Book Talk: Kim Liao (Where Every Ghost Has a Name)
"Tell a child nothing, and she will become obsessed with knowledge." Join us for a conversation with Kim Liao, the granddaughter of Taiwanese independence movement leader Thomas Liao (廖文毅) and author of Where Every Ghost Has a Name: A Memoir of Taiwanese Independence. In this newly released memoir, Kim Liao illuminates the dark history of Taiwan's White Terror period as well as her family's story of love and loss.
Where Every Ghost Has a Name: A Memoir of Taiwanese Independence Synopsis
In 2010, Kim Liao traveled to Taiwan to learn the truth about her family. After WWII, her grandfather Thomas Liao became the leader of the Taiwanese independence movement, his land was seized, his relatives were arrested, and his nephew was sentenced to death. With their lives at stake, Thomas’s wife Anna brought their four children to America to start a new life—never speaking a word about Thomas again.
When Kim arrived in Taiwan six decades later, she was shocked to learn that the KMT government had erased much of the story of Taiwanese independence from the official historical record. For years, Taiwanese citizens were kept in the dark about the violence that transpired during four decades of martial law, with the silenced voices of the White Terror Period mirroring the silencing of the Liao family’s story.
Despite this suppression, she learned that former independence leaders had preserved this history in their memories and personal archives. With their help, Kim discovered two stories: her family's story of love and loss, and Taiwan’s fight for freedom.
About Kim Liao
Kim Liao’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s, The Millions, Salon, Fourth River, Hippocampus, and others. A former Taiwan Fulbright Creative Research Scholar, her work has received support from the Vermont Studio Center, the Jentel Foundation, the Hambidge Center, the Anderson Center, and the Ragdale Foundation. She lives with her family near New York City and teaches writing to students of all ages.
Buy the Book:
Purchase online here. Copies of Kim Liao's book will also be available for purchase at the event.
Co-hosted by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP and the Formosan Association of Public Affairs (MA).