What happens when we think of Taiwan as a revolutionary place?: A Conversation with Catherine Chou, co-author of REVOLUTIONARY TAIWAN

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Those who've monitored English-language online discourse on "Taiwan issues" for the past decade or so may be familiar with the lucid lyricism and rigorous clarity of Catherine Chou (perhaps first known by her then-Twitter handle, "@catielila.") I've long admired Catherine for her rare ability to braid political theory, historical context, and lived affect; how she insists that Taiwan's story be told not only honestly and intelligibly, but with great dignity and deference to the people living…

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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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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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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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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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Where we come from, who we stand with: A Conversation with Professor Hsin-I Cheng (Part 1/2)

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Part 1: Citizenship, Belonging, and the Emotional Legacies of Immigration This interview has also been translated to Mandarin Chinese (Hanzi) and can be viewed here.  Editor's Introduction: As political crises unfold, they rarely do so in a vacuum—and neither do our responses to them. I have been thinking fervently of how the different reactions to statements like this within our own community illuminate a lack of common ground for understanding. While I do not expect or want everyone…

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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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Wendy Cheng’s “ISLAND X” is essential reading for Taiwanese Americans

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As editor-in-chief of TaiwaneseAmerican.org, I try to adhere to a level of curatorial prudence and precision of language -- because not every great book must be essential -- but I truly believe that Wendy Cheng's Island X is essential reading for Taiwanese Americans. It is an unprecedented origin story of Taiwanese Americans, lyrically charting not only where we come from but, crucially, why it matters.  In the final chapter, Becoming Taiwanese American, Cheng notes that her book captures…

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