by Audrey Jean What does it mean to be a Taiwanese American? How strong of a tie should we feel towards our parent culture? How much of our life should we devote to exploring and promoting our heritage? These are questions that we all think about and come up with our own answers for. But, however much, or little, we choose to identify with our Taiwanese background, it is after all our heritage, our DNA even, and therefore will always be a part of us. Well, how do you answer these same questions…

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by Iris Ho On September 15, I will be in New York to take part in the “UN for Taiwan” rally that will take place simultaneously with the one held in Taiwan. I have been looking forward to this event and am excited to see many friends there! It has been 35 years since the people of Taiwan have had any representation in the United Nations. Accordingly, Taiwan is not a member of any other UN-affiliated organizations, such as the World Health Organization, which failed to provide any medical…

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After a hectic time trying to get our schedules to match, I finally spoke with Wesley Du, a Taiwanese American playwright over the phone. Du is currently busy working on his new one act play, Jupiter and Nebula, which opens on August 9 and runs until the 25th at 8 p.m. at the Actor's Playpen Theater in Hollywood. But Du warned with a laugh, “No ‘Asian people time’ because it’s a small theatre. If you come in late, people can actually see you coming in. You have to walk through the stage,…

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Taiwanese American filmmaker, Edward Yang, passed away last week due to complications from a seven year battle with colon cancer. Mr. Yang was best known for his critically acclaimed film, Yi Yi, about a Taiwanese family coping with the serious illness of their elderly mother. Yang's first major success "Taipei Story," gained world-wide attention in 1985. He followed that success with several other award winning films. Known for focusing on modern Taiwanese life and realistic problems, Yang's…

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An interesting thing happened over the past two years. And it’s an occurrence our Taiwanese American community hasn’t seen before. Since 2005, five emerging Taiwanese American authors have garnered attention in many facets of the literary mainstream with their wonderfully reviewed books! The writers creatively use diverse narrative structures, from fictional short stories to first-person accounts, and target a wide range of audiences, from children and young adults to a general adult literary…

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