former pinup model and lead singer of Nylon Pink; her memoir-in-essays reckons with being an object of Asian fetish and how media, pop culture, and colonialism contributed to the oversexualization of Asian women.⁠
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🖥️ Join us on Sunday, January 18 6PM PT for a guided discussion (Google Meets)! RSVP at the link in bio.⁠
🍿Look for our community discussion guide at the end of the month, based on our virtual meetup, to facilitate your own reading groups! ⁠
📚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!

Add this #TaiwaneseAmerican Memoir Book Club to yo

Add this #TaiwaneseAmerican Memoir Book Club to your 2026 reading challenge!⁠
In celebration of the growing canon of Taiwanese American memoirs (and manifestos), we are delighted to host a year-long reading series next year to enjoy and discuss these texts ✨together✨.⁠
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🖥️ Join us on the third Sunday of every month for a virtual (Google Meets) casual yap about the selected text! We will meet for 60-90 minutes, depending on attendance, with one session dedicated to each book. You can join any number of book club discussions throughout the year. They will be facilitated in English and open to all!⁠
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🍿Can’t join us and/or prefer in-person book clubs? At the conclusion of our virtual discussions, we’ll post a community discussion guide for you to host your own reading group!⁠
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🔗 Read the full announcement, schedule, and RSVP instructions here (and linked in bio): https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/projects/2026-memoir-book-club/⁠
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Hope to read more with you all next year!⁠ ❤️🥰🫶

We're pleased to share "Yagyu" by 2025 Betty L. Yu

We're pleased to share "Yagyu" by 2025 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prize finalist (adult category), Grace A. Lin, described by the judges as "an absorbing tale of the complex memories stirred by baseball, intertwined with Taiwanese history."⁠
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"Wayne’s father interjects here and there with terse comments. On this particular night, they watch the news, and the anchors announce the finalists for this year’s Little League World Series. Taiwan has made it once again. Except in the international sporting world—as well as on the toy flag that Wayne has just uncovered—they call it Chinese Taipei. Wayne’s father turns to the others with a look of entertainment, waving his chopsticks at the TV. “Propaganda,” he states, as his eyes go back to his pork hock. He hunches his neck toward his bowl to sink his teeth into the dense meat, tearing it off the bone with a swift turn of the neck."⁠
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Read the full piece at TaiwaneseAmerican.org.⁠
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Grace A. Lin @dtfdumpling is a writer who lives in both Knoxville, TN and Detroit, MI. ⁠

Longtime guest contributor Eric Tsai @taitsai has

Longtime guest contributor Eric Tsai @taitsai has teamed up with his TaiwanPlus @taiwanplusnews colleague Jaime Ocon @jaime.ocontw to create a balanced, informative video series responding to a very real and deeply felt anxiety among many Taiwanese Americans—especially young people—amid constant headlines about a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.⁠
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Recognizing how often Taiwanese identity is framed almost exclusively through geopolitics, the series offers an accessible, grounded resource that draws directly from expert analysis and firsthand experience embedded with Taiwan’s military, with the goal of bringing clarity, context, and calm to an overwhelming conversation.⁠
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Read more about their BTS vision (exclusive for @taiwaneseam_org) and watch the video series on TaiwaneseAmerican.org.⁠
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#taiwanplusnews #geopolitics #taiwanplus #taiwaneseamerican⁠

Angie QQ, founder of East Never Loses and A Pure P

Angie QQ, founder of East Never Loses and A Pure Person Press, created SOUNDS OF TAIWAN with Taiwanese composer Lim Giong and other friends to be an archive of Taiwan’s past and present. The project uses a collection of Lim Giong’s personal field recordings as its foundation. Angie QQ became the curator and A&R of the archive, reaching out to producer friends to contribute to the record and beyond. ⁠
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It would take five years for SOUNDS OF TAIWAN to be released– and it finally was, last month on November 6. 6. But as Point Hsu, a mentor and “guiding force” in the creation of the record, said to Angie before he passed away, SOUNDS OF TAIWAN came out when it was supposed to come out. “Whenever it comes out, it’ll feel right." ⁠
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Read Angie QQ's full conversation with Taipei-based journalist Sara Conway, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/12/angie-qq-sounds-of-taiwan/⁠
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#angieqq #soundsoftaiwan #apurepersonpress #limgiong #taiwaneseamerican #taiwaneseamericanmusic

COMING TO NYC -- A Story That Lives Within US: Ada

COMING TO NYC -- A Story That Lives Within US: Ada is a mixed-media exhibition curated by @naomichan.art to explore the life of Ada Lin, a fictionalized narrative shaped by real stories and oral histories of Taiwanese immigrants building new lives in the U.S. ⁠
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Bringing together 12 artists across installation, painting, ceramics, performance, and mixed media, the exhibition draws on the artists’ personal insights and lived experiences. ⁠
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📍 Location: @crossingart⁠
559 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011⁠
📅 December 18, 2025 — January 3, 2026⁠
Tues–Sat, 10:30 AM–6:00 PM⁠
🌟 Opening Reception: Dec 18, 6–8 PM⁠
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Featured artists: James Hsieh, Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia, Chihyang Hsu, Chiya Huang, John Chia Hsuan Kuo, Hung-Ju Kan, Danny Liu (Amazonas), Munus Shih, Jason Cole Mager, Leigh Wen, Yalan Wen, and Sherry Yang⁠
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#AStoryThatLivesWithinUsAda #TaiwaneseAmerican #CrossingArt

"As the year comes to an end, families in the U.S.

"As the year comes to an end, families in the U.S. are probably entering a season filled with gatherings: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything in between. I imagine it feels a bit like Lunar New Year in Taiwan. I often wonder: when you get together with your family, do you feel closer to them, or somehow even farther away?"⁠
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In this Perspectives piece, Mandarin teacher Jane Liu reflects on the limits of language alone, and how true intergenerational communication becomes possible when we think more deeply about the circumstances and histories that shape the people we love.⁠
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Read the full piece, linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/12/jane-liu-understanding-parents-stories/⁠
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#janesmandarin #abt #taiwaneseamerican #taiwanesemandarin

20 years ago, @hochie71 registered the TaiwaneseAm

20 years ago, @hochie71 registered the TaiwaneseAmerican.org domain to start constructing a living archive of second-generation Taiwanese Americans. He envisioned it as a space for us to find each other and explore our heritage, identity, and values in community, and to make the gifts of connection and belonging accessible to people everywhere. A peek into our archives reveals his decades of bringing people together in a time when it was “hard to be Taiwanese.” Today, we flourish in that foundation: an abundance of storytellers across every medium, creators and small businesses (just look at our annual gift guide!), and thoughtful, principled leaders who navigate daily what it means to be proud of our identity, in service to our broader communities. This Giving Tuesday, we humbly invite you to support our work. We are fully volunteer-run with so many dreams for our community. Your contributions sustain community initiatives, such as compensating writers, funding our annual Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prize, and encouraging other indie initiatives.感謝 for being our people! Find us at taiwaneseamerican.org/donate (also linked in bio).

This weekend for our NYC community! ⁠ #Taiwanese

This weekend for our NYC community! ⁠
#TaiwaneseAmerican screenwriter's Golden Horse-nominated film, ROSEMEAD, opens in New York City THIS WEEKEND! Strong opening attendance will determine whether this powerful film, based on a true story, will expand to screen nationally.⁠
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Based on the award-winning Los Angeles Times article by Frank Shyong, ROSEMEAD follows an ailing woman who discovers her teenage son’s violent obsessions and must go to great lengths to protect him and the darkness he is drawn to.⁠
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Tickets are available via Fandango: https://www.fandango.com/new-york-city_ny_movietimes?date=2025-12-05

NEW on TaiwaneseAmerican.org: Professional bookwor

NEW on TaiwaneseAmerican.org: Professional bookworm Esther Fung interviews Elaine Hsieh Chou about her short story collection, "Where Are You Really From."⁠
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From a world in which men can purchase mail order brides to a deceptively playful story about a dollhouse, this book demonstrates Chou’s ability to explore themes of violence and desire, representation and family bonds, and the intersection of art, sexuality, and identity. ⁠
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Linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/11/elaine-hsieh-chou-interview/

It was such a gift to speak with co-organizers Li

It was such a gift to speak with co-organizers Li and Kimberly, who are leading a delegation of Asian American farmers on the exquisitely planned Taiwan Food and Farm Tour. In collaboration with farmers in Pinglin, Yilan, and Hualien, they’re building transnational relationships grounded in fieldwork and farming: modalities that can mend the harms of migration, displacement, assimilation, and shared histories of occupation and war.⁠
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“We hope that by identifying these common challenges we will foster solidarity and discover ways to support regenerative farming on both sides of the Pacific,” shares Li Schmidt.⁠
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“We see sharing our inspirations before the trip, as well as the lessons learned afterwards, as opportunities for deeper political education,” adds Kimberly Chou Tsun An. “Harnessing this knowledge allows us to connect big-picture topics to everyday concerns, and to understand how we can shift narrative and culture even with small steps, starting with ourselves and our communities.”⁠
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Read the full Q&A at the link in bio:⁠
https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/10/taiwan-food-and-farm/⁠
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Follow @taiwanfoodandfarmtour for daily updates from the delegation. 🌾✨

🎁🥹 Our Annual Taiwanese American Gift Guide

🎁🥹 Our Annual Taiwanese American Gift Guide is here!!
By community, for community: featuring Taiwanese American founders, creators, artisans, writers, and small businesses you love. This gift guide grows every year because YOU help lift up these makers who so thoughtfully infuse their heritage and imagination into their work.
When you shop from this guide, you support:
- Taiwanese American entrepreneurs and artists
- Women, queer, and immigrant-owned businesses
- Community-rooted creators committed to ethical sourcing and thoughtful production
- Diasporic storytelling in all its forms Swipe, shop, share!
The gift guide is linked here and in bio: https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2025/11/2025-gift-guide/

What a privilege to speak with @taiwanplus produce

What a privilege to speak with @taiwanplus producer Eric Tsai for #ZoomInZoomOut about Taiwanese American community-building! EIC Leona Chen talks about how almost 20 years ago, @hochie71 built @taiwaneseam_org as a “living archive” for the “endless possibilities for Taiwanese Americans” and how growing up in Taiwanese America + being raised by first generation elder-activists has taught her to treat Taiwan’s complexity as an opportunity for creativity. 🎥: Watch the full interview (15 minutes), linked here and in bio. https://youtu.be/v15TtVGjoSk 💛: Gratitude to Eric Tsai, Alec MacDonald, and the @taiwanplus production team; and everyone on the @taiwaneseam_org team over the years, plus all our friends who make an appearance in the full video, including our author/illustrator community, @tafnc1 @tafagram and @yunhaishop 💖Can you believe we turn 20 soon?!

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.

© 2026 TaiwaneseAmerican.org