Taiwanese Diaspora Podcast

Annie, one of the three co-presidents of the 2022 Taiwan Film Festival of Boston (TFFB), joins us for a chat today about this year's event!  This is the fourth annual TFFB event, and the first fully in-person event since the start of the pandemic.  This year's line up includes 6 features films and 2 short films (link to 2022 program). The directors and producers of select films will be joining for live discussions.  << Tickets are on sale on the website!! >> See you on Oct 1 and 2 at the AMC Theaters in Downtown Crossing (Boston, MA)!  --- (7:00) Background on TFFB (founding, annual planning timeline)    (12:30) This year's theme: Crack & Light 「裂縫與光」   (13:00) Film 1: Grandma and Her Ghosts 魔法阿嬤   (14:45) Film 2: Eagle Hand 老鷹之手   (16:57) Film 3: Me and My Condemned Son 我的兒子是死刑犯   (19:00) Film 4: Enigma: The Chinese Crested Tern 尋找神話之鳥 (20:30) Film 5: Let the Wind Carry Me 乘著光影旅行  (21:15) Film 6: Listen Be

我每次去 Madison， WI 就會到他們開的台灣小吃餐廳吃好吃的，享受店裡的風格。真的是我其中最愛去的地方！很高興有機會跟 Seven 跟 Christine 聊。Seven 跟 Kai 在美國的威斯康星州的麥迪遜城市開的台灣小吃餐廳。Christine 在 University of Wisconsin Madison 讀中國文學的博士。 What a fun conversation (in English and Mandarin) with Seven and Christine from Taiwan Little Eats, a restaurant featuring amazing food and a cultural space for arts and conversation. I love the space and food, and make a point to stop in every time I'm in Madison.  In this episode 這集聊的題目:  How Seven and Christine met (what a cute love story)  他們認識的故事 Lessons in restaurant entrepreneurship (logo design, renovations, decor and design, location, menu, etc)  在美國開餐館的過程 Why it's important to partner when starting a venture (in this case, Seven pulled in his friend Kai)  來朋友進來一起合作或幫忙 Christine shares a little about her journey learning Chinese (I aspire to so fluent!) by finding mediums to obsessively immerse in. Check out her music (in Mandarin!) at Instagram @kelisidingding and YouTube. 克麗絲叮在台灣演唱國語歌！ If you're

This is the second episode in the Friendspiration Series! Pretty thrilled that the turnaround on this one a week from when we recorded. I'm thrilled to have Bentley Brown as a guest today. I first met him a few months ago, actually a few nights before I ran the Boston Marathon, when he was in town for a film screening of his latest: "Revolution from Afar." It's currently running on PBS. In this episode, we chat about spending the formidable years of his childhood in Chad, how filmmaking is a way to express his identity, and the many lessons he's learned as a filmmaker. Feel free to reach out to him if you're interested in booking a screening! Revolution from Afar "In 2019, after protests across Sudan resulted in the fall of 30-year dictator Omar al-Bashir, the military took control, shutting down the Internet and leaving those outside abroad to voice a plea for peaceful transition to civilian government. An ocean away, Sudanese-American poets, rappers and musicians, whose families left Sudan for America in d

This is the first episode in the Friendspiration Series! We recorded this almost exactly a year ago in Feb 2021, a few months after Pamoja officially launched. I'm super excited to introduce you to Stephanie Evans, founder of Pamoja! We first met at a post-MBA program in Italy, and I'm so excited for her to share her journey in founding a leather goods brand while working full-time. Her first product: The Nia (3-in-1 multi-functional bag: wallet, crossbody, clutch).  Topics discussed: entrepreneurship, goal setting, product development and prototyping, finding partners, social impact, and more.  Perspective on putting in time and energy at nights and on weekends to realize your dream: "It's time well spent -- it's a return on investment on myself!" Such an inspiration. Congrats, Stephanie! Shop Pamoja @ https://www.pamojabags.com | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamojabags. 5% of proceeds go to support the Kujuwa Initiative https://www.instagram.com/kujuwainitiative/. *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social

Announcement: I'm running the Boston Marathon in April -- will you help me fundraise for BCNC to support new immigrants   Boston Marathon! Nonprofit: Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC)  Make a donation (before April 30, 2022): https://www.givengain.com/ap/cynthia-lin-raising-funds-for-boston-chinatown-neighborhood-center-bcnc-/ Ask your HR or search these databases to see if your company has a Match program: WGBH | Charity Navigator Corporate donations: connect with me if you'd like to make a business donation and have your logo advertised on our race shirts!  Training updates: https://www.instagram.com/twdiaspora/  *** I'm running the Boston Marathon for #TeamBCNC to support fostering inclusive communities for Asians and new immigrants.  Like many children of immigrants, I learned to code switch, brushing off comments like, "You're too Asian. You're not American enough." Fearing confrontation, I suppressed the hurt emotions. Eventually I asked, "Why am

公告：我四月分要跑波士頓馬拉松！希望你能幫忙捐款給幫助新移民的非營利。 波士頓馬拉松 (Boston Marathon) 非營利 (nonprofit): Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) 波士頓華埠社區中心 捐款 (make a donation): https://www.givengain.com/ap/cynthia-lin-raising-funds-for-boston-chinatown-neighborhood-center-bcnc-/ 訓練的過程 (training updates): https://www.instagram.com/twdiaspora/  *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Show notes 主網頁: www.taiwanesediaspora.com. Email 電子信箱: hello@taiwanesediaspora.com. Support 贊助: https://ko-fi.com/twdiaspora and https://bookshop.org/shop/twdiaspora --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/twdiaspora/support

＃50: 用雇主或投資移民簽証到美國的步驟 / Employment Based Immigration Visa Process  (episode is in English and Mandarin. 這集用英文跟中文聊) Want to immigrate to the US? There are many visa options. Mark (an immigration consultant) and Priscilla (an immigration lawyer) join us again for a conversation on the Employment Based Immigration Visa process (EB1 through EB5). They're both based of Taiwan and help clients from Taiwan immigrate to the US and Canada. 主要是幫助想用投資移民的台灣人辦簽証移民到美國或加拿大。  What are the requirements for EB1, EB2, EB3, EB4, and EB5?  Which one has higher probability of guaranteed visa?  Check out episodes 45 and 46 to hear more about their experiences as international students, coming from Taiwan to the US. ***  Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Show notes 主網頁: www.taiwanesediaspora.com. Email 電子信箱: hello@taiwanesediaspora.com. Support 贊助: https://ko-fi.com/twdiaspora and https://bookshop.org/shop/twdiaspora --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm

#49: Life After Competitive Table Tennis 當桌球選手之後的生活 Barbara Wei (魏欣芳) shares her journey on redefining herself after spending over half her life as a world table tennis champion.   Becoming a table tennis world champion as a child and teen Encountering her biggest “moment of failure” and how that actually freed her up to play better Reflecting on how table tennis shaped her and what the sport means to her now Giving back to the table tennis community What "getting on the table" looks like now Why Lightening McQueen from Pixar's Cars resonates with her so deeply  (Episode is in English)   2021 World Table Tennis Championships: Behind the Scenes in Houston  https://youtu.be/PaF4ImYSpLY *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Show notes 主網頁: www.taiwanesediaspora.com. Email 電子信箱: hello@taiwanesediaspora.com. Support 贊助: https://ko-fi.com/twdiaspora and https://bookshop.org/shop/twdiaspora --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/twdiaspora/

#48: Casual convo on expat childhood, graduating from college, favorite comfort food w/Judy Chen Pulled this from what I'll call the Time Capsule Series (recorded a while back, but not-yet-published interviews). This episode is from Summer 2019, after Judy graduated from Tufts University and contemplating next steps. We met up for a casual conversation at the Boston Public Library and talked about all sorts of topics:   Reflecting on her life as an expat child growing up in Suzhou, China and attending a Singaporean International School Graduating from Tufts University with an anthropology degree Conducting research for her undergrad thesis to address the question "What does it mean to have a life at work?" and specifically examining work culture in the SF Bay Area through interviews, participant observations, and conferences (pretty relevant question given the events of the past two years) Going abroad to Chile for a "double study abroad" What she hopes to do if granted her OPT (one-year work vi

#47: Disability Pedagogy and Accessibility Advocacy (殘疾教育和無障礙宣傳) Janelle Chu Capwell (朱自立) joins us for a conversation on: - Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley (the SGV) - Being a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona in English Composition and Rhetoric - Her research interests: disability pedagogy and hiring student workers with disabilities     - Finding and sharing resources for the hard of hearing community at college (ex: CART captioning at Univ of Arizona) - This immersive cultural project ("the Reciprocity Project"): using BiteSized Taiwanese to learn Taiwanese and will be documenting her learnings on her blog (and sharing with us here on the podcast!) - Unpacking the privilege of choosing when to disclose her Asianness and Biracialness Follow Janelle's Reciprocity Project at: https://thistaiwanesehokki.wixsite.com/website Contact Janelle at: thistaiwanesehokkienproject@gmail.com Thank you to Marissa for joining us for the conversation and helping provide captions!  Link

#46: 追美國夢：台灣律師到美國讀法律 LLM (episode is in Chinese / 國語) Priscilla grew up in Taiwan having a fascination with foreign culture. After graduating with law school with a specialty in IP law in Taiwan, she enrolled at UPenn's LLM program. She'll share about how she landed a job at a US law firm, and how her first boss taught her so much more than being a lawyer.  *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Show notes 主網頁: www.taiwanesediaspora.com. Email 電子信箱: hello@taiwanesediaspora.com. Support 贊助: https://ko-fi.com/twdiaspora and https://bookshop.org/shop/twdiaspora --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/twdiaspora/support

#45: 回想十年前在美國當高中大學的留學生 (episode is primarily in Chinese / 這集大部分是用國語聊） Mark shares his experience as an international student from Taiwan attending high school and college in the US: dorm life vs homestay with an American family; learning English and practicing speaking through ESL, sports, writing love letters to his high school girlfriend, and journaling; facing challenges with optimism; advice to students (and parents) about sending their kids to study abroad.  回想十年前在美國當高中大學的留學生。 住在宿舍和寄宿家庭的差別。 學英文的方法（上 ESL 課，交女朋友，打球，寫日記）。 用樂觀的態度面對挑戰。 給想出國留學的學生和父母的建議。 *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Show notes 主網頁: www.taiwanesediaspora.com. Email 電子信箱: hello@taiwanesediaspora.com. Support 贊助: https://ko-fi.com/twdiaspora and https://bookshop.org/shop/twdiaspora --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/twdiaspora/support

#44: Making it Count: Taiwanese American Identity on Pew Research Report w/ Christina Hu 胡若涵 (Director, Write in Taiwanese Census Campaign | Director of Civic Engagement, Taiwanese American Citizens League) Christina shares her journey this past summer working with the Pew Research Center on having the report corrected to reflect Taiwanese-Americans as it's own category.  Links Pew Research Center, "Key facts about Asian Americans, a diverse and growing population" article originally published on 4/29/21): https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/29/key-facts-about-asian-americans/ (correction added 9/8/21) (Open Letter, 9/8/21) Pew Research reissues report on Asian Americans after misrepresenting Taiwanese Americans https://www.taiwaneseamerican.org/2021/09/pew-research-reissues-report-on-asian-americans-after-misrepresenting-taiwanese-americans/ Taiwan Plus News (on YouTube): "PEW Now includes Taiwanese Americans as a Category" Data Analysis (on TACL): "Media Treatment of Disaggregated Da

#43: Conversation w/organizers of Write in Taiwanese Census Campaign on Taiwanese Identity (台灣自我認同）, US Census Data (人口普查), and Pew Research Center's Report on Asian Americans (亞裔的文章） "This is who we are. Keep making it count. 自己的認同繼續報" Christina Hu: Director, Write in Taiwanese Census Campaign | Director of Civic Engagement, Taiwanese American Citizens League Leona Chen: Creative Director, Write in Taiwanese Census Campaign | Editor-in-Chief, TaiwaneseAmerican.org Chieh-Ting Yeh: Media Director, Write in Taiwanese Census Campaign | Editor-in-Chief, Ketagalan Media Languages spoken: English, Mandarin 國語, Taiwanese Hokkien 台語 taigi Links Pew Research Center, "Key facts about Asian Americans, a diverse and growing population" article originally published on 4/29/21): https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/29/key-facts-about-asian-americans/ (correction added 9/8/21) (Open Letter) Response to Pew Research Reports Hiding Taiwanese Identity: “We made it count. Now tell our stories.” https:/

Psyched to share this snippet of convo with Ling -- recorded last fall in Sept 2020. We went to the same college at the same time, but somehow our paths didn't cross until an alumni event a few years ago.  - MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI): the internships abroad program   - Working at Pixar Animation Studios on Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, Soul, and many more! (and then leaving) - Language learning philosophy: make as many mistakes as possible; seed new languages in bits: learn one small tidbit and practice noticing it in the real work -- like meditation; let it be part of you - Language learning apps, platforms, and communities: Discord, Hello Talk, Tandem  - Computational Linguistics and natural language processing (NPL): fascinating space to dive into   - Experience of moving to and quarantining in Taiwan: LINE chat with all the cute stickers - Life choices anchored around valuing varied and interesting experiences  - Able to spend time and en

Sharing this lunch and learn panel discussion from 7/6/21 hosted by Asian Women for Health https://www.asianwomenforhealth.org (Instagram: @asianwomenforhealth), featuring Boston-area podcasters of Asian heritage in a behind-the-mic scoop discussion about podcasting and content creation: Audrey Paek - From Resilience to Radiance Podcast (Instagram: @paekaudrey) Fei Wu - Feisworld Media (Instagram: @feisworld) Cynthia Lin - Taiwanese Diaspora Podcast (Instagram: @twdiaspora) (unable to join us) Mable Chan - One in a Billion (Instagram: @onebillionvoices)  Recording and Resources: https://www.asianwomenforhealth.org/podcast-101.html Livestream Tools Video Production Tools Podcast Tools Business Tools Make Noise by Eric Nuzum Side note: I first heard about Asian Women for Health a few months after starting my podcast, when I met the organization's founder Chien-Chi Huang at a Storytelling Workshop hosted by the PRX Podcast Garage in Boston. To hear her story, check out Episode 27. 

[Nomadic Taiwanese (Nomadic 台灣廊) Series] Part 1 of 2 (中文).  Blake Cheng 鄭瑋津 knew from a young age she wanted to leave Taiwan. 她從小就知道她想離開台灣到美國讀書。In elementary school, she went to Toronto, Canada on a school trip, an experience she recalls on with mixed feelings. She ended up doing her Master's degree in Chicago, Illinois, USA in arts management 藝術管理, which she cites as when she became an adult and developed a close community with her classmates. After working in Shanghai, China for a few years, she realized the environment and lifestyle wasn't meshing with her values, so she returned to Taiwan (another culture shock). 以為在上海住的生活跟人與人的交流不習慣，所以就搬回台灣。 In late 2019, she and her partner started their travels in Southeast Asia. However, at the time we conducted our interview, she was back in Taiwan because of COVID-19.  pictured: Blake in Chicago. More episodes to come with Blake: today's interview in English (voiceover by Cynthia), Part 2 featuring Blake's journey to entrepreneurship.  Blogs: http

#39: Together with family friends, Yvonne and Henry founded Legend Chicken 霸王别姬 (Flushing, NY) to highlight Taiwanese cuisine.   Interview happened 2 years ago, a few months after they first opened the Taiwanese snack bar. Happy to finally be sharing our conversation! I was in NY a few weeks ago and made a special trip into Flushing just to eat 1) Legend Pops 鹽酥雞 (Taiwanese popcorn chicken), 2) Bouncing Curds Q彈豆干. Tasty tofu and halal certified chicken off a stick.  In this episode:  － career switching,  － learning and experimenting to make heritage snacks,  － setting up a short supply chain, and  － going into business with friends and family.  Website and Menu: http://www.legendchicken88.com Follow Legend Chicken on Instagram and Facebook   #twdiasporapodcast #taiwanese #streetfood #flushingNYC #popcornchicken #鹽酥雞 ＃鹹酥雞 #foodonsticks #entrepreneurship #careerchange #heritage #小吃攤 *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

Hear from Francesca Chang 張思佳 about her journey turning the universe's curveballs into awesome opportunities: leaving a law practice shortly after passing the Bar, taking a tangentially-related-to-law tech job in the Bay Area, then life happened and she moved to Taiwan. She is now a travel blogger and vlogger promoting slow travel in Taiwan through partnerships with Taiwan's Tourism Bureau and other agencies, as well as a Life Coach helping people leave the law and other situations that are no longer serving them. Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: "Be a C Student!"  Follow Francesca's travels on YouTube: 思佳情雀Attorney on a Journey | Instagram: Blogger | Website Contact Francesca for Life Coaching: Website | Instagram: Life Coach  *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Show notes 主網頁: www.taiwanesediaspora.com. Email 電子信箱: hello@taiwanesediaspora.com. Support 贊助: https://ko-fi.com/twdiaspora and https://bookshop.org/shop/twdiaspora --- Support this pod

Incredibly inspiring conversation with Michelle Wu 吳弭, City Councilor 市議員 and Candidate for Mayor of Boston 市長候選.  (2:25) Campaign kickoff videos: 中文 / English / español. (4:56) Remarks recorded at a Boston neighborhood Town Hall (Sept 2020).  (22:43) City Councilor Bio: https://www.boston.gov/departments/city-council/michelle-wu  (25:00) Our interview in English + 中文的訪談  (37:40) Why local politics matter (45:18) Message to those who want to get involved in politics and campaigns (51:30) Support the campaign (volunteer, donate) https://www.michelleforboston.com/ Follow Michelle on YouTube, Twitter @wutrain, Instagram @wutrain *** Say hi! 來打招呼！ Social media 社群: @twdiaspora on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Show notes 主網頁: www.taiwanesediaspora.com. Email 電子信箱: hello@taiwanesediaspora.com. Support 贊助: https://ko-fi.com/twdiaspora and https://bookshop.org/shop/twdiaspora --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/twdiaspora/support