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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More Taiwanese American Heritage Week Poster Award Winners

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TaiwaneseAmerican.org and the Formosan Association for Public Affairs’ Young Professionals Group (FAPA-YPG) are pleased to announce additional winners of our recent “Designing Taiwan” Art Contest! Alan Tung of Jersey City, NJ was the 2nd Place finalist whose Taiwanese bubble tea theme impressed our panel of five guest judges from multiple community organizations. He will be awarded the $500 Prize. Allison Chang of Northville, MI was our Youth category winner with a creative drawing…

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Taiwanese American Heritage Week 2014 Poster

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TaiwaneseAmerican.org and the Formosan Association for Public Affairs' Young Professionals Group (FAPA-YPG) are pleased to announce the 1st place winner of our recent "Designing Taiwan" Art Contest: Tracy Chen of Fremont, CA. We received so many impressive and inspiring submissions, which made the judging challenging for our panel of five guest judges from multiple community organizations. Tracy's design, however, was consistently highly-rated and praised for its quality, theme, and potential…

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2014 DESIGNING TAIWAN: Taiwanese American Heritage Week Contest

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Calling all artists, designers, photographers and anyone creative who loves Taiwan! Family, friends, language, beef noodle soup, shaved ice, bubble tea, Taipei 101, night markets, Taroko Gorge—what does being "Taiwanese American" mean to you? For Taiwanese American Heritage Week this May 2014, FAPA [Formosan Association for Public Affairs] and TaiwaneseAmerican.org are proud to present DESIGNING TAIWAN, a competition that translates creative talent into a celebration of the rich and diverse…

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Film Review: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

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Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? is Taiwanese American writer-director Arvin Chen’s second feature film. His first feature, Au Revoir Taipei, was a whimsical romantic comedy packed with antics and an endearing spree around the city of Taipei. WYSLMT takes on a much heavier subject, with reflections on the dilemmas faced by gay communities in Asian culture. Revisit our 2010 interview with Arvin Chen The main character Weichung (Richie Jen) finds himself questioning his sexuality and his traditional…

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Taiwan is My Home: Stories of the Black and Latino Diaspora

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Daniel D. Zarazua has spent his life navigating the ways globalization and international migration have taken root in the daily experiences of life in Taiwan. As a mixed-race 1.5 generation Taiwanese American who has returned to Taiwan several times, he has explored the hip-hop scene, capoeira community, Latino restaurants, and made a number of friendships within Taiwan's Black and Latino communities. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Daniel a couple of times during Taiwanese American conferences…

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The 2013 Taiwan CMJ Music Showcase

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Earlier this month I had the opportunity to interview Eric de Fontenay, the organizer of the 2013 Taiwan CMJ Music Showcase for the Talking Taiwan podcast. During the interview, we covered topics ranging from J-pop to mp3 court cases. I learned from Eric that Taiwanese pop music dominates the Chinese music scene with Taiwanese artists accounting for about 60-70% of ticket sales in China. Listen to the interview: https://soundcloud.com/talkingtaiwan/taiwan-cmj-2013-musicfull-interview [caption…

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The Mountain Brothers

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The Mountain Brothers, one of the first Asian American hip hop groups, are back after a long hiatus. After performing with A Tribe Called Quest, having their music featured in Sprite and Nike commercials, and dropping 2 albums and an EP, the pioneers of Asian American hip hop recently released “Keep On” for CHOPS’ (Scott Jung) new project, Strength in NUMBERS. I catch up with CHOPS, Styles Infinite (Stephen Wei), and Peril-L (Christopher Wang) to talk about the new project. …

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A Chat with Brian Yang on Acting, Producing, and Taiwanese Parents

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TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Ho Chie Tsai chats with Brian Yang, an actor and producing partner at 408 Films, an independent film production company that helps to produce and finance feature film productions and new media ventures. 408 Films has produced titles such as Fog, The People I've Slept With, and SuperCapitalist. Currently, he is one of the producers behind Linsanity, the Jeremy Lin documentary, opening on October 4, 2013. On the acting side, Brian has appeared in film and television projects…

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