U. hosts Taiwanese weekend

For the first time at Penn, Taiwanese American students will hold an official weekend of events to celebrate their heritage.

Taiwanese American Heritage Weekend will feature a series of speakers tomorrow throughout the day in Logan Hall. The event will focus on Taiwanese language, history, politics and architecture. For entertainment, there will be a folk music concert and dinner at the Joy Tsin Lau Chinese Restaurant.

There is an official national Taiwanese American Heritage Week that takes place in May. As most students are on holiday, Taiwanese Americans at Penn have been unable to celebrate it.

"There is no central conference that is accessible to most students," said Irena Hsu, an event co-coordinator. "The purpose of [the weekend] is to celebrate that week."

The weekend's coordinators said they think some of the events will be of interest to all people.

"A lot of the students will be interested in the Taiwanese folk song concert," Hsu said.

But the most serious event will be the presentation of a documentary film called "Voices," which shows first-hand accounts of Taiwan's infamous Feb. 28 Incident, an uprising in 1947 crushed by Chinese nationalists that left tens of thousands dead.

"That's going to be a highlight," event co-coordinator Irene Chen said.

"One large part of our history was in the 2-28 incident," Hsu said. "We really want to hit the audience with this event."

The event is being co-sponsored by the Penn Taiwanese Society, Penn Taiwanese Graduate and Professional Students Association and the Drexel Taiwanese Undergraduate Student Association. Organizers said they want to help unite Taiwanese students through the event.

"It's the Philadelphia version of [Taiwanese American Heritage Week]," Chen said.

Organizers said one objective of the event is to educate Taiwanese American students across Philadelphia. They have therefore chosen speakers who can comment and inform people on every topic concerning Taiwanese Americans.

The speakers have"general knowledge of every single aspect of a culture," Chen said.

"We wanted people that would describe something unique about being Taiwanese," added Hsu, a Wharton freshman.

Chen said she feels it is also important to motivate students to create a bigger campus presence.

"There isn't a very active Taiwanese community in Penn," the College sophomore said. "We're trying to encourage more activism."

Hsu added that the sponsors want "to really make students in Philly aware of Taiwanese American heritage."

Coordinators said they are expecting a good turnout for the event.

"It's not as high as could be possible because of Easter and Passover," Hsu said. "We have about 60 people from Penn, Drexel, Temple, Bucknell" and other schools. She added that people not of Taiwanese heritage are welcome to attend.

"We're gonna have students from all different backgrounds," she said.

Chen said there is one thing above all that she wants Taiwanese Americans to learn from the event.

"For me personally, [Taiwanese Americans need] to have a Taiwanese identity that is separate from a Chinese identity... it's important that they take away a specific Taiwanese identity," she said.

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