Dates: February 25 – May 24, 2012
Location: San Francisco Main Library
Address: 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA
Webpage: http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1009862001

Why Taiwan Matters is an exhibition that explores the vitality and creativity that can be seen in all aspects of modern Taiwan, from the medical health sector to the ubiquitous convenience stores, from religion to pop music, and from industrial clusters to green technology. This exhibition shares with you Taiwan’s experience of “honing the people’s skills, which turns out to be the most valuable resource in the world today.” (Thomas Friedman in the New York Times, March 10, 2012).

The 34-piece exhibition has been resized to fit the Chinese Center Exhibit Space, located on the 3rd floor of the San Francisco Main Library (100 Larkin Street). The exhibition is free to the public and will continue until May 24.

Description:
A panel exhibit that explores the vitality and creativity that can be seen in all aspects of modern Taiwan, from the medical health sector to the ubiquitous convenience stores, from religion to music, and from industrial clusters to green technology.

By taking advantage of the country’s “soft power,” or gaining influence through persuasion rather than force, Taiwanese people have built a sense of national pride in their lifestyle which accompanied the “economic miracle” that characterized Taiwan in the 1970s.

Dates: May 10, 2012 – May 20, 2012
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Venue: Varies by film
Follow the Film Festival Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AsianFilmFestLA

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is taking place between May 10-20, 2012. It is hosted by Visual Communications, the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American Media Art Center. Set in the entertainment capital of the world, this film festival is not to be missed!

You’ll find many great Asian American films and projects featured during the week. Film Festival website: http://asianfilmfestla.org/2012/

Here are some highlights on Taiwanese and Taiwanese American films:
May 11: (Second Round) (Mayday) Music Video
May 12: Firefly Narrative Short Video
May 12: Thief Narrative Short Film
May 13: Pretending Conversation Narrative Short Film
May 14: 10 + 10 Narrative Feature Film [Join TAP-LA's screening]
May 16: Great Wall My Love Narrative Feature Film
May 17: Joyful Reunion Narrative Feature Film

Here are some films involving Taiwanese American artists/directors:
May 12: Sunset Stories Narrative Feature Film featuring Michelle Krusiec and produced by Justin Lin
May 12, 13: Surrogate Valentine 2: Daylight Savings Narrative Feature Film with an appearance by Lynn Chen
May 12, 19: Yes, We’re Open Narrative Feature Film featuring Lynn Chen
May 13: Keye Luke Documentary Short Film directed by Timothy Tau [Read our related article], featuring Archie Kao and Jessika Van
May 14: Reunion Narrative Short Film directed by Jason Z. Wong
May 15: Nice Girls’ Crew Narrative Feature Film featuring Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen
May 15: Mr. Cao Goes to Washington Documentary Feature Film directed by S. Leo Chiang
May 16: Uploaded: The Asian American Movement Documentary Feature Film featuring many Taiwanese American YouTube stars

Date: Sunday, May 20, 2012
Time: 10:00am – 7:00pm
Location: Barnes Park
Address: 350 S. Pherrin Ave. Monterey Park, CA
Cost: $10 (comes with a free raffle ticket)

Come out to the 2012 Taiwanese American Heritage Week Festival in LA on May 20! Over 30 booths will host traditional Taiwanese cuisines and drinks. There will also be game booths for the young and old, as well as a chance to explore the Taiwanese culture, arts, and enjoy all-day performances. Bring the whole family out to have a day of fun!

Food and game tickets ($10, comes with free raffle ticket) can be purchased in advance or on site. Over 100 raffle prizes, big and small, will be drawn!

For a list of TA Heritage Month Activities, visit: http://www.taiwancenter.org/images/2012flyer.png
Questions? Contact (626)307-4881

Date: Saturday, May 19, 2012
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Red Square at University of Washington, Seattle
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/223524594428011/

The Night Market we’ve all been waiting for is just around the corner! Admission is free and open to everyone! View our first promo video here: http://youtu.be/o4×3SdTiDOI.

Love Taiwanese food? Curious about what Taiwanese cuisine tastes like? Or do you just LOVE to eat and have fun? Then come to “One Night in Taiwan 一夜台灣”, the largest event that Taiwanese Overseas Student Association (TOSA) and Taiwanese Student Association (TSA) will be throwing together this year! The TSAxTOSA Night Market is a representation of Taiwanese culture, which offers entertainment, games, and best of all, delicious and inexpensive food!

This year, in addition to our already delectable line-up of food selection from the past years, several famous restaurants across the Greater Seattle area are invited to sell their own signature dishes as well! We will also be having live performances from UW students showing off their awesome talents. We guarantee that you will have a fabulous time! So grab your friends, invite everyone you know to come to the TSAxTOSA Night Market, and be prepared to enjoy delicious Taiwanese food and an unforgettable night! See you all there!

VOUCHERS & TICKETS
Admission is FREE; however, in order to purchase food, you will need to buy tickets. Vouchers can be bought before 5/19 and exchanged for tickets during the day of the event. This avoids the long line for directly buying tickets on 5/19. Vouchers can be purchased at TOSA and TSA Booths during Booth Hours. The Booths are located on the University of Washington Red Square:

May 8 (Tues) – 11 (Fri) & May 14 (Mon) – 18 (Fri): 10:30am – 2:30pm

Both TOSA and TSA Booth will be selling vouchers! We STRONGLY encourage you to purchase the vouchers in advance. The line to buying tickets at the day of the event have always been VERY LONG from past year experiences. Cost: $5 vouchers and $10 vouchers will be available.

“PASSPORTS”
To tie in with our event name “One Night In Taiwan”, we’ll be having “passports” available this year. Passports function like stamp cards. If you get the stamps filled from purchasing specified foods and playing games which correspond to the different regions of Taiwan, you will be eligible for entering a raffle which may win you our grand prize!

How to obtain a passport: Passports will be given to customers who make purchases of $15 or more. They will be distributed on the day of the event when the vouchers are being exchanged for tickets. How to obtain your raffle ticket: Take a filled passport to our information booth and we will give you one!

Date: Saturday, May 19, 2012
Time: 10:00am – 6:00pm
Location: Civic Center
Address: McAllister and Larkin, San Francisco, CA
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/326884650707012/

Visit the Taiwanese American Professionals – San Francisco (TAP-SF) booth at the 8th Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration!

The largest gathering of Asian Pacific Americans in the nation is back and bigger than ever, showcasing the return of the Arts & Crafts World Market, an extravaganza of special and unique hand-made products and artworks. The fair, produced by the AsianWeek Foundation, will also feature a scrumptious collection of pan Asian delights and sweets, along with the Bay Area’s favorite food trucks. New this year will celebrity chef cooking demos! An estimated 90,000 people are expected to attend!

Popular returning features for people of all ages include the j-cars, wine area, children’s area, muay thai kickboxing, healthy living pavilion, cultural procession, free film screenings, along with performances by Asian American artists, DJs, and martial arts experts. The fair will also offer free hepatitis B screenings.

The 8th annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration will be held Saturday, May 19, 2012 in San Francisco, in front of the Asian Art Museum, leading up to the Little Saigon District. The event is FREE and open to the public.

For more information, visit http://​www.asianfairsf.com/.
Volunteer here: http://asianfairsf.com/​2012/02/volunteers-wanted/

The Taiwanese American Citizens League’s Leadership Identity Development (TACL-LID) Camp 2012 planning is currently in progress and they are recruiting potential counselors. Please read all the information carefully on the “counselors” page before applying. You must be 18 or older to apply. Applications are due May 18, 2012 and Interviews will be held shortly after!

Dates of Camp: August 8-12, 2012
Location: Camp Whittier, Santa Barbara.
Time commitment: Saturday afternoon trainings in Southern California from June 16 to August 5

Website: www.lidcamp.org
Application: http://bit.ly/HRYUxM

Potential counselors that commit to the program must attend all meetings, which are in southern California. Housing will not be provided, though transportation to and from meetings could be arranged. Counselors will go through 8 Saturday afternoons of training and have an active part of organizing camp. In addition to leading a group of campers, counselors help create workshops that span a variety of topics, including Taiwanese culture, personal identity, and a lot of team-building activities.

Camp is truly is exactly what you make of it. The counselor/staff team is a unique group of individuals, that is inspiring to work with. As the backbone of camp, counselors are responsible for multiple facets of camp. Not only is it a very rewarding experience, it’s excellent leadership building skills. Past counselors have gone on to take leadership roles in the Taiwanese American community, such as being founding members of TASAs in California. Being a counselor at camp is a great opportunity to connect with the Taiwanese American community and give back.

Forward this information to others who you might think may be interested in a great summer experience!

Questions? Contact LID Camp Director: Jessica Lee at jessica.lee@tacl.org

Date: Thursday, May 17, 2012
Time: 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Castro Theatre
Address: 429 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/194243300678083/

On May 17, 2012, women activists will take the main stage at the historic Castro Theatre for an Asian Pacific American production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. This landmark theatrical performance profiles the intimate stories of women impacted by sexual assault, war, and pain, but also lifts celebratory perspectives on sexual self-discovery, empowerment, and love.

Join us as we honor the strength and visibility of women, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and, of course, the venerable vagina.

Here’s how you can get involved today:

BUY TICKETS
Be a part of herstory by attending the show with your friends and family! Purchase early bird tickets today via http://bit.ly/APAVM2012.

DONATE
Your donation via http://www.indiegogo.com/APAVM12 will benefit the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, the nation’s only multi-issue women’s organization in the country for Asian Pacific American women and girls.

Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Time: 9:30 PM
Location: CGV CINEMAS – Theater 1
Address: 621 S. Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/285122118241863/
Buy tickets: http://laapff.festpro.com/films/detail/uploaded_the_asian_american_movement_2012

This film is one of many great films screening as part of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA. TaiwaneseAmerican.org is proud to support this documentary, which features several young prominent Taiwanese and Asian American YouTube stars including Kevin Wu aka “KevJumba” and Wong Fu Productions as well as our talented media friends George Shaw, Lynn Chen, and many more.

UPLOADED: THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT
Directed by Kane Diep. Produced by Farah Moriah and Julie Zhan. Edited by Rommel Andaya and Mark Gadia

Five years ago, it was hard to name more than 10 recognizable Asian entertainers in mainstream America and the few that could be named only played stereotypical roles like the nerd or the martial artist. Even more problematic was the lack of acknowledgement of this problem by the general public. However, in the past few years, groups of young Asian American artists are emerging in entertainment with roots in new media, specifically YouTube. They are taking action into their own hands and redefining how Asian Americans are perceived and valued in society. This documentary explores the visibility of Asian Americans in pop culture since the inception of new media and focuses on the current struggles and successes of important Asian Americans in the areas of music, film, and dance.

FOLLOW:
Web: http://www.uploadedtaam.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/uploadedtaam
Tumblr: http://www.uploadedtaam.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @uploadedtaam
To bring the film to your college, please inquire: uploadedtaam@gmail.com

Date: Monday, May 14, 2012
Time: 6:45pm
Location: CGV CINEMAS – Theater 3
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/345738312160046/

Join Taiwanese American Professionals – Los Angeles (TAP-LA) at the 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival screening of “10+10″ for which TAP-LA is co-presenting.

The movie synopsis:
Commissioned by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, twenty outstanding Taiwanese directors were each asked to create one five-minute short film inspired by the same topic: the uniqueness of their country. The resulting stories and documentaries, which did not have to adhere to any kind of dictates either formally or in terms of content, provide an astonishingly multifaceted panorama of Taiwanese society. The filmmakers’ personal perspectives span a wide-ranging network of images, between historical events and political vigilance, rebellion and devotion, magical realism and unflinching illusion. The diverse cinematic approaches used by these cineastes open a window onto their own imagination when they choose whether to employ an epistolary form or a monologue; to include elements of a thriller, silent cinema, theatre of the absurd or dark comedy; or simply to observe carefully with a camera. Hou Hsiao-Hsien, one of the leading proponents of Taiwanese new wave cinema, opens and closes this portmanteau film with his minimalistic tale LA BELLE ÉPOQUE which focuses on the primal cell of any society – the family unit. This is an unusual film project that gives us an impressive array of food for thought.

Digital, 114 mins., color, narrative, in Mandarin with English subtitles

NOTE: Enter the discount code CPTAPLA12 to save a few bucks.

More information about the screening LAAPFF website at: http://laapff.festpro.com/​films/detail/1010_2012
Visit the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/​AsianFilmFestLA

Date: Saturday, May 12, 2012
Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: White Memorial Plaza at Stanford University
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/399161330104721/

The Stanford Taiwanese Cultural Society presents Night Market 2012! Come enjoy delicious Taiwanese food, boba, games, and awesome performances! A fun night awaits!

Hope to see you there!

Groups involved include:
Stanford Wushu
Stanford Vietnamese Student Association (SVSA)
Chinese Dance Group
Undergraduate Chinese American Association (UCAA)
Asian American Student Association (AASA)
Stanford Friends of Tibet
Technology Education Cross-Cultures (TECC)
Stanford Dragon Boat
Asian American Graduate Student Association (AAGSA)
alpha Kappa Delta Phi (KDPhi)
Stanford Hwimori
Kayumanggi
Side by Side
Team HBV
Chromatiqa
and more!