In Grief, Returning to my Roots in Search of my Father’s Childhood

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My father’s final resting place was on a grassy knoll overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, 7,000 miles from his childhood home.  Since he immigrated to California in the 1970s, he’d only returned twice to Xingang, a rural township in southern Taiwan, flying over eleven hours across the Pacific Ocean each way. These trips were also separated almost a decade apart. Once, for his mother’s funeral service before I was born. The last time, he brought my mother; me, nine-years-old; and my little…

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Finding the Treasure: How National Treasure Helped Me Rediscover My Taiwanese American Story

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Watching Ben Gates defend his family’s name in National Treasure felt eerily familiar — like watching someone wrestle with the same questions of heritage and credibility that many Taiwanese Americans quietly face. I know... National Treasure probably isn’t the first film you’d expect to spark a reflection on identity. But beneath the puzzles and chase scenes, it’s a story about legacy, belief, and the search for meaning, themes that have quietly shaped my own journey. “This…

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It Is Not Up to Xi. And It Is Not Complicated.

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In 1996, ahead of Taiwan’s first direct presidential election, the People’s Republic of China launched missile tests and military exercises near Taiwan, attempting to signal its opposition to then-President Lee Teng-hui’s push for international recognition and Taiwan’s ongoing democratization. The show of force was meant to deter both Taiwan’s electorate and the international community from treating Taiwan as a sovereign political actor, which the PRC considered a violation of its “One…

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A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding a Possible Invasion of Taiwan

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  Overwhelmed by the frequent media headlines proclaiming the near certainty that China will invade Taiwan, Taiwanese American Johnny laments, “Taiwan is so cooked.” Johnny's reaction isn't surprising. When my colleague at TaiwanPlus and I were discussing what to talk about in an interview with Leona, he wondered whether Taiwanese Americans like Johnny "feel like they need to be geopolitical experts" simply because they are Taiwanese American, and the mainstream framing of that…

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Understanding Our Parents Through the Stories They Never Told: A Glimpse Into 1970s Rural Taiwan

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As the year comes to an end, families in the U.S. are probably entering a season filled with gatherings, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything in between. I imagine it feels a bit like Lunar New Year in Taiwan. I often wonder: when you get together with your family, do you feel closer to them, or somehow even farther away?  My name is Jane. I’m a Taiwanese born and raised, and throughout my life I walked the classic Taiwanese path: school, cram school, more school, getting punished by…

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We Build Museums So We Can Someday Stop Building Cages: A Taiwanese American Reflection from the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park

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This essay was originally written for my personal newsletter, but I hope its reflections on heritage, human rights, and ethical imagination may resonate with the broader Taiwanese American community. 🫶 Hello from Taipei, where I’ve collected so many museum pamphlets and cute paraphernalia that I am tempted to start a junk journal (though now that I think about it, this Substack is an intellectual junk journal of sorts). I’m so grateful to have also spent time this week with people I’ve…

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Ghost Month in Taiwan: When the Gates of the Underworld Open

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It is currently Ghost Month in Taiwan, also known as 中元節 (Zhōngyuán Jié / Ghost Festival), a traditional holiday observed on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, usually in August. It is believed that during this time, the gates of the underworld open, allowing spirits to roam the human world. The festival has roots in Taoism, Buddhism, and folk beliefs. In Taoism, it is tied to the birthday of the deity Dì Guān (地官大帝), who pardons sins. In Buddhism, it corresponds to Ullambana,…

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Claiming Taiwanese American Identity: A Third-Generation Perspective

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Being a fresh-out-of-undergraduate 22-year old is not fun in the current U.S. job market. Luckily, I've decided to leave the country for a year, delaying the mundane process of the job search—or as I like to call it, “delaying adulthood”—to spend a year in Taiwan as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. It sounds like a laissez-faire dream, but I didn’t stumble upon this opportunity by happenstance. Bicultural Upbringing I come from a family that takes immense pride in their Taiwanese…

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Keng-lâm Su-iⁿ: Writing A New Chapter for Tâi-gí

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Meet the educator-activists turning the tide on Mandarin hegemony to nurture a new generation of Taiwanese speakers and storytellers. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2048"] From L to R: Hô Phè-chin, Lûi Bêng-hàn, Tīⁿ Têng-têng, Ong Úi-pek[/caption] Founded in 2024, Keng-lâm Su-iⁿ (The Mosei Academy of Taiwanese Language and Literacy) has quickly become a dynamic and influential forces in Tâi-gí (Taiwanese) language revival. Rooted in a pragmatic praxis, the collective’s…

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Who Gets to be Taiwanese?

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Contrary to many of my compatriots, I find Taiwan’s noisy democracy charming. After living in China for nearly a decade, where the apparatus for silencing is robust and ever-present, I revel in the cacophony of campaign trucks blaring pleads for votes and thousand-strong rallies with hawkers selling unlicensed campaign merch. I’m not even embarrassed by the lawmakers fist-fighting in parliament (legislative yuan) anymore.  I have been watching the recall votes in Taiwan with pride. The recall…

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