Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Chatting with a mom from the workshop about camps for teens reminded me that I haven’t shared much about this from my trip.

Most people probably know Jay Chou, but when he was starting out, Mayday was also rising in popularity—and they’re still going strong today. I’ve been a fan since their first 168 concert, though I haven’t had many chances to see them live in Taiwan. But on this past trip, they happened to be touring, so I stayed up until 1:30 AM to snag tickets—and I got them!

On the day of the concert, the weather was perfect, and everything was super organized, unlike the old days when you had to wait forever to get in. Even though the crowd was huge, the twins had a blast, and for me, it was a major highlight of the trip. Since coming back, they’ve been playing with the light sticks we got at the concert, and little Bao even said he wants to go to another Mayday concert someday. That just warmed my heart.

A few second-gen Taiwanese Americans I’ve met speak fluent Chinese, and many of them told me they first got hooked on Taiwanese pop culture( Jolin & Amei) in middle school—reading lyrics, watching shows—which kept them engaged with Chinese all the way through high school and beyond.

Speaking of that, little Bao just mentioned he’s into Demon Slayer now. I know it’s not exactly age-appropriate, but I’m on the hunt for Chinese resources to keep him engaged!