Autobiographer recounts historical events that informed the upbringing of Taiwanese in the United States in new memoir.
DALLAS – Like many from Taiwan, Dr. Chiufang Hwang’s parents immigrated in the United States in the late 1960s to flee the regime of a dictator who used murder, brutality, and fear to stay in power and quell any political or social dissent. But the impact of the legacy of oppression didn’t end on America’s shores. In Escape from Taiwan, Hwang recounts how her parents’ generation may have found refuge here, but never felt truly safe, creating an outlook of fear among the children of these Taiwanese immigrants as well.
Escape from Taiwan describes how the political repression Hwang’s parents experienced in Taiwan remained a constant specter during her own childhood despite the freedom, democracy, and opportunities offered here, due to her parents’ paranoia because of their involvement in secret Taiwanese expat pro-democracy organizations.
“Even though I grew up in the United States, I was raised by people whose outlook was informed by fear and oppression and instilled in me the dangers of speaking out,” says Hwang. “For me and other children of Taiwanese immigrants, their legacy of oppression became ours by default, and impacted our efforts to assimilate to our adopted country.”
Part memoir, part family history, the book recounts Hwang’s journey to understand the historical events that informed her upbringing, and in the process, how she gained a greater appreciation for the ideals represented by the Statue of Liberty to generations of immigrants.
Escape from Taiwan: Legacy of Oppression can be purchased online through SDP Publishing, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other retailers. Dr. Hwang previously published the books American Sweetheart, Grown-Up Child, and Finding Janine. For more information about Dr. Chiufang Hwang, visit www.chiufang.com or connect with her on Instagram and Twitter.
About the Author
Chiufang Hwang, MD, received her doctor of medicine degree from the University of Texas’ School of Medicine and completed her residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, where she lives with her husband and two sons.
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