Last year I came across an article in the Gothamist titled, A Taiwanese food crawl in the East Village with NYC writer Cathy Erway. I have of course heard of Cathy Erway and her cookbook and thought to myself, Why haven’t I had her on Talking Taiwan as a guest yet? For those of you who aren’t familiar with Cathy’s work, she is a James Beard Award-winning food writer and author based in New York City. Her cookbooks include The Food of Taiwan: Recipes From the Beautiful Island and Win Son Presents: A Taiwanese American Cookbook.

Her cookbook, The Food of Taiwan which was published in 2015 is the first cookbook from a major U.S. publisher to explore the food culture of Taiwan from home-style dishes to authentic street food. We talked about how publishers rejected the cookbook at first and how it eventually got published.

She also has a Facebook page called The Food of Taiwan, and if you’re a Taiwanese food lover, I highly recommend liking and following it. On the page, Cathy shares news about Taiwanese food like where to get the best Taiwanese food in and out of Taiwan, and new Taiwanese restaurant openings.

Cathy Erway’s journalism has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Eater, Grub Street, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and more. She is a columnist at TASTE, and received the James Beard Award for Home Cooking journalism in 2019. In 2021, she received the IACP Culinary Award for her column.

 This episode is part of the trailblazing Taiwanese women's series sponsored by NATWA the North America Taiwanese Women's Association, which was founded in 1988. To learn more about NATWA visit their website, www.natwa.com.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• How Cathy started off writing a blog called Not Eating Out in New York, which led to her first book, The Art of Eating In

• Cathy’s cookbook The Food of Taiwan

• The article in the Gothamist about Taiwanese restaurants in the East Village

• Cathy’s Facebook page The Food of Taiwan

• How Cathy has had a Google alert set on the term Taiwanese food for 20 years

• How things have changed in the 10 years since The Food of Taiwan was published

• How the owners of Taiwanese restaurants in New York City (Win Son, 886, and Ho Foods) are all friends

• How Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry has contributed to the interest in Taiwanese cuisine

• How Cathy learned to cook and her parents’ cooking styles

• How Cathy’s family is foodies

• Cathy’s connection to Taiwan

• What went into creating The Food of Taiwan

• How the photography of The Food of Taiwan was an important part of the cookbook

• How The Food of Taiwan got rejected by several publishers

• How The Food of Taiwan is a snapshot of all the foods in Taiwan including home-style foods and street food, up to 2015, the year it was published

• How The Food of Taiwan includes foods that are unique to Taiwan

• How the recipes in The Food of Taiwan suggests substitutions for certain ingredients that might be hard to find

• How Cathy met Josh Ku and Trigg Brown of Win Son

• How Cathy collaborated with Josh Ku and Trigg Brown of Win Son on Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook

• How hard it was to convince the editor to publish The Food of Taiwan

• Other Taiwanese cookbooks that have been written by Clarissa Wei, Frankie Gaw, Tiffy Chen, and George Lee

• How Cathy is working on an article about the frozen dumpling business for Taste

• Topics that Cathy writes about like how tamari is a different product in Japan vs. the U.S.

• Té Company tea house in the West Village, Yumpling restaurant in Long Island City, Ho Food restaurant in the East Village

• Cathy’s favorite Taiwanese dish is sān bēi jī (three cup chicken)

• How Taiwanese breakfast foods are now available at Win Son Bakery and Ho Foods

Related Links:

If you’ve been following our social media, you might already know that Talking Taiwan is participating in the Podcasthon which is a global movement calling on as many podcasts as possible to dedicate one episode of their show to a cause of their choice. The idea is to release these episodes simultaneously, from March 15-21, 2025 and by doing so this will create a massive and international wave of inspiring audio content.

We are proud to represent Taiwan in the Podcasthon and to dedicate this episode to FAPA, The Formosan Association for Public Affairs.

FAPA was established in 1982, during Taiwan’s 33rd year of martial law.

In this episode you’ll soon learn about all of the important, hard work that FAPA does in order to advocate for Taiwan in the U.S. For many Taiwanese Americans, friends of Taiwan and supporters of democracy, FAPA’s work will probably resonate with you.

Here’s something that will hit home especially for Taiwanese who have immigrated to the United States. Did you know that before 1994 Taiwanese Americans were forced to list "China" as their place of birth on U.S. passports? I’m old enough to remember this happening to my parents and some of my relatives.

This misrepresentation fueled a policy campaign by FAPA advocating to correct this oversight and affirm the rightful identity of Taiwanese Americans. As a result, Taiwan was allowed to be listed and recognized as a place of birth on U.S. passports. This is just one of FAPA’s lasting achievements and an example of how FAPA is a leading voice for Taiwan in America.

If this is the first time you are hearing about FAPA you might be wondering about FAPA’s name and where it comes from.

Once upon a time, Taiwan was known as Formosa. The name goes back to the Portuguese who named Taiwan “Iha Formosa!” which means Beautiful Island when they discovered it in the 16th century, back when Portugal was known for its exploration prowess.

But even knowing this, I still wondered why Formosa or Formosan was used instead of Taiwan or Taiwanese, so I asked around and FAPA’s current President Dr. Su-Mei Kao shared some stories that Taiwanese Hokkien speakers who are listening to this episode are going to be able to appreciate.

The early founders did try to come up with a name that used Taiwan, the Taiwanese Association on Public Affairs, but the acronym, TAOPA or when pronounced in Taiwanese Hokkien “TAOPA” sounds like “help hit” and then a shorter alternative, TAPA, “TAPA” sounds like the word for a Spanish appetizer.

It turns out, the acronym for The Formosan Association for Public Affairs, FAPA when pronounced in Taiwanese Hokkien “huapa” sounds like “calling to hit or attack.” The name has stuck and has served the organization well.

Last July while we were at the Taiwanese American Conference, we sat down to interview FAPA’s Executive Director, Anny Hsiao, President Dr. Su-Mei Kao, and Vice-President Chia-chun Chung.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• Dr. Su-Mei Kao, Vice President Chia-chun Chung’s connection to Taiwan

• How and why Executive Director, Anny Hsiao, President Su-Mei Kao, Vice President Chia-chun Chung each got involved in FAPA

• The 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis and Taiwan’s first direct presidential election

• FAPA's major accomplishments and achievements

• FAPA’s Passport Place of Birth Campaign (1992-1994) that allowed the Taiwanese to list Taiwan as their place of birth on U.S. passports

• How has FAPA’s work changed since it was founded in 1982

• How U.S.-Taiwan relations have changed since FAPA was founded

• FAPA's programs and initiatives

• Why it’s important to change the name of TECRO (Economic and Cultural Representative Office)

• Why Taiwan should not have to compete at the Olympics under the name “Chinese Taipei”

• How Taiwan should be allowed to compete in the Olympics using the flag and anthem of its choice

• FAPA's mission

• FAPA’s Song Yea Lee Memorial Fund

• FAPA’s most famous intern is Hsiao Bi-Khim, Taiwan’s current Vice President

• What happens during FAPA's annual national advocacy training

• How overseas Taiwanese are in a unique position to advocate for Taiwan

• Anny, Su-Mei and Chia-chun’s hope and vision for the Taiwan American community

• How to get involved with FAPA or to donate

Related Links:

If you’ve listened to our most recent episode of Talking Taiwan, you’ll know that the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women or CSW69 is now taking place at United Nations Headquarters in New York. It began on March 10th and runs until March 21st.

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwan-on-the-margins-of-csw-69-celebrating-womens-resilience-progress-at-taiwan-main-stage-ep-307/

On March 12th the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York (TECO-NY) hosted an event called “Taiwan Main Stage: Celebrating Women’s Resilience & Progress on the margins of CSW 69.” This smartly worded event title is undoubtedly a soft reference

the fact that Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, and therefore on the margins of CSW69.

We were there at TECO-NY’s fully packed event on the 12th where we heard from Po-Chun Sophiyah Liu and Chia-Hui Lu. Sophiyah is Ambassador-at-Large for Sports Diplomacy of Taiwan, and she is Taiwan’s first female umpire. Chia-Hui Lu is a classical musician, cross disciplinary artist and an associate professor at National Taiwan University of Arts.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

· How Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations

· Sophiyah Liu’s remarks at TECO-NY’s event called “Taiwan Main Stage: Celebrating Women’s Resilience & Progress on the margins of CSW 69”

· How the Global Sports Mentoring Program that set Sophiyah on the path to sports diplomacy

· How when Sophiyah won the IOC and UN Women: Women and Sport World trophy in 2019, a special arrangement was made for her to enter the UN building to receive the award

· When Sophiyah was invited to attend the UN Global Sport Program working group which met in a conference room in the United Nations building but when it came time to attend the meeting, she was told she couldn’t enter the UN building because she has a passport from Taiwan

· Sophiyah’s thoughts on the controversy over questions about the gender eligibility of female boxer Lin Yu-ting at the Paris Olympics

· Sophiyah’s thoughts on gender eligibility testing in sports

· Chia-Hui Lu’s remarks at TECO-NY’s event called “Taiwan Main Stage: Celebrating Women’s Resilience & Progress on the margins of CSW 69

· The technology, AI training and experimentation involved in creating the real-time music recognition system that captures melodies from Chia-Hui’s piano playing and transforms it into a surreal visual story  

· The mission and past projects of the Egret Cultural and Education Foundation

· How the Egret Cultural and Education Foundation’s cross art productions combine theater, music, dance, technology, culture, and history

· How the Egret Cultural and Education Foundation was published books about Taiwan’s history, nature, music, and art

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/taiwan-on-the-margins-of-csw-69-celebrating-womens-resilience-progress-at-taiwan-main-stage-ep-307/

March is Women’s History Month and in this episode of Talking Taiwan I’ll be speaking with the Angela Feng, the organizer of the Empowering Women Through Education and Community Action panel, a UN CSW69 Parallel Event that’s going to be held here in New York City on Friday, March 14th from 4:30pm-6:00pm. CSW69 stands for the 69th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Also with me in this interview are the other two panelists Cindy Wu who’s been a previous guest on Talking Taiwan and Dr. Remi Duyile.

There are quite a few acronyms tossed around in this conversation so I thought I’d mention them upfront here like SDG goals, which stands for Sustainable Development Goals which were adopted by United Nations Member States. There are 17 SDGs because ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

The other acronym you’ll hear is BPW which stands for Business and Professional Women.

The theme of the panel is how education and community initiatives equal empowerment. The session will dive into how education and grassroots programs can transform lives.

Angela, Cindy and Dr. Remi not only talked about the panel, and work of their respective organizations, but I ask each of the women who were their earliest role models who helped to shape who they are today, and to share about challenges that they’ve had to overcome in their careers thus far.

If you’d like to know how you can attend the Empowering Women Through Education and Community Action panel visit TalkingTaiwan.com where we’ll share a link to register for it on Eventbrite.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

· Angela Feng, Cindy Wu, and Dr. Remi Duyile are the organizers and panelists for the Empowering Women Through Education and Community Action Panel.

· The panel's theme is "How Education and Community Initiatives Equal Empowerment."

· The session will explore how education and grassroots programs can significantly transform lives, particularly for women and girls.

· Angela Feng is the president of Soroptimist Taipei International, Girls Power, a female non-profit organization recognized by the UN and Taiwan.

· Cindy Wu is a trilingual financial management professional, singer-songwriter, and motivational speaker, involved with the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW).

· Dr. Remi Duyile is a Nigerian-American, a UN ambassador of peace, and the founder of Legacy Premier Foundation, a global developmental non-profit.

· The discussion will delve into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how these goals relate to women's empowerment

· Angela, Cindy and Dr. Remi the work that they have done with each of their respective organizations

· Angela, Cindy and Dr. Remi talked about their early role models and the challenges they have overcome in their careers.

· The panel aims to provide practical insights and inspire action, moving beyond abstract concepts of women's empowerment.

· The women want to provide action steps, and resources to the audience

· Soroptimist International of Taipei Girls Power focuses on education for young women, from elementary school through college.

· The Legacy Premier Foundation focuses on financial literacy, and providing access to resources to underserved communities, and teaches skills that are needed in the market place.

· The International Federation of Business and Professional Women works to create opportunities for women through promoting employment, and protecting rights.

Related Links:

Grace Loh Prasad’s debut memoir, is The Translator’s Daughter. I spoke with her about how she started off writing it and how it evolved over the two decades it took to write it.

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/a-conversation-on-the-translators-daughter-a-debut-memoir-by-author-grace-loh-prasad-ep-304/

A lot can happen in two decades. One by one Grace started losing her family members- her brother, mother and father. Her memoir is very much about loss, not just the loss that Grace experienced of her family members, but also her lost connection to Taiwan. When Grace was just two years old her family left Taiwan and moved to the U.S. and then Hong Kong. Her parents didn’t return to Taiwan until Grace was in college in California.

I found the book moving and appreciated how Grace was able to take her grief and personal experiences and put them into this beautifully written book. If you’d like to hear Grace reading an excerpt from The Translator’s Daughter, check out the episode right before this one, episode 303.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

· What motivated Grace to start writing her memoir

· How the memoir evolved and changed over the twenty years it took to write and complete it

· What changed in her life during those two decades

· How Grace lost her brother to cancer, her mother to Alzheimer’s and father to Parkinson’s

· The challenge of maintaining a connection with Taiwan and relatives there due to language barriers

· The unconventional style of the book which is a mix of narrative chapters and essays

· Grace’s writing process and how she put the book together

· What Grace learned in the process of writing the book

· How her family’s migrations due to her father’s work affected Grace and her brother Ted

· How to find belonging in a place that you don’t intend to stay

· How Grace feels about being a third culture kid

· How much of the writing in the book comes from Grace’s diary entries

· What Grace left out of the book

· People who have reached out to Grace about her book because they knew her father and his work translating the Bible

· Grace reflects on her father’s education and career compared to her own

· How Grace’s family’s story doesn’t fit the typical immigrant or model minority story

· The op ed Grace wrote about Taiwan’s 2000 presidential election

· How important Taiwanese Americans have been in highlighting issues in Taiwan

· How Taiwan is excluded from international organizations and events like the UN, WHO, Olympics

· The authors and books that have influenced Grace

· How her book touches on mythology, film, music, and art

· Her family’s connection to the Thornberries and Milo Thornberry who wrote Fireproof Moth: A Missionary in Taiwan’s White Terror

· Grace’s advice for someone struggling with writing their first book

· Feedback and reactions that Grace has gotten to the book

· How it’s worthwhile to make the effort to pass on specific things from one’s culture or family to children or the next generation

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/a-conversation-on-the-translators-daughter-a-debut-memoir-by-author-grace-loh-prasad-ep-304/

For the first episode of 2025, we’ve decided to share an excerpt from The Translator’s Daughter, a personal memoir written by Grace Loh Prasad.

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/an-excerpt-from-the-translators-daughter-by-grace-loh-prasad-ep-303/

The book opens on the eve of the Lunar New Year in February of 2000 and so it seems like the right time of year to be sharing this as we approach another Lunar New, the Year of the Snake. Here’s a taste of The Translator’s Daughter read by its author, Grace Loh Prasad, to pique your interest before we release our interview with Grace in the next episode of Talking Taiwan.

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/an-excerpt-from-the-translators-daughter-by-grace-loh-prasad-ep-303/