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

Written by Leona

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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.⁠
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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
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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
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📝 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

Shared brief thoughts with @taiwanplusnews about t

Shared brief thoughts with @taiwanplusnews about the escalating ICE violence in our communities and, further, the administration’s dishonesty about what they are doing, why they’re doing it, and who they’re doing it to. Taiwanese Americans are also an immigrant community. We do not have more protections than everybody else. We are not exempt from vulnerability to the same injustice, or deep concern for those already caught within it. Solidarity to our neighbors and the resilient people of Minnesota ❤️‍🩹
— EIC (thoughts are my own)

Our February selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN

Our February selection for our TAIWANESE AMERICAN MEMOIR BOOK CLUB is Michelle Kuo's READING WITH PATRICK: A Teacher, a Student and the Life-Changing Power of Books - with Michelle joining us for a live Q&A in the first 30 minutes! 😍😍😍⁠
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Kuo's memoir details her life-changing friendship with a gifted student, jailed for murder in the Mississippi Delta.⁠
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🖥️ Join us on Sunday, February 15 6PM PT for a guided discussion (Google Meets)! RSVP at the link in bio.⁠
🍿Our community discussion guide for January's pick, Kaila Yu's FETISHIZED, based on or virtual conversation, is up on TaiwaneseAmerican.org! ⁠
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!

“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

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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