cóng mei guo lai de, by Vanessa Wan

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FEATURE PHOTO PROVIDED BY VANESSA WAN When I was little, I thought I was Chinese. That’s what my parents said when we were asked the inevitable question: “What are you?”  I later learned we were not Chinese.  Assigned to research the flag of my parents’ home country for class, I went home to find out that I needed to check out books not on China but on Taiwan. As it turned out, my parents simply went along with people’s assumptions that we were Chinese because it was “easier.”…

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

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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…

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Meet Laura and Olivia, Co-founders of Project EMplify

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Photos provided by Olivia Chen Project EMplify, co-founded by Taiwanese Americans Laura Huang and Olivia Chen, is a global non-profit initiative dedicated to addressing inequality and disadvantage through personal empowerment. Their programming includes a book matching program, mentoring sessions, and workshops to help underserved communities discover how they can find and create their edge, as outlined in Huang’s debut book, EDGE: Turning Adversity into Advantage. Their goal is to reach…

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Jude Chao: ‘Skin Care for your soul’ and sexy radishes

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“Internet big sister” Jude Chao on how a passion for skincare led her to share more about mental health, wellness, and the art of real living with her debut book and sheet mask line ‘Skin Care for your soul’ and sexy radishes “Internet big sister” Jude Chao on how a passion for skincare led her to share more about mental health, wellness, and the art of real living with her debut book and sheet mask line Chao is a longtime friend of TaiwaneseAmerican.org. In 2019, she shared…

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Response to Pew Research Reports Hiding Taiwanese Identity: “We made it count. Now tell our stories.”

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Taiwanese American Community Response to Pew Research Reports on Asian American Communities IMAGE SOURCE: PEW RESEARCH CENTER Recently published reports by the Pew Research Center analyzing Asian American communities have included footnotes that data for “‘Chinese’ includes those identifying as ‘Taiwanese.’” As of today (May 1 - the start of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month), the methodology for Pew Research Center’s Asian American fact sheets makes no reference to why…

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National Book Award Winner Charles Yu establishes prize for young Taiwanese American creative writers

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TAIWANESEAMERICAN.ORG THE BETTY L. YU AND JIN C. YU CREATIVE WRITING PRIZES TaiwaneseAmerican.org is pleased to announce the inaugural Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes. Created in collaboration with Taiwanese American author Charles Yu, the Prizes are intended to encourage and recognize creative literary work by Taiwanese American high school and college students, and to foster discussion and community around such work. Submissions may be in any literary genre including…

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On Clubhouse, ‘臺kanda’: Taiwan’s Wakanda Fantasies

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Are semiconductors Taiwan's vibranium? "Actually," offers one speaker, "it's the Taiwanese people's ethics and heart." Aw. There's a scene in the Marvel franchise where T'challa disrupts the meta-fiction of Wakanda's unremarkable, third-world pretense, grandly revealing their true nature in a gesture of humanitarian aid. That both Wakanda and Taiwan can be categorized as global fictions is sad. But, crucially, there is a difference between hiding and being ignored. [caption id="" align="alignnone"…

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I DREAM OF POPO is the Taiwanese American story of all generations

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"When a young girl and her family emigrate from Taiwan to America, she leaves behind her beloved popo, her grandmother. She misses her popo every day, but even if their visits are fleeting, their love is ever true and strong." "I Dream of Popo," published in January of 2021, was shaped by a triumvirate of Taiwanese American women: author Livia Blackburne, illustrator Julia Kuo, and editor Connie Hsu (Roaring Brook Press). In an editor's note, Hsu writes that signing Kuo imbued the picture…

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The Best of the “Best of 2020” Lists

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Feature photo from the Office of the President aka "Taiwan #1" All year long, we enjoy showcasing the best and most promising of Taiwanese America (and Taiwan). It has been our proud mission to highlight the amazing stories and people of our community. During this most challenging year in the midst of a global pandemic, inspirational stories have kept our spirits up. Now, with the year's end in sight, the annual superlatives lists have started popping up, and we've taken note. During the past…

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For a Better Life, Move to Taiwan: My Taiwanese American Story

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When my mom was twenty, she moved from Taiwan to the United States. Now I’m twenty, and I’m doing everything I can to get back.  There are practical reasons for this, of course. I applied for dual citizenship in high school, and since coronavirus has pushed everything, including my college classes, into the virtual world, Taiwan has become my fabled “land of opportunity.”  But there’s something deeper going on. I’ve spent my whole life trying to prove my “Americanness,”…

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