Susan and Emily Present “Island X” – a Collection of Taiwanese Folk Songs

TaiwaneseAmerican.org has been proud to follow and support musicians Emily and Susan Hsu of the indie band Exit Clov for years, and in turn, they've been kind to us as well. Remember them from our Taiwan Typhoon Morakot fundraising campaign a few years back when their video went viral? Ever since then, we (and many of you) have hoped that they would put out a Taiwanese/Mandarin album. So now, we're pleased to announce that they have. Island X. And dare we say that this may be the most amazing Taiwanese…

A Taste of Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

TaiwaneseAmerican.org's Ho Chie Tsai and Karen Lin take you on a Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup tasting adventure as they attend a special event sponsored by the Asia Society and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco featuring the winner of the 2011 Taipei International Beef Noodle Soup Festival, Chef Hou Chun-sheng. In Taiwan, beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) is considered a national dish. Of 189 entries and 40 finalists, Chef Hou's recipe placed first in the most popular category…

Meet Terry Chen, a Taiwanese American Martha Stewart

We are pleased to share an interview conducted by Athena Chang, the Social Chair of Taiwanese American Professionals in New York (TAP-NY), and adapted for TaiwaneseAmerican.org. Special thanks also goes out to TAP-NY President, Bob Wu! *** Terry Chen is the real deal: a bonafide Taiwanese American Martha Stewart baking cupcakes and putting her own spin on it. Before I met Terry, I did my homework and research on her.  After reading her bio though, I am truly inspired by her entrepreneurial  drive.…

Guest Post: “Passing” for White to Get Into Harvard?

by Grace Yia-Hei Kao Asian Americans and Harvard University have been in the news and on my mind recently. The bigger story has been about the “Linsanity” surrounding (Harvard grad) New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin who continues to take the NBA by storm. The smaller story, though one that also made national headlines in early February, is of the recent decision by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate a complaint that Harvard and Princeton Universities discriminate…

Guest Post: “Clean Slate”

We recently connected with Charles McDonald, a hapa Taiwanese American, who has spent several years living and working in Taiwan. He mentioned to us a year ago that he intended to start a Taiwanese-inspired clothing line. Back then, it was just an idea, but a year later, his company has become reality and showcases some interesting Taiwan-themed designs all printed on Made in Taiwan T-shirts. The IDCY brand is available online and occasionally at select Night Market locations. We at TaiwaneseAmerican.org…

Guest Post: Recommended Taiwan Blogs 2011

Meet Fili, an expat blogger who previously spent two years living in Taiwan (Taipei and Tainan). During his time there, he and other Taiwan bloggers created a community to help expats and tourists find high quality information in English. The result? Handy websites that include travel/culture guides and forum advice: Taiwanderful and iTainan. Fili also blogs about his travels at Filination and has posted a few hundred entries about Taiwan travel and Taiwanese culture. Although he currently lives…

Wendy Hsu on Issues of (In)visibility and Asian American Identities

TaiwaneseAmerican.org has followed Wendy Hsu's work since discovering her Asian American music blog, yellowbuzz.org, several years ago. We also found it fascinating that she founded Dzian!, a vintage pan-Asian garage and surf rock band (Dzian! means "super-cool" in Taiwanese) around the time we asked our musical artist friends to help support the 2009 Typhoon Morakot fundraising relief efforts for hard-hit Taiwan. Her band revived and paid tribute to the Taiwanese grassroots performance style known…

Reinventing Thanksgiving

This is a story about Thanksgiving traditions and my hidden talent. (More on the talent later.) Those of us who can’t trace our ancestry to the Mayflower are left to create our own Thanksgiving traditions. As a result, I think I had the best Thanksgivings of anyone I know. To understand, we have to start at the beginning-- 1965, when my parents came from Taiwan as chemistry graduate students. They left the heat and humidity of Taipei for very unfamiliar surroundings in Providence, Rhode Island,…

Mixed Roots Thanksgiving

What does the next generation of Taiwanese Americans look like? All I have to do is take a look at my kids for some clues. Like my sons, a growing number of third-generation Taiwanese Americans are mixed-race. I started my blog, HapaMama, in 2008 after many conversations with friends – many of them Gen X Taiwanese Americans like myself—and realizing that we had many similar experiences of navigating cross-cultural relationships and raising children in a multicultural environment. In case you’re…

The “Support Taiwan” Campaign on Social Media

Take part in a social media campaign to bring awareness to Taiwan and to support our distinct identity! Dates: Monday, September 26 at 12:00am - October 14 at 12:00am Location: Facebook, Google+, and Twitter Profiles Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127871607305987 This event is by I Love Taiwan (http://facebook.com/taiwannation/) A project of Support Taiwan (http://www.supporttaiwan.com/) *Note: TaiwaneseAmerican.org does not take an official stance in endorsement…