I’m the author of Hey Taipei, the first English-language picture book about Taipei.
Hey Taipei was successfully funded via crowdfunding in January 2019. Over 30 days, the book received pre-orders for 1,000-plus copies from around the world. This is the story behind the making of the book, and here’s where you can pick up a copy or two. Hey Taipei is published by Garlic Crush Studios. Illustrations by Weiting Zhou. The book is proudly printed in New Taipei City.
Through the making of the book, I started writing about parenting, specifically in Taiwan. Here’s my post about pregnancy and giving birth in Taipei. And this is an interview with me about What It’s Like to Parent in Taiwan on the blog, Cup of Jo.
Tricky Taipei started in 2014 as a design and food blog. Today it covers broader issues in Taiwanese society and culture.
Popular posts include: Will Taiwan Finally Figure Out How to Make Babies, Taiwan’s Unexpectedly Crazy Dating App Scene and Something Very Wrong Is Happening at Taiwan Tourism Bureau.
Discussions that began on Tricky Taipei have made it to local Taiwanese media via Apple Daily, SETN, The News Lens, TVBS, Taipei Times, ETToday, LTN, and CommonWealth Crossings. And also international media including The Guardian, The Diplomat and The New Statesman.
I’ve also been lucky to appear in a couple of TV programs: the Taipei episode of Au pays du bonheur on TV5 in Canada (January 2021). Also the Taipei episode of Midnight Asia on Netflix (January 2022).
Over the years I’ve been featured in Airbnb Magazine’s “The Insider’s Guide to Taipei” (2019) and National Geographic Travel’s “Taipei in 72 Hours” (2016). I’ve also written for Taipei City Government’s flagship tourism magazine (2020) as well as Saveur magazine about Taipei’s coffee scene (2015).
Recently, I produced two posters in collaboration with artist Tai Pera.
One is the Taipei Map poster. The other is the Bopomofo poster, shown above. The inspiration for these was to create imagery that’s instantly recognizable as Taiwanese, and would be loved by both kids and adults. The posters are printed on premium 140g matte poster paper so they can be framed. Proudly printed in New Taipei City. See Tai Pera’s website.
While working in New York City, I founded Thankful Registry.
Thankful launched in 2013 while I was living and working in New York City. The platform is positioned as a kinder, feel-good gift registry. It’s been covered by TechCrunch, Fast Company, New York Magazine’s Summer 2014 Weddings Issue, and was mentioned in The New York Times in January 2017.
Thankful has expanded beyond wedding registries into the baby category, and also supports many non-profit organizations in their fundraising efforts. Thankful’s users are mostly located in the US, Canada and Australia. I run Thankful from here in Taipei.
Lastly, I’m a communications strategist.
I worked at Smart Design in New York City. From my desk I got to appear as a background extra in this SNL skit. Before that, I worked on corporate web sites and annual reports at VSA Partners in Chicago.
From time to time, I take on consulting projects. If you’d like to chat about working together, I’d love to hear from you.