|
|
An Open Invitation Letter to Second Generation Taiwanese Americans Dear Young Taiwanese Americans, It’s about that time again for our 2010 Southeast Taiwanese American Association (SETAA) Summer Conference! For the last thirty two years since its inception in 1978, Taiwanese Americans in the southeastern region of the U.S. have been congregating on either the first or second weekend of July for an annual Summer Conference to celebrate our unique Taiwanese heritage and identity. This year is no exception! We have since chosen the beautiful campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, as the host location for this year’s gathering. As usual, it will start off in the late afternoon of Friday, July 9th (with registration and opening ceremony), and run through around the noon hour of July 11th. As you may recall from your childhood experiences accompanying your parents attending these events, we typically use this occasion to, on one hand, pay homage to our motherland Taiwan, and on the other, to reaffirm our distinctive identity and heritage as a proud Taiwanese American in this ethnically diverse and culturally rich nation. We typically do this by inviting a wide array of highly regarded scholars or politicians from Taiwan or here in the U.S. to provide us with some thought-provoking and insightful views and perspectives on the current affairs of Taiwan, as well as Taiwanese American Communities in the U.S. in general. Other than a multitude of older, prominent guest speakers we have since invited from either Taiwan or domestically, this year, we are particularly exciting to bring you a young Taiwanese professional, Ho-Chie Tsai, who is going to deliver a timely and pressing topic on the subject of emerging young Taiwanese Americans in the U.S. – A Taiwanese American History in the Making: Generations in Transition. Ho-Chie is the creator of TaiwaneseAmerican.org - a website and now a newly minted non-profit organization dedicated to connecting and highlighting the new generation of Taiwanese Americans. He has so far spent most of his youthful life working to build organizations and networks that serve the Asian American community, but these days he is probably better known for his popular "Stinky Tofu Walks Alone" and "I AM Taiwanese American" t-shirt designs. Professionally, Ho-Chie is a board-certified pediatrician on the staff at the Children’s Hospital and Research Center of Oakland, which serves an ethnically diverse and mostly under-privileged patient population. Please come join us for this, promised-to-be, an extremely engaging, intellectual, yet fun event for all ages. Other than all those scholarly and serious discussions on the issues or concerns surrounding today’s Taiwanese American communities, we are also going to pamper you with various delicious traditional Taiwanese snack food items you probably won’t be able to find them anywhere else, guaranteed. Be there!
Chief Coordinator of 2010 SETAA Planning Committee |