RAMEN: Fiction by Yvonne Gillen

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Finalist, Middle School Category I hung up my apron about to close my restaurant. I washed the used dishes, and grabbed my coat from the hangers. I pulled on my hat and scarf, and took the keys from a table. I heard a shrill giggle. I clutched my heart feeling faint.  “I must be hallucinating,” I mumbled. I shook my head and continued my work.  “Are you usually this stupid?” The voice called.  The kitchen!  I rushed over to my counter.  WHY WAS THERE A BOWL OF RAMEN…

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The Taiwanese Experience: The Biggest Act of My Life – Creative Nonfiction by Jamie Su

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Finalist, High School Category [Act I, Prologue]  I’ve never taken an acting class. Or been in a drama club. Or even auditioned for a play. But I am an actress. And a heck of a good one, at that.  To start, my name isn’t even Vivian. It’s Yu-Wei, but they didn’t know how to pronounce that at my kindergarten graduation. My parents brought me to court and had it legally changed a month later. They were afraid that kids at school would make fun of me.  I never told them that they…

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The First Meal (Of Many): Creative Nonfiction by Ruth Lee

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Finalist, College Category Numbed by the thirty-hour travel warp of three connecting flights, I gaze out the car window with muffled fascination at the world before me. I grew up here, but it doesn’t feel quite real. Window views transient like movie scenes pass as my father drives down winding alleys: a cozy corner church; a wall of papery fuchsia flowers, sunlight filtering through their veins. I barely register my dad pulling into the driveway of his parents’ house and the engine rumbling…

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New on TaiwanPlus: “Kitchen Remix” presents Taiwanese Food… With a Twist

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Two Taiwanese Americans. 20+ recipes. Taiwanese food as never seen before. In a small kitchen in Taipei, Clarissa Wei and Brandon O’Neal set out to tell the tale of Taiwanese dishes. Equipped with extensive knowledge of culinary history, personal memories of each dish and a deep love for the flavors of Taiwan, the two Taiwanese American chefs are giving global audiences a whole new way to understand Taiwanese food. The format of “Kitchen Remix” is fairly simple: Clarissa leads the…

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How Dragon Boat Festival zongzi are my mom’s love language

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For as long as I can remember, the scent of steaming Taiwanese zongzi (or bahtzang, in Taigi) filled my childhood home the weekend ahead of the Dragon Boat Festival day. Before the convenience of Asian grocery chains having a prepared foods section, the memory of my mom sitting on a low plastic stool in the kitchen making zongzi comes to mind. The warmth from the gas stove mixed with boiling pots of zongzi cooking on all four burners signaled to me the start of summer. Zongzi production is…

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Podcasts & Poetry: Cynthia Lin (TW Diaspora) Interviews Shin Yu Pai

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  I’m thrilled Leona connected me with Shin Yu Pai for this written Q&A piece for TaiwaneseAmerican.org centered on her work as an artist, writer, and podcast host. As two podcasters, Shin Yu and I naturally gravitated to talking live after the initial Q&A. I found our conversation to be soul-enriching for those consciously on a healing journey. To listen to the audio interview, check out the podcast episode on TaiwaneseDiaspora.com (available on all major podcast apps). Shin…

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Director’s Picks: Ten Taiwan Films that Imagine Taiwanese America

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Filmmakers in Taiwan have always had their sights on the world and not just the nation. For one, the concept of nation in Taiwan is tricky, especially through decades of colonization, American influence, and rapid globalization. When we think of the globalization of Taiwanese cinema, we typically think of the international film festival success of filmmakers like Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, and Tsai Ming-liang. But we can also observe that filmmakers in Taiwan have long travelled abroad to…

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Fantuan Discourse

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I would not consider myself an aggressive person, but I tend to find myself getting into petty arguments with my friends. One recent argument occurred right after a dinner in which I was introducing my new boyfriend to my friends Phillip and Lily.[1] It began innocently enough: we had dinner at a nice Turkish restaurant, then retreated to Phillip’s apartment for dessert and tea. During the conversation, it came to light that we are all of Taiwanese descent, which naturally led to a discussion…

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