The play opens with Wong recounting a real moment: her July 2022 interview with a Broadway producer to write the musical adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians, just two months after being named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her seventh solo show Kristina Wong: Sweatshop Overlord. In retelling the experience, she pitches an exaggerated, Cinderella-style story about wealth, romance, and upward mobility.

The framing is intentionally absurd. Wong, a self-described activist artist with a history of working with marginalized communities, is painfully aware that she does not fit the mold of a mainstream Broadway storyteller. Her comedic desperation — “I can give you crazy and Asian” — sets up one of the central tensions of the piece: the pull between artistic integrity and the desire for financial security and recognition.

When she fails to land the job, Wong pivots. If she cannot write a glossy musical about wealth and aspiration, she will write her own musical — one that reflects her real life. In a clever structural move, she adopts the conventions of a romantic comedy (meet-cute, complications, resolution) and casts an unexpected love interest: her local food bank. This conceit becomes the organizing metaphor of the show. The “relationship” allows Wong to explore not only her personal history with food insecurity, but also the broader systems that shape access to food in the United States.

Hunger, Shame and a Struggle to Survive
Wong’s early adulthood as a struggling artist provides emotional grounding. In her twenties, she juggles low-paying jobs and inconsistent income, often relying on work that provided meals or improvising ways to get by.

Shame plays a central role. Cultural expectations and personal pride made it difficult for her to seek help. Even when assistance programs existed, they felt inaccessible and stigmatized. Through humor, Wong illustrates how people hide food insecurity, masking it with resourcefulness and silence.

Her story highlights a broader truth: hunger in America is often invisible, shaped as much by social stigma as by economic hardship.

The Meet-Cute: Discovering World Harvest Food Bank
The narrative shifts when Wong discovers the World Harvest Food Bank, a non-traditional food bank that operates like a grocery store. Unlike more institutional models, it offers flexibility and dignity — people pay what they can, volunteer, or simply receive food.

Wong describes this as a romantic “meet-cute.” For the first time, she experiences abundance without shame. The space redefines what food aid can look like, offering not just sustenance but autonomy.

Her affection for World Harvest extends to its founder, Glenn Curado, whom she portrays as an unconventional, almost mythic figure. Unlike leaders of large nonprofit food banks, he refuses restrictive funding, avoids bureaucratic oversight, and prioritizes accessibility for undocumented people and others who might be excluded from formal systems. Wong contrasts this model with the larger Feeding America network, highlighting tensions between scale, regulation, and flexibility. Through humor — comparing food banks to the Kardashian sisters — she critiques the hierarchies and branding within the nonprofit world.

Yet the play does not romanticize food banks uncritically. As the “relationship” deepens, Wong introduces complications. She examines the language of “hunger” versus “food insecurity,” noting how emotional appeals are often used in fundraising while obscuring systemic causes.

Dating the System: When Aid Programs Become Characters
Expanding beyond her own experience, Wong connects food insecurity to larger structural issues. She traces the history of U.S. food assistance, emphasizing that the country does not guarantee food as a basic right.

Stories from communities like the Navajo Nation illustrate “food apartheid,” where geography, race, and policy limit access to nutritious food. These examples reinforce that hunger is not accidental but systemic.

Wong critiques how food banks function politically. They offer powerful imagery for politicians while allowing deeper issues — low wages, housing costs, healthcare — to remain unaddressed. She suggests food banks act as a “Band-Aid,” providing relief without solving root causes. This dual role makes them both essential and problematic.

At the emotional peak, Wong realizes the food bank cannot be her “forever love.” While necessary, it cannot end hunger. This realization is framed as a romantic breakup. Food banks address immediate need but not systemic inequality. By dramatizing this, Wong captures the tension between gratitude and frustration.

The play ends with a vision of a world where food banks are no longer needed because basic needs are guaranteed. Wong imagines a society where food, housing, and healthcare are accessible to all.

This vision is aspirational but grounded in critique. It challenges audiences to think beyond temporary solutions and toward systemic change.

Comedy as a Call to Action
What makes Food Bank Influencer so compelling is its ability to hold multiple truths at once. It celebrates the lifesaving work of food banks while critiquing their limitations. It uses humor to make difficult topics accessible without diminishing their seriousness. And it transforms a deeply personal story into a broader call for systemic change.

In the end, Wong’s “love story” is less about a single institution than about a shift in perspective. By moving from charity to community, from scarcity to dignity, she challenges audiences to rethink not only how we feed people, but how we value them.

For more information, visit kristinawong.com

Read my article about Kristina Wong Food Bank Influencer where I originally wrote it in The Village View:

Inside Kristina Wong’s Food Bank Influencer

Kaju Roberto is an accomplished musician, singer/ songwriter, journalist, and an award-winning producer. He is the artist Rad Jet.

The post A Love Story About Hunger: Inside Kristina Wong’s Food Bank Influencer appeared first on Rad Jet's Historic Jazz Walking Tours.

Emceed by three-time Asian literary award winner Ed Lin, this well-attended event featured live jazz music entertainment, catered Taiwanese American food and beverage, and a raffle of six outstanding prizes, while featuring the NYC premiere of the award-winning and longest running Taiwan-related podcast, Talking Taiwan, as a LIVE podcast!

A 2021 Golden Crane Award winning podcast, Talking Taiwan was also shortlisted in the category of Moment of Visionary Leadership by being chosen as one of 15 entries out of over 700 entries from 34 countries for the 2024 International Women’s Podcast Awards.

At the event, Talking Taiwan’s host and co-producer Felicia Lin conducted four live interviews with prominent Taiwanese American guests. This was an unusual divergence from its typical programming, which for more than 12 years has been predominantly online, where the two-person team conducted over 311 remote interviews with Taiwan diaspora and other interesting people from all over the world who share their interesting Taiwan-related stories.

Full disclosure: as the co-producer, editor, and sound engineer of Talking Taiwan, I am the other person of this two-person team.

A Musical Performance by Peter Lin’s AAPI Jazz Collective
Taiwanese American trombonist Peter Lin started the event by leading his quintet in a performance of classic Taiwanese jazz and folk songs, including Longing for the Spring Breeze, Moon Represents My Heart, Forgotten Time, and Tian Mi Mi. The band ended their first set with their own swinging version of Wife, and an authentic version of Rosemary, both sung by special guest, the great baritone Ting Yi-Chen.

Meanwhile, the popular Greenwich Village based Taiwanese restaurant 886 catered all the food for the event, while DAE Tea, a tea company for five generations from Taiwan operating since 1918, provided delicious and authentic freshly brewed Taiwan teas.

The Main Event: The Talking Taiwan LIVE podcast
Lin’s first guest was Taiwanese actor and comedian Esther Chen, who is known for her NYC standup act and appearances on Seinfeld. Notably, last year she posted several disturbing Instagram stories of crowd instances where censorship of Taiwan’s representation was demonstrated by derogatory signs inside the Paris stadium while she was a spectator at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

For decades, the International Olympic committee has not allowed Taiwan to call itself by its actual name, as it does not officially recognize Taiwan as a separate nation, forcing Taiwan to compete under the name “Chinese Taipei,” even though Taiwan has owned its sovereignty and conducted itself as a vibrant democracy since 1996.  Lin and Chen spoke about those jarring visual signs and disturbing audio events that took place inside the stadium, but their conversation was mostly filled with light-hearted and amusing commentary.

Next up was Thomas Duh, the co-owner of DAE Tea, a business that has been in his family for five generations. The American brand DAE (standing for “tea”) is better known as Hwa Gung Tea in Taiwan. He discussed the long family history of the brand, and where it is heading in the future.

Lin’s third interview was with renowned Taiwanese American visual artist and painter Kaarina Chu Mackenzie. She is widely known for her vast works encompassing the immersive Night Market exhibit in Taipei. Chu Mackenzie displays her works in many galleries and exhibits throughout the U.S. and Taiwan.

Lin’s final guest was Taiwanese American Jonny Lee, the current president of TAP-NY, which is the Taiwanese American Professionals – NY Chapter. They bring together a large network of Taiwanese American young professionals throughout the U.S. and host many networking events about New York City.

A Second Set Surprise!
My favorite part of the evening was definitely the AAPI Jazz Collective’s second set, where yours truly performed five songs with the band, including the Sinatra Basie classic, Fly Me to the Moon, Crowd Lu’s Fishes, and two originals.

For me personally, the highlight of the set was my performance of the Taiwanese banger Island’s Sunrise by the Taiwanese rock band FireEx, a song that became the inspiring anthem for the 2014 Sunflower Movement in Taipei.  The most enthralling part of all of this was singing this famous song in Taiwanese – as I do not speak the language! I had to learn this song phonetically, and apparently judging by the reaction of the mostly Taiwanese-speaking crowd, I was thrilled to see my performance was approved with high marks!

What a fun event this was! The night turned out to be such a raving success, we are seriously considering this to be an annual event. If you are curious about the Talking Taiwan podcast, visit talkingtaiwan.com

Read this article on Talking Taiwan’s 2025 Fundraising Gala where I originally wrote it in The Village View:

Talking Taiwan’s 2025 Fundraising Gala at Eichholtz

Kaju Roberto is an accomplished musician, singer/ songwriter, journalist, and an award-winning producer. He is the artist Rad Jet on Spotify

The post Talking Taiwan’s 2025 Fundraising Gala at Eichholtz appeared first on Rad Jet's Historic Jazz Walking Tours.

Through its evocative lens, the film chronicles and examines the presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female president and events that happened during her tenure from 2016 – 2023.

Invisible Nation is a deeply penetrating film that shines a light on the spirit and resilience of Taiwan’s democracy in the face of an escalating military threat from China. It portrays President Tsai Ing-wen as an exceptionally smart, wise and tough leader. Unfortunately, it also reinforces the dread many of us feel towards the future of Taiwan as an independent nation.

The film’s length is 85 minutes and there are interviews from key Taiwan political figures and advocates including President Tsai Ing-Wen, Chu Chen, Yu-jie Chen, Bi-Khim Hsiao (Taiwan’s current vice-president), Freddy Lim, Audrey Tang, and Michelle Kuo.

According to IMDB, Invisible Nation gets an 8.4/10 rating.

So far, the film has been nominated for nine film awards, twice winning the 2024 Sun Valley Film Festival Award for One in a Million documentary, and the 2023 Middleburg Film Festival Audience Award.

Attending the First Screening

As host and producer of the longest running Taiwan-related podcast, my partner Felicia Lin and I were invited to attend the debut film screening as part of a larger Taiwanese group at the Woodstock Film Festival. That was a day of 8.65” record-breaking torrential rains in Central Park. We all rode up together in a chartered bus during the morning hours. Conditions on the New York State Thruway were quite treacherous.

What Inspired the Director to Create this Film?

On opening day we met director Vanessa Hope whose life changed in 1996. Hope was living in Taiwan from 1995-1996 when she was a PhD student taking part in a study abroad program during the inauguration of Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan’s first directly elected president.

1996 was indeed a very scary time to be in Taiwan. Scorched by Taiwan’s first direct presidential election and fledgling democracy, China attempted to intimidate Taiwan by firing missiles into the Taiwan Strait. Almost 30 years later, not much has changed.

After talking to her journalist friends, Hope became deeply concerned and obsessively curious about the future fate of Taiwan. She borrowed a newly purchased camera from her Chinese language teacher. Over that weekend, she was determined to film President Lee Teng-hui’s historical inauguration. She succeeded and her first short film embarked her on a film career.

Fast forward to 2016, Hope traveled back to Taiwan with an international delegation to witness the election of Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen. That’s when she came up with the idea to create a full-length feature film about Tsai Ing-wen’s presidency.

If anything, today the threat of a China invasion on Taiwan looms even larger. China President Xi Jinping has stated, “Taiwan is China,” and that reunification is inevitable. He also does not rule out using force. Taiwan is now once again a hot and important topic in international news ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022—a move which has only served to embolden China.

Challenges Making Invisible Nation

During our conversations with the director, we also talked about the challenges in making Invisible Nation and her personal motivations for making the film. Invisible Nation was filmed over a seven year period from 2016 thru 2023. This required an ongoing and highly detailed coordinated effort with the President and a great resolve by Hope and her team. They were given unprecedented access to Taiwan’s sitting head of state, which allowed them to investigate the election and Tsai Ing-Wen’s tenure.

This was not Hope’s first full length feature. Her first, All Eyes And Ears, examined relations between the U.S. and China through the stories of U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, his adopted Chinese daughter Gracie Mei, and blind legal advocate Chen Guangcheng.

Invisible Nation is currently playing in select theaters around the U.S.

For more information, go to: https://invisiblenation.net.

Read this article where I originally wrote it in The Village View:

Invisible Nation: A Film That Chronicles Taiwan’s First Female President, Runs for One Week at the Quad Cinema

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KAJU ROBERTO is an accomplished musician, singer/ songwriter, journalist, and an award-winning producer. He is the artist Rad Jet on Spotify.

The post Invisible Nation: A Film That Chronicles Taiwan’s First Female President, Runs for One Week at the Quad Cinema appeared first on Rad Jet's Historic Jazz Walking Tours.