"Tropical Islands Up North" is a Taiwan photography exhibition hosted by Taiwanese American photographer Jeff Chen in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. You may view the rich appearance of the local Taiwanese overseas via Jeff's lens.
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"Tropical Islands Up North" is a Taiwan photography exhibition hosted by Taiwanese American photographer Jeff Chen in Anchorage, Alaska, USA.Photo reproduced from Jeff Chen’s Instagram
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Taiwanese immigrants arrived in Alaska, according to Jeff, who stated in an interview with "Alaska Public Media" that he organized this exhibition to provide a glimpse of the people that live there and the varied encounters.
Additionally, according to Jeff, the typical perception of Taiwan may include bubble milk tea and the possibility of conflict, but there is more to the country's culture and history than that. Through the "Tropical Islands Up North" photography exhibition, he attempted to document some of these stories.
Jeff traversed nearly the whole state of Alaska in search of his subjects. He followed Chris Liu to Bethel in March. Jeff claimed to have seen Taiwanese rice dumplings at Chris's residence when he paid him a visit. Texts from Taiwan, Alaska Native Yugtun, and Russian Orthodox were all housed in one building which was quite fascinating.
Afterwards, Jeff traveled to Soldotna to take pictures of the staff and kitchen of a restaurant. He also heard Sharon, the descendent of the Paiwan ethnic community in Taiwan, share her own narrative.
A Paiwan tribal chief was Sharon's great-grandfather. Having received his education overseas, he was chosen to represent the Kuomintang government in talks with the government when it initially arrived in Taiwan. Jeff is also quite interested in this section because he thinks it is extremely similar to the history of Native claims settlement in Alaska.
