Where we come from, who we stand with: A Conversation with Professor Hsin-I Cheng (Part 2/2)

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(Link to Part 1: Citizenship, Belonging, and the Emotional Legacies of Immigration) Part 2: The Model Minority Myth and the Politics of Proximity Editor's Introduction: In Part 1, we explored how first-generation Taiwanese immigrants often understand citizenship as something earned through discipline and compliance— a framework shaped by colonial history, martial law, and immigration regimes. But these beliefs intersect with powerful narratives like the model minority myth, which casts Asian…

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“Like a Box of Chocolates”: Formosa Chocolates’ Kimberly Yang Talks About a Life That Led Her to Chocolate Making

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If life were like a box of chocolates, one could only hope it would be a box of Formosa Chocolates; each, a veritable jewel box of brightly colored chocolate bon bons with flavors like coconut caramel, passionfruit, or a surprising membrillo yogurt. Its founder Kimberly Yang is a psychiatrist-turned-chocolatier and her boxes of bon bons are a diverse and adventurous assortment. Today, she produces chocolates out of her commissary kitchen in San Rafael, California. The variety evolves and changes,…

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To Speak in Many Tongues Is to Fight on Many Fronts: Bonnie Jin on Labor, Diaspora, and the Politics of Belonging

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Taiwanese American Bonnie Jin is one of the most brilliant voices of our generation, lucidly alchemizing identity into strategy as a multilingual union organizer and storyteller. In a conversation for TaiwaneseAmerican.org, we talk about how diasporic experiences can inform a labor movement rooted in empathy and collective care, and the kind of Taiwanese American stories we want to tell – and for whom.  When asked about her Taiwanese American lineage, Bonnie begins with an ancestral origin…

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Walking through the Forest with Artist Szu-Chieh Yun: A Conversation Between Sisters

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On Friday, May 16th, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston unveiled Into the Forest, a large-scale mural installation created by Taiwanese American Fine Artist and Arts Educator Szu-Chieh Yun (雲思婕), in collaboration with nearly 200 local youth. The mural — a vibrant landscape alive with curiosity, chaos, and the texture of rushing water and flowing trees — was the culmination of the Museum’s Community Arts Initiative, a program that invites young people to co-create with a professional artist…

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Rose Valland, the Woman Who Outsmarted the Nazis: Michelle Young (“The Art Spy”) in conversation with Kristi Hong

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We are so pleased to present the following conversation between two Taiwanese American authors we admire, Kristi Hong ("The Teacher's Match") and Michelle Young, on Young's newest book, The Art Spy. A riveting and stylish saga set in Paris during World War II, The Art Spy uncovers how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world's most treasured masterpieces. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ho Chie Tsai (TaiwaneseAmerican.org founder) with Michelle Young,…

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Lunchbox: Anne Hu Serves a Taste of Taiwanese America in 90s-Era Cleveland

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Nearly four years ago, filmmaker Anne Hu spoke with Grace Hwang Lynch for TaiwaneseAmerican.org as she was crowdfunding to make Lunchbox, a dramatic, three-part coming-of-age short drama about regret, healing, and honoring the people we love. In the film, when a Taiwanese American woman (Shirley), prepares lunches from her childhood, she struggles to forgive herself for pushing away her immigrant mother.  Hu had written Lunchbox in 2017, when a Facebook video appeared on her feed, capturing…

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“Abbott Elementary meets Crazy Rich Asians, but less crazy and a lot less rich”: Kristi Hong (“The Teacher’s Match”) in conversation with Michelle Young

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Kristi Hong, a pen name for a Taiwanese American author from San Diego, has published a new book, The Teacher’s Match, from Harlequin publishers. She sat down with Michelle Young, author of The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland (HarperOne), to talk about the book, writing romance as an Asian American, her upbringing in the Midwest, and the influences on her writing.   M: What inspired you to write fiction - specifically in the romance genre?…

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Good to Eat Owners Look Back (and Ahead) at Eight Years of Sharing Taiwanese Cuisine

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Good to Eat Chef Tony Tung and General Manager Angie Lin have been at the restaurant game for a while. The wife-wife team opened Good to Eat almost eight years ago after operating as a regular pop-up for four years. Before then, they had slowly developed recipes and passionately shared the nuances of Taiwanese cuisine through their word-of-mouth supper clubs. Together, Lin and Tung, without prior food industry experience worked diligently toward strengthening the public’s understanding of Taiwanese…

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Gloria Chao on “Ex Marks the Spot,” Diasporic Storytelling, and the Puzzles That Reveal Us to Each Other

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Gloria Chao is one of the most prolific writers of our generation, and I was thrilled to speak with her about her latest YA novel, Ex Marks the Spot. We've previously discussed her 2023 release, When You Wish Upon a Lantern, and I was delighted to find that her newest book revisits similar riveting themes—young love, intergenerational tenderness (and misunderstandings!), and family rivalries—while presenting them in an entirely fresh and unexpected way. I am always drawn to the depth and…

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Transforming Memory Into Storytelling: Cindy Chang in conversation with Jocelyn Chung

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It requires vulnerability and courage to transform memories into storytelling. Especially when those memories are mixed with pain and shame. For many of us, growing up Taiwanese American meant learning to save face. We hold our secrets deep inside of ourselves, carefully crafting the image we want others to perceive. We do this for survival, we do this to grasp normalcy, or maybe we do this because it’s all we know how to do. I had the honor of speaking with Cindy Chang about her new book,…

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