A Tribute to Sharon Huang, a Remarkable Woman Always in My Mind
Chapter One Beginning Intertwined
In 2001, I was invited to participate in the inaugural year of Passport to Taiwan (P2TW) at the Union Square festival in New York City. At the time, I could not have known that this invitation would quietly redirect the course of my life. Festivals are often fleeting—colorful, energetic, and temporary—but this one marked the beginning of a long and deeply rooted relationship with the Taiwanese American community, one that continues to shape my work, my values, and my sense of purpose.
It was during that first year of P2TW that I met Sharon Huang and Patrick Huang, two of the founders of the festival, alongside the leadership of Dr. Lai. My earliest memory of Sharon remains vivid and precise. She was attentive to details others might overlook, particularly the arrangement of a large map of Taiwan placed at the festival entrance. She was pleased—not for aesthetic reasons alone, but because the map clearly announced Taiwan’s presence, welcoming visitors with quiet confidence and cultural clarity. That gesture, subtle yet intentional, would later come to symbolize for me Sharon’s way of caring: thoughtful, grounded, and deeply aware of how space, placement, and intention could shape meaning.
Over the following years, I continued to participate in Passport to Taiwan, gradually taking on responsibility for organizing the contemporary art section. At that time, P2TW was an evolving platform—one that allowed contemporary artistic expression to coexist with cultural celebration. As the festival grew, its focus shifted more toward food, crafts, and folk-carnival traditions, and contemporary art eventually receded from its programming. Still, those early years were formative, offering a rare opportunity to imagine how contemporary Taiwanese art might engage the public in an open, civic setting.
In 2002, I made a decisive and difficult choice: I resigned from my government position and stepped into the uncertainty of working as an independent curator. It was a leap driven less by confidence than by necessity—an inner conviction that my work needed to be rooted in lived communities rather than institutional distance. Shortly after, my first truly independent project connected to the Taiwanese American community emerged with the exhibition “Nexus: Taiwan in Queens” at the Queens Museum.
“Nexus” became a turning point. The project reconnected me with the support and encouragement of my longtime acquaintance and former museum director, Tom Finkelpearl, and it expanded my understanding of curatorial work as a form of community-building rather than mere exhibition-making. Artists were not simply invited to show work; they were woven into daily life. Many participating artists lived in community homestays, while a group informally referred to as the “Massage Team” stayed together at a space now known as BAS, which at the time was managed by Sharon. These arrangements were not incidental—they reflected a belief that care, hospitality, and shared living were integral to artistic exchange.
The exhibition was, in many ways, a breakthrough. Yet what followed was far from smooth. After the intensity and visibility of “Nexus,” I entered a difficult period—a gap of more than a year marked by financial uncertainty, professional doubt, and emotional exhaustion. Independent curating is rarely linear, and survival often requires endurance more than ambition. I questioned my path repeatedly, measuring success not by recognition, but by the ability to continue.
I eventually returned to curatorial work through the exhibition “Beyond Measure,” propelled by self-reflection and the quiet encouragement of several respected elders and leaders within the community. In particular, Patrick and Sister A-Ching (Sharon), while living frugally themselves, entrusted US$2,000—their own contribution—to Brother Hong-Liang Lai to pass on to me. In that moment of deep gratitude, their gesture gave me a renewed sense of confidence, and under Patrick’s strong conviction that Taiwan must always come first, I found the strength to persevere and continue on this path to this very day. Those years were undeniably hard. Yet within the struggle, there were moments of profound satisfaction—especially on exhibition opening days, when even modest achievements felt luminous. Looking back now, I understand those years as both sweet and bitter, inseparable from one another.
With time and distance, I have come to recognize how much of this journey was sustained by the environment that Patrick and Sharon helped cultivate—a community grounded in trust, generosity, and long-term commitment. Their way of building was never loud or transactional; it was patient, relational, and deeply human.
Through a series of coincidences that did not feel accidental, I eventually found myself stepping into what became a ten-year commitment to founding and sustaining the Taiwanese American Arts Council (TAAC). The story of how this organization came into being—and how it has managed to survive to this day—is both long and surprisingly simple. It is a story shaped by people, timing, resilience, and an enduring belief that art can hold communities together.
This chapter marks only the beginning. I hope to return to these memories again, writing them more fully as time allows, honoring the people and moments that quietly carried me forward.
另類回憶錄 - MH
獻給楊淑卿，一位始終留在我心中的非凡女性
第一章
交織的起點
2001 年，我受邀參與於紐約聯合廣場舉辦的首屆「台灣饗宴」（Passport to Taiwan，簡稱 P2TW）文化節。當時的我並未意識到，這個邀請將在不知不覺中，悄然改變我人生的走向。節慶往往是短暫的——色彩繽紛、充滿活力，卻稍縱即逝；然而，這一次卻成為我與台美社群之間一段深遠而長久關係的起點，並持續塑造著我的工作、價值觀，以及我對生命使命的理解。
正是在 P2TW 的第一年，我認識了楊淑卿（Sharon)與黃大哥（Patrick Huang）——這項活動的兩位創辦人之一，並在賴博士的帶領下共同推動計畫。我對阿卿姐的第一個印象，至今依然清晰而深刻。她對細節的關注，往往是他人容易忽略的，尤其是她對設置在入口處那幅台灣地圖的用心安排感到由衷欣慰。她的滿足，並不僅僅來自視覺美感，而是因為那張地圖清楚地宣告了台灣的存在，以一種安靜卻堅定的姿態迎接來訪的群眾，展現出文化的自信與清晰。這個看似微小、卻充滿意識的舉動，後來成為我理解阿卿姐行事方式的重要象徵——細膩、踏實，並深刻與意圖如何共同形塑意義。
接下來的幾年，我持續參與「台灣饗宴」活動，並逐漸承擔起當代藝術單元的策劃工作。當時的 P2TW 是一個仍在生成中的平台，讓當代藝術得以與文化慶典並置共存。隨著活動規模擴大，其重心逐漸轉向飲食、工藝與民俗嘉年華形式，當代藝術最終淡出其節目內容。然而，那些早期的經驗依然深具啟發性，為我提供了一個難得的機會，去思考當代台灣藝術如何在開放的公共場域中與大眾對話。
2002 年，我做出了一個艱難卻關鍵的決定——辭去政府職務，踏入作為獨立策展人的不確定旅程。這並非源於十足的自信，而是一種無法忽視的內在信念：我的工作必須紮根於真實生活的社群之中，而非停留於制度的距離之外。不久之後，我第一個真正與台美社群深度連結的獨立策展計畫誕生了——皇后美術館的展覽 -「聯結」《Nexus: Taiwan in Queens》。
《Nexus》成為我策展生涯的重要轉折點。這個計畫我獲得舊識館長 Tom Finkelpearl 的支持與鼓勵，也拓展了我對策展工作的理解——策展不僅是製作展覽，更是一種社群建構的實踐。藝術家不只是被邀請來展出作品，而是被真正地編織進日常生活之中。許多參展藝術家住進社區家庭；而一個被暱稱為「按摩團隊」的藝術家群體，則共同居住在今日被稱為 BAS 的空間，當時正由阿卿姐（Sharon)負責管理。這些安排並非偶然，而是源於一種信念：照顧、款待與共同生活，是藝術交流不可或缺的一部分。
這場展覽在許多層面上都可視為一次突破。然而，接下來的路途卻並不平順。在《Nexus》所帶來的高度密集與能見度之後，我進入了一段艱難的時期——長達一年多伴隨著經濟不穩、專業懷疑與情緒上的耗竭。獨立策展的道路從來不是線性的，生存往往比野心更需要耐力。我一次又一次地質疑自己的選擇，衡量成功的標準，不再是被看見，而只是能否繼續走下去。
最終，我透過展覽 《Beyond Measure》 回到策展工作之中。這次回歸，來自自我反思，以及社群中多位德高望重前輩的溫柔鼓勵，尤其是Patrick 與阿卿姐（Sharon）在自己節衣缩食的同時，由賴宏亮大哥轉交了他們两位支持的两千美元讓我在一中感恩的情绪中得到某種信心，並繼續在Patrick 强烈的台灣優先意識引領下堅持到今天。那幾年無疑是艱辛的，但在掙扎之中，也存在著深刻而真實的滿足感——尤其是在展覽開幕的時刻，即使是微小的成果，都顯得格外明亮。回望那段時光，我明白它既甜亦苦，且兩者密不可分。
隨著時間與距離的推移，我愈發清楚地意識到，自己能夠走到今天，很大程度上是因為 Patrick 與阿卿姐（Sharon）所共同營造的環境——一個建立在信任、慷慨與長期承諾之上的社群。他們的建構方式從不喧嘩，也不以交換為前提，而是耐心的、關係導向的，並且深具人性。
在一連串看似巧合、卻並非偶然的過程中，我最終走入了一段長達十年的旅程——創立並持續經營 台美藝文協會（TAAC）。這個組織如何誕生、又如何存續至今，其實是一個既漫長又出奇簡單的故事——一個由人、時機、韌性，以及對藝術能夠凝聚社群的深切信念所形塑的故事。
這一章，只是開始。我期待在未來有更多時間，重新回到這些記憶之中，將它們寫得更加完整，並向那些在無聲之中扶持我前行的人與時刻致意。
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