Carissa Cheng is the 2025 Ya-Hui Chiu Summer Fellow and a recent graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in International Relations with a focus on Asia. At Stanford, she served as the Co-President of Stanford’s Taiwanese Cultural Society (TCS), where she enthusiastically spread awareness of Taiwan’s vibrant culture. Through her studies on Taiwanese history and politics, she also connected with local Taiwanese organizations to learn about how Taiwanese Americans can support Taiwan in its unique geopolitical struggles. She completed her senior thesis on Taiwanese American intergenerational storytelling and perceptions of China as a threat. She hopes to use her degree to help the US build stronger alliances in Asia through deeper cross-cultural understanding in order to collaboratively solve global challenges.
At the Global Taiwan Institute, Carissa hopes to deepen her understanding of US-Taiwan relations through the lens of Taiwanese American history and political activism, particularly on topics such as cultural diplomacy, language politics, and diasporic identity.
During her free time, Carissa enjoyed serving as videographer and dance captain for Stanford’s K-pop dance team XTRM, and is always happy to chat about K-pop, Taylor Swift, artsy movies, and trying new foods.
