Taiwanese Association of America – New Jersey (紐澤西)
Identity Snapshot
- English: Taiwanese Association of America – New Jersey
- Chinese: 紐澤西
- Era: Contemporary
- Geography: Taiwanese American community
- Core roles: Community organization (TAH directory)
The Taiwanese Association of America – New Jersey (TAA-NJ, 紐澤西台灣同鄉會) is a chapter of the Taiwanese Association of America (TAA), the national umbrella organization for Taiwanese American community associations. The chapter serves Taiwanese Americans in central New Jersey and the surrounding vicinity, and is listed under the TAA’s Eastern Northern (美東北) regional grouping.
Role in the Community
The chapter’s own history is documented in the TAH story corpus:
- Predecessor form: the New Jersey Formosan Club, documented from 1972 onward in TAA New Jersey Chapter 紐澤西台灣同鄉會 1972–.
- A dedicated chapter history exists: 35. 紐澤西台灣同鄉會簡史 (English: 35. Brief History of TAA-NJ, both 2017-12-29).
- Regional coalition: the NJ chapter (named “the Taiwanese American Association of New Jersey” in the memoir) was a founding member of the Taiwanese Community Council / Taiwanese American Council, the NY-area cross-association body advocated by Dr. Maurice Hsu as its founding president (with TAA-New York, the Dr. Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation, FAPA-NY, the Taiwanese Association for Human Rights NY Chapter, and NY Taiwan Society); the memoirist took over as its second president in 1983 and records the Council as the watershed that launched the Taiwan Center movement (Our Journeys 9 (EN)).
- 1993-08-07 — the first softball tournament for second-generation Taiwanese Americans, the “Taiwanese-American Softball Tournament – New Jersey Invitational,” was sponsored by TACL-NJ & WATAA at Woodlot Park, South Brunswick, N.J. — South Jersey-side second-generation programming adjacent to the chapter (347. TA Softball Tournament – New Jersey Invitational).
- Cultural programming: hosted the Formosan Heritage Concert 故鄉的呼喚台灣歌謠音樂會 in New Brunswick, NJ on 2002-05-04 — 59. Formosan Heritage Concert by TAA of New Jersey Chapter.
- Chapter communications and activities are preserved as corpus records: New Jersey Chapter newsletter (2019-08) and NJ 紐澤西台灣同鄉會的活動 (2019-01).
- A directory-style chapter record (2015-11-19) is preserved as New Jersey Formosan Club 全美台灣同鄉會紐澤西分會.
- Scholarship program: the chapter’s 台美人社區獎學金 (Taiwanese American Community Scholarship Awards, 紐澤西) is archived as [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/11-taiwanese-american-community-scholarship-awards-taa-n-j|record #11, 2015-07-21]] — the chapter invests in second-generation students alongside its cultural programming.
- 1973 — New Jersey’s Pao-ting Cheng was one of the leaders of “The First Taiwanese Association Summer Conference” (with TAA and the East Coast Christian Alliance) at Camp Taconic, Albany, N.Y., July 19, 1973 — the conference that spawned TAA’s regional summer-conference tradition ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys76-eng|Our Journeys #76 EN]]).
- Sibling chapter, not the same body: 北澤西台灣同鄉會 (TAA Northern New Jersey) has its own chapter history (NNJ, 2018-02-05), its own activity record (NNJ 北澤西台灣同鄉會的活動), and its own scholarship ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/18-taiwanese-association-of-america-northern-new-jersey-chapter-taa-nnj-scholars|record #18, 2015-07-23]]); see TAA Northern New Jersey. Do not conflate the two NJ chapters’ records.
- The chapter has maintained its own magazine continuously since at least 1990: issues from 1990, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, and 2015 are archived together in 563. 紐澤西台灣同鄉會雜誌 1990–2015 — a 25-year run of chapter-periodical documentation.
HOLD: founding year — the photo-album record implies the club traces to 1972; the chapter’s formal TAA affiliation date is not stated in the corpus records held here, so no single founding year is asserted.