Gathering Taiwanese American community at Emeryville’s “Good to Eat”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA WU PHOTOGRAPHY [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Ho Chie Tsai with Good to Eat co-founder Angie Lin[/caption] On December 4, TaiwaneseAmerican.org founder Ho Chie Tsai gathered round Taiwanese American foodies, media personalities, and community builders for a special "ja ban bae" (呷飽未 / 吃飽沒) tasting menu at Emeryville's Good to Eat Dumplings. Formerly an acclaimed and deeply beloved pop-up (SF Chronicle refers to owners Tony Tung and Angie Lin…

Charles Yu celebrates sophomore year of Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes with fellow judges, participants

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6n6OZKNfmA[/embed] We are excited to share, with permission, a recording of the 2022 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prize "Meet the Judges" event with authors Charles Yu and Shawna Yang Ryan and Little, Brown Brooks for Young Readers Editor-in-Chief Alvina Ling. TaiwaneseAmerican.org founder Ho Chie Tsai and 2021/2022 finalist Jireh Deng shared remarks. , Grand Prize Winners Ian Tseng and Yakuza Baby and Finalist Kira Tang also read from their…

Architecture student, journalist, designer, musician: Eric Lin is all of these and more

Welcome back to another interview in TaiwaneseAmerican.org’s “New Creatives” series! For this article, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Lin, a 21 year-old rising senior at Princeton University studying architecture and journalism. He is originally from Phoenix, AZ and considers making music to be his passion.  As a child, Eric grew up learning classical piano; he also spent seven years touring with the Phoenix Boys Choir. It was in high school when he started writing his first…

Charles Yu, Shawna Yang Ryan, Alvina Ling Select 2022 Creative Writing Prize Recipients

We are pleased to announce the 2022 cohort of honorable mentions, finalists, and grand prize winners of the Betty L. Yu & Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes, established in partnership with TaiwaneseAmerican.org in honor of Yu’s parents, who are longstanding Taiwanese American community leaders. In its second year, the prize has expanded to include middle school participants and selections. Their work will be published on TaiwaneseAmerican.org throughout the year. The Prizes are named…

We grieve the May 15th Shooting at Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church

Editor's note: This is not a think piece or analysis of the situation as it unfolds. We are a small, deeply passionate team of Taiwanese American volunteers and we are grappling with the shock and grief of this tragedy, too. This is not something we were prepared to cover or feature. We only hope that those directed towards our website for support/further resources can find here an organized way to access the Gofundme set up by the church congregation to support victims of the shooting, as…

“Amah Faraway” celebrates the joys of bravery and gathering at last

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Author Margaret Chiu Greanias holding a copy of "Amah Faraway" with TaiwaneseAmerican.org founder Ho Chie Tsai[/caption] If you told Margaret Chiu Greanias two decades ago that she would become a published author one day, telling stories based on her own experiences and sometimes even about herself—she would’ve never believed it. Yet a good number of years into what she proudly dubs her “second career,” Greanias has been able to connect…

What I learned from a year of asking, “Am I Taiwanese?”

By Angela Yu, co-host of "Hearts in Taiwan" podcast I am Taiwanese American, but it’s taken me a long time and a lot of careful thought to say that. I am also Chinese American, an identity I’ve lived with for much longer. This week marks the one-year anniversary of launching a podcast that my cousin Annie Wang and I created to understand the complexities of identity among people whose families come from Taiwan, and we’ve come a long way since then. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]…

What I Wish Li Bai Knew (Creative Fiction)

Everything I wrote was tinged with the Li Bai poem, "Quiet Night Thoughts." On a whim, I Googled Li Bai and learned that in 725, he ventured from his Sichuan home at 24 years old to wander and write. I also come from a family that left Sichuan, though we settled in Taiwan. Later in life, Li Bai was exiled from China. This time, he was condemned to roam and his writing faltered. One day, drunk and homesick on his boat, he grasped at the moon’s reflection in the water. He tipped over and drowned.…

Now accepting submissions: 2022 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes celebrate Taiwanese American student writers

TaiwaneseAmerican.org is pleased to announce the 2022 Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes. Created in 2021 in collaboration with Taiwanese American author Charles Yu, the Prizes are intended to encourage and recognize creative literary work by Taiwanese American students, and to foster discussion and community around such work. This year, in addition to high school and college categories, applicants currently in 6th-8th grade may apply for the middle school category. Submissions…

Britney Chen: A Taste of Nostalgia

  Over the years, I had grown familiar with the musty scent of airplanes, the sound of my footsteps on the boarding bridge, and the taste of microwavable airline meals. I had gotten used to the constant feeling of change, like a bottle bobbing in the Pacific Ocean seafoam, searching for a home. What does the word “home” mean? I’ve always struggled with answering the question: “Where are you from?” Even more so now. Is it where I was born? Where I grew up? Where I currently live?…