The largest Newton-Taiwan Day celebration took place on May 3 at Hyde Playground beside the Culture Center of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston on Lincoln Street in Newton Highlands.
Saturday’s warm weather welcomed a large crowd to gather for the wide variety of Taiwanese food and drink vendors, and a diverse set of 15 musical and dance performances.
Resources, such as the Lexington Chinese School, also had booths set up to interact with the crowd and spread awareness of the bicultural and bilingual accommodations that exist locally.
In addition to the many food vendors on the field, chefs from Taiwan had stations set up in the Hyde gym for guests to try authentic Taiwanese cuisine.
Charles Liao, director-general of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston, helped organize the event. He said, “The purpose for the event is not only just to try to present our Taiwanese food culture, but I believe that the most important flavor for this event is that the spirit of Taiwan is warm, welcoming with the hospitality that we treat our friend[s].”
Liao said that Newton-Taiwan Day brings together, “people from the community, from different families, different generations.”
“Taiwan was occupied by the Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese in the past few 100 years, so our culture emerged in many different kinds of history, [and] different kinds of cultures,” said Liao. The distinct assortment of foods and performances, including indigenous practices, that were prepared for the event all individually share a piece of Taiwan’s rich history.
Newton-Taiwan Day was founded in 2007, and this year’s crowd appeared to be one of the biggest in its history.
Before Sarah Chen became president of the Brookline Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce two years ago, she had been a member of the Taiwanese dragon boat team for five years. Chen said she has seen, “the [local Taiwanese] community really grow stronger in the past six years.”
Chen said Newton-Taiwan Day “becomes the one day that the entire Taiwanese community kind of comes back and sees each other, does fun things, eats together, enjoys some music together.”
The success of Newton-Taiwan Day speaks to how the local Taiwanese population continues to grow its influence and cultivate community throughout generations and cultures. “It’s always fun coming to these types of events, to engage with people, find community, and new friends,” said Chen
