“Our Stories”
Love and Passion
Author: Carole Yang
As a journalist, I have attended many Taiwanese-Americans gatherings, written numerous activity reports and interview articles. Often, I was touched by the people’s love and passion for our motherland – Taiwan.
I wrote the book Our Stories in hope that more people can also experience and be touched by this kind of love and passion. This book includes sixteen vivid life stories of Taiwanese-Americans. The people in
these stories may be of different characters with different life experiences, but all of them have some common traits. They are all successful through their diligence, intelligence and the abundance of opportunities provided by this new land. They came to appreciate American values so much that they wished their Taiwanese compatriots could share some of these values.
In their hearts, they dreamed that Taiwan would someday become an independent and dignified country, practicing democratic system, and its people possessing the same quality of life as that found in the United States. They transformed their wishes and beliefs into love and passion, and devoted themselves to Taiwan and Taiwanese-Americans communities tirelessly.
With the theme of love and passion in my mind, I tried my best to interview people with different background in different geographic areas.
The series of articles in Our Stories started appearing in both The Liberty Times of U.S.A. and Taiwan Tribune at the end of year 2000, and received very warm responses from many Taiwanese-Americans communities. I was subsequently awarded the “The Best Reporting Award “ by the Oversea Chinese Culture and Education Endowment in 2001. The book Our Stones Chinese edition was later published by Taiwan Publishing Co. (Taipei, Taiwan) in 2002.
North America Taiwanese Women’s Association (NATWA) has always been an organization that’s very dear to my heart. I have been a member and participating NATWA activities since 1997. The more I participated, the more I am impressed with NATWA sisters’ enthusiasm and sisterhood toward each other. Whenever 1 traveled around in the North America, I look forward to meeting our NATWA sisters to rekindle our friendship.
Thanks to NATWA’s endorsement, Mei-Fun Tsai’s dedication, Mei-Li Yang and Nora Tsay’s inducement, the translators and Taiwan Publishing Co.’s efforts, the English edition of Our Stories is finally here. I owe my sincere thanks to all of the people who have supported me in my endeavors. I hope this edition can provide a glimpse of the lives of the first generation Taiwanese-Americans to our next generations and the American public in general. I also hope that much more Taiwanese-American literatures and art works will be created in the future, so that our love, passion and contribution to this new land and our motherland can be captured and made more visible.
Author Carole Yang
Carole Yang is a popular Taiwanese American writer whose articles frequently appear in the Liberty Times USA, Pacific Times, and Taiwan Tribune.
Receiving her B.S. degree in Journalism from National Chenchi University in Taiwan and M.S. degree in Business Administrations from Iowa State University, Carole has explored various career paths. She has worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, government officer, corporate accountant as well as being a housewife, and mother of two.
Carole currently resides in Maryland. Besides her writing, reading, gardening and traveling, she is also active in church and local communities.
