This blog is incredibly backlogged, and I was on a social media hiatus for the past 4 months, only to be dragged out of my grave by my dear friend Julia Vee who essentially went, “Get in loser, we got a few days left to promote our Kickstarter!”
To summarize this 4-ish-year project in the making (time is a blur), my friends and I all banded together to create our wuxia-themed anthology when we were all rejected from a magazine’s wuxia-themed special edition. Frankly, it’s been way more fun to take part in our band of Chinese diasporic misfits. We screamed as a group when we hit $1k within 13 minutes, with laughs about what we were doing in the time in took for the Kickstarter to be fully funded. For one, it was the amount of time to walk to the fridge, get a slice of cake, and then return to sit down at her desk. For me, I was brewing tea and had yet to take a sip when our group chat exploded with awed reactions over hitting our funding goal in record time. I am forever grateful for the hard work of Julia, Miki, JF, and everyone else who made this possible.
My short story, “Six Swans and a Sister,” is a cyberpunk reimagining of the Six Swans fairytale. I’ll have to write another blog post about it later (if I ever get around to it, side-eyeing my abysmal track record of keeping this blog updated), but to make a long story short, one of my inspirations was the video game Cyberpunk 2077 and my frustrations surrounding Goro Takemura being clearly set up for a romance storyline, only for CD Projekt Red to publicly admit they ran out of time by the time they were forced to release the game (*cries from a sea of thirsty fangirls*). Since writing it during the pandemic, my craft has evolved, so it’s rather strange for me to revisit the story and see a vastly different version of who I was as a writer.
Speaking of cyberpunk, Ken Bebelle’s story, “Poisoned Pearl,” also explores the cyberpunk genre. He and Julia are coauthors of the The Phoenix Hoard series, and I love that we’re both integrating and imagining the traditions of wuxia in our tech-driven world (the future is here, whether we like it or not!).
Thank you to everyone who has unlocked all the audio rewards. Julia, JF, and I will record the audio of our respective stories, “The Youngest Sister of the Southern Watch,” “Assassins Have a Short Shelf Life,” and “Six Swans and a Sister.” I had to update my Audacity software this past weekend and do some test recordings to make sure my macros were all still running correctly.
The 16 contributors of our anthology!
Julia Vee, who is a godsend and the brilliant mastermind and commander of our Kickstarter anthology, giving me my author copy.
It’s more beautiful in person!
Shinyyyyyy spine!
All 16 contributors! It is so cool to see all of us on the back cover, and each of our names raised with the gorgeous embossing.
Meant to write this way back in September, but this year went by so fast, I’m getting in this blog post on New Year’s Eve. At last, after years of talking about it and manifesting it, and spending my adulthood being salty about not knowing I could apply for citizenship while I was underage, I now hold dual citizenship with the USA, my birth country and where I’ve lived all my life, and Taiwan!
If you’re new here and are a fellow overseas national considering dual citizenship and want to learn more about my story, please read the previous posts:
Picking up where I left off at the end of Part 2, my temporary PRC came in the mail about four weeks after the temporary PRC appointment. To my surprise, the temporary PRC is just a sheet of paper, the Exit-Entry form that you’ll need to present once you get through Immigration at the airport in Taiwan. There’s a section titled “Purpose” that will state your reason for your visit. Mine read 定居, and it translates to “Settle,” or gaining citizenship.
After my employer granted me a 3-week unpaid leave, I booked my Eva ticket for a round-trip visit to coincide with my mom’s visit to Taiwan (shoutout to my 媽媽 and 舅舅 for accompanying me with all my visits in Taiwan!). I wanted to play things safe by spending 21 days in Taiwan. SF TECO told me to book my ticket with my US passport, since my new Taiwan passport is going to be different when I fly back.
I love all the cute giant beagle plushies at Taoyuan Airport!
Once I got off the plane at Taoyuan Airport, a staff told me I didn’t need to fill out any forms, just head straight to the line for citizens and present both my Taiwan passport and exit-entry form/duplicate of TARPRC (定居證副本) to the immigration officer. Just as SF TECO told me, the immigration officer stamped both my passport and duplicate of TARPRC (定居證副本), confirming my entry into Taiwan.
All the places I need to go to for dual citizenship:
1. Immigration Agency (coming here to exchange my temporary permanent resident card for the real one). Address: 中華民國內政部移民署, 地址：100213臺北市中正區廣州街15號(本署各服務地址)
Immigration Agency
The day I landed, Sept 2, Monday, I headed straight to the Immigration Agency around 9:15am. The visit was much quicker than I anticipated. I was in and out of there within 10 minutes! They needed:
My exit-entry form (which was stamped earlier that day when I went through immigration).
My Taiwan passport (photocopied, they had photocopiers there that you could pay in cash)
A parents’ Taiwan passport (my mom forgot hers, thank goodness I brought my dad’s!)
They gave me a receipt and told me return Wednesday morning to pick up the permanent resident card. They kept the entry-exit permit, so even if I wanted to, I could no longer use it nor my old Taiwanese passport to exit the country.
Two days later, we returned on Wednesday, Sept 4, picked up the permanent resident card, and headed off to Household Registration .
Take a number and wait for your turn.
2. Household Registration (bring permanent resident card to get household registration ID and ID card)
It’s been…not boring, let’s put it that way lol.
We got the paperwork from immigration, went to household registration office, and we got told that my mom’s name is written incorrectly on the paperwork. We had to go back to immigration, get it corrected (they were thankfully efficient, could you imagine trying to get this done at an American DMV?), then headed back to household registration.
Some more few hiccups. Remember all those passport photos I brought? The first was rejected for glare on my forehead, the second rejected for hair covering my ears, and the third one was the charm and was accepted. THEN they asked me to get a copy of my uncle’s household registration. Thank goodness my uncle was just outside the office in his car with a copy of his household registration. Both my mom and uncle were such troopers. Thankfully, instead of waiting one business day, it was completed in about 2 hours. Processing fee was $110 NTD, which converts to $3.42 USD. Now I got my household registration ID card!
At first I thought they got my birth year wrong. I learned about my Mingguo birth year, which is not my Gregorian calendar birth year. Minguo calendar started in 1912, the year of the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC) in Nanjing. Wikipedia has a fun article on the Minguo Calendar (can you tell I get easily distracted by Wikipedia?), and 2024 is year 113.
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Bureau of Consular Affairs (get updated passport with national ID on it, need this to leave Taiwan). Address: 100219 臺北市濟南路1段2之2號3~5樓（中央聯合辦公大樓北棟）
After treating my mom and uncle to a sushi lunch (I am so ridiculously lucky to have them), on to our third stop!
Once there, the staff advised to take updated passport photos. They said they could try to use my passport photos, but it might risk being rejected and then I would have to come back and redo everything. I decided to just retake my passport photo onsite in a photobooth with agents helping. The auntie who assisted me at my booth helped me bobby-pin my hair above my ears, remarking how my ears are so small they’re barely visible. My ears are really small and lay almost flat against my head, it’s definitely annoying when it comes to taking passport photos (see blog post #1, and my ordeal of having rejected passport photos and needing to get them retaken augh).
For $120 NTD, you get a whole sheet of passport photos. In California, Walgreens conducted highway robbery by charging me $15 USD for two measly unflattering photos.
Had to fill out a form, used glue sticks they provided at a station to cut and paste passport photos, then take the escalator to the passport application office.
It’s like the DMV here, full of crowds and long lines of people. After we took a number for a place in line, and the agent my mom and I got directed to had a total attitude. We were told it would be 10 business days, NOT CALENDAR DAYS, to process my passport. There was no option to expedite.
As far as timeline goes, this was cutting in cloooooose.
*fast-forward 2 weeks with a montage of me finishing my first draft of my new novel, spending time with family, eating my way through night markets, shopping, playing tourist, etc*
On September 19, Thursday, we returned after 12:30
If it wasn’t for my Mom, my illiterate @$$ would have walked straight past the sign that said to get a number for the queue for passport pickups *facepalm*
Everything I expected to go wrong, from long wait time, to one of the staff possibly telling me something was wrong with my passport and I would need more documents and/or delay my flight home, didn’t happen! Phew!
I probably waited fewer than 5 minutes before my number was called. I got both my old (now inactive) passport back, along with my brand-spanking new passport, complete with my updated passport photo and National ID number!
My old and new passport! Checked to make sure everything looked correct before leaving.
So happy that at long last, after years of manifesting this, I’m now a dual citizen of my birth country, USA, and my parents’ birth country, Taiwan!
Even with jus sanguinis, there were a lot of hoops to jump through. I’m happy to complete what I set out to accomplish with this 21-day trip in Taiwan, my longest one yet. And hooray, no hiccups at the airport! When I checked in for my flight, I had to present both my US passport (which I booked my flight with) and my Taiwan passports, since I entered the country with my old one and had that stamped. When going through security, I scanned my new Taiwan passport. Once back in the states, when I presented my US Passport at Immigration, I got no questions, just a simple, “Welcome home!”
I’m very grateful I now get to call two countries home. Despite living in California all my life, I’ve always seen Taiwan as my other home country, and wanted to make that connection official. Should my hypothetical future children want dual citizenship for themselves, then they would have that option through me. Who knows what the world looks like then?
Had to take a selfie with both passports in front of Liberty Square Arch
Ever since my agent sister Debbi Michiko Florence posted pictures from her experience at the inaugural Harlaxton Kidlit Retreat hosted by our friend best-selling young adult author Kristy Boyce, I was very eager to take part in this retreat myself! So, at the beginning of this year, I booked my spot in the retreat. 2024 is just flying by, and I can’t believe summer has come and gone!
Anyone else thinking of YA fantasy covers from the late 2000s through 2010s? Just me?
Last time I was in England was 2019, so this was a great excuse to return to the UK! For 6 days, I got to stay at Harlaxton Manor. There’s a whole Wikipedia page for anyone interested in going down the rabbit hole of the manor’s history. To make a long story short, it was built by a nobleman named Gregory Gregory (yes, that is really his name!), and is currently owned by University of Evansville. I loved exploring the manor, admiring the architecture, and getting good laughs over seeing my boyfriend’s name everywhere I go.
Oh will you look at that? There’s Gregor!
It was such a joy to write in such gorgeous surroundings every day, and switch up my location. I could write in the haunted library, the gardens, conservatory, ballrooms, wherever I wanted! I felt like I was in the castle from Beauty and the Beast. All my novels feature a castle in some shape or form, so it was a treat to be able to immerse myself in the experiencing of staying in one for a writing retreat. I liked pretending this was my home for nearly a week.
Afternoon tea!
Every day, on top of our writing time, we had optional activities and excursions that we could take part in. These included:
Afternoon Tea
Playing croquet
Garden tour
Pub tour (we visited 3 pubs and had dinner in one called Chequers Inn),
Visiting Belvoir Castle (pronounced “Beaver,” because the British hate the French lol)
Attending Kristy’s reading and signing of her book Hot British Boyfriend. Fun fact, the fictional school Emberton in her book is inspired by Harlaxton!
Day trip to York
Banquet to end the retreat
Made a feathery friend in York! His name is Scout
I completed revising an updated outline for a new novel, and sent it back to my agent before the end of the retreat. Mission accomplished!
Harlaxton felt so magical. I’m honestly a city girl, but I loved living in the manor in the English countryside so much, it actually felt jarring once I was back in a city like York and London. Not complaining. Kristy did such a phenomenal job creating a memorable writing retreat experience! It’s going to be hard to top a retreat where I get to write in a fairytale castle!
After the retreat, I took off to London, and enjoyed a few days there before catching the Eurostar train to Paris.
Look Ma! It’s the Olympic Cauldron!
Taking the magic of Harlaxton back home with me and continuing to work on my new novel!
As soon as this announcement came out, I HAD to whip out my Canva app and use one of my photos I took at Rainbow Village as the background!
I remember the morning of November 8, 2023, Wednesday: I parked in my company’s parking lot after getting through traffic on the San Mateo Bridge, and saw a missed call and voicemail from my brilliant agent, Tricia Lawrence. Alvina Ling, Senior Editor of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, was looking to buy my picture book biography of Rainbow Grandpa in a pre-empt.
When it comes to acquisitions, there are two ways books are often bought: either a pre-empt or an auction. The best analogy I can think of is buying on eBay.
An auction is what it sounds like. Buyers (in this case, acquisition teams at publishing houses) put in offers to buy a book, and the highest bidder comes out on top.
A pre-empt is like hitting the Buy It Now button. An acquisition team will buy a book so that no other team can try to swoop in and take the deal from them.
I had no interest in hearing about competing offers. This is my dream editor, ALVINA LING! Little, Brown has one of the toughest acquisitions board in the industry, so of course I let my brilliant agent do her thang and close the deal for me.
Remember how in the querying trenches, there’s lots and lots of waiting? Haha, guess what? Even when you’ve got an agent and a book deal, there’s MORE WAITING. At least it’s comforting to know that my agent is handling the contracts and business side of things while I’m free to write as much as I want and focus on being creative (more like working at my day job and chipping away at never-ending-to-do-lists while also carving out time for writing…no way am I going to be a full-time creative anytime soon).
Oh, and while waiting to sign the contract, since this is a picture book, an illustrator had to be chosen! Usually picture books take longer to announce than novels, and also longer to publish than novels. I’m thrilled to say that my top choice among all the illustrators, Alina Chau, said yes!
Look at Alina Chau’s gorgeous Edward Scissorhands art, available in her store!
I adore Alina Chau’s gorgeous use of colors, compositions, character designs, and style. On top of LOVING her works and style, she and I resonate on so many similar interests. Dogs, Edward Scissorhands, Pan’s Labyrinth, Sandman, Wizard of Oz, anime, Disney, astrology, and our shared cultural background? Heck yes! It definitely helps that she has illustrated other PB biographies before, including The Rise (and Falls) of Jackie Chan by Kristen Mai Giang, which I had the pleasure of reading when I was researching comps for my Rainbow Grandpa book. I cannot think of a better illustrator to bring this picture book to life!
Signed my contract about 7 months after the pre-empt deal closed, and a little over a month after that, 8 months later in total, it feels so good to FINALLY see the Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf email pop up in my inbox!
The story behind this picture book is that I visited Rainbow Village (彩虹眷村) in November 2019, and loved the heartwarming story of a Chinese war veteran who saved his home through his art and creativity. I even got to meet Rainbow Grandpa himself! During the pandemic, I really got into reading picture book biographies, and thought Rainbow Grandpa would be a perfect subject to write about. Taiwanese-Chinese history and culture are subjects I hold dear to my heart thanks to my Taiwanese-Chinese heritage. I owe a lot of gratitude to Grace Lin, who I met at the inaugural AAPI Highlights Kidlit Retreat back in 2022, which she hosted with my agent sister, Debbi Michiko Florence! Grace and I connected over our Taiwanese-Chinese roots, and I have no idea how we got on the topic of Rainbow Grandpa and Rainbow Village, but when I mentioned I had a picture book draft, she told me that she’ll give Alvina a heads up once Tricia and I were ready to send it. Say whut. It did take about 1.5 years for the manuscript to be ready, but all that work was worth it, since Tricia submitted it out to publishers, and the book was bought in 3 weeks. In book publishing world, 3 WEEKS IS FAST.
I got to meet Rainbow Grandpa during my visit in 2019! Sadly, he passed away shortly after turning 100 (or 101, if you go by the Chinese calendar) shortly after his birthday in January this year.
I cannot ask for a better dream team. For real, I have my dream agent, dream editor, and dream illustrator! 🥳🎉🎊 Thank you everyone who has been a part of my journey! So excited for this book to come out in early 2027!
Welcome to Part 2 of my quest for dual citizenship.
If you’re looking for Part 1, in which I obtained my first Taiwanese passport without a national ID back in March 2022, please go to Part 1 of this blog post series.
Back where I left off in March 2022, once the alien resident card (ARC) and 365-day residency requirement was lifted as of January 1, 2024 (I suspect due to the current geopolitical climate), I decided at the end of 2023 that now was the time to finally finish my dual citizenship process. ARC has been replaced with Permanent Resident Card (PRC), and the documents required for PRC are:
Health check
FBI Report
Birth certificate
Parent’s marriage certificate
Parent’s/relative’s household registration
Most recent Taiwan visit, Dec 1-9, 2023
TIMELINE:
NOVEMBER 2023-APRIL 2024: COLLECTING & TRANSLATING DOCUMENTS
Health check:
December 2023: Had a check-up appointment with my physician, and reviewed the health check form from SF TECO with her. She then ordered x-rays and blood draws for measles and rubella, as per the requirements from the health check form.
2/9/2024: X-ray done
3/22/2024: Blood drawn for measles and rubella done
4/18/2024: Appointment with my doctor to finish and stamp my health check forms, set to expire 3 months from today.
3/27/2024: Fingerprints for FBI summary check went through. I went to USPS to get my fingerprints done
4/3/2024: Mailed off FBI summary, email with PIN, copies of passports, money order, and SASE to TECRO in Washington DC. Their address is Consular Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S., 4201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016
4/13/2024: Got the stamped and authenticated FBI report in the mail
Birth certificate
November-December 2023: Had to notarize an application to request a copy of my birth certificate from the county I was born in, and emailed a PDF scan of the Notarized Authorization Statement for my birth certificate to my county. I went to UPS to notarize my application.
Parent’s marriage certificate
12/23/2021: Ordered digital and hard copies from the county my parents married in. I needed this for my passport application, which I wrote about back in my Blog Post Part 1)
Parent’s/relative’s household registration
I got a hard original copy from my mom back in December 2023 when I visited her in Taiwan. I did not realize that SF TECO needs a copy dated within 3 months of the authorization appointment, so I had my mom get an updated copy dated April 2024 forwarded to me as a PDF. Even though SF TECO prefers original copies, they thankfully accepted this PDF copy I printed out.
After getting all 5 documents, I had to translate all of these into traditional Chinese (because f*** simplified). Household registration was already in Chinese since it came straight from the Taiwanese household registration office. The health check form was already in English/Chinese. Make sure you have a passport photo to put on the form. SF TECO emailed me a Chinese form for my birth certificate that I could just fill out with Chinese translations of all the things required (for example, I had to actually write the Chinese translation of the address of the hospital I was born in). For FBI Check and my parents’ marriage certificates, I used Google Translate and double-checked to make sure everything was accurate with my Dad. Man, Google Translate has come a looooooong way since the 2000s.
With all 5 documents obtained and translated in Chinese, it was time for SF TECO to authenticate all the documents!
3rd in line at SF TECO the day I authenticated my documents
MAY 1, 2024: AUTHENTICATING DOCS
No appointment was required to authenticate documents. SF TECO suggested I arrive as early as possible, so I went before 9am, and was #3 in line. I filled out an Application Form For Authentication, and these were the items required for authentication:
Birth Certificate
FBI Summary
Parents’ Marriage Certificate
Health Certificate
My U.S. passport
My Taiwanese passport
Both my parents’ Taiwanese passports
Postage stamps to get your authenticated documents mailed to you
SASE envelope, or just pay for the one they give you
$90 (bring cash, otherwise you’ll go through the hassle of Zelle or find an ATM)
Note that the household registration is not required for the authentication appointment. That will be needed for the temporary permanent resident card appointment.
Application Form For Authentication
Curse you, Zelle
Aside from figuring out Zelle, I’m glad this appointment went much more smoothly than my last appointment. One week later, I got all my authenticated documents in the mail, and was ready to schedule an appointment for my temporary permanent resident card with rep Sabrina Wu, who seems to be the main point of contact for all things PRC-related at SF TECO.
The SF TECO stamps look pretty cool
JUNE 12, 2024: APPOINTMENT FOR TEMPORARY PERMANENT RESIDENT CARD
Before my appointment, I emailed Sabrina to confirm that this was everything I needed:
Authenticated & translated Birth certificate
Authenticated & translated FBI Check
Authenticated & translated Health Certificate
Authenticated & translated parents’ marriage certificate
Household registration
My US passport
My Taiwan passport
Both of my parents’ passports
At least $31 cash
Although she confirmed over email everything looked perfect, my appointment at SF TECO could have gone more smoothly. Once I arrived at my 9am appointment time, I was blindsided by being told to fill out a whole new application form in Chinese, AND I needed a passport photo. I had to go to Walgreens to get some passport photos taken, AND pay extra on top of what I was instructed to pay for my appointment. At least I brought extra cash this time. And still had plenty of leftover postage stamps from my last appointment. It was annoying, but at least Sabrina was kind and great to work with, and was understanding of all the effort and time I put into this arduous process.
Walgreens is just 2 blocks south of SF TECO for your passport photo needs
After everything was processed and paid, now it’s time to wait 6-8 weeks for my temporary permanent resident card to arrive in the mail and look into booking a flight to Taipei within the next 6 months. There was this display explaining the next steps, which boils down to:
Enter Taiwan with Taiwanese passport and temporary PRC
Take temporary PRC to the service station of the Immigration Agency to exchange it for the real PRC–roughly 3 business days
Bring new PRC to the local household registration office closest to the address listed on your family’s household registration to apply for registration and get an ID card–roughly 1 business day
Go to Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Bureau of Consular Affairs to apply for updated Taiwanese passport with a National ID number on it, as you’ll need this to leave Taiwan–roughly 10 business days.
Part 3 will take roughly 2-3 weeks once I’m in Taiwan.
The next steps in Chinese
Bless iPhone 15 technology for reading and translating photos of text
Next mission: 6 months to fly to Taiwan and get citizenship. Wish me luck! Stay tuned for Part 3.
Took a selfie with my passports in Part 1, so here’s 2 years later with authenticated docs
P.S. This whole process feels like one big video game quest broken down into smaller quests.
Ever since I got my first Taiwanese passport in 2022, fellow Taiwanese-Americans have been asking me how I got started with my dual-citizenship journey. Finally getting around to writing a 3-part blog post as a resource for friends, family, and strangers.
When I started this process, Taiwan required getting an alien resident card (ARC) and staying in Taiwan for at least 365 days. Ever since they lifted that requirement as of January 1, 2024 (I’ll talk more about that in Part 2), to my knowledge, the process of getting your passport still remains unchanged.
From my research, it looks like every embassy is slightly different with what they require, so I’d say try to email and/or call the embassy in advance to confirm their requirements. ALWAYS book an appointment so you don’t turn up at the embassy only to either wait forever or get turned away (I saw this happen to someone the day of my appointment). As a San Francisco Bay Area native, my local embassy is Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco (SF TECO), and their contact page is here. I’ve been doing LOTS of emailing back and forth with sfo@mofa.gov.tw
As for their phone, I was able to speak on the phone a few times back in 2021-2022, but as of 2024, if I try calling, nobody picks up. Either things have changed in 2024, or I just have bad luck.
SF TECO address: 555 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. They’re on the 2nd floor.
For San Francisco TECO, I was required to bring:
1. 2 passport photos
2. Parents’ Original Taiwan passports
3. Original Parents’ marriage certificate—doesn’t matter if it’s in the US or Taiwan, I’ll get into this later.
4. My original birth certificate
5. My U.S. Passport
6. Passport application form filled out
7. $45 payment fee, either check or cash
Optional:
1. The exit-entry application form (this is only needed if I was intending and planning to travel to Taiwan in the near future).
2. Envelope to mail the new passport to me. However, for $13 in cash, they can prepare the priority envelope and postage for me, which I honestly preferred because it was just convenient to do everything onsite.
Entrance into SF TECO once you exit the elevator on the 2nd floor
I ended up having a few hiccups:
1. My parents’ Taiwan marriage certificate was denied because it had become ineligible due to slight water damage and years of not the best care. Having to figure out how to get a copy from Taiwan would have been a hassle. BUT luckily for me, they had remarried in the US, so I tracked down my parents’ American marriage certificate through the website of the county they married in, and paid to have it delivered to me. (LOL at my mom, who asked when she and my dad got remarried for funsies, “When is this ever going to be useful?” Over 20 years later, LOOK MA, your own daughter found it useful!!!).
2. My passport application form needed BOTH of my parents’ signatures, despite being over the age 18. I was completely under the impression parents’ signatures were only needed if the applicant was under 18. I have no idea how other people with only 1 Taiwanese parent have done it, but SF TECO made me get them to sign it and re-mail it back to the embassy.
3. My first passport photos were rejected because my ears are so small, my photos with my hair down made them look like they were covered up. I am so thankful I answered my phone when SF TECO called me to let me know otherwise I might have ignored it and let it go to VM. So, I had to go pay some more moolah to get my photos done a second time, THIS TIME with my hair pulled up and wearing a black headband that blended with my hair to prove my ears really are super tiny. I mailed my photos back to them with my Chinese name and reference number written on a piece of notepad paper.
This process ended up taking about 3 months, from when I went to SF TECO for the first time in December 2021, to getting my passport in March 2022. Hooray for joining the dual-passport club!
Up until 2024, I was trying to figure out how to time my life to dedicate a full year of living in Taiwan. As of 01/01/2024, it’s no longer a requirement, so that made things way easier for me to move on to phase 2: get the temporary permanent resident card.
Happy to join the dual passport club with my brand-spanking-new Taiwan passport!
Fun fact: I learned is that the terms nationality and citizenship in Taiwan are not used interchangeably the way they are in the United States. One can be a national without being a citizen. Anyone born overseas to Taiwanese citizens are seen as overseas nationals, and are eligible for Taiwan passports, but gaining citizenship is a whole other process. They are also eligible for dual citizenship and do not need to give up citizenship of their birth country. In my case, I’m an overseas national, but am not (yet) a citizen.
Note that because I am not a citizen, my passport does not have a National ID number printed in it. National ID numbers are only given to citizens, and not to overseas nationals. So, if I need to enter Taiwan with this passport, I would need to fill out the exit-entry application form for SF TECO.
This is a very late post 6 months AFTER the inaugural AAPI Kidlit Creative retreat at the Highlights Foundation. I meant to blog about this experience earlier, but in my backlog of writing and non-writing obligations, this kept getting pushed down my to-do list. With Halloween today, I figured it’d be a great day to write about this!
Remember how I mentioned I got laid off in my last post? Well, that was a total blessing because, for one thing, it gave me a great excuse to fly across the country to go to the first-ever AAPI Kidlit Creative retreat held on the Highlights Foundation campus out in the boonies in Pennsylvania! It’s so obscure, Scranton airport doesn’t accept many airlines (bye-bye Southwest), so scheduling logistics and buying plane tickets and getting all my transfer flights lined up like ducks in a row, only to end up dealing with multiple cancellations and delays, was a major headache.
The retreat started on Sunday at 5pmEST, and I originally planned to fly out of the Bay Area on Saturday morning, with one transfer in Seattle and another transfer in Chicago, so that I could get to Scranton Airport on Saturday evening and stay an extra night before the retreat started. BUT THEN, that Saturday morning flight got pushed up to Friday night around 7:30. Ok, that was annoying, but I’m sure I’d be fine staying overnight in the Seattle airport. When I got to the Oakland airport, the flight then got pushed to 8:30. Then 9:30. Then 9:55. After we boarded the Seattle-bound plane at 10:55pm, the plane rolled out onto the tarmac, only to suddenly announce “Oh JK, this flight is canceled.” Wow, THANKS BIDEN. And no one affected got hotel vouchers.
I got transferred to the San Francisco airport for a flight the next morning. Shoutout to my dad for being a real supportive MVP for getting me past midnight and then driving me to SFO at 5am in the morning…where my 8am flight ALSO GOT CANCELLED, and I got transferred to ANOTHER flight that would fly out around 12:30. I was wondering if this trip is even going to happen at all. Because of all the travel headache I was facing, the Highlights Foundation was so kind to book me a room at the inn across from Scranton Airport, I could cry from both elation and exhaustion when I finally made it.
Relieved to FINALLY be in my room on campus!
The next day, Sunday, when I FINALLY made it safely to my room on the Highlights Foundation campus out in the Pocono Mountains, I felt this wave of relief, of feeling like all of those travel headaches had been worth it and I was so EXCITED to finally be here! When I first stepped into my charming and adorable room, I felt like I had been whisked away into a storybook setting. I enjoyed walking around in the beautiful green landscapes during the day and various kinds of weather (I felt like I experienced a wide range of seasons here! Sun, rain, and snow happened all the days I was here), exploring the “haunted” house, hopping from writing spot to writing spot all around campus, and swinging on the swing.
Normally, I would think, “Wait, paying just to write with other writers? No critiques or workshopping or anything? What?” But because this was an AAPI-specific retreat, it was so rewarding to meet other AAPI writers in the kidlit community knowing that we could be comfortable within our cultural community. Many attendees are already traditionally published or aiming for traditional publication. I also got to meet my agent sisters, Sarah Park Dahlen and Debbi Michiko Florence!
Meeting my agent sisters in person, Sarah Park Dahlen and Debbi Michiko Florence
With all the time set aside for writing each day, I set the ambitious goal to write roughly 10k words a day to meet a 40k middle grade historical fiction novel goal by the end of the retreat. When I wrote my last words on the last evening of the retreat, it felt like a huge victory.
My guest entry in the room’s dedicated journal.
It was a magical time! Getting to escape to the mountains and meeting fellow AAPI Kidlit writers was such a rare opportunity, I was so happy I flew out to the East Coast for this. Afterwards, I decided to spend some extra days on the East Coast and Midwest, playing tourist in Philadelphia, visiting a good college friend out in Detroit, and taking the train for a short touristy afternoon around Chicago before flying back home. Now that I’m writing this blog post 6 months later, I absolutely would come back for a future AAPI kidlit retreat!
What a month March has been. It only feels like it was just March 1, when I had such a strong start with a publication in Uncanny Magazine and all of the sudden, it’s March 31 today.
This month was a blur. Let me start with the good stuff: On March 1, after decade of trying, I’m finally in Uncanny Magazine!!!!!!
Wouldn’t have made it in without my dear friend Meghan Elison. She randomly asked me if I happened to have any nonfiction work. It just so happened I had an essay due for revisions sitting around!
“Acknowledging Taiwanese-American Vampire Foodies” is my love letter to one of my favorite Taiwanese street snacks, pigs’ blood cake, and waxes poetic about my ethnic cultural and goth subcultural background fueling my writing. The support and response I’ve received from my agent, writer friends, and non-writer friends has been so heartwarming. One of the responses that has meant the most to me is my mom. A Taiwanese immigrant herself, she’s always supported me in writing (the one creative outlet she’s approved of for me), and I loved her live reactions as she was reading it. On the day of publication, she laughed and told me my writing was very engaging, witty, and funny. She even shared it with her friends, aunties who’ve seen me grow up, and they all congratulated her for my achievement. One of the aunties even texted her that she always admired my persistence to go after my writing goals since I was a kid. That really meant a lot to me.
I’m in issue 45!
One week later on March 8, I got laid off from my day job. It was honestly a blessing in disguise. I generally try to keep my day profession and creative pursuits separate, so I won’t talk too much about it in this blog post, but if you keep up with mortgage and/or tech industry, then you’ve likely heard about the mass layoff that happened at Better Mortgage, and all the bad PR surrounding the company. I’ve written my experiences on LinkedIn on the day of the layoff, one week later, and three weeks later when the Scotsman Guide rankings were publicly released.
March has been a month of running around with tying up loose ends, mentally and physically chasing anything and everything that needs closure, and surprisingly actually not writing as much as I would have liked to. On happier notes, my first-ever Taiwanese passport arrived in the mail (yay for joining the dual passport club), I saw Turning Red at Grand Lake Theater in Oakland (only 1 out of 3 theaters in the nation that played it, the other two were in LA and NY), and celebrated my 6 year anniversary with my boyfriend. On our anniversary, I surprised him by wearing a sewing project I’ve kept secret for the past two months: the Blood of Stars dress from Elizabeth Lim’s Blood of Stars duology.
My interpretation of the Blood of Stars gown
One of the ways I kept myself busy and happy while there’s no day job to worry about is completing all 3 enchanted gowns. I think they deserve a blog post of their own, especially since Elizabeth Lim’s works has been an inspiration for my own writing.
In April, on top of job hunting and interviewing, writing-wise, I’ll be turning my focus to the two novels I’m working on (a dark fantasy MG I’ve been working on since last year and am revising after getting feedback from two CPs, and a historical fiction I’m in the early stages of researching for), going through the BIPOC fairytale anthology submissions, recording a sci-fi audiobook narration, and traveling to Pennsylvania for the In-Community Retreat for AAPI Kidlit Creatives taking place at the Highlights Foundation. It’s hosted by Grace Lin and my agent sibling, Debbi Michiko Florence. I’m SO excited to be connecting with other AAPI kidlit writers, and will certainly be dedicating another blog post to that experience.
So excited to go aaaahhhhhh!!!!!
Ending March with bigger and better things to come!
Thank you everyone who submitted in 2021 to the BIPOC Fairytale anthology! With Lauren Davila and Jo Wu co-editing together, we are opening up to a second round of submissions! We are so appreciative and in awe of the beautiful stories we are seeing. More than half of the anthology is filled up, and for this second submission round there are certain writers of different BIPOC groups that we would LOVE to see more of in our inbox.
NOTE: We already have plenty of stories from Southeast Asian groups, including Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Filipino. While SEA authors are still welcome to submit, please keep in mind that because we want fair representation across all BIPOC groups, we are prioritizing stories from the groups below:
Any and all native members (America, Australia, Canada, etc.)
East Asian (we have an overwhelming number of submissions from Chinese-identifying authors and want to see other groups represented):
Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Hmong
South Asian (we also have an overwhelming number of submissions from Indian-identifying authors):
Afghan, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bhutanese, Nepalese
Middle Eastern
Egyptian, Iranian, Turkish, Saudi Arabian
African and/or Black
Latinx/e and Afro-Latinx/e
Even if you don’t fall under these categories, feel free to submit as we would love to consider your story.
As far as fairy tales go, we are no longer accepting the following retellings (we have so many options for us to choose from!)
Cinderella
Twelve Dancing Princesses
Red Riding Hood
The Red Shoes
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Persephone and Hades
Stories that involve tigers
We are open to retellings of non-Western fairy tales, and our wishlists are not exhaustive! Below are some specific #MSWL for Jo and Lauren:
Jo’s wishlist:
Fairy Tales I’d like to see retellings of (and only if you can give them HEA):
Donkeyskin
The Juniper Tree
Hansel and Gretel
The Matchstick Girl
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Snow White and Red Rose
The Silver Saucer and the Transparent Apple
Indigenous writers, please please please send me stories uplifting your beautiful cultures! One of my favorite picture books growing up was the Algonquin Cinderella story “The Rough-Face Girl,” and I’d love to see more stories in this vein (though something more creative than another Cinderella retelling).
Korean fairy tales, or Western fairy tales with a Korean spin! Give me your gumiho (something beyond just the evil twisted female feasting on men’s livers and lifeforce), and dokkaebi!
Stories that showcase the beauty and empowerment of voodoo magic
Romani fairy tales (Esmeralda from Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame was my huge girl crush growing up).
Latinx/e stories that make me feel mesmerized the way Pixar’s Coco did (it’s my favorite Pixar movie, and I like comping it to Spirited Away x Corpse Bride)
Pacific Islander writers
Mongolian writers
Secondary fantasy worlds that feel immersive, enchanting, and hopeful.
If you need comps for writing style and voice, please reference:
Fairy tale picture books (your local library’s children section should be a great resource for research!)
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Anything (such as Spin the Dawn and Six Crimson Cranes) by Elizabeth Lim
Deathless by Catherynne M Valente
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Above all, a successful combination of immersive world-building, relatable characters, engaging plot, and happy endings.
Lauren’s wishlist:
NOTE: If you’ve been published in another of Lauren’s anthologies, please DM Lauren first for further information. We’d love to see fresh talent too!
Fairytales I would want specific retellings of:
Peter Pan
Hansel and Gretel
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Frog Prince
The Pied Piper
Princess and the Pea
The Ugly Duckling
Anything in the vein of Once Upon A Time (I need some interconnected family drama!!)
Enemies to lovers reimaginings of any fairytale pairing. I want it angsty and filled with longing but ultimately (you guessed it) ending with an HEA/HFN
Would love some exploration of brujeria!!! Give me ALLLLLLL the culturally specific witches
I second Jo’s call for stories like Coco and am also adding in anything that feels like Encanto (make your story SING). Bright and vibrant and looking at generational trauma through a magical lense
If anyone could make it somehow fit a HEA, I would love something related to Santa Muerte! Feel free to DM me to chat about it!!
I’d love to consider some retellings and reimaginings that have the fairytale atmosphere and worldbuilding but in our world! I’d love a lush modern take on your fairytale story set in New York or Los Angeles!!
Anything and everything ballet!
The Nutcracker
The Firebird
Coppelia
La Bayadere
The Dying Swan
La Sylphide
Some of my favorite retellings for voice or comps
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
The Cursebreakers series by Brigid Kemmerer
Anything from the “Once Upon A Time” imprint through Simon Pulse
What we don’t want to see:
Sad endings. We welcome dark stories (especially when they delight Jo’s little black goth heart), and we are seeing many submissions with gorgeous writing, but leave us without that hint of a HEA. We envision this as an anthology that uplifts BIPOC magic and joy. Please refer to guidelines from the first round of submissions.
Contemporary settings that feel more urban fantasy than fairy tales. We are looking for a sense of escapism in the vein of traditional storybook fairy tales.
Stories that throw BIPOC men under the bus by portraying them in a completely negative light. You can still have POC male villains! But historically, POC men often occupy a “villain” narrative. We’d like to see men, women, and NB characters across the board being fully three-dimensional and fleshed out. Feel free to DM one of us if you have questions about this!
Stories that harm or bash any marginalized group (LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodiverse, etc.)
Stories that go beyond the word count
Anyone claiming to be BIPOC when they aren’t. Even if you are an ally, have a POC significant other, have mixed-race children, etc, please respect that this is a space to showcase BIPOC writers.
These original guidelines from the first round of submissions still remain at the forefront for us:
Classic fairytale retellings with a cultural twist inspired by (but not limited to):
Disney princess narratives
Grimms Brothers
Hans Christian Anderson
Classic ballet/opera
Cozy stories with a whimsical charm, similar to the feel of a Studio Ghibli movie
Light-hearted stories with a happy ending
Stories that weave in elements of your culture’s mythology or religion (would love to see different gods and goddesses)
Stories with fantastical creatures like fairies, mermaids, or witches
Stories that include an emphasis of your culture’s food, traditions, and celebrations
LGBTQ+, disabled, and neurodiverse narratives are strongly welcomed if they fit within the anthology’s fairytale theme
Dark, gothic-romantic fairy tales that are balanced out with whimsical elements
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Please send your fairytale pitch, a brief bio, and a 3-5 page sample of your story to bipocfairytales@gmail.com by March 31. After evaluating your concept, we will contact you for the full sample of your story if we wish to move forward. We aim to find out of the box, unique fairy tales that showcase who you are and highlight your whimsical storytelling. All stories must fall in the Young Adult age category and maximum 3500 words. For this round, we are seeking shorter stories.
If you have previously submitted and had your story passed on, you are welcome to send in a new pitch. If you never received a response, please email us and let us know! We want to make sure everyone who submits gets a response.
All Entrants must be over 18 years of age to submit an entry and all submissions must be the original work of the Entrant. If you are going to be 18 by the end of June 2022 when we aim to finalize edits for all stories for submission to publishers, please contact the BIPOC Fairytale Anthology team directly via email.
If you have any questions, feel free to email our anthology team: bipocfairytales@gmail.com, or DM @kiana_krystle and @Sammi_Elyse on Twitter (though @Jo_Wu_Author and @laurengilmore03 are also happy to answer any questions that are specifically directed to them!). Feel free to share snippets or aesthetics of your story using the hashtag: #BIPOCfairytales.
citizenship.
Jo Wu 