This year the Passport to Taiwan will be returning to New York City’s Union Square Park on Sunday, May 28th from 12 noon to 5:00pm. It will be the first in-person Passport to Taiwan in three years since the pandemic, and we are looking forward to it!
Talking Taiwan will be there with a special live on-location podcasting studio. Read on to learn more about what we have planned.
Since the first Passport to Taiwan was held in 2002 it’s become the largest outdoor Taiwanese American event in the entire United States. Passport to Taiwan is a celebration of Taiwanese art, culture, music, community, and of course food.
In this episode I mention some of the notable performances, organizations and businesses that will be at Passport to Taiwan. For a full list of performances visit the Passport to Taiwan website at: www.p2tw.org
If you’re going to be in New York City on May 28th stop by Talking Taiwan’s booth to hear clips from some of our most notable guests.
Maybe you’ll catch me interviewing some invited guests like Jilliyeah, who some may recognize for the memorable acceptance speech she made at last year’s Grammy awards on behalf of the Taiwanese designers who won the Best Recording Package Grammy award for the album Pakelan. Jilliyeah put Taiwan in the mind of viewers that night when she said, on behalf of the designers “We are from Taiwan…Taiwan is a beautiful and a peace-loving country.” And then she added, “I hope someday if you can go and visit Taiwan, super welcome.”
Jilliiyeah is now in the U.S. pursuing her own career as a singer musician. She’s going to be stopping by to do an interview with me at the Talking Taiwan podcasting.
Some past guests might be stopping by too. You never know who’ll show up in at our on-location podcasting studio!
We’ll also be doing some giveaways for anyone who comes and sits in the “hot seat” with me and answers my Flash Five Questions, or who wants to pitch themselves, or someone else to be a guest on Talking Taiwan.
For those of you who can’t make it to Passport to Taiwan, we want to let you know that we’ll be livestreaming throughout the day from Passport to Taiwan to our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/talkingtaiwanpodcast
So if you’d like to see what we are up to on May 28th from 12 noon-5pm Eastern Time, just visit our Facebook page to catch our livestream from New York City’s Union Square Park. If you can’t tune in or we experience any technical issues, don’t worry we’ll be recording the event and will post recordings from the event to our YouTube channel and social media.
To learn more about the background and history behind the Passport Taiwan, we’re resharing some of my interview that was done in 2014 with Borcheng Hsu, the event’s organizer.
Here’s a little preview of what’s covered in this podcast episode:
- Talking Taiwan will be at Passport with a special live on-location podcasting studio
- Some of the notable performances including: the featured presentation sponsored by the Overseas Community Affairs Council and performed by the College of Performing Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts, “A Touching Encounter with Music and Dance from Taiwan,” Peter Lin’s band the AAPI Jazz Collective, Jilliyeah, and Taiwan Republic
- Some of the organizations and businesses that will be at this year’s Passport to Taiwan
- Some of the individuals or organizations I’ll be interviewing in Talking Taiwan’s booth at Passport to Taiwan
- 2002 was the first time that Passport to Taiwan was held in Union Square Park
- How Taiwanese American Heritage Week was declared in 1999
- Where the idea and the name Passport to Taiwan came from
- How Passport to Taiwan started with a core group of 10 volunteers
- How Passport to Taiwan was modeled after the Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival organized by CAPA (Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans)
- On the day of Passport to Taiwan there are about 200 volunteers helping out
- How Passport to Taiwan has grown
- How other Taiwanese American communities participate in, visit and attend Passport to Taiwan
- How there were only four food booths at the first Passport to Taiwan
- Folk artists that have been invited to do demonstrations at Passport to Taiwan have included sugar paining, aborigine fabric weaving, clay figurines, straw weaving
- Artists and performers who have been invited from Taiwan to be a part of Passport to Taiwan
- How Passport to Taiwan is not just about Taiwan, but the Taiwanese American community and people, the shared democratic values of Taiwan and the U.S.
- Misconceptions about Taiwan
- The is most rewarding thing about organizing Passport to Taiwan
- The challenges of running and organizing Passport to Taiwan
- The most popular thing about Passport to Taiwan
- How most of the food booths offering Taiwanese dishes are made by local people in the Taiwanese American community, specifically for Passport to Taiwan, and are not available elsewhere
- Sponsors of Passport to Taiwan
- How people can sponsor Passport to Taiwan
- Future plans for Passport to Taiwan
Related Links:
Passport to Taiwan website: https://p2tw.org/
Passport to Taiwan’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Passport2Taiwan/
Passport to Taiwan’s Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/147104375252
Passport to Taiwan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p2tw.nyc/
YouTube video of the acceptance speech by Jilliyeah on behalf the Taiwanese designers Li Jheng-han (李政瀚) and Yu Wei (于薇) for the Best Recording Package Grammy award for the album Pakelan: https://youtu.be/qugze92KBUk
Taiwan duo win design award at the Grammys (an article from the Taipei Times): https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2022/04/05/2003776032
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