we came to Taiwan a small family of
three about 30 years ago Taiwanese and
expats lived very very separate lives at
that time being Indian and brown-skinned
without the Chinese speaking skills we
thankfully 30 years later we’re still
here we’re thriving we doing staff and
sharing a story with many others I have
experienced a deep sense of supportive
communities since I’ve been a child and
even in my adult life and so I actively
seek it I narrow I contribute to it
I use it and red-room has been one such
community in the last nine years and
each person brings their own flavor
their own brand of energy to power up
the experience just like the story of
Stone Soup I became a self-proclaimed
name the keeper of the faith basically
it means I’m the protector of the
initial philosophies philosophies and
intentions that the red-room started
with to create a safe space for people
to shed their persona of the outside
world and just get real with each other
life became a canvas of colors textures
patterns of flow emerged and it allowed
me to become one of the ingredients in
the Stone Soup of life in Taiwan where I
was made by a businessman and a visual
artist socially active culturally
curious and the fourth member of the
meth of Emily in Taiwan I was put into
the local education system for the first
12 years of my life so I grew up feeling
and looking very different I sunk into
the lows when I felt unaccepted but I
also danced through the highs and my
difference was celebrated at 17 I
graduated high school seeking my place
without the resources to school abroad
and that’s when adulthood does what it
does best
it was flowering into this
ever-expanding weight of responsibility
accountability and a need for a plan and
so that brings me to a very very magical
evening I came home one night to find my
sister chatting with three of her
friends and they were guzzling down
alcoholic grape juice trying to tackle
big world problems and the one they were
addressing was the sheer lack of
collaboration between foreign and the
local peoples of Taiwan when it came to
the arts and culture and the criteria
for the solutions they were exploring
always involved having a platform or a
way for voices to be heard and also
utilizing the essential and instrumental
aid that red wine provides to get words
to flow and so I made a joke I said why
don’t you call it stage time and wine
they took that joke very seriously it
was the first of many open mic events to
come and it was held in a warm and
intimate venue we called the Red Room so
for the first event we invited our
friends our family each of them had to
bring a plus-one
some food and some drink to share and we
ended up with a room bustling with a
hundred and twenty people and even more
bottles of wine so at that time it was
clear that this would become my safe
space and it became my home and over
time my role within the community
evolved and I was at an all-time high of
celebrating differences and I became the
host of stage time in wine now today the
Red Room is hosting a variety of
gatherings with the help of the Red Room
staff and volunteers and music and
visual art workshops and drama and
festivities but we’re always trying to
highlight the importance of human
interaction in such a fast-paced digital
age and so I know I was raised and
nurtured in a village full of flavor and
as I learned the do’s and don’ts of
curation and the management of community
activities
I remember how distant and alone I felt
as a foreigner in Taiwan
but ironically today my job is to bring
everyone together regardless of cultural
and linguistic differences and we
celebrate everyone’s experience and we
celebrate everyone’s identity
individually so with life bubbling at
high heat I’d like to say to you all
that life is like a pot of soup with
this premise my mother and I are joined
to share what we believe to be the four
essential ingredients to keep to help a
mover and shaker flow sustain and to
keep that pot cooking when we started
this journey it was a manifestation of a
conscious need to create a space where
we could listen and be heard in other
words a place where we could be open and
vulnerable foreigners in Taiwan or
foreigners born in Taiwan would have to
leave by the age of 20 that was the
extent of our privilege and so I was
coming of that age soon and there was a
growing responsibility for myself and my
family and I feared that I would have to
leave and I’d have to discontinue my
work at the Red Room when my situation
came to the attention of certain red
rumors they actually stirred a movement
and changed the law so that people in
similar situations such as myself could
stay and so after years of difficulty in
compromise I I attained a legal status
for residency work and more importantly
I got a peace of mind but I want to
share a real another story of
vulnerability with you it involves one
of our favorite read rumors I like to
call him the Suntory streetside lyricist
so he had traveled to over well he
traveled across all 50 states in the
u.s. before he was 18 years old he had
lost all of his belongings five times or
more for one reason or another he had to
rely purely on his memory to express who
he was and is and each time he would
step up under the stage time and wine
spotlight he would get comfortable on
the stool and when he closed his eyes
the entire room would inch forward with
anticipation and intrigue and he would
take his finger and slide from his
temple
down to his cheek as if he was scrolling
through a database of texts to find the
right file and once he had chosen his
story in his own spoken word rhythm he
would keep the entire room engaged in
one of his tales see he had to adapt and
overcome these challenging times and it
taught me that it’s not a passive but
active state of vulnerability that
enables us to thrive because imagine how
tantalizing the flavors could be if we
open our slopes to something a little
more so that others and other things can
contribute to season this heartwarming
soup so I say take off the iron lid
because vulnerability comes from having
the courage to accept things so we let
cool cucumbers and hot potatoes all
bubble in the mix we are each of us a
part of a whole a part of a community
maybe more than one for us today right
here we are all gathered in this room
you came you listened we shared we made
this gathering possible we are a whole
sorry in your own life your whole could
be your family a golfing group the
charity cause your workplace whatever it
may be take a moment to think about
which hole are you a part of keep that
thought in your head for a minute and if
you could indulge me we do a little
activity about that so with the
intention to listen and share don’t do a
person who’s sitting next to you take a
moment and just keep that thought in
mind of the hole and turn to the person
next to you and share take turns to
share and listen what your hole is and
what value you see that hole brings to
you to your life
so now again with the intention to share
and listen with each other taking turns
think of one thing one thing that each
of you can contribute to that hole that
you find value in just one thing that
you could contribute to make that hole
greater are we good so you are now the
keeper of someone’s intention as well as
your own it’s a very important thing to
hold someone’s intention like that and
it follows that the answers that you
have come up with will guide you that to
that place where the whole becomes
greater than the sum of its parts so as
a young adult it was very hard to get me
to read but it became a treat being in a
room full of people and so I could
practice listening see in stage number
one people would share their plans their
aspirations their dreams their agendas
their failures and this was a shared
platform offered to everyone for them to
express themselves so ideas could
dissolve into one another mix and match
and make something new it sounds
wonderful in principle but as the master
of ceremonies it could be a total
nightmare and there are shared moments
of embarrassment see as the emcee my job
was to maintain the positive vibes keep
things compassionate and we would have
to listen with intention but when
listening became an obligation it was a
real challenge because there was no way
to disassociate myself from what they
were sharing the content they had chosen
the form of expression I think overall
what I learned was that how we see
things develops the more we share of
ourselves its how others learn and
interact
see something’s brewing and the roots
begin to tangle and flavors have soaked
and soon will be time to stir stone soup
is an old folk story in which hungry
travelers arrive at a village looking
for food
the villagers do not want to share their
food so the travelers find some stones
put them in a pot add water and start
making their Stone Soup now the
villagers got very curious and the
hungry travelers convinced them that the
deliciousness of that soup could only be
enhanced by certain ingredients so very
excited they went back and brought a
carrot a potato some seasoning and other
things to add to the soup until they had
a beautiful big part of a nutritious
soup for everyone to share and that’s
pretty much what we do at Red Room as
well
where many people contribute gifts and
I’ll tell their talents and they gives
to make something for everyone to share
each one has its own flavor its own
character but somehow it all comes
together it diffuses and we can taste
the whole so what if our art workshops
is called visual dialogues where it’s a
silent conversation between groups of
two people they take turns and having a
conversation with only paper and bait
then there’s a moment of reflection
where people seek their inner guidance
and third step is where they come
together to co-create as a group so
these these kind of workshops and
exercises often end up with many
challenges but somehow it all comes
together and harmonizes at some point so
many at stage time and wine were poets
storytellers but more often than not we
encountered musicians they had something
inside of them they wanted to connect
with the rest of the room on a more
physical level they were flowing and so
for more of the melodic players like
singers or guitar players I always had a
selfish or
our intention to get involved with their
stage time and so finally I realized I
could perhaps even add rhythm and so I
decided to buy a drum I bought a Cajon
something I could sit on something I
could add the rhythm but more
importantly we could ground the room and
sound our heartbeat so we would get the
whole room together and now we were
playing as a whole in sync most of us
there’s always someone
clapping offbeat but even those
individuals taking action is just as
important it’s healthy and so I chose to
add rhythm I took action and I’m here
now stirring the pot so be ready to take
your turn so team efforts can have lots
of challenges as we know with gaps and
understanding and flow we could look at
it like a crack in a beautifully crafted
piece of pottery personally I love
cracks because for me they it’s a chance
for the universe to shine through and
create magic beyond our imagination or
we could look at it as a work creates a
finer work of art and take it to the
next level as in the Japanese tradition
of kintsugi when we could wear it as
with pride as a warrior mark but is that
what the group needs is that what we all
want as a group I think that is a
question that is yours to ask Sadhguru a
mystic from India said you have never
experienced anything outside yourself
the source of your experience is within
you group conversations wear deep
listening is practice can allow things
to go in many different ways
letting go of my way or the highway is
hard but sometimes necessary for the
greater good of the group it allows for
growth because we are breaking
self-imposed limitations and and
allowing and accepting another’s ideas
feeling connected allows the group trust
and listening allows that us that trust
to listen to our inner guide Red Room
has occupied our minds and our lives and
our families it has given us joy it has
given us heartache it has given us
headaches as well
inspiration disillusionment
we have hugged we have cried we have
laughed and we have sighed but never
once have we lost never once have we
stopped loving the red in the room which
is the essence the spirit that guides us
and pulls us forward in that motion
where we know that the whole is greater
see today Taipei is flourishing with
experimental incubators art gallery
exhibitions and different events visual
arts and music alike nine years ago
there was a need for this exchange and
today what we see is evidence of the
ripples made then so we are living in
the very environment we hoped for and
this is an ecosystem feeding off of
diverse exchange see life is like a pot
of soup hot water in need of seasoning
some spices and ingredients that either
complement or contradict one another but
it won’t get anywhere without a spoon to
keep them from congealing or a ladle to
keep the best vegetables from burning
stir the pot is a call to action there’s
a need for engagement in such an
international climate proactiveness is
essential for us all to thrive so we
believe in putting our heads and hearts
together to multiply our potential to
effect change are you ready to stir the
pot thank you thank you roma and manna [Applause]
three about 30 years ago Taiwanese and
expats lived very very separate lives at
that time being Indian and brown-skinned
without the Chinese speaking skills we
thankfully 30 years later we’re still
here we’re thriving we doing staff and
sharing a story with many others I have
experienced a deep sense of supportive
communities since I’ve been a child and
even in my adult life and so I actively
seek it I narrow I contribute to it
I use it and red-room has been one such
community in the last nine years and
each person brings their own flavor
their own brand of energy to power up
the experience just like the story of
Stone Soup I became a self-proclaimed
name the keeper of the faith basically
it means I’m the protector of the
initial philosophies philosophies and
intentions that the red-room started
with to create a safe space for people
to shed their persona of the outside
world and just get real with each other
life became a canvas of colors textures
patterns of flow emerged and it allowed
me to become one of the ingredients in
the Stone Soup of life in Taiwan where I
was made by a businessman and a visual
artist socially active culturally
curious and the fourth member of the
meth of Emily in Taiwan I was put into
the local education system for the first
12 years of my life so I grew up feeling
and looking very different I sunk into
the lows when I felt unaccepted but I
also danced through the highs and my
difference was celebrated at 17 I
graduated high school seeking my place
without the resources to school abroad
and that’s when adulthood does what it
does best
it was flowering into this
ever-expanding weight of responsibility
accountability and a need for a plan and
so that brings me to a very very magical
evening I came home one night to find my
sister chatting with three of her
friends and they were guzzling down
alcoholic grape juice trying to tackle
big world problems and the one they were
addressing was the sheer lack of
collaboration between foreign and the
local peoples of Taiwan when it came to
the arts and culture and the criteria
for the solutions they were exploring
always involved having a platform or a
way for voices to be heard and also
utilizing the essential and instrumental
aid that red wine provides to get words
to flow and so I made a joke I said why
don’t you call it stage time and wine
they took that joke very seriously it
was the first of many open mic events to
come and it was held in a warm and
intimate venue we called the Red Room so
for the first event we invited our
friends our family each of them had to
bring a plus-one
some food and some drink to share and we
ended up with a room bustling with a
hundred and twenty people and even more
bottles of wine so at that time it was
clear that this would become my safe
space and it became my home and over
time my role within the community
evolved and I was at an all-time high of
celebrating differences and I became the
host of stage time in wine now today the
Red Room is hosting a variety of
gatherings with the help of the Red Room
staff and volunteers and music and
visual art workshops and drama and
festivities but we’re always trying to
highlight the importance of human
interaction in such a fast-paced digital
age and so I know I was raised and
nurtured in a village full of flavor and
as I learned the do’s and don’ts of
curation and the management of community
activities
I remember how distant and alone I felt
as a foreigner in Taiwan
but ironically today my job is to bring
everyone together regardless of cultural
and linguistic differences and we
celebrate everyone’s experience and we
celebrate everyone’s identity
individually so with life bubbling at
high heat I’d like to say to you all
that life is like a pot of soup with
this premise my mother and I are joined
to share what we believe to be the four
essential ingredients to keep to help a
mover and shaker flow sustain and to
keep that pot cooking when we started
this journey it was a manifestation of a
conscious need to create a space where
we could listen and be heard in other
words a place where we could be open and
vulnerable foreigners in Taiwan or
foreigners born in Taiwan would have to
leave by the age of 20 that was the
extent of our privilege and so I was
coming of that age soon and there was a
growing responsibility for myself and my
family and I feared that I would have to
leave and I’d have to discontinue my
work at the Red Room when my situation
came to the attention of certain red
rumors they actually stirred a movement
and changed the law so that people in
similar situations such as myself could
stay and so after years of difficulty in
compromise I I attained a legal status
for residency work and more importantly
I got a peace of mind but I want to
share a real another story of
vulnerability with you it involves one
of our favorite read rumors I like to
call him the Suntory streetside lyricist
so he had traveled to over well he
traveled across all 50 states in the
u.s. before he was 18 years old he had
lost all of his belongings five times or
more for one reason or another he had to
rely purely on his memory to express who
he was and is and each time he would
step up under the stage time and wine
spotlight he would get comfortable on
the stool and when he closed his eyes
the entire room would inch forward with
anticipation and intrigue and he would
take his finger and slide from his
temple
down to his cheek as if he was scrolling
through a database of texts to find the
right file and once he had chosen his
story in his own spoken word rhythm he
would keep the entire room engaged in
one of his tales see he had to adapt and
overcome these challenging times and it
taught me that it’s not a passive but
active state of vulnerability that
enables us to thrive because imagine how
tantalizing the flavors could be if we
open our slopes to something a little
more so that others and other things can
contribute to season this heartwarming
soup so I say take off the iron lid
because vulnerability comes from having
the courage to accept things so we let
cool cucumbers and hot potatoes all
bubble in the mix we are each of us a
part of a whole a part of a community
maybe more than one for us today right
here we are all gathered in this room
you came you listened we shared we made
this gathering possible we are a whole
sorry in your own life your whole could
be your family a golfing group the
charity cause your workplace whatever it
may be take a moment to think about
which hole are you a part of keep that
thought in your head for a minute and if
you could indulge me we do a little
activity about that so with the
intention to listen and share don’t do a
person who’s sitting next to you take a
moment and just keep that thought in
mind of the hole and turn to the person
next to you and share take turns to
share and listen what your hole is and
what value you see that hole brings to
you to your life
so now again with the intention to share
and listen with each other taking turns
think of one thing one thing that each
of you can contribute to that hole that
you find value in just one thing that
you could contribute to make that hole
greater are we good so you are now the
keeper of someone’s intention as well as
your own it’s a very important thing to
hold someone’s intention like that and
it follows that the answers that you
have come up with will guide you that to
that place where the whole becomes
greater than the sum of its parts so as
a young adult it was very hard to get me
to read but it became a treat being in a
room full of people and so I could
practice listening see in stage number
one people would share their plans their
aspirations their dreams their agendas
their failures and this was a shared
platform offered to everyone for them to
express themselves so ideas could
dissolve into one another mix and match
and make something new it sounds
wonderful in principle but as the master
of ceremonies it could be a total
nightmare and there are shared moments
of embarrassment see as the emcee my job
was to maintain the positive vibes keep
things compassionate and we would have
to listen with intention but when
listening became an obligation it was a
real challenge because there was no way
to disassociate myself from what they
were sharing the content they had chosen
the form of expression I think overall
what I learned was that how we see
things develops the more we share of
ourselves its how others learn and
interact
see something’s brewing and the roots
begin to tangle and flavors have soaked
and soon will be time to stir stone soup
is an old folk story in which hungry
travelers arrive at a village looking
for food
the villagers do not want to share their
food so the travelers find some stones
put them in a pot add water and start
making their Stone Soup now the
villagers got very curious and the
hungry travelers convinced them that the
deliciousness of that soup could only be
enhanced by certain ingredients so very
excited they went back and brought a
carrot a potato some seasoning and other
things to add to the soup until they had
a beautiful big part of a nutritious
soup for everyone to share and that’s
pretty much what we do at Red Room as
well
where many people contribute gifts and
I’ll tell their talents and they gives
to make something for everyone to share
each one has its own flavor its own
character but somehow it all comes
together it diffuses and we can taste
the whole so what if our art workshops
is called visual dialogues where it’s a
silent conversation between groups of
two people they take turns and having a
conversation with only paper and bait
then there’s a moment of reflection
where people seek their inner guidance
and third step is where they come
together to co-create as a group so
these these kind of workshops and
exercises often end up with many
challenges but somehow it all comes
together and harmonizes at some point so
many at stage time and wine were poets
storytellers but more often than not we
encountered musicians they had something
inside of them they wanted to connect
with the rest of the room on a more
physical level they were flowing and so
for more of the melodic players like
singers or guitar players I always had a
selfish or
our intention to get involved with their
stage time and so finally I realized I
could perhaps even add rhythm and so I
decided to buy a drum I bought a Cajon
something I could sit on something I
could add the rhythm but more
importantly we could ground the room and
sound our heartbeat so we would get the
whole room together and now we were
playing as a whole in sync most of us
there’s always someone
clapping offbeat but even those
individuals taking action is just as
important it’s healthy and so I chose to
add rhythm I took action and I’m here
now stirring the pot so be ready to take
your turn so team efforts can have lots
of challenges as we know with gaps and
understanding and flow we could look at
it like a crack in a beautifully crafted
piece of pottery personally I love
cracks because for me they it’s a chance
for the universe to shine through and
create magic beyond our imagination or
we could look at it as a work creates a
finer work of art and take it to the
next level as in the Japanese tradition
of kintsugi when we could wear it as
with pride as a warrior mark but is that
what the group needs is that what we all
want as a group I think that is a
question that is yours to ask Sadhguru a
mystic from India said you have never
experienced anything outside yourself
the source of your experience is within
you group conversations wear deep
listening is practice can allow things
to go in many different ways
letting go of my way or the highway is
hard but sometimes necessary for the
greater good of the group it allows for
growth because we are breaking
self-imposed limitations and and
allowing and accepting another’s ideas
feeling connected allows the group trust
and listening allows that us that trust
to listen to our inner guide Red Room
has occupied our minds and our lives and
our families it has given us joy it has
given us heartache it has given us
headaches as well
inspiration disillusionment
we have hugged we have cried we have
laughed and we have sighed but never
once have we lost never once have we
stopped loving the red in the room which
is the essence the spirit that guides us
and pulls us forward in that motion
where we know that the whole is greater
see today Taipei is flourishing with
experimental incubators art gallery
exhibitions and different events visual
arts and music alike nine years ago
there was a need for this exchange and
today what we see is evidence of the
ripples made then so we are living in
the very environment we hoped for and
this is an ecosystem feeding off of
diverse exchange see life is like a pot
of soup hot water in need of seasoning
some spices and ingredients that either
complement or contradict one another but
it won’t get anywhere without a spoon to
keep them from congealing or a ladle to
keep the best vegetables from burning
stir the pot is a call to action there’s
a need for engagement in such an
international climate proactiveness is
essential for us all to thrive so we
believe in putting our heads and hearts
together to multiply our potential to
effect change are you ready to stir the
pot thank you thank you roma and manna [Applause]
Please follow and like us: