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/Japanese Breakfast) - here’s an excerpt
Daughers of Shandong (Eve J. Chung)
The Disappeared (Andrew Porter)
Dream Count (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
Good Talk (Mira Jacob)
Homeseeking (Karissa Chen)
House of Sticks (Ly Tran)
How to American: An Immigrant’s Guide to Disappointing Your Parents (Jimmy O. Yang)
The Imagined Life (Andrew Porter)
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)
Minor Feeling (Cathy Park Hong)
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
Wanting (Claire Jia)
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
My Old Ass
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
The Four Seasons
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mindy Kaling’s 2019 version)
Go Ahead
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