Hearts in Taiwan
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.
Episodes
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 ...
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 fo...
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:
instagram.com/cutfruitcollective
instagram.com/asiansformentalhealth
Connect:
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 Joann...
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 ne...
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 Christianit...
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 28 release (delayed from June 14 due to supply chain issues).
Featuring Jane Kuo:
...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 ide...
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 co...
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 Sa...
“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 ...
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 Tai...
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...
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:
Connect:
buymeacoffee.com/heartsintaiwan ← Buy us a boba!
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...
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 ...
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.
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, commonpla...
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...
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
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