Things I Like

Books:

A Place for Us (Fatima Farheen Mirza)
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Fate in the New China (Evan Osnos)
Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
Beautiful Country (Qian Julie Wang)
Chemistry (Weike Wang)
Crying in H-Mart (Michelle Zauner aka Japanese Breakfast) - here’s an excerpt
How to American: An Immigrant’s Guide to Disappointing Your Parents (Jimmy O. Yang) - Jimmy one of my favorite comedians
Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise (Scott Rozelle, Natalie Hell); my favorite book of 2023
Making a Scene (Constance Wu)
Pachinko (Min Jin Lee)
Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy (Erich Schwartzel)
The Undocumented Americans (Karla Cornejo Villavicencio) - this is the most important book I read in 2021
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story (Simu Liu)
Why Not Me? (Mindy Kaling) - especially the essays “Player”, “One of the President’s Men”, and “Why Not Me?”

Botanical Gardens and conservatories:

Desert Botanical Garden (Phoenix, AZ)
Garfield Park Conservatory (Chicago, IL)
Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden (Oahu, Hawaii)
Huntington Botanical Gardens (outside of LA)
Maui Garden of Eden (Maui, Hawaii)

Dairy-free and lactose-free products I like:

Brave Robot ice cream (uses animal-free dairy)
Butter and Crumble vegan vanilla bourbon cake - surprisingly difficult to find vegan cakes in SF; this one’s pretty decent, but definitely not as creamy as cake that uses dairy
GIO Gelati vegan gelato
Jeni’s vegan ice cream
Mikey’s plant-based pockets (meaty marinara) - not as good as cheese-filled pizza rolls, but still pleasantly surprised about this one
Salt & Straw vegan ice cream
Trader Joe’s Black Tea and Boba Coconut Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert
Van Leeuwen’s vegan ice cream

Dairy-free and lactose-free products I don’t like:

Alden’s organic dairy free key lime frozen dessert (round sammies) - tastes pretty good initially but leaves a weird and artificial aftertaste
Annie’s vegan mac & cheese - tastes too fake (like all of the vegan cheese I’ve ever had)
Ben and Jerry’s non-dairy frozen dessert - not sweet enough and doesn’t taste like ice cream
Breyer’s lactose-free vanilla ice cream - missing that delicious full fat and sugary taste
Daiya vegan cheese - tastes fake
Nancy’s probiotic oatmilk non-diary yogurt - tastes good initially but has a sour aftertaste
Trader Joe’s Hold the Dairy! Mini coconut non-dairy frozen dessert cones (chocolate)
Trader Joe’s oat non-dairy frozen dessert sandwiches
Trader Joe’s vegan meatless meat eaters pizza - uses typical vegan cheese (the technology really isn’t there yet on vegan cheese in general) and the quality of the meatless meat isn’t great either
So Delicious dairy-free ice cream sandwiches - more like So (Not) Delicious
Sprouts organic basil pesto (vegan) - upon first bite, I couldn’t tell if this had gone bad or just had a really strong sour taste (99% sure it’s the latter unfortunately)
Violife cheese shreds - tastes pretty fake

Miscellaneous:

Alice Wu’s director note from The Half of It

Movies:

Celeste and Jesse Forever
Crazy Rich Asians
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Past Lives
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
The Wedding Banquet

Music:

“Edge of Desire” (John Mayer) - specifically this performance
“Fractures” (Illenium) cover
“On a Prayer” (Boy in Space)
“Tangerine” (Glass Animals)

Newsletters:

CityBits - a lighthearted look at how cities around the world are making life better for their residents
Digital Native - intersection of people and technology

Pieces from news outlets:

“The Battle for the Mural — and the Future of Belarus” (Sarah Topol)
“Is Taiwan Next?” (love Sarah Topol’s reporting)
“The Limits of the Lunchbox Moment”
“The Many Lives of Steven Yeun”
NBC Asian America

Podcasts:

The Journal (WSJ); 15-20 min focus on one topic

Shows:

Avatar
The Chair
Dear White People
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mindy Kaling’s 2019 version)
Go Ahead
The Next Thing You Eat (especially S1 E5 - Sushi: Say Goodbye)
Never Have I Ever
Nothing But Thirty
The Mindy Project (specific episode: “Be Cool”)
The Sex Lives of College Girls
Wave Makers
You’re the Worst

Talks:

“You are not alone in your loneliness” (Jonny Sun)

Things related to Taiwan:

Green Island (book by Shawna Yang Ryan about generations of a family living in Taiwan and America from 1900s - 2000s)
“Is Taiwan Next?” (NYT article mentioned above)
Taiwanren podcast (15-minute chats on personal journeys, how we’re moving Taiwan forward, and what it means to be a Taiwanren)
Tigertail (Netflix movie)
Wave Makers (Netflix show)
The Wedding Banquet