Dmae Roberts on Preserving and Reviving 25 Years of Mei Mei’s Journey

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In 1989, Dmae Roberts, a mixed-race Taiwanese American independent public radio producer, writer and playwright, produced Mei Mei, A Daughter’s Song, the only radio documentary featuring a Taiwanese heritage story to receive the prestigious Peabody Award. It chronicled her relationship with her mother and her mother’s childhood in Taiwan. In 1991 she wrote a multimedia stage play called Mei Mei for the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in Portland that was an adaptation of this 1989 radio…

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An Interview with MeiMeiWaWa

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Earlier this year we were able to meet up with Lara and Esther Veronin, two sisters who are starting their own multimedia company in Taiwan. You may have heard of Lara in the past as she's been all over the entertainment industry! She is best known as lead female singer of the band Nan Quan Mama having performed multiple duets with Jay Chou and releasing her own solo albums as well as acting in dramas. We talked about a lot of different subjects from growing up in between Taiwan and the US to…

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Author Julie Wu Discusses her Novel, The Third Son

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TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Ho Chie Tsai briefly interviews author Julie Wu about her latest novel, The Third Son, which is set during martial-law era Taiwan. In 2013, it was an Oprah.com featured favorite, and this year, the paperback version is now available. Julie shares her inspiration behind The Third Son and how culture, heritage, and history influences her work. Segments of this video feature Julie Wu speaking on a panel moderated by TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Kristina Lin at the North America…

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Catching Up with Singer-Songwriter Dawen

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TaiwaneseAmerican.org has been a proud supporter of talented singer-songwriter Dawen since his journey began in Chicago and then took him to Los Angeles. He began gaining immense popularity after winning Kollaboration Acoustic 4 in 2010 and after releasing his Mandarin covers of several pop songs (including Rebecca Black's "Friday"). Shortly after, he was signed to Universal Records Taiwan. TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Eric Kao recently caught up with Dawen to see how he has been doing since relocating…

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ART FOR ADVOCACY: Bringing Taiwan's Sunflower Movement to Brooklyn

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By Dana Ter On a damp New York evening on May 22, just a stone throw away from Bushwick Collective on Troutman Street – a street filled with graffiti murals turned into an art gallery of sorts, the open-air Bat Haus Coworking Space was abuzz with artsy hipster types. They were holding Brooklyn Brewery beers and admiring photographs and paintings of sunflowers. Speaking in Mandarin with a smattering of English, the attendees, mostly young people in their 20s and 30s, were discussing the role of…

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ART FOR ADVOCACY: Bringing Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement to Brooklyn

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By Dana Ter On a damp New York evening on May 22, just a stone throw away from Bushwick Collective on Troutman Street – a street filled with graffiti murals turned into an art gallery of sorts, the open-air Bat Haus Coworking Space was abuzz with artsy hipster types. They were holding Brooklyn Brewery beers and admiring photographs and paintings of sunflowers. Speaking in Mandarin with a smattering of English, the attendees, mostly young people in their 20s and 30s, were discussing the role…

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An Interview with Jennifer J. Chow, Author of The 228 Legacy

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Jennifer J. Chow's fiction writing has appeared in several literary magazines, but now she debuts her full-length novel, The 228 Legacy, which was inspired by stories about the 228 Incident recounted to her by her Taiwanese American husband and relatives. Three generations in an all-female Taiwanese family living near Los Angeles in 1980 are each guarding personal secrets. Grandmother Silk finds out that she has breast cancer, as daughter Lisa loses her job, while pre-teen granddaughter Abbey…

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Behind the Scenes with Producer Weiko Lin of 100 DAYS

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TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Kristina Lin talks to producer and screenwriter Weiko Lin about his work, family, and recent film project. Weiko's personal life story and the tragic death of his mother in 2007 serves as the inspiration behind his original play, and now the recently released movie, 100 DAYS. In Taiwan, there is a Buddhist belief that if a parent passes away before his/her child is married, the child has 100 days to do so to ensure that the parent's soul transitions peacefully or risk the…

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Big Bah-Tzangs: The Hungry Monster

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Wouldn’t someone dressed up in a giant bah-tzang costume be funny?? This simple image was the inspiration for Karen Lin’s “Hungry Monster,” a web series that gives viewers a creative way to learn about ethnic foods (such as bah-tzangs), their origins, and how they are prepared. Named after the Taiwanese saying yao gui, “Hungry Monster” was created for people of all ages to learn about unfamiliar foods, including Taiwanese foods. Each episode features a different food and a “Hungry…

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A Chat with Documentary Filmmaker Anita Chang

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I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Taiwanese American filmmaker Anita Chang whose latest documentary film, Tongues of Heaven, revolves around the issue of language loss and asks the essential question: "what do you lose when you lose your native language?" Her film explores the challenges of young indigenous peoples of Taiwan and Hawaii in learning the heritage languages of their ancestors — languages that are endangered or facing extinction. Anita was born to parents who immigrated…

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