Things that have inspired me:
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
House of Sticks (Ly Tran)
How to American: An Immigrant’s Guide to Disappointing Your Parents (Jimmy O. Yang)
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)
Peach Blossom Spring (Melissa Fu)
Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy (Erich Schwartzel)
Real Americans (Rachel Khong)
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)
Where Every Ghost Has a Name (Kim Liao)
Why Not Me? (Mindy Kaling) - especially the essays “Player”, “One of the President’s Men”, and “Why Not Me?”
Yellowface (R.F. Kuang)
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)
Movies:
Celeste and Jesse Forever
Crazy Rich Asians
Didi
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Inside Out 2
Invisible Nation
Past Lives
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
The Farewell
The Wedding Banquet
Newsletters:
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:
Fiona and Jane
Green Island (book by Shawna Yang Ryan about generations of a family living in Taiwan and America from 1900s - 2000s)
Here’s a Taiwan chill pill for your Pelosi-induced anxiety (Clarissa Wei)
“Is Taiwan Next?” (NYT article mentioned above)
Invisible Nation
Peach Blossom Spring (Melissa Fu)
Taiwanren podcast (15-minute chats on personal journeys, how we’re moving Taiwan forward, and what it means to be a Taiwanese)
Tigertail (Netflix movie)
Wave Makers (Netflix show)
The Wedding Banquet
Where Every Ghost Has a Name (Kim Liao)
Writing:
I’m from a Mexican family. Stop expecting me to eat ‘authentic’ food.
Alice Wu’s director note from The Half of It