Gathering Taiwanese American Writers at AWP 2024: “I wish I had this community growing up.”

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On Lunar New Year’s eve, we again gathered an expanding cohort of Taiwanese American changemakers in the literary world who’d convened in Kansas City for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP). Our Year of the Dragon dinner was hosted at Chewology, led by recently James Beard semifinalist nominated-chef Katie Liu-Sung. We were touched by Katie's vision to bring Taiwan to Kansas City, where there are relatively fewer Asian Americans compared to coastal enclaves.…

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Author Q&A: Yi Shun Lai and “A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic”

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I was so pleased to read an advance copy of Yi Shun Lai's forthcoming A SUFFRAGIST'S GUIDE TO THE ANTARCTIC, a young adult novel constructed as the diary entries of Clara Ketterling-Dunbar, who has somehow maneuvered her way into an otherwise all-male Antarctic expedition. None of the other crew members know the full truth about Clara: that she is just eighteen and American, or that she'd been an outspoken suffragist with the Women's Social & Political Union. Still, they are wary of her,…

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History Lessons from Netflix’s “The Brothers Sun”

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“Without history… none of it has meaning.” If there is any singular detail of Taiwanese American creative work that I hyper-fixate on, it is the conflation of “Chinese” and “Taiwanese” identity. At its most egregious, converging Taiwanese and Chinese identity is an ongoing tactic by the Chinese Communist Party to erase Taiwan’s distinct identity and history. For decades now, the CCP has actively coerced corporations, academic institutions, and creatives to label Taiwan as a province…

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How bilingual author Christina Wu is raising the next generation of Taiwanese Americans

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"Raising the Next Generation" aims to feature and connect stories of Taiwanese American parenthood, caretaking, and community-building across generations. We want to hear from our community on the unique challenges they navigate, the resources and tools they can share with each other, and the triumphs they want to celebrate with us all. We want to showcase and serve how Taiwanese American families are increasingly complex and diverse. They may include transcontinental relationships, intercultural…

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Wendy Cheng’s “ISLAND X” is essential reading for Taiwanese Americans

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As editor-in-chief of TaiwaneseAmerican.org, I try to adhere to a level of curatorial prudence and precision of language -- because not every great book must be essential -- but I truly believe that Wendy Cheng's Island X is essential reading for Taiwanese Americans. It is an unprecedented origin story of Taiwanese Americans, lyrically charting not only where we come from but, crucially, why it matters.  In the final chapter, Becoming Taiwanese American, Cheng notes that her book captures…

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S. Leo Chiang’s ISLAND IN BETWEEN: Observations of Kinmen and Liminality

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Film documentarian S. Leo Chiang has been contemplating liminality, or in-betweenness, throughout his entire body of work, but "ISLAND IN BETWEEN" is his first film navigating the concept as it relates to his home country of Taiwan. From the official overview: "The rural Taiwanese outer islands of Kinmen sit merely 2 miles off the coast of China. Kinmen attracts tourists for its remains from the 1949 Chinese Civil War. It also marks the frontline for Taiwan in its escalating tension with China. Filmmaker…

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Vanessa Hope’s INVISIBLE NATION: “China does not want the world to know our story.”

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Vanessa Hope's "Invisible Nation" offers an affecting portrait of Taiwan through an impressive lineup of interviews, not just with President Tsai Ing-wen, though she's the most prominently featured, but with an array of historians, activists, academics, and politicians, thoughtfully interspersed with archive footage. Together, they offer a comprehensive narrative about Taiwan's many paradoxes: being globally influential but systematically excluded, existing in de facto independence but threatened…

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Shop Your Community: Mid-Autumn Festival Gift Guide

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  With Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節 coming up next month, we had some fun putting together a gift guide from our community!⁠ 01 / "The Shadow in the Moon" by Christina Matula, illustrated by Pearl Law Two sisters and their grandmother celebrate a popular Chinese holiday with family. Their favorite part? Mooncakes, of course--along with Ah-ma's story of the ancient Chinese tale of Hou Yi, a brave young archer, and his wife, Chang'E. A long, long time ago, Hou Yi rescued the earth…

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How she built this: sophomore Taliyah Huang invents a Taiwanese-English translation tool to bridge language gaps

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Taiwanese American Taliyah Huang is an engineering student who has built a suite of programs, including BobaWay, a web-based Taiwanese translator. We were excited to interview her about the project and her broader passions.  Hi Taliyah! Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?  My name is Taliyah Huang, and I am a sophomore student studying biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. My parents immigrated from Taiwan, but I was born and raised in…

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Director’s Picks: Ten Taiwanese American Films to Watch

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  What is Taiwanese American cinema? Films directed by Taiwanese Americans? Films about the relationship between nation and diaspora? Films that explore the specific experiences of American-born Taiwanese? Films that distinguish themselves culturally or politically from the more recognizable “Asian American” or “Chinese American” film? There’s not enough of a critical mass of films to answer that question with any meaningful conviction. But perhaps this ambiguity is what has…

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