An Interview with Filmmaker Fiona Roan: Reflections on Sisterhood and Belonging

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Fiona Feng-I Roan is a Taiwanese American writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. TaiwaneseAmerican.org’s Ho Chie Tsai recently caught up with her to talk about her new short film, JIEJIE, which was recently selected as one of three finalists in the HBO Asian Pacific Visionary American short film competition. It will also be distributed nationally through HBO this May, during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. JIEJIE is a portrait of young sisters being raised by a single immigrant…

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The Life Story: An Interview with Author Julia Lin

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We recently came across Taiwanese Canadian author Julia Lin’s recently published book, Shadows of the Crimson Sun: One Man’s Life in Manchuria, Taiwan, and North America. This biography of Dr. Charles Yang, a community leader and activist living in Vancouver, Canada, caught our attention because of the unique formative experiences that shaped his perspectives and life of activism. At the same time, his story echoed many of the experiences of the first generation Taiwanese who immigrated throughout…

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Chris Pang: Upcoming Crazy Rich Asian and Certified Haiku Hottie

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When actor Chris Pang was a kid growing up in Melbourne, Australia, he remembers he and his mother would act out wuxia stories in their backyard. His mom would be the Grandmaster, and he would be her student, but inevitably then the bad guys would poison the Grandmaster, and he'd have to fight to avenge her. "I loved that," he says. "That's probably how I learned how to tell stories, not just on the page but through action and role-play." Pang, who will soon be seen in the highly-anticipated…

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For the (Re)Cord: An Interview with Leona Chen

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1050"] Book of Cord coverage in World Journal, article by Emily Lin, book photography by Tinfish Press, family portrait by Andy Kuno[/caption] Leona Chen is the author of Book of Cord, her debut poetry collection from Tinfish Press. The poems tackle family, culture, language, migration and history in a non-prescriptive way, relying instead on emotions embedded in precise, culturally coded details--quotidian (but not ordinary) objects such as tiger balm,…

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Advantage, Team Taiwan: Jason Jung–Men’s Tennis Gold

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"Sports" is not what usually comes to mind first when people think about Taiwan, but in August, thousands of student athletes landed in Taiwan to compete in the 2017 Summer Universiade, hosted in Taipei and the surrounding municipalities. Taiwan ranked 3rd at the competition with 90 medals, including 26 gold medals! TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Eric Kao chatted with Taiwanese American tennis player Jason Jung who competed for Taiwan at the Universiade and did quite well for himself. Read on! *…

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A Canon of Our Own: Q&A with Michelle Kuo, Author of Reading with Patrick

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1050"] Author Michelle Kuo with her parents[/caption] I profess that I have been a bit of a book snob lately. I am reading 50 books in my 10 weeks of summer; 20 of which should have a focus on social justice, and 15 of which should be by or about Asian Americans. The more these categories overlap, the greedier I become. I have been desperately craving something for me, something that helps me navigate everything this world has become with the body I have.…

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Taiwanese Music and the World: Interview with FireEX

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By Darice Dan Chang Reprinted by permission of author and Ketagalan Media One of the challenges of writing about musicians from another country is that you have to feel each other out a little, figure out how much you know, or don’t know, about each other. For example, they don’t understand that you haven’t experienced them, that you can’t just Google.tw their names and have lived every nook and cranny their 10+ year career through the power of the internet. They don’t know that…

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Representation in the Asian American Community: A Roundtable Discussion

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There are some pretty cool and accomplished individuals in our Taiwanese American network. During our recent interview with the first Asian American Miss Louisiana, Justine Ker, TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Ho Chie Tsai posed a question to the friends gathered: "In the work you do or the role you hold, what does REPRESENTATION in the ASIAN AMERICAN community mean to you?" In this informal and completely impromptu discussion, Justine Ker (Miss Louisiana 2016 and medical student), Crystal Lee (Miss…

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An Interview with Justine Ker: A Taiwanese American Journey to Miss Louisiana

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I recently sat down for a chat with Justine Ker, who was crowned Miss Louisiana in 2016 and placed in the top 15 during the 2017 Miss America Pageant. She also represents the first Taiwanese or Asian American to represent Louisiana on the national stage, a worthy accomplishment within our Taiwanese American community. Soon after she won her title, Justine and I had previously discussed trying to coordinate a sit-down interview, but our schedules didn't coincide. A few months later, however,…

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More than a Chef with a Ramen Wave: Tracy Chang of PAGU

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As a food explorer living in Boston, I follow the food blog Tiny Urban Kitchen by Taiwanese American Jen Che. This is where I first heard about the restaurant PAGU and its Taiwanese American chef/owner Tracy Chang, a talented culinary entrepreneur who sports a unique hairstyle (aka the "ramen wave"). PAGU serves Japanese tapas, a reflection of Tracy’s culinary training at O Ya (one of Boston’s top sushi restaurants) and Restaurante Martin Berasategui (three-star Michelin restaurant…

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