Student. Leader. Activist.

George is currently the National President at ITASA (the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association), where thousands of Taiwanese & Taiwanese American students come together from universities all across the U.S. He is a senior at Yale University pursuing a double major in Economics and Global Affairs. He is also on the moderator team of Subtle Taiwanese Traits, the biggest social media platform for Taiwanese/ Taiwanese American people to connect and discuss issues pertinent to the community. In addition, he spoke at the 2019 Keep Taiwan Free rally in New York, advocating for the basic rights of Taiwanese people around the world, especially against the blatant exclusion of international organisations. He also participated in the annual advocacy summit held by FAPA (the Formosan Association for Public Affairs), using his academic focus at lobbying for current congress bills and acts that facilitate the relations between Taiwan and the U.S.

How does being Taiwanese/Taiwanese American and/or community ally play a role in your life?

Participating in social and political discourse is important not only to us Taiwanese and Taiwanese American students, but to our entire community because of our unique identity and cultural heritage. A lot of times, when it comes to student organizations or events targeting a younger audience, I often run into people saying that their school organisation prefers to be an apolitical organization, so that they don’t want to make it political, in order to keep it cordial and peaceful with other student organizations even when it means staying silent about aggressions on our culture and identity. But the Taiwanese identity is so much more than just holding boba events, lunar new year celebrations, beef noodle soup nights. I’m certainly not opposed to focusing on cultural heritage of our community; what I’m against is turning a blind eye to the struggles that our community is facing. Saying that we’re Taiwanese & Taiwanese American, or running a Taiwanese & Taiwanese American event in itself, is a political statement. There have been, and still are, a lot of people denying our identity, claiming that Taiwan is not a country and that it is a part of China. I am by no means exaggerating, all these statements have been said to me personally during college, multiple times. So having this responsibility to proactively engage in public discourse, and to have the courage to speak up for our community, is something not only inherent, but also necessary to our culture and identity. A trend that we’ve been seeing is that more and more people, especially students, have been more vocal and active in public discourse. And for us Taiwanese & Taiwanese American students to be proud of who we are, I found it really helpful to properly address the challenges we face as a community, and the first step is to remain mindful, stay active, and take part in public and political discourse.

watch our interview with george!

If you could teach future generations 1 thing about being Taiwanese/Taiwanese American or Taiwan, what would it be?

For me, the Taiwanese identity is more than just celebrating the amazing food and films and music we have, it is about constantly standing up for our community, especially when facing threats all around the world. For students like us, it is normal to be held back when we want to stand up for our Taiwanese identity, particularly when we think about the future opportunities and threats. But it is really easy for us to make a tangible impact – just starting by reading up on these issues that matter so much to Taiwan, and to human rights in Asia. Issues that are so extremely important, yet somehow never discussed enough. And after that, discuss these issues with your family and friends, raise awareness on your social media accounts where you can influence hundreds, even thousands of your contacts. Or even write an email, call your representative – there are a lot of ways for a student to create a positive, tangible, and long-lasting impact on our community. it is normal to feel afraid or intimidated, but something we should always keep in mind is that there are countless people out there who are denied of their most basic human rights, who live under constant fear and life-threatening situations everyday, who lost their freedom when no one saw it coming. How can we expect others to speak up for us, when even we ourselves are too afraid to do so? There comes a time when silence is betrayal. So don’t be afraid of speaking up, be afraid of what will happen when we don’t.

Favorite memory of Taiwan/Taiwanese America?

Sneaking out of classes to line up for the amazing scallion pancakes next to our high school.

Favorite Taiwanese food?

Boba!