“Where Every Ghost Has a Name”: Kim Liao in conversation with Cosette Wu

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After hearing Kim Liao speak at the 2024 North American Taiwan Studies Association Conference welcoming plenary session, I found myself eagerly anticipating the September release of her book, Where Every Ghost Has a Name: A Memoir of Taiwanese Independence. In 2010, Kim traveled to Taiwan on a Fulbright, seeking to uncover the story of her grandfather, Thomas Liao (Liao Wen-yi), a prominent leader of the Taiwanese independence movement. Her research led to conversations with family near and far…

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 Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food

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Introduction by Cathy Erway for TaiwaneseAmerican.org You can always tell the books that have been enjoyed the most by how damaged they are. Those books have been on adventures: Maybe you took them to the beach and clogged up their spines with sand. Maybe you rounded their edges from banging them around in your tote bag for weeks.  In the case of Pei Mei’s Chinese Cook Book Volume I, a copy of which sits in my parents’ bookshelf, the wear and tear is evident. A constant sight for as long…

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On Identity, Writing, and Preserving Heritage: Erica Lee Schlaikjer (“Wild Greens, Beautiful Girl”) in conversation with Crystal Z. Lee

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1296"] Art by Cinyee Chiu. Published by Sleeping Bear Press.[/caption] As a parent, I'm perpetually on the lookout for children’s books about Taiwan or meaningful reads written by fellow Taiwanese American authors. Wild Greens, Beautiful Girl, is a soon-to-be released picture book that has been on my radar ever since I first heard of this award-winning story about an aboriginal Amis girl in Taiwan. My daughters and I were thrilled to receive an advanced…

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Koi Fish: A TAF Story by Brady Nichols

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Editor’s Note: The Taiwanese American Foundation’s summer conference has been running for over four decades, cultivating among 3+ generations its vision “for people of Taiwanese heritage to make a profound impact on humankind in unique and compassionate ways.” TAF is also the “ancestral home” of TaiwaneseAmerican.org; many of our board of directors, staff, and longtime volunteers (including our founder, Ho Chie Tsai, and the creator of the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing…

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Homing: Creative Nonfiction by Lenna L. Liu

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  Homing  Dedicated to my father  Meet me   along a border, a boundary,  where earth and water meet.  Snow geese fly   tracing coastlines,   salmon leave   salty bay waters for freshwater streams,   grey whales slow  filling their bellies on long journeys to arctic seas.  What if borders are pathways,  not barriers  guideposts, banks of a stream,   fertile grounds for crossings   birthing diversity,  in estuaries,…

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Luck Girl; Benign City: Fiction by Herbert Chang

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"Subtle, restrained, elegant. A moving, poignant reflection of youth, friendship and first love." - Judges' Remarks Grand Prize Winner, Adult Category – 2024 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes Luck Girl; Benign City  Summer 1989, I met Claire in my hometown Bei-Liao. But it also doesn’t matter, because I almost never tell anyone.  Memories of that day always unwind like a roll film, in third person present. I walk between rice fields. My sweaty school uniform…

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“Half a World Apart”: Grace Loh Prasad (The Translator’s Daughter) in conversation with Jami Nakamura Lin

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I’ve had the pleasure of following Grace Loh Prasad’s writing for years, after we met in a Facebook group for writers. (We finally met in person at AWP in 2021, at a gathering of Taiwanese American writers, and have met up at every AWP since!) After getting to see her journey from afar—and getting to read excerpts of her memoir in different literary journals—I was so delighted to be able to read The Translator’s Daughter (Ohio State University Press/Mad Creek Books) in full this year.  In…

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Beyond Boba: Grunge Rock, Taiwanese Democracy, and the Model Minority Myth—in A Kid’s Book

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  The idea for my first novel for kids, It’s Boba Time for Pearl Li!, came pretty easily. Anti-Asian and Asian American hate had surged in the early days of the pandemic, with its hateful perpetrators demanding that many of us who have lived in the US our entire lives “go home.” To resist their cruelty, I decided to create a sweet, happy, joyful book that showcased a normal, everyday, highly relatable Taiwanese American kid— one who was super proud of her heritage. And what immensely…

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the trilingualist: Creative Nonfiction by devon chang

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  Finalist, College Category - 2024 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes “蘋果” “りんご”  “Apple.”  A baby gurgles apple sauce.  A mother splits her tongue in three.  The learned language  I was around the age of four when I first experienced a paralyzing sensation in my mouth. From the moment my teeth broke through the thick skin of a granny smith, I began to feel red swelter: first around my lips, and soon after, sprawling recklessly…

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“KITE”: On Crossing and Choreographing ‘Min Bridges’

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The old railway in HaMaXing Is the perfect place for flying a kite As breeze plays in the air The kite flies in the sky The kite flies among the trees The kite flies into every kid’s laughter The kite flies back to Dad’s childhood time   A time when  Grandpa worked and went fishing  Like a kite that flew and flew  All the way to the faraway seas  The kite’s string – Tied tightly around Grandma’s heart Held firmly between Dad’s hands – Supports…

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