* 2022 Openbook Award

* 2023 Golden Tripod Award

Jiang Wan-Ci’s observations on the everyday experience of Taiwan’s migrant workers remind us their hackneyed portrayal in the media has failed spectacularly to capture either their uniquely compelling stories or the complexities of living as an economic migrant from Southeast Asia in modern-day Taiwan.

Despite its important role and prominent profile in 21st-century Taiwan society, Taiwan’s migrant worker population from Southeast Asia is regularly portrayed unfavorably in the media and thus negatively regarded by mainstream public opinion. While studying for her undergraduate degree in ethnology, Jiang Wan-Ci took to frequenting the hangouts of migrant workers, making friends, exchanging language tips, and listening to stories. She soon recognized media tropes about migrant workers, such as their love of live-streaming, as mere surface reflections of cultural and social patterns deserving of more empathetic exploration.

Migrant stories around the world share similar themes of homesickness and of a desire for familiar things and friendship. In Taiwan, migrant workers’ need for rest, relaxation, and fellowship outside the workplace has transformed public train stations throughout the country into regular venues for off-the-clock socializing. An active observer as well as participant in Southeast Asian migrant workers’ down-time experiences at Taipei Station, the author parses out the importance of these leisurely “sit-ins” in the station’s cavernous main hall, once a target of social derision, to a population with no true place of their own.

The author also introduces readers to other regular migrant worker hangouts such as “Indonesia Street” – an alley near Taipei Station where food and news from home are always enthusiastically shared. Follow Jiang’s carefully laid narrative to discover the little appreciated or understood lived experiences and stories of Southeast Asian caregivers, laborers, fishermen, and factory workers across the country.

Finishing this book offers a fresh perspective on the question, “Why are migrant workers always live-streaming?” The answer rewards curiosity over subjective judgment. After all, better understanding and empathizing with the migrant worker experience moves us all further along the path to self-awareness and understanding.