The New York Taiwan Center
The New York Taiwan Center is one of the most important community organizations in Flushing for the Chinese community. Founded 26 years ago, the Taiwan Center is now one of the main sources of entertainment for the Chinese/Taiwanese population in Flushing. As Flushing is now the second largest Chinese ethnic enclave in New York, the Taiwan Center sees visitors from all over New York City; however, members of the Taiwan Center are all primarily residents of Flushing. While Flushing is overwhelmingly comprised of Mandarin-speaking Chinese people and the de-facto official language of Flushing is Mandarin, Flushing also has large populations of Koreans, Hispanics, and Indians as well.
Flushing also has a large Korean population.
Seven Centers
There are seven Taiwan Centers in North America. In addition to the New York Taiwan Center, there is a branch in Houston, San Diego, Seattle, Northern California, Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada. Despite the many branches of the organization, the New York Taiwan Center operates independently and rarely works with other community organizations. Taiwan centers were established to serve the Taiwanese American community. Taiwan Centers typically provide entertainment programs during the day for seniors and events in the evening for the public. In addition to providing programs for seniors and entertainment for the public, Taiwan centers often serve as voting centers for both elections Taiwan and United States elections.
Unexpected Conflict
At the Taiwan Center I interviewed Danny who grew up in Taiwan and moved to the United States after graduating college. Currently Danny works as the Taiwan Center’s accountant. The majority of the Taiwan Center’s members are Taiwanese, but there are also many people from Mainland China. The Taiwan Center, therefore, serves as an accurate ethnic thermometer for the general Chinese population in Flushing and New York City as a whole. According to Danny, the reason why new Chinese immigrants, in recent times, live in Flushing as opposed to the traditional Chinatown in Manhattan is because it is cheaper to live in Queens than Manhattan. Unlike people currently living in China and Taiwan, the Chinese/Taiwanese residents of Flushing do not feel there is a divide between Taiwan-born Chinese and Mainland Chinese. Furthermore, the Taiwan Center experiences no conflict or tension between the two groups. According to Danny, the main source of conflict in the organization is between Taiwanese people that disagree over the politics of Taiwan, not the relationship between China and Taiwan.
Open Doors
While the Taiwan Center is open to everyone, rarely do non-Taiwanese or non-Chinese people visit, as the main language spoken there is Mandarin Chinese. The Taiwan Center’s doors are always open, and I saw evidence of this when I easily walked right in. I immediately noticed a large group of Chinese senior citizens dancing to American pop music in the large room in the back. I witnessed the weekly dance lessons held every Monday followed by games of Ping-Pong. This is an example of the entertainment that the Taiwan Center provides to its members.
The majority of the Taiwan Center's daily events provide entertainment for senior citizens.
Events
The Taiwan center also hosts many cultural events such as the Chinese Lunar New Year event, which is open to the public. Very few non-Chinese people attend these events such as Americans and Hispanics, but it is overwhelming Chinese. At such an event the organization serves Chinese food, provide games, music, and dancing, and often raffle off prizes. Events such as these serve as fundraisers for the organization. In addition to event fundraising, the Taiwan Center receives the rest of their funding from philanthropic donors such as Council Member Peter Koo and his office as well as members of the local Chinese and Taiwanese community.
Organization
In order to be a member of the Taiwan Center, one has to pay the membership fee. A fifteen-member board runs the Taiwan center. The board members are all founding members of the Taiwan Center, and are all of Taiwanese descent. Although board elections are held every two years, the same people are consistently elected. This reflects the relative stability and lack of tension in the Taiwan Center and the Chinese community in Flushing as a whole, as the Taiwan Center is the primary Chinese/Taiwanese organization in Flushing. While the Taiwan Center provides entertainment activities and is most often frequented by seniors, it occasionally helps new Chinese immigrants, which usually consists of directing immigrants to the proper place to receive help, such as the council member’s office, as many of these issues have to deal with housing and government applications.
by Hunter Gross
