Oliver Lin’s short film “To Add Oil” interrogates identity and duty

Feature images provided by Oliver Lin or from his website. Today, we’re incredibly excited to be launching TaiwaneseAmerican.org’s “New Creatives” initiative, a series that seeks to highlight up-and-coming Taiwanese/Taiwanese American artists in various fields of creative artistry. Our first guest is Oliver Lin, a Taiwanese filmmaker and senior at the Ringling College of Art and Design studying film. Oliver grew up in Taiwan and came across video editing and cinematography at a young…

“Danny, Danny”: Meet San Francisco filmmaker Huan Cheng

FEATURE PHOTOS COURTESY OF HUAN CHENG, 2021 San Francisco-based filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Huan Cheng explores the loneliness of the immigrant experience in her short film Danny, Danny. Cheng, born in Taiwan, draws upon her own experiences of arriving in the United States as a young adult in Danny, Danny, which screened at CAAMFest this year and The Method Fest in 2020, and is now available to audiences again. Cheng is a member of the Hollywood Professional Association 2021 Young Entertainment…

Anne Hu’s Short Film “Lunchbox” Unpacks a Complicated Mother-Daughter Relationship

Independent filmmaker Anne Hu is cooking up a new project rooted in her own experience growing up Taiwanese American in a predominantly white suburb of Cleveland. Titled Lunchbox, this short drama will feature modern-day scenes of a woman cooking the foods from her mother’s cookbook, interspersed with childhood memories of her attempts to fit in with her classmates--and the effects this had on her relationship with her mother.  Writer Grace Hwang Lynch chatted with Anne to find out more…

Memories of my Yaba Great Aunt

by James Y. Shih When I was 3, my ahgong (grandpa) brought me to Taiwan from California to visit our old family home in the historic town of Lukang (鹿港). The home was and still is a narrow, two story, brick and wood building off the main road. There, my great aunt, whom I affectionately called “yaba,” lived with my ahma (grandma). At that age, I didn’t know calling her just yaba (啞吧), which means “deaf mute”, was rude (it is). I thought it was her name. Those early memories…

An Interview with Filmmaker Fiona Roan: Reflections on Sisterhood and Belonging

Fiona Feng-I Roan is a Taiwanese American writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. TaiwaneseAmerican.org’s Ho Chie Tsai recently caught up with her to talk about her new short film, JIEJIE, which was recently selected as one of three finalists in the HBO Asian Pacific Visionary American short film competition. It will also be distributed nationally through HBO this May, during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. JIEJIE is a portrait of young sisters being raised by a single immigrant…

Taiwan Films at CAAMFest 2018

TaiwaneseAmerican.org is pleased to support the premier Asian American Film Festival in the San Francisco/Bay Area. CAAM Fest, the Center for Asian American Media’s annual festival features not only amazing works in film, TV, and digital media, but now also includes showcases in music and food. This year, their events and screenings are scheduled all throughout May to coincide with Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. We proudly co-present both a feature film about groundbreaking Taiwanese…

Taiwanese American Women’s Convention & Filmmaker Panel

The purpose of North America Taiwanese Women's Association 2nd Generation Chapter is three-fold: (1) to establish a network consisted of 1.5- and 2nd-generation Taiwanese American and Canadian women (2) to cultivate and promote talents among young Taiwanese American and Canadian women (3) to preserve Taiwanese culture and promote Taiwanese American and Canadian identity. The 2018 national convention will be hosted in Los Angeles at the LAX Renaissance Hotel during the weekend of April…

Who Is Arthur Chu? Screens at CAAMFest 2017

Each year, TaiwaneseAmerican.org is pleased to support the premier Asian American Film Festival in the San Francisco/Bay Area. CAAM Fest, the Center for Asian American Media’s annual festival features not only amazing works in film, TV, and digital media, but also includes showcases in music and food. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the festival--a treasure trove of great Asian American works from established as well as emerging talent. This year, we are proud to co-present the centerpiece…

Film Screening of “Elevator” with TAP in LA

Taiwanese American Professionals - Los Angeles (TAP-LA) is proud to introduce our new 'TA Artist Spotlight Series', where we aim to showcase and highlight the immense talent of our Taiwanese American artistic community! For our first installment, we are proud to present the screening of "Elevator" a film written and produced by Taiwanese American filmmaker Anthony Ma (LOVE ARCADIA), co-directed by Ryo Shiina and Bassem Wahbi. Anthony also stars as one of the lead characters opposite of Kiyomi…

Love Boat: Taiwan

If you're Taiwanese American or have friends who are, you've certainly heard of "Love Boat"--the summer program that brings hundreds of young high school and collegiate-aged Taiwanese Americans back to Taiwan for an experience they'll never forget. For the parents who sent their child to this six-week summer camp in the homeland, it's an opportunity to expose their kids to Taiwan for a substantially subsidized fee. For the young Asian American participants, it's a liberating experience discovering…