Hearts in Taiwan: Recent Episodes
Annie Wang and Angela Yu
As kids of immigrants from Taiwan, our Asian identity started with beef noodle soup and ended with Chinese school. Now that we’re adults, we’ve found that we still have a lot to learn about Taiwan’s history and its unique culture. Cousins Annie Wang and Angela Yu share their journey as they discover their family’s heritage and celebrate Taiwanese culture in the context of the Asian American experience.
In our Season 2 finale, Angela and Annie relive the best Taiwanese meal they ate this year, and discuss books that connect us with different parts of our Taiwanese, Chinese, and American heritage. We share our Spotify Wrapped and play a listener voicemail.
Credits:
“PUNCHLINE” and “LITTLE FIRES” from BUNNY MODE courtesy of the artist Jaguar Jonze (@jaguarjonze on IG)
Resources:
Good to Eat restaurant (read Gathering Taiwanese American community at Emeryville’s “Good to Eat”)
First Generation: Recipes from My Taiwanese-American Home by Frankie Gaw
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford
Blueprints by Jeanelle Fu
S02E09 Can you be Chinese and Taiwanese at the same time?
S01E12 Twinkies and Bananas
S02E03 Bringing Taiwanese values to entrepreneurship
S01E14 Hearts (and ears) in Japan
S01E05 Wang or Wang?
Appearances:
Hyphen Magazine A Roundtable On Taiwan's Recent Representation In Western Media
EYECTV on YouTube How ROC immigrants recognize themselves?
Ryan Ma on TaiwaneseAmerican.org Cōng yóu Bǐng: A Catalyst for Taiwanese Self-Identity
YLE Radio (Finnish) Russia, Ukraine, China, and Taiwan
Featuring:
Olivia Chen, Twrl Milk Tea
Angie Lin, Good to Eat
Grace Hwang Lynch, freelance writer
Leona Chen, TaiwaneseAmerican.org
Peter Chu, TAP-SF
Kimberly Yang, Formosa Chocolates
Willy Wang, Taiwan Bento
Stephanie Lin, KRON 4
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
buymeacoffee.com/heartsintaiwan ← Buy us a boba!
heartsintaiwan.com
In this episode, we get to know Joy Huang, one of the founders and moderators for the Taiwanese Home Cooking Facebook group. She started her food blog, The Cooking of Joy, because she was inspired to document her mom's Taiwanese dishes. This hobby continued to grow and now you can find her work on Instagram at @joyosity where she is known for her artistic take on baked goods. We asked Joy to share her early influences, tips for food photography, and some of the most lively topics discussed in the Facebook group of over 35,000 people who love to make Taiwanese food.
Featuring Joy Huang:
- The Cooking of Joy blog: www.cookingofjoy.com
- @joyosity and #thecookingofjoy on Instagram
- Taiwanese Home Cooking Facebook Group
Resources mentioned:
- Joy Huang on Some Good News by John Krasinski, Bon Appetit, and Food52
- Taiwanese Restaurant Recommendations around the world (Google MyMap)
- Joy’s guide to making bread including her sourdough recipe
- Joy’s beef noodle soup (niu rou mian) recipe (original, latest)
- Joy’s recipes for various dumplings
- Taiwanese American Foundation (TAF) summer conference
- Boston Organics produce delivery
- Jocelyn Shyong’s homemade pineapple cakes in the Boston area (must be in Facebook Group), or @jjcookery on Instagram
- Eric Sze on Munchies YouTube on white pepper in Taiwanese food and five-spice too
Cover art photo credits: Joy Huang
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
buymeacoffee.com/heartsintaiwan ← Buy us a boba!
heartsintaiwan.com
Angela’s mom shares a memory from her college days and Angela learns more about her mom as a person through this story. Let us know if you do a similar exercise recording the stories your parents tell you behind their old photos!
Resources:
Google PhotoScan app
instagram.com/cutfruitcollective
instagram.com/parentsarehuman
instagram.com/asiansformentalhealth
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
buymeacoffee.com/heartsintaiwan ← Buy us a boba!
heartsintaiwan.com
In this episode, we examine the dark side of the model minority myth and the “tiger mom” stereotype. Joanna Ho’s first young adult novel, The Silence that Binds Us, is inspired by a real community’s anti-Asian reaction to teen suicides. Discussing the novel also compels Annie and Angela to get real about passive and active anti-Blackness in the Asian American community.
Featuring Joanna Ho:
- Buy The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho
- @joannahowrites on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok
- Book author visits on joannahowrites.com
About Joanna: Joanna Ho is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners, Eyes that Speak to the Stars, Playing at the Border: A Story of Yo-Yo Ma, and The Silence that Binds Us. She is a writer and educator with a passion for anti-bias, anti-racism and equity work. She has been an English teacher, a vice principal, a dean, the designer of an alternative-to-prison program, and a professional development creator partnering with educational leaders around the country. She survives on homemade chocolate chip cookies, outdoor adventures, and dance parties with her kids.
More resources (primarily for US listeners):
- Gratitude giveaway details on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
- Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network, 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
- The Trevor Project for LGBTQ+ and questioning
- Asians for Mental Health therapist directory
- Resources for survivors of suicide loss
- Tiger parenting (Wikipedia), Panda parenting (Psychology Today)
- LA riots following 1992 acquittal of officers for beating Rodney King (Wikipedia)
Hearts in Taiwan in the news:
- Hyphen Magazine (link coming soon)
- Radio Taiwan International, Russian Service
- New York Times article
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
buymeacoffee.com/heartsintaiwan ← Buy us a boba!
heartsintaiwan.com
About 32% of people in Taiwan identify as both Taiwanese and Chinese, while diaspora from Taiwan in America tend to identify as solely one or the other. We talk about blending Chinese, Taiwanese, and American identity with Michelle Kuo and Albert Wu. Michelle and Albert moved back to their heritage country mid-career and have been sharing their Asian American observations and introspections about living in Taiwan in their weekly newsletter, A Broad and Ample Road.
Featuring Michelle Kuo and Albert Wu:
- Remembering Michelle’s grandmother in A Broad and Ample Road
- Reflecting on Albert’s mother in A Broad and Ample Road
- Is “Asian-American” a viable category? in A Broad and Ample Road
- Breaking Bad review by Albert Wu and Michelle Kuo in the Los Angeles Review of Books, their first collaboration
- Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo (陪你讀下去 in Taiwan)
- Michelle Kuo: @kuokuomich on Twitter and Instagram
- Albert Wu: @albertowu on Twitter
About Michelle: Michelle Kuo is a visiting professor in the law program at National Taiwan University. She has worked with Teach for America, the Criminal Justice Institute, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Centro Legal de la Raza, the Prison University Project at San Quentin, RAICES, and the Stanford Three Strikes Project. She has started a nonprofit, Dialogue & Transformation, which works to create dialogue among formerly incarcerated people across the world.
About Albert: Albert Wu is a global historian, focusing particularly on the transnational connections between Germany and China, the history of religion, and the history of medicine. He is currently an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. After studying history at Columbia University, he has taught at the American University of Paris, UC Berkeley (where he earned his PhD), and the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison.
Vocab:
外省人 waishengren - Family from mainland China who moved to Taiwan to escape Communism in the late 1940s
本省人 benshengren - Family who was already in Taiwan when waishengren came
Other resources mentioned:
- Changes in the Taiwanese/Chinese identity of Taiwanese as Tracked in Surveys by the Election Study Center, NCCU (1992-2021)
- The Ethics of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah
- I've Got the Light of Freedom by Charles M. Payne
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
buymeacoffee.com/heartsintaiwan ← Buy us a boba!
heartsintaiwan.com
The mass shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA has sparked conversation about the significance of the Presbyterian Church for many Taiwanese individuals. Annie and Angela interview Christine Lin, a lawyer and expert on the history and influence of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan who also conducts research on Taiwanese American identity. The hosts also share their own experiences with Christianity.
Featuring Christine Lin:
- Respond to Christine’s current research: “Survey of Taiwanese Americans on Identity Issues”, 2022
- “The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Advocacy of Local Autonomy” (PDF) by Christine Louise Lin for Sino-Platonic Papers, 1999
- “What Impacts a Taiwanese Americans' Political Identity?” by Christine Lin for Chinese America: History & Perspectives–The Journal of the Chinese Historical Society of America, Special Issue: Taiwanese Americans, 2017
- Christine Lin quoted in “Gunman Targets Taiwanese Faith With Long Pro-Democracy Link” (Associated Press)
- Contact Christine Lin on LinkedIn
About Christine: Christine Lin is a Taiwanese American lawyer. Her research on the topic of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan inspired her to pursue a career in human rights, refugee, and immigration law. Currently, she is the Director of Training and Technical Assistance at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies based at UC Hastings College of the Law where she has taught the Refugee & Human Rights Clinic. Previously, she was the Legal Director of Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre and taught refugee legal assistance clinics at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
More resources:
- Major branches of Christianity (Wikipedia)
- Presbyterian Church USA allows same-sex marriages (NPR, 2015)
- Related episode: “Taiwanese by the Numbers” (Hearts in Taiwan, August 5, 2021)
- New York Times interview that consulted Christine Lin and interviewed Annie and Angela: "Coming From Separate Worlds in Taiwan, They Collided at California Church" (https://nyti.ms/3mDXG2q)
Connect:instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
buymeacoffee.com/heartsintaiwan ← Buy us a boba!
heartsintaiwan.com
The Chinese name for America, 美国/美國/měiguó, translates to “Beautiful Country”. We talked with author Jane Kuo about her experience as a 1.5-generation immigrant bridging Chinese, Taiwanese, and American identity. Her family’s pursuit of the American Dream inspired her debut novel In the Beautiful Country which is available for pre-order before its June 14 release.
Featuring Jane Kuo:
- In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo
- janekuo.com for upcoming tour dates and projects
- instagram.com/janekuowrites
- facebook.com/janekuowrites
- twitter.com/janekuowrites
About Jane: Jane Kuo is a Chinese and Taiwanese American writer. She is an immigrant and the daughter of immigrants. Jane grew up in Los Angeles in the 1980s and as a child, she spent her weekends and summers working in her family’s fast food restaurant. Jane’s middle grade novel, In the Beautiful Country, is a fictional story inspired by the events of her childhood.
Other works mentioned:
- Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Wikipedia)
- Asian Comedian Destroys America!, Ronny Chieng’s first special on Netflix
English language writing by Taiwanese Americans about the May 15 shooting in Laguna Woods, California
- Brian Hioe for New Bloom Magazine, “Confusion About ‘Chinese’ Or ‘Taiwanese’ Identity Of Gunman After Shooting At Taiwanese Church In California”
- HoChie Tsai and Leona Chen for TaiwaneseAmerican.org, “We grieve the May 15th Shooting at Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church”
- Jocelyn Chung for USA Today, “Church shooting is deeply personal for us as Taiwanese Americans”
- A prayer by Jocelyn’s ama for the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church (Instagram video in Taiwanese with English translation in the caption)
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Who were the Taiwanese before they called themselves Taiwanese? In this episode, we’re going back to school for a crash course in history with Dr. Evan Dawley. We discuss identity on the island before the Japanese colonial period, the influences of Japanese colonizers and the Kuomintang-led Republic of China, and identity among the modern Chinese diaspora. This historical overview of the formation and evolution of the Taiwanese identity provides context for present day conversations.
Resources mentioned:
- Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s to 1950s (Harvard University Press) by Evan N. Dawley, Chinese edition (NTU Press)
- TaiwanPrimarySources.com, collected by Wayne Soon (Vassar College) and Evan Dawley (Goucher College)
- The 4th World Congress of Taiwan Studies, June 27 to 29, 2022 in Seattle, Washington
- Orphan of Asia by Zhuoliu Wu
- Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan
- Trends of Core Political Attitudes survey data by the Election Study Center at National Chengchi University
- The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority by Madeline Hsu
- The Great Exodus from China: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan by Dominic Yang
- American Exodus: Second-Generation Chinese Americans in China, 1901–1949 by Charlotte Brooks
- Remembering China from Taiwan: Divided Families and Bittersweet Reunions after the Chinese Civil War by Mahlon Meyer
- “The War in Ukraine Has Unleashed a New Word” by Timothy Snyder for The New York Times Magazine
- More publications by Evan Dawley
About Evan: Evan Dawley is Associate Professor of History at Goucher College, where he has taught since 2013, and he previously worked in the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State. His research relates to modern East Asian history, with particular attention to Taiwan, China, and Japan, as well as identity formation, imperialism, and international/transnational history.
Connect:
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facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
We hope that sharing this conversation helps anyone who has chased top grades, Instagram followers, performance ratings and promotions at work, or other external metrics of success. Taking and sharing personality tests teaches us new things about ourselves and each other. We discover that we each have a strong inner tiger parent, and we discuss the paradox that seeking external validation actually ends up blocking deeper social connections. Throughout, we realize how our respective beliefs about our own self-worth manifest differently in our podcast partnership.
Take the personality tests:16personalities.com/free-personality-test
personalitypath.com/free-enneagram-personality-test
Personality Types mentioned about ourselves:Enneagram Type 1: Perfectionist
Enneagram Type 3: Achiever
Enneagram Type 5: Investigator
16 Personalities ISTJ Logistician
Also mentioned: Myers-Briggs MBTI® Types
Connect:instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Inspired by our conversation with Carey Lai, hosts Angela and Annie share the rocky beginnings of starting their careers in the early ‘00s when nobody was hiring after the dot-com bubble burst. We also share a different way of looking at the career journey to get around leadership ceilings.
Mentioned:
“10 big dot-com flops” (money.cnn.com)
“Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder” - excerpt from Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Related episode: Bringing Taiwanese values to entrepreneurship with Carey Lai (Hearts in Taiwan S2E3)
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
“Budget Conscious | Authentic Relationships | Integrity”—these values distinguish Conductive Ventures from other venture capital firms that hold the keys to which startups get funding in Silicon Valley. Our guest Carey Lai shares how his story and shared values with co-founder Paul Yeh have shaped their unique formula for investment that have led to a portfolio of companies that is two-thirds led by minorities and first-generation immigrants.
Featuring:
Conductive Ventures (conductive.vc)
Sand Hill Road as the epicenter of venture capital (Wikipedia)
The story behind Bay Area dim sum legend Koi Palace (Eater)
Related episode: Hearts in Japan (Hearts in Taiwan S1E14)
About our guest:
Carey Lai is a Founding Member and Managing Director at Conductive Ventures which focuses on investments in the areas of software, hardware and technology enabled services.
Prior to Conductive Ventures, Carey spent over four years investing at Intel Capital. He also worked at Institutional Venture Partners and the Technology Investment Banking Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Carey has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and he graduated with a B.A. in International Economics from the University of California Los Angeles.
Connect:
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facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Whether you call your grandmother “amah”, “popo”, “waipo”, “nainai”, “mama”, “grandma”, or something else, she plays a key role in your connection to your heritage. Amah Faraway tells the story of how young Kylie transforms from feeling unsure and reluctant to embracing her grandmother and her heritage country. We got to talk with author Margaret Chiu Greanias and illustrator Tracy Subisak and found many common threads that the Taiwanese diaspora will see reflected throughout this delightful picture book.
Where to buy Amah Faraway:
- Signed by Margaret (Linden Tree Books)
- Signed by Tracy (Green Bean Books)
- Your preferred booksellers
Margaret Chiu Greanias
- Website
Tracy Subisak
- Website
Additional resources:
- Chinese family tree (Off the Great Wall video, Mina Learns Chinese Instagram graphics for grandparents, aunts/uncles)
- Taiwanese family tree (Taiwanese)
- "Lost Generation", a palindromic poem by Jonathan Reed (video, text)
- Taiwanese Association of Greater Portland (TAGP)
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Hosts Annie Wang and Angela Yu kick off Season 2 with an interview of Abigail Hing Wen, author of New York Times bestseller Loveboat, Taipei which is currently being filmed in Taiwan starring Ashley Jiao, Ross Butler, Nico Hiraga, and Chelsea Zhang. The Young Adult novel’s sequel Loveboat Reunion hits bookshelves January 25.
We learned how Abigail's family background has shaped her worldview, got a realtime account of what it's like to run around Taiwan with movie stars, and talked frankly about how bamboo and glass ceilings are very real for Asian women in tech. From references to The Baby-Sitters Club and Bridgerton to Angela quoting Abigail's books back to her three times, this conversation is unique to say the least.
Featuring:
Follow @abigailhingwen on Instagram
Subscribe to Abigail's newsletter on abigailhingwen.com
Where to buy:
- Loveboat, Taipei
- Loveboat Reunion
- Serendipity featuring "The Idiom Algorithm", a short story by Abigail Hing Wen
If you're interested in a similar immersive cultural camp for the current generation of Taiwanese American youth who have completed grades 4 through 12, look into Leading Youth Forward (LYF) Camp organized by the Taiwanese American Citizens League and held in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Connect:instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Hearts in Taiwan podcast is back with a second season! Hosts Annie Wang and Angela Yu share what you can look forward to this year.
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Was it crazy for two women in their 40s with kids, full-time jobs, and no media experience to start a podcast during the pandemic? From our first emails in January, we never would have guessed that by September we’d be wrapping our first season with 18 episodes and hundreds of listeners. In this episode, we look at the progress we’ve made on our journey so far, what we’ve learned about ourselves and each other, and the surprises we’ve encountered along the way. We reveal popular episodes and our favorites, then share what’s in store ahead.
Connect
Rate and review
Get an email when we publish next
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As English-speaking parents living outside our heritage country, we discuss how we go about passing our culture on to our kids. From seeking out Mandarin Immersion schools and caregivers, cultivating our kids' palates to appreciate Taiwanese food, and planning to visit Taiwan regularly for family vacations (when we can again!), we share what’s worked and what hasn’t across our kids ranging from age 4 to 12. Angela also shares the many new resources that have cropped up from entrepreneurs in the past 5 years to help parents like us.
Links:
NTNU Mandarin summer camp
Mina Learns Chinese Instagram Reels featuring shows and movies on Netflix and Disney+ with Mandarin audio tracks
Go! Go! Cory Carson on Netflix by Alex Woo and Stanley Moore of Kuku Studios
Alok Menon on Instagram normalizing body hair and trans beauty
La La Learn app for iPhone and iPad by Alice Han featuring children’s songs in Mandarin
Hearts in Taiwan raising bilingual kids resources page lists all the books we mentioned and more (https://heartsintaiwan.com/raising-bilingual-kids)
Connect (check for our giveaway here!):instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
When we recorded our episode on politics in Taiwan, we practiced a mock debate to help us understand the viewpoints of the green and blue ends of the Taiwanese political spectrum. The issue in question: Should Taiwan formally declare independence from China in the next 12 months? Each of us was randomly assigned to represent one side in this bonus companion to the “50 shades of green (and blue)” episode.
Credit:Cover photo of the infamous “pig guts brawl” in Taiwan’s legislative yuan by Gwydion M. Williams on Flickr with additional edits by Hearts in Taiwan.
Connect:instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
Annie and Angela tackle a taboo topic: politics in Taiwan! From dark green to light green and light blue to dark blue, we attempt to understand why each party believes what they do, and relate our observations to American pop culture. Plus, Angela asks for your recommendations for earth-friendly products that aren’t made in China.
Further reading:
- Brawls in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (YouTube: pig guts in 2020, commonplace in 2017)
- Wild Lily student movement (OFTaiwan)
- 1992 Consensus (Wikipedia)
- China interfering with Taiwan’s vaccine procurement (article)
-
FreeBritney Spears from conservatorship (freebritney.net)
- Sex and the City struggles of moving in together (clip)
- Green parties’ anti-nuclear platform (article)
- Insecure’s Thug Yoda character replacing “c” with “b” (clip, HBO homepage, Compton rapper YG explains on YouTube)
- Taiwan passport 2021 redesign (BBC)
- False comparison between US policy toward Afghanistan and Taiwan (New Bloom Magazine, Taiwan Insight)
- Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 (official text)
- Japan’s security tied to Taiwan (article)
- What Taiwanese Americans can learn from Taiwanese Politics (TaiwaneseAmerican.org)
#notsponsored:Piico floss picks made in Taiwan (website, Instagram)
Indigenous American-owned businesses (IG Guide, Website)
Buy Nothing project for neighborhood sharing (buynothingproject.org)
Credit:
Cover photo by tomscy2000 on Flickr depicting a young protester during the Sunflower Movement
Connect:instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
Japan has some of the more notable cultural influences on Taiwan due to its 50 year occupation of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945. We explore some of the marks that Japan has left and its unique approach to colonization of Taiwan. Annie's mom returns for a guest appearance.
Sources
The Empire of Japan (Wikipedia)
Kano - 2014 movie about the baseball team
Ear cleaning with mimikaki (JapanTravel)
Ear cleaning in Chengdu, China (BBC)
Ellie Yang Camp’s post on ear wax types (Instagram)
Symbolism of plum blossom 梅花 in Taiwan (Wikipedia)
The Twenty-One Demands from Japan to China in 1915 (Wikipedia)
Nanjing Massacre (Wikipedia)
Further readinghttps://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-taiwan-japan-20171106-story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/magazine/taiwan-china.html
Taiwan as part of the Japanese empire (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Longing for the Spring Breeze song history (Wikipedia)
#NotSponsoredEVA Air Hello Kitty flights
EVA Air Hello Kitty flights to nowhere in August 2020 (CNN)
EVA Air flight map draws thumbs-up sign (Scooper)
Credits
“望春風Longing for the Spring Breeze” was one of the first Taiwanese pop songs during the period of Japanese colonization.
Longing for the Spring Breeze cover by 薛詒丹 Dan Hsueh and 翁光煒 Wico Weng
Original recording of Longing for the Spring Breeze
Connect
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Just how big is the worldwide Taiwanese community anyway? We look at the numbers past and present that make up Taiwan and its diaspora, and discuss why it’s hard to track and measure the Taiwanese diaspora. The numbers surprise us and also leave us with some mysteries.
Sources:
UN world population prospects for Taiwan
CIA World Factbook page on Taiwan
Wikipedia page on Austronesian peoples
Wikipedia page on Christianity in China
Taipei vs New Taipei City Quora answer
Wikipedia page on Overseas Taiwanese
Taiwan’s OCAC report of 1M Taiwanese emigrants to the US (as of 2010)
TACL summary of Census 2020 “Write in Taiwanese” campaign
Credits:
"Level Up" by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
Cover photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
Twinkies and bananas - Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. This is how many second generation Asian Americans felt growing up. In the 80s and 90s, when we only saw white or Black representation in American media. We explore how this quest to assimilate drove our development as individuals and what this means for Asian Americans now.
Links:
Crazy Rich Asians
PEN15
The Babysitter's Club
BTS (YouTube, Instagram)
Joy Luck Club (Movie, Book)
WongFu Productions (YouTube, "Yellow Fever" short)
The Half of It
Kim's ConvenienceFresh Off the Boat
Never Have I Ever
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
House of Ho
Bling Empire#notsponsored: Nick Dong (Instagram, website) and USC Pacific Asia Museum (Instagram, Divine Immersion: The Experiential Art of Nick Dong)
Credits:"Level Up" by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
"Show Yourself" by Alex Wong (Patreon) Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
There are so many things that make Taiwan unique and exceptional. From policy making to manufacturing to transportation, and of course food, Taiwan has a lot to celebrate.
Links:
Taiwan Covid Relief (DM or email us with a photo of your donation receipt dated after July 22nd and we'll match your donation until we hit $1,000 in total donation matching)
Audrey Tang (Talks at Google, Twitter)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
ASUS
Giant Bicycles
Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) / Metro Taipei
Credits:"New Normal" by Rosendale (Instagram, YouTube, Spotify)
A new song in the works by Sam Lin (Instagram, YouTube)
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Simple question, hard to answer! Angela and Annie share their journeys exploring their identities with respect to Taiwan, and reflect on definitions contributed by a wide variety of Taiwanese individuals in America and Taiwan. We pitch each other some thought experiments that test our hypotheses about identity, and discuss the evolution of the Taiwanese identity in relation to China and in the context of America.
Links:
Nationality, Ethnicity, & Race, by Hello Prosper (blog post, IG post)
Michelle Kwan's stories at #RecipeForChange dinner (YouTube 24:11)
Taiwan’s urban landscapes by Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry (IG story highlight)
See the Olympic flag for Chinese Taipei (Wikipedia)
Xi Jinping remarks for CCP centennial (Reuters article)
Crackdown and closure of Apple Daily in Hong Kong, coverage by New Bloom and Taiwan Mixed (IG post)
notsponsored: Taiwan Mixed for news in English about Taiwan (website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook)
Show notes for full credits and sources
Featuring:
Kelly Lan, Hello Prosper (IG: @hello.prosper)
Darice Dan Chang (IG: @darice_dandan)
Dr. Zonram Liao, Wellnergy Pets (IG: @wellnergypets)
Sticky Rice Sisters (IG: @stickyricesisters)
Cathy Huang, Avery & Me (IG: @averyandme)
Lulu Cheng, Bitty Bao Books (IG: @bitty.bao)
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Every culture and region has its own unique flavors, dishes, and culinary history. Food brings people together and is a source of cultural pride - Taiwan is no exception. From beef noodle soup to boba, we celebrate the things that make Taiwanese food what it is today. Join us as we journey through the regional influences of Taiwanese food, take a trip down memory lane, and highlight some of our favorite dishes.
Links:Eating Taiwanese in the Bay (KQED)
Taiwan Bento (Oakland, California)
Chia Te pineapple cake
Weee! Asian grocery delivery ($20 off first order with referral link)
Taiwanese Home Cooking (Facebook group)
Credits:"Level Up" by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
Hearts in Taiwan on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIk7wP97c_LC5Xw5lxZJK6w)
If you didn't know that the KMT government killed about 20,000 Taiwanese people in a one-month span in early 1947 and imprisoned about 140,000 more during the 40 years after, that's no accident. In Part 2 of a 2-part series, we share the way that the 228 Massacre and White Terror were handled since these events ended and the parallels to how governments handle similar events like the Tulsa Race Massacre and the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Trigger warnings: violence, police/military brutality, totalitarian government.
Invitation:
Tells us how you define Taiwanese! Send us a voice message on Instagram, Facebook, or at heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail and we'll send you a Hearts in Taiwan sticker.
Credits:
"Making the Banned" by Jason Chu and Alan Z
"Ronny's Outro" feat. Ronny Chieng from Face Value by Jason Chu and Alan Z
Alan Z's Instagram: www.instagram.com/alanzmusic
Alan Z's YouTube: http://bit.ly/alanz-youtube
"Close to Home" by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
Cover image: modification of a photo by Hung Jui-chin for Taipei Times
See our show notes for links to further reading about the events described in this episode.
heartsintaiwan.com/blog/massacres-and-coverups
Connect:
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facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
If you didn’t know that the KMT government killed about 20,000 Taiwanese people in a one-month span in early 1947 and imprisoned about 140,000 more during the 40 years after, that’s no accident. In Part 1 of a 2-part series, we share what we’ve learned from our research about the 228 Massacre and the period of martial law afterward called White Terror designed to silence and erase. Trigger warnings: violence, police/military brutality, totalitarian government.
Invitation:
Tell us how you define Taiwanese! Send us a voice message on Instagram, Facebook, or at heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail and we’ll send you a Hearts in Taiwan sticker.
Credits:
- “Close to Home” and “Never Look Away” by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
- National anthem of the Republic of China from the Office of the President of the Republic of China, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Cover image by Adece033090, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
See our show notes for links to our sources for the facts described in this episode and further recommended listening.
heartsintaiwan.com/blog/massacres-and-coverups
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
We've been inspired lately by musicians who are making waves in genres where Asians are vastly underrepresented. Angela unpacks what The Linda Lindas' punk performances mean to her, and Annie finds flow with rapper Alan Z.
Featured:“Never Say Never” and “Missing You” by The Linda Lindas
Spotify: http://bit.ly/linda-lindas
YouTube: http://bit.ly/linda-lindas-youtube
"Foreigner" by Alan Z x Jason Chu
“Model Minority” by Alan Z x Jason Chu (feat. Dante Basco and Neela)
Instagram: www.instagram.com/alanzmusic
YouTube: http://bit.ly/alanz-youtube
Connect:instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
This one is for everyone whose name is pronounced differently in America than it would be in your family’s original language. Angela and Annie discuss how even a simple name like Wang can be a hallmark of assimilation, a source of trauma, or an opportunity for reclaimed identity.
Invitation:
Tell us how you define Taiwanese! Send us a voice message on Instagram, Facebook, or at heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail and we’ll mail you a Hearts in Taiwan sticker.
Links:
“America Ruined My Name for Me” by Beth Nguyen
“When the Teacher Doesn’t Even Try to Pronounce Your Name” by comedian Tien Tran
Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang - excerpt in our show notes
"Level Up" by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
Visit our show notes for more about the topics in our episode
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com/voicemail
We stan Maya and Anna of PEN15. In our second (Not Just) Book Club with Hearts in Taiwan, we unpack how one particular episode captures the experience of adolescence as an Asian American among mostly white peers in the '90s. Also, we read excerpts of the first reviews of this podcast.
Links:
PEN15 on Hulu
"Level Up" by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
Cover photo:Still from PEN15/Hulu by Alex Lombardi
Connect:
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facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
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America is known as the land of opportunity. What did that mean for young adults living in Taiwan in the 60s and 70s? We asked our parents about their immigration experiences and whether America lived up to their expectations.
Links:Immigrant story questions by Ellie Yang Camp (@eeewhysee)
CNN on Asian American diversity May 2021
"Level Up" by Vienna Teng (Spotify)
"Show Yourself" by Alex Wong (Patreon)
Cover photo:
Annie's mom before she boarded a plane to the US for grad school
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Angela and Annie introduce Not Just Book Club with Hearts in Taiwan, where we share what we're reading, watching, and listening to. First up: Interior Chinatown by Taiwanese American author Charles Yu, and Taiwanese American musician Vienna Teng.
Links:
Interior Chinatown excerpt and where to buy, Charles Yu on Twitter
Vienna Teng on Spotify, Facebook, and Instagram
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Annie and Angela decode the distinction among people whose families come from Taiwan: who identifies as Chinese and who identifies as Taiwanese, and why. Our journey begins when we combine Wikipedia research with questions we’ve never asked our moms until now.
Vocab:
外省人 waishengren - Family from mainland China who moved to Taiwan to escape Communism in the late 1940s
本省人 benshengren - Family who was already in Taiwan when waishengren came
Cover photo:
Eight-year-olds Angela and Annie in Chinese school summer camp
Connect:
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facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com
Here’s what the Hearts in Taiwan podcast is all about. Meet Annie Wang and Angela Yu and get to know our motivation for this project.
Connect:
instagram.com/heartsintaiwan
facebook.com/heartsintaiwan
heartsintaiwan.com