Featured Stories

Beyond the Amy Tan Questions: Why a Millennial TA Anthology

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I call them the “Amy Tan Questions.” Questions like “how do families relate in context of war, distance, and famine?” or “how does a child reconcile the old world of their parents with the new world America in which they live?”. These questions are important, for they are our foundation as a community and give us vignettes of Asian and Asian American history that American public schools neglected. But they are dated, and they are not our stories. I wanted to see writing that moved…

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To Find Your Place in the World – by Kelly Tsai

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Performance poet Kelly Tsai shares this inspiring video poetry message dedicated to the 800K+ people who have served with AmeriCorps and the millions more who work every day to improve communities across the country. Kelly is an AmeriCorps Public Allies Alum, and this is a collaboration between her and fellow Americorps VISTA Alum, Ryan Hartley Smith. They based the characters and stories in the short on their own experiences and also those of dozens from across the country. Check it out.…

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Rally for UN Membership for Taiwan

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By Jenny Wang, co-organizer of Keep Taiwan Free “Growing up, my parents always told me that I’m Taiwanese, and to never let anyone tell me otherwise. As I grew older, I started to learn more about the complications of Taiwan and our Taiwanese identities. As a Taiwanese American, I’m always striving to protect my Taiwanese American identity - an identity that I cherish - and by doing so, I became more active in protecting Taiwan and helping to promote Taiwan in the international community.”…

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Checking in with Dawen (王大文)

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It’s an unbearably hot summer day as I trek through the streets of Taipei, eager to enter an air conditioned building. I search for Eslite Bookstore. That’s where Dawen Wang and I are meeting. The last time we chatted was some five years ago at my alma mater, UIUC. "Back when I had a shaved head and was 20lbs heavier," Dawen would tell me later, as we settled outside a coffee shop. “I was [...] really, really struggling," he reminisced, "Now, I struggle in different ways. But back then, wow…

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Priska Working on Debut EP

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One of our favorite LA-based Taiwanese American musicians, Priska, is finally working on her debut EP. (What? She didn't have one before?). We introduced Priscilla Liang to our audiences back in 2012 with this personal interview and footage from a performance at the Factory Tea Bar in the heart of San Gabriel Valley: Revisit the 2012 Interview: http://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2012/05/introducing-singer-songwriter-priska/ We've been a big fan of her since the beginning. She's got a beautiful,…

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Through the Glass Ceiling: A Contemporary Ballet Collaboration

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As the founder of TaiwaneseAmerican.org, I often meet really talented people in our community doing awesome work in their respective fields and industries. When my friend, ballerina and choreographer Ivy Chow, contacted me one day asking if I knew any composers of Taiwanese heritage that might collaborate with her on a new performance project about "breaking glass ceilings," I immediately thought of another friend, composer George Shaw, known for his many compositions and scores for popular YouTube…

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The Lintet: A Taiwanese American Trombonist Shows That Jazz Has No Boundaries

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Taiwanese American trombonist Peter Lin talks to us about his jazz band The Lintet, how the Taiwanese community has shaped his life, the importance of connecting to the audience and community and being true to oneself—and why he incorporates Taiwanese folk songs into their repertoire. Talk a little bit about The Lintet. How did you start? The Lintet is a band led by yours truly for the past four years; dedicated towards providing quality jazz and soul music for all communities. I often…

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Summer in Taiwan and #blacklivesmatter

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The police officer suspected of murdering Philando Castile looks like he could be my father, my uncle, my brother. Asians and Asian Americans do not deserve to be silent. I’m spending the summer in Taiwan, learning and unlearning what it means to occupy a Taiwanese body in an American space; an American body in a Taiwanese space. My thirteen-year-old cousin asks me about my two best friends in college. They are handsome, black, and male. A computer programmer and a gifted medical student. She…

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Introducing the TaiwaneseAmerican.org Newsletter!

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We are excited to introduce our first ever TaiwaneseAmerican.org newsletter! The Summer 2016 edition will be releasing soon. Sign up and join us every month for fun, interesting & remarkable events, happenings and people from around Taiwanese America! *Email and Location required. All information is kept confidential and used solely to develop newsletter content for readers. #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own…

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The Hsu-Nami Storm Back Again with New Album

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The Hsu-Nami, a progressive rock band that features an electric erhu as its melodic focus, was founded by Taiwanese American Jack Hsu. Based in NYC, this band combines the sounds of traditional Chinese folk music with a strong rock component of heavy guitar riffs, melodic bass guitar lines and punctuating drum beats. TaiwaneseAmerican.org has featured Hsu-Nami previously, and since then, they've done some very interesting things including having one of their songs featured in the 2008 Beijing Summer…

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