Salty Like Tears: Creative Nonfiction by Grace Hwang Lynch

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Grand Prize Winner, Adult Category March is the rainiest month in Taiwan. Not the afternoon cloudbursts of a tropical summer, nor the furious monsoons of early fall; in the time between winter and spring, the sky is a steady  stream of black. But this was the period when the boys and I could spend some extended time on the island. During that first family trip to Taiwan when the boys were seven and ten, the kids and  I stayed in Taipei after my husband flew back to the states for work. My job…

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Cosette Wu: The Last Night: March 11, 1947

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A sudden bang made Shih Chen Jiaotong drop the stack of freshly folded laundry she had been carrying to her bedroom on the third floor of the Sifang Hospital. Another bang resonated through the building, where Jiaotong lived with her husband, Shih Jiangnan, and their daughters. It seemed to have come from downstairs. Jiaotong stepped over a few stray shirts and headed toward the stairway, trying to make out the sounds’ origin.  As she reached the second floor, the hospital ward, muffled…

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Remembering the 228 Massacre: Readings & Resources on Taiwan’s White Terror Era

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Feature image: Memorial Foundation of 228  How should a nation reckon with its sins? On the 75th anniversary of the 228 Massacre in Taiwan, and in the midst of ever-greater geopolitical distress, we invite our community to reflect with us on life under and after authoritarian violence. History is rife with the patterns of misinformation masquerading as prophecy; ego presented as hope; fear as our moral compass. In Green Island Secrets, Professor Chung-chih Li writes, "how one feels about…

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Remembrance & Resources: Learning About 228

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By Joyce Chen & Leona Chen | 74 years have elapsed since the 1947 February 28 Massacre in Taiwan, when building resentment over inflation, constant military occupation, and police brutality culminated in an island-wide protest. When local Taiwanese leaders demanded administration reforms, free elections, and accountability for government corruption, the Chinese Nationalist army began a violent campaign to impose martial law, executing teachers, students, and commercial leaders. An estimated…

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