Monday, October 6, 2025 from 5:30PM – 7:00PM (ET)
In-person and Webcast
Event Description:
The Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion titled “Representing Taiwan in DC: How Taiwanese Americans Can Bridge Culture and Policy.”
For Taiwan, cultural promotion and political recognition are deeply interconnected, yet are rarely talked about in the same room. Taiwan policy spaces rarely include Taiwanese community centers, while Taiwanese cultural organizations often downplay pathways towards civic activism and political mobilization. This event highlights how “cultural organizations,” which build community by hosting Taiwanese cultural events, can engage with policy spaces in Washington DC and tangibly facilitate closer US-Taiwan relations. This event brings together local Taiwanese American leaders whose work integrates both cultural visibility efforts and policy initiatives. They demonstrate that Taiwanese Americans, here in the nation’s capital, can help build long-lasting friendship between Taiwan and the United States.
This event will feature panelists Tim Chng (Co-Founder of ITASA and President of Maryland FAPA Chapter), Adam Peir (Head of Civic Engagement Committee on TAP National Board), and David Tang (Principal of the Washington DC Taiwanese School). It will also feature Richard Haddock, Assistant Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, as a discussant. This event will be moderated by Carissa Cheng, the 2025 Ya-Hui Chiu Summer Fellow at GTI.
The event will be held at George Washington University’s Lindner Family Commons, located on the sixth floor (room 602) of the Elliott School of International Affairs at 1957 E Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20052. Doors will open at 5:00 PM, and the event will begin at 5:30 PM. If you plan on attending in-person, please RSVP by October 5, as seating is limited. Please direct questions or concerns to Senior Programs Manager Adrienne Wu at awu@globaltaiwan.org.
**Media: Please contact Yuchen Lee at ylee@globaltaiwan.org if you would like to bring additional crew members or equipment, so that we can be sure to accommodate you.
The Panelists:
Tim Chng is a Principal Software Developer at Yahoo Inc. and a longtime advocate for Taiwanese American and Asian Pacific American communities. He is a co-founder of ITASA (Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association) and a volunteer at TANG (Taiwanese American Next Generation). A Baltimore resident since 1999, he serves on the Board of Trustees for the Baltimore School for the Arts, the Maryland Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, and as the President of the FAPA Maryland Chapter.
Adam Peir is a data professional and community leader based in the DMV area. He works in data analytics for the federal government, where he develops tools to support law enforcement investigations. Within the Taiwanese American community, Adam has served as a board member and president of Taiwanese American Professionals–DC and was Director of Civic Engagement with the Taiwanese American Citizens League through 2024. He has organized voter outreach campaigns, cultural programs, and community events to strengthen Taiwanese American civic participation and representation.
David Tang has been dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Taiwanese culture since 2008. As Principal of the Washington DC Taiwanese School since 2019, he has led a period of rapid growth in student enrollment for Taiwanese language, Mandarin, and cultural studies. In 2021, he founded the Mandarin Learning Center to emphasize the importance of traditional Chinese characters in mainstream education. David currently serves as a board member of Rockville’s Sister City Corporation in Maryland, helping to promote Taiwanese culture within the City of Rockville. He is an advisor to the Formosa Association of Student Cultural Ambassadors and Co-Founder of Millennial Global Youth (MGY). Since 2024, he has successfully hosted Taiwanese Heritage Day events with the Washington Wizards and Nationals, elevating public visibility for the Taiwanese American community.
The Discussant:
Richard J. Haddock is the assistant director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at GW, where he leads Taiwan affairs programming, outreach, and curriculum development. He is a PhD candidate in Public Administration and a member of the UC Berkeley US-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group, researching digital democracy and education diplomacy. His past roles include positions at the GW East Asia National Resource Center, the American Institute in Taiwan, the National Democratic Institute, and the US Department of State.
The Moderator:
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 United States build stronger alliances in Asia through deeper cross-cultural understanding in order to collaboratively solve global challenges.