“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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Preserving a Slice of Taiwan’s Culinary History: Meet Rich and X Wang of Chicago’s Minyoli Taiwanese Noodles 民有里台灣麵館

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Before Minyoli became a Taiwanese restaurant in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood, it was the name of the military dependents' village where chef Rich Wang and his family had resided for decades. In 1949, the Kuomintang government established hundreds of these villages called juan cun 眷村, to house KMT military personnel and their families who fled to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War. Wang grew up in the Minyoli juan cun for the first nine years of his life before life in the village became…

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On Family, Love, and Creating: Jocelyn Chung & Julia Kuo (When Love is More Than Words) in conversation with Jasmine Fang

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Jasmine: Hi Jocelyn and Julia! Congratulations Jocelyn on your debut picture book, and thank you both for creating WHEN LOVE IS MORE THAN WORDS. I was immediately intrigued by the title and thrilled to see this Taiwanese American pairing. What a beautiful story that will resonate deeply with young readers. This book is a mirror for me, as I felt transported back to my Taiwanese childhood.  I love that you’ve captured the magic of intergenerational love in WHEN LOVE IS MORE THAN WORDS. What…

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On playfulness, anger, mother-daughter relationships, and all the white space in between: Bo Lu (Bao’s Doll) in conversation with Mikaela Luke

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Bao’s Doll is one of those books that makes you gasp when you first flip through it and stays with you in your mind long after.  Filled with soft hues of blue, red, and purple, the book follows a young girl, Bao, who covets a certain kind of relationship with her Mama, one that she sees between her classmates and their mothers. She also covets a birthday party with cakes and balloons and the blond-haired All-American Artist Amanda doll, much like her friend’s—and she believes that there…

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“To be left ignorant about Asian American history is to erase who we are as a people”: Ellie Yang Camp’s “Louder Than the Lies”

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Taiwanese American author Ellie Yang Camp has been a high school history teacher, an artist, and an anti-racist educator. Now she’s taking on another task, authoring Louder Than the Lies: Asian American Identity, Solidarity, and Self-Love. In this book she unpacks the Asian American identity by drawing on personal experiences, stories from her friends, and the history of Asians in America. She also tackles the topic of white supremacy, capitalism, and racial solidarity.   This is not a…

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From “幾乎沒有 Basically Nothing,” Pop-Up Chef James Chang Defines Taiwanese American Cuisine in Kansas City

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[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1440"] Photo provided by James Chang[/caption] Chef James Chang was perusing the aisle at the Pan Asian Supermarket in Overland Park, Kansas when I spoke with him. Along the way, he picked up soy paste, oyster sauce, black vinegar, rice wine, ChingKiang vinegar. These were items for his upcoming pop-up and a collaboration dinner he was planning for the following week. Chang grew up in Taiwan and Southern California, then moved to Kansas City where he made…

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“Where Every Ghost Has a Name”: Kim Liao in conversation with Cosette Wu

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After hearing Kim Liao speak at the 2024 North American Taiwan Studies Association Conference welcoming plenary session, I found myself eagerly anticipating the September release of her book, Where Every Ghost Has a Name: A Memoir of Taiwanese Independence. In 2010, Kim traveled to Taiwan on a Fulbright, seeking to uncover the story of her grandfather, Thomas Liao (Liao Wen-yi), a prominent leader of the Taiwanese independence movement. Her research led to conversations with family near and far…

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