1. Kent Chen
Editor
The Los Angeles Dodgers
played the Detroit Tigers on Satur-
day, May 22nd at Dodger Stadium
in a nationally televised game. The
Dodgers won 6-4 as Matt Kemp and
Casey Blake both hit home runs to
back the Dodgers. The game was
not only a regular season interleague
matchup, but also, the Dodgers cele-
brated “Taiwan Day” as part of their
Dodgertown promotions. Taiwan
Day was sponsored by the Taiwan
Tourism Bureau in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers had two up-
per deck sections all reserved for
fans who bought the Dodgertown,
Taiwan package. The package in-
cluded a Dodgers T-shirt and plen-
ty of authentic Taiwanese cuisine
such as Taiwanese sausage, jasmine
steamed rice, satay sauced BBQ,
and lychee. Fans sitting in those two
sections also received green thun-
der sticks, just like how baseball
fans in Taiwan cheer on their team.
Taiwanese fans got reward-
ed as Detroit Tiger pitcher Fu-Te Ni
and Dodger pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo
both got to pitch in the game. Ni,
from Pintung County in southern
Taiwan, pitched 1 1/3 scoreless in-
nings, giving up no runs. Kuo, from
Tainan, Taiwan, pitched the seventh
inning and got out of a bases load
ed jam without giving up a run.
The Taiwanese fans sitting in those
two sections started making noises
when Ni entered the game. Then,
when Kuo came to the mound, they
cheered vociferously and made their
voices be heard. All the fans there
were banging their thunders sticks
back and forth and made their voices
heard.Taiwan flags were spotted too.
Additionally, Lin Yu-Chun
provided entertainment to the fans.
Lin, who gained fame back in April
after singing a beautiful rendition of
“I Will Always Love You” by Whit-
ney Houston on a Taiwanese real-
ity talent show, was called to sing
three songs to the Dodger Stadium
crowd of 45,117. Before the first
pitch, Lin sang “Taiwan Touch Your
Heart” and “The Star-Spangled
Banner”. Then during the seventh
inning stretch, he sang “God Bless
America”. Lin’s singing of “God
Bless America” was broadcasted to
the entire nation as FOX filmed Lin
singing. He recently signed a deal
with Sony Music Entertainment
and will debut a CD this summer.
I had the chance to attend the
game. I wasn’t able to purchase seats
in the Dodgertown, Taiwan section
but sat in the left field pavilion. From
there, I was able to share the expe-
rience with the fans sitting in those
two sections.The game was the most
meaningful baseball game I have
Dodgers Celebrate “Taiwan Day”
at Dodger Stadiumever been to. There was a lot of na-
tionalism pride among Taiwanese
fans in attendance as they cheered
proudly when Kuo was pitching
or when Taiwan was mentioned
on the jumbotron. A lot of Taiwan
flags were held up and waved. It
felt a bit like the World Baseball
Classic in which fans have a lot of
support and pride for their nation.
The Dodgers played a promotional
video of the wonderful sights and
wonders of Taiwan during a break
in action. I was glad Taiwan was
being represented and getting at-
tention. This game was broadcasted
on national television which added
more to it. The FOX broadcast team
made many mention of “Taiwan
Day” and showed a lot of scenes of
the Dodgertown, Taiwan section.
“Taiwan Day” at Dodger
Stadium was a Taiwanese person’s
dream come true. Two Taiwan-
ese pitchers pitched in the game
and Taiwan’s sensation, Lin-Yu
Chun, sang three songs. Every-
thing was devoted to Taiwan as
the Dodgers made promotions of
it. What more can you ask for!
The Dodgers will be host-
ing another “Taiwan Day” on
Saturday, September 4th, 2010,
when the Dodgers play host to
the San Francisco Giants. Tick-
ets can be purchased online at
www.dodgers.com/mytown.
Leeann Mao
Editor
I am a Taiwanese Ameri-
can. I love Taiwan. I love guava. I
love going to the night markets and
trying to haggle in my poor Ching-
lish with the locals. I love hearing
the chatter of the distinct tone of
Mandarin in Taiwan, with a spat-
ter of Taiwanese here and there.
Or so I thought.
Mymotherimmigratedfrom
Taiwan in the late 1980’s and stayed
in southern California to raise my
brother and me. However, many of
her relatives and my aunts, uncles,
and grandparents, stayed in Taiwan.
I remember my childhood
vacations: month long sojourns to
the island, temporarily residing in
my uncle’s apartment in metropoli-
tan Taipei. I lavished in the differ-
ent culture, MY culture. Stinky tofu,
oyster cakes, mounds of flavored
shaved ice, zooms of mopeds, dra-
mas with all of the cute guys with
girly haircuts, clackings of my
grandma’s game of mah-jong- I
loved being in Taiwan. Back at
home,Iwouldregalemyfriendswith
stories of my mother’s homeland.
I loved being Taiwanese.
I believed it was a separate stig-
ma than simply being “Chinese”.
No, being Chinese meant that I
was from that huge land mass, de-
plete of any of the small island
charm that belonged to Taiwan.
When people asked what I was, I
always responded with a puffed
up chest, “Taiwanese!” I even got
into intense arguments with those
who claimed that Taiwan should
go back to be under China’s rule.
Not until I was in middle
school, I thought all of this to be my
truth. I was in the car with my friend,
who asked if I knew any Canton-
ese. I remarked that I didn’t, which
I wasn’t that much of a concern to
me, since I wasn’t Cantonese. My
mom, overhearing, corrected me.
“Actually, you’re three
quarters Cantonese.”
Wait, what?
I’m...not...Taiwanese?
I’m...Cantonese. Sorry, I meant
three quarters.
This blew my mind. I
remember sitting in the car, ac-
cepting my new form of identity.
But as with most preteens, I
forgot about the incident and carried
on with my day. I never really ques-
tioned this new found sense of who
I was. When the age-old question
of “What are you?” came up again,
I was still quick to say that I was
“Taiwanese”, but now with a slight
nagging in the back of my mind.
Flash forward to my junior,
when a particular English teacher
challenged my class’s perception
of race, ethnicity, and most impor-
tantly: self-identity. I remembered
my conversation with my mom
and found a renewed determina-
tion to rediscover what I really was.
This led to a more compre-
hensive conversation with my moth-
er, the majority of the details, which
I will omit for the sake of the article.
But what it mostly boiled down to
wasthefactthatmymomdidnotcon-
sider herself Taiwanese, and there-
fore, neither was I. She, along with
my dad, was what the inhabitants of
Taiwan call “waishengren”, com-
posed of Chinese immigrants who
followed Chang-Kai-Shek in 1949.
She was Chinese. I was Chinese.
It really threw my mind into
confusion. All my life, I thought
I was Taiwanese. My family is in
Taiwan! My homeland! My heart!
Now I was not. What would I call
myself? I never really associated
with China; there were no famil-
ial stirrings of nationalistic pride
when the country was brought up.
It led to me to the question-
what exactly does one have to be or
possess to be legitimately deemed
“Taiwanese”? My mom was born
and raised in Taiwan, but since she
is a “waishengren”, is she “less”
Taiwanese than an American whose
parents were natives of Taiwan?
I kept going in circles with
questions,reallystrugglingtochange
and accept my self-perception of my
race. ethnicity, and nationality. Add-
ing to this confusion was, of course,
the American side of all of this.
To this day, I still do not
really know what to call myself.
Chinese? Taiwanese? American?
Chinese-Taiwanese? I hope that
through this journalism internship
program and even just growing
older and experiencing more things,
I will be able to find my answer.
Wo Se Sai?
Eric Hsu
Editor
On Saturday, May 15,
the Institute for Taiwanese Stud-
ies hosted a conference on China’s
International Influence in the San
Gabriel Hilton. I attended the con-
ference, which involved sitting in-
side a room and listening to famous
China experts talk about China’s
socioeconomic situation for three
hours. I’m not going to pretend
like it was the most exciting event
I’ve ever attended, but for people
who share my interest for politi-
cal science and international rela-
tions, the conference was definitely
a valuable source of information.
At first, I didn’t expect
much excitement from the con-
ference, since the speakers sitting
by the front table appeared to be
old professors eager to give their
audience a boring lecture on the
situation in China. But the first
speaker, Professor Perry Link from
Princeton and UC Riverside, com-
pletely changed my perspective.
the Olympics and World Expo.
The Institute for Taiwan-
ese Studies did an excellent job in
presenting these three distinguished
China experts, and we all must thank
them for allowing us to access the
conference for free. Despite the nu-
merous interruptions that occurred
during the conference, I am sure that
the professors made their point: that
behind China’s fancy modern cities
and seemingly unstoppable econom-
ic growth is a plethora of social in-
equality, corruption, and instability.
All three of the China experts have
made it clear that China’s rise will
play a key role in the international
politics, and people who wish to be-
come diplomats or politicians should
definitely begin to attend events such
as the Institute of Taiwanese Studies
conference to learn more about Chi-
na’s government and people. China
emergence may seem disturbing and
unpredictable, but with knowledge
and preparation, future leaders and
politicians will be able resolve the
problems in U.S. - China relations.
The Dodgertown, Taiwan section.
Fans cheer on Hong-Chih Kuo as he is pitching in the seventh inning.
Photo Courtesy of Kent Chen
He really surprised me when he ac-
tually said a mandarin swear word in
public. He also recited a number of
satirical Chinese poems that mocked
the Chinese government, and told a
number of interesting stories that
revealed China’s inner social un-
rest. Overall, his presentation was
entertaining and quite informative.
The second speaker, Rich-
ard Baum from UCLA, gave a pre-
sentation that was interesting and
educational. He spoke of the “post
Tiananmen disorder” that deter-
mines the paranoid actions of Chi-
nese government leaders. He also
introduced his book, China Watch-
er: Confessions of a Peking Tom
(not “peeping Tom”, Peking Tom).
The final speaker, Jef-
frey Wasserstrom from UCI, gave
a PowerPoint that served as a vi-
sual presentation of China. His
PowerPoint was not only refresh-
ing to my eyes (which had been
focused on the three scholars for
two hours), but it also got his point
across on how China seemed to be
obsessed with “mega-events” like
Revealing the Secrets behind
China’s International Influence
A typical Night Market in Taiwan
Photo Courtesy of photobucket.com
Who Am I?
Photo Courtesy of flickr.com