The Adventures of TAO Board!

Dear TAO blog,

Dumpling Night was so fun! I’m so glad we came up with that idea and executed it nicely; everyone seemed to have great fun that night! As always, we started out with a general  meeting in Emerald Bay A in the Student Center. Despite some technical difficulties and uncontrollable circumstances (guest speaker of the night, Jason Tsai, was unfortunately detained in some horrendous traffic on the freeway), we managed to successfully conclude the last TAO event of the 2009-2010 year.

I guess you can say that TAO pulled off a great stunt for this– because it was Dumpling Night, our culture chair came up with the amazing idea of interviewing the owner of Ding Tai Fung restaurant in Arcadia (this is the son of the Ding Tai Fung founder!). She pulled some strings, and we got the rare opportunity to stage an interview.

Of course, the main event of the night was the actual dumpling making outdoors behind Social Science Lab and Social Science Tower. From what I saw, members truly enjoyed the experience of learning how to make their own dumplings and eating their finished food (duh!)! Oh, and how could I forget…TAO pulled some strings and presented members with a special yummy surprise– bread from 85C Bakery! Those who paid the $3 to make (and eat) their dumplings got to choose their favorite bread (among the three different kinds we served) for free, and those who didn’t want to make dumplings could buy their own (among the three kinds) for only $0.50. What a great deal. I’d like to think that this 85C Bakery move really made this event memorable.

Oh, and guess what? In less than 2 weeks is TAO’s first annual end-of-the-year banquet!

TAO Presents Chapter One: Shoot for the Stars Banquet
Date: Thursday, May 27, 2010
Time: Check-in begins at 6:30PM
Location: TEN Asian Bistro
4647 MacArthur Boulevard
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Attire: Semi-formal
Link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120225214662363 (FACEBOOK EVENT)
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dERxTVViMVdnajAzRTRzZm5Rc1Z3ckE6MQ (YOU MUST REGISTER HERE AND PAY!)

It is truly going to be amazing and just wonderful. Even the flyer for the banquet above looks breathtaking. And plus, I’ve seen the venue. It is absolutely beautiful. If you don’t believe me, google Ten Asian Bistro and you’ll see pictures of the interior. AND i was one of the lucky few who got to taste-test the food that we will be serving at banquet. What do I think of it? SCRUMPTIOUSLY MOUTH-WATERINGLY DELICIOUS. Now, if only I knew what I’m going to wear to the banquet…

Love,
Josephine

Photos courtesy of Herman Chang.

Hello everyone, Phil Cheng checking with his first blog ever.

So we headed down to UCSD on thursday night. Got there at about 9 p.m., checked in our hosts and the conference, then it was up to us to decide what to do for the night since the bonfire was cancelled due to the weather condition. Will and I decided that we wanted to just hang out and get to know people, so took it easy and hung with our hosts and other ITASA volunteers for the night.

Friday morning was when the conference really began, ITASA prepared American style breakfast to get us ready for the big day. The volunteers were very active and they did a couple ice breaking games to get us out of our comfort zone. Then there was my favorite speaker of the entire conference, Welly Yang. He spoke about his life on Broadway and his Taiwanese American identity, which really inspired me. He also mentioned about David Ho, who is Phil Cheng’s uncle =).

Welly Yang

Then it was two consecutive workshops that we had to attend in order to get into the banquet and the after party on Saturday night. There were some very successful and inspiring speakers there who really devoted their time into the Taiwanese American culture. Many people told me that they learned a lot from these workshops about Taiwan. After the workshops, we were asked to join our groups for the scavenger hunt. My group leader, ironically, was Calvin Son, the president of TASA at UCSD, who went to the same high school as I did. It was a good chance to explore UCSD campus, the second biggest campus among all UCs.

After the scavenger hunt, there was the night market where not enough food was provided. So TAO UCI decided to go to downtown San Diego to seek food and also hangout. Downtown SD was beautiful and about 30 of UCI TAOers went along. It was a fun experience for us Irvine kids to walk around the beautiful city, even though many of the local people thought we were tourists from China…

The UCSD TASA invited us to go the a restaurant in SD that night for more food. There, we mingled with more Taiwanese American students and got to know a lot of new people.

Saturday, the highly anticipated and the final day of the ITASA West Coast Conference of 2010, was full of excitement. It began with Taiwanese style breakfast. There were workshops in the morning and career panel in the afternoon. And there were opportunities for students to get involved at the “Taiwanese American Involvement”  where I got to meet many of the outstanding Taiwanese professions and got to know what they do voluntarily in detail. After that, it was the highlight of the conference at the Jasmine Seafood Restaurant. Wong Fu Production was there to speak about themselves. There was Dawen, a very talented Taiwanese American musician performing. The food was great and it was an outstanding way to end the conference. TAO was acknowledged as the “Outstanding New TASA” and we the largest group to participate in the conference. Yee GO TAO!

As for the after party…lets just say I don’t remember much about it =).

Checking out, Phil Cheng.

so if you didn’t see formosa betrayed. you NEED to go see it!!! it’s epic, it’s intense, and Dawson (sorry, no Joey) & Consul Han are in it. It’s  the very first time that the story of Taiwanese/Taiwanese American is brought to the big screen. we met Tzi Ma, Consul Han from Rush Hour this Friday after we saw Formosa Betrayed. So people who didn’t come…uh, you missed out BIG this time.

the movie is great! think it’s going to be a documentary? not at all. watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KbAGhECVZE

RUUUUUUN!

how hot is that?

so go see the movie. whether you wanna learn more about Taiwan or check out the hottie, you can still catch the movie at the movie theater at

Edwards Westpark 8
3755 Alton Parkway
Irvine, CA 92606

visit http://www.formosathemovie.com/ for more information.

oh, by the way, we met james van der beek last year too! that’s just how cool TAO is.

Hope everyone had a super lunar year dinner with TAO! We had such a great turnout– over 45 of you came! Thanks for coming out! <3

There was sooo much yummy food. We hope you all learned something from this; the food wasn’t just there for you to eat, but it was also there for you to see what people usually eat for lunar year dinner (ex: nian gao!). Judging from people’s faces (and from the number of people who got seconds), people liked our food selection!

I was happy to see so much socializing. People were really bonding and getting to know each other while munching on dinner!

And of course, like every lunar year dinner, people got red envelopes (hong bao). But unlike every lunar year dinner, not everyone got one (sorry!). This time, those who answered our trivia questions correctly received a red envelope as a prize. Of course, we couldn’t exactly give out cash in the envelopes, but we hope you still liked the little gift!

Reminder– don’t forget to register for the ITASA conference at UCSD if you haven’t done so already! The deadline for the $35 early registration has passed, but you can still register for $40! This will be an amazing experience; don’t miss out! Check out TAO’s facebook event for this: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=290160493821&ref=mf

1. Register: http://ucsd.itasa.org/reg.html
2. Fill this out so we can organize carpooling: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEJJYnltc2VSV29hZkFvXzNPT01ITUE6MA

And of course, as mentioned in the general meeting, the movie Formosa Betrayed will be coming out this coming Friday (2/26)! We’ll be going together, so it’ll be great fun (and plus, we’ll be having a post-movie hangout session afterwards). Come out and play! More details will come soon– keep an eye out for our facebook event.

Until next time!

Hi everyone–

wow I feel extremely insecure in blogging now after Josephine’s writing for a while. LOL. she’s wayyy too good i’m so scared.

so i’m writing this to encourage EVERYONE to go to the West Coast ITASA conference! this year, it’s UCSD’s first year hosting the conference. Last year, I was the PR Chair for the conference at USC. And let me tell you, it’s one of the best experiences! got ITASA withdrawal for about 1.5 weeks after that. it was constant facebooking and attempting to hang out with the new friends i made at the conference.

so one of the things that i’ve encountered when I was the PR chair was that when people hear the word conference, they give me this “ew” facial expression. but really, it’s not like that.

the nightmarket was so much FUN. I got to meet some outstanding Taiwanese Americans & college students from all over west coast.

too much fun dressing up for the banquet

..and the AFTER PARTY <3

This year, the FUN continues! with all the social activities, the speakers & the workshops are looking good too!

yellow fever’s WONG FU! http://wongfuproductions.com

Taiwanese American actor, singer, writer, producer. Creator of the Asian Excellence Awards.

http://axawards.com/

Will Tiao, the producer /actor of the movie FORMOSA BETRAYED–www.formosathemovie.com

TAO UCI is hosting a movie meet up in Orange County! come join us next week. check our fb site/ website for more info

please register now for the conference! http://ucsd.itasa.org/

proud to say JOY TSAI from UCI designed the website! YAYYY TAO-ers!

if you’re from UC Irvine, please carpool with TAO! sign up: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEJJYnltc2VSV29hZkFvXzNPT01ITUE6MA

ITASA conferences have given me not only great memories, but also great friendships, valuable leadership experience, too many memorable moments & of course, the birth of Taiwanese American Organization at UC Irvine. I sincerely hope that I can see all of you there!

This post is for all the good friends I made from ITASA/ ITASA conferences: 2009 & 2010 ITASA West Coast Conference Team. Because of your passion & hard work & awesomeness, we gain such great memories.

XOXO,

Amy

How’s everyone doing?

Take a break from school and studying by celebrating Lunar Year with TAO! We’ll be having our very own Lunar Year Dinner on Thursday, February 18. This will be similar to the Taiwanese-style Breakfast event last quarter, so be sure to show up (with bring $5 with you) and get ready to eat eat eat (and mingle too, of course)! There will be fun activities and freebies to give away!

Basically…

Event: Lunar New Year Dinner
Date: Thursday, 2/18/2010
Location: Moss Cove A
Time: 7-9PM
Charge: $5 members and non-members alike

If you’re curious, here’s our menu for the night (it won’t look exactly like the photos, but the photos are there to give you a general idea):

GREEN BEAN SOUP

NIAN GAO (RICE CAKE)

DONG PO PORK

GRILLED CHICKEN

TOFU

GONG WAN LO BO TANG (FISHBALL-RADISH SOUP)

So yummy! You really don’t want to miss out on this!

And of course, don’t forget to RSVP on our Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=302045907950&ref=nf

See you there!

Josephine here again!

So yesterday (Sunday at 1:30PM), I woke up with a sore back and two chipped fingernails. Usually, if I wake up in such a sorry state, I would be in a cranky mood the rest of the day, but surprisingly, yesterday, I didn’t mind it at all. Why? All for the love of TAO, and the success of the Lantern Festival!

I’m so happy to say that hard work does indeed pay off in the end. The TAO board and staff members have been slaving away for the past weeks to plan out this huge event. Even the rain couldn’t defeat us; even with the Lantern Festival held indoors in the Pacific Ballrooms, we still carried on and weren’t disappointed at all with the end result.

At 4 in the afternoon on Saturday, the day of the event, we began setting up.

I have to say, as pretty as the lanterns were, attaching them to the lightbulbs was a pain. We had to pry open metal rods, then push the metal pieces to close up. Not so easy. That was how I ended up with two broken nails and one sore back.

There was just so much to set up. By 6PM, we still were doing finishing touches when the first of the Lantern Festival attendees started arriving! But, soon after that, we were all ready to go and people were enjoying themselves with the food (almond tofu, riceballs, lu rou fan, mi fen, etc) and activities (chopstick guns, knots, calligraphy, etc) while enjoying performances by Diana Li, Charlie Chang, UCSD’s lion dancing, and watching TAO UCI’s debut of its TACL Census 2010 Contest video submission.

People also had the chance to buy their very own TAO shirt at the TAO table! Unfortunately, we ran out of some sizes and had to disappoint some people. Sorry!

So many people showed up; it was more (and better) than what we expected!But because of that, we ran out of food, so those who came in late did not have a wide variety of food to choose from. Sorry (again) about that; we’ll be better prepared next time!

As the event came to a close, we gave out raffle prizes and sold off some of the beautiful lanterns hanging around the room.

I’m still floating on the feeling of success, even though it’s two days after the Lantern Festival already. Such a feeling of accomplishment won’t go away easily, especially since I know the entire TAO staff and board team worked so hard to ensure the success!

And thanks to all of you who showed up…you contributed to this achievement and success! Thank you thank you thank you! I really hope you all had lots of fun! Of course, a huge THANK YOU goes out to all the volunteers. This would not have been possible without all of you!

Honestly, words cannot truly describe the Lantern Festival. Overall, if you didn’t come out to this Lantern Festival, YOU MISSED OUT. NO JOKE. But,please do come out to the TAO event this coming Thursday (2/11)! It’s TAO’s speed-dating (and speed-friending) event that you’ll definitely want to check out!

Until next time,

Josephine

Photo credits to Mendel Lin and Herman Chang.

Have you all seen TAO’s newest video? As part of TAO’s submission for the TACL Census 2010 Campaign Contest, a few of us staffers– namely Phil, Kathy, and me– organized and recreated Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”  By altering the lyrics, we’ve made it so that the new song promotes the goal of the TACL Census project and informs the Taiwanese population about the upcoming census and the importance to be counted. Thanks to one of TAO’s very own members, Maime, the support of the entire TAO team, as well as Daniel for adding subtitles into the video, the video has become quite popular on Facebook and YouTube. Check it out, give it 5 stars, support TAO! We’re hoping to win the $500 prize to continue to make TAO events better

EDIT: So apparently, the video does not want to show up here on the blog. Please click HERE to see it on YouTube

- Josephine

Dear friends,

You are cordially invited to a special night market event in celebration of the Lantern Festival holiday here at University of California, hosted by TAO UCI and ITASA. On behalf of TAO UCI, I sincerely hope you will do me the honor by accepting this invitation.

Scratch that.

But first of all, for those of you who came out to our Game Night, thanks! Hope you all had a super fun time! Congrats to MRT, winner of the games (Stinky Tofu was ONE point away from winning another $25 Gina’s Pizza gift certificate! But hey, we’re all friends, so no bitterness, of course).

Okay, now let’s start over.

Hi friends!

Guess what’s coming up on February 6? YES, it’s one of TAO’s biggest events of the year—the Lantern Festival Night Market! It’s going to be huge!

Get in the know with the deets:

WHO: Everyone is invited! Please come! It’s going to be so much fun!
WHAT: Lantern Festival Night Market
WHEN: February, 6th, 2010 from 6PM-9PM
WHERE: University of California, Irvine–Terrace (Student Center). This event is happening rain or shine! If it rains, we will be indoors in the Pacific Ballrooms.
WHY: Come celebrate the traditional Lantern Festival with us here at UCI!
OTHER: see http://www.taouci.com/lantern/LanternFestival.html and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=428466720005&ref=nf. And yes, we’re selling pre-sale tickets right now online! Go get them now!

The night will be filled with exciting events and activities that will keep you busy and yummy food that will keep you warm and happy (that is, if you like Taiwanese food. But then again, why wouldn’t you like Taiwanese food?). Just thinking about the food that’s going to be sold there is making me super hungry right now (and as it is currently 3AM, being hungry is not such a good idea). Of course, there will be boba, but there will also be delicious tang yuan, lu rou fan, popcorn chicken, chow mi fun, almond jello, and Taiwanese onigiri. Yum!

Oh my goodness. If only I could make all of these appear out of thin air in front of me so I can eat it all.

I’m serious; there are so many activities for everyone of all ages and interests to participate in! Many of these are not ones that you can experience on any regular day. Take advantage of the Lantern Festival Night Market and enjoy yourself. Express your artistic side and stretch your creativity with lantern painting. Learn the beautiful art of Chinese calligraphy while elegantly mastering the use of an ink brush. Make your own traditional Taiwanese toys to amuse friends and family. Create decorative handicrafts with Chinese knotting (it may be difficult, but once you get the hang of it, you can create pretty designs). Bring home a goldfish (YES, silly, it’s a live goldfish) by catching it with a paper net. Sing your heart out with karaoke (we know that Taiwanese culture just will not be same without KTV!). Words simply can’t describe the excitement of it all. You need to come experience everything and enhance your knowledge of the Taiwanese culture. Really.

Oh, and while you’re taking a break from the various activities, you can relax and check out special performances by Taiwanese-American singers Diana Li (www.myspace.com/dianali) and Charlie Chang (www.myspace.com/charliechangmusic). If you’re not into singers, come by and check out the UCSD Lion Dance! I’m already envisioning it to be an amazing performance. And, don’t forget traditional Taiwanese puppetry! It is different from the puppet shows you’re used to seeing. Come see for yourself!

Seriously, this is THE event you don’t want to miss! Everyone is welcome, and we mean everyone, not just UCI students. Bring your friends and family! Lantern Festival is a holiday that celebrates family and togetherness, so the more, the merrier.

Come come come! See you there!

Josephine

Hellooooo everyone!

Thanks for coming out to our Week 3 GM! I hope you all had lots of fun, because I know I did! For those of you who didn’t come, you definitely missed out!! I mean, really, how often can you get together with your TAO family to make yummy Ren Bing and participate in an Iron Chef cooking competition?

The first half of the meeting, as always, was devoted to general updates on ITASA and family events. If you miss out on your family events, shame on you! You’re totally depriving yourself the perfect chance to bond with the super cool TAO cabinet and members. But no worries; we all still love you!

Moving on, we then had guest speaker Jimmy Chiang talk about his company, Way Basics (he’s CEO!). This was really interesting; Way Basics furniture looks extremely simplistic, but it is all made with eco-friendly materials. He even brought a cute green-and-white box that’s made entirely out of paper! Yes– paper! Can you believe it? You can use the box as a storage bin and you can sit/stand on it too! Amazing! After his presentation, he raffled off the box by asking a question (whoever answered the question first and correctly gets the box as a prize). The result? Our very own staffer, Will, got it! Way to let the members have a chance! JK

Now, I have to be honest, one of my favorite parts of the night was getting a free pen made out of recycled paper, courtesy of Way Basics! You just can’t go wrong with freebies! And plus, you can never have too many pens!

Now, on to Iron Chef competition! What a night. Five families each trying their best to create the perfect Ren Bing and to please guest judge Elbert Cheng, all in hopes of bragging rights and winning a free “family dinner” at Gina’s Pizza. I’m pretty sure everyone had a blast working together to add in the ingredients and then wrap it all up burrito-style.

The finished Ren Bing all looked absolutely yummy! There was some great creativity going on too. Elbert Cheng certainly did not make our lives easy as he took his time deliberating the winning family and Ren Bing.

But finally, the winning family was announced! Guess which family won? That’s right…. Stinky Tofu Family <33333 !! Ours came out so cute and decorative. You can’t beat that.

And of course, to continue the fun, everyone got the chance to make their own Ren Bing (after paying $2) and eat it themselves!

So that was it for tonight. Keep an eye out for our fundraiser event during Week 4! We’ll be selling some bomb food that you’ll absolutely love (and no worries; we’ll be promoting this on Facebook so you won’t forget)! We’re also having our family game night that week too!

And lastly, come out to the Lantern Festival Night Market on February 6^th! Visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=428466720005&ref=nf and http://www.taouci.com/lantern/LanternFestival.html for more info. This is definitely something you don’t want to miss! Seriously! Bring all your friends!

See you soon!
Josephine

P.S. Sorry for the long post. I tend to get too excited with words and photos and then start rambling on like a buffoon when I blog