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Vince Huang

@bobabeast

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📍 CHI ➡️ NYC ➡️ BAY
ringer | taiwanese american foundation @tafagram
co-founder | Benchmark Climbing @benchmarkclimbing

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Biking around Sun Moon Lake has been a bucket list item forever. Finally got a chance to make it happen with Linda and Austin. There are plenty of kind vendors offering free parking and 600NT whole day e-bike rentals. We went for a higher-end option with Giant, and I’m so happy we did so. The bikeway isn’t completed all the way around the lake yet, which made for the most fun parts of the ride. There were some slippery downhill sections where we were going close to 40 km/h while sharing the road with other vehicles and buses, and going uphill was such a breeze to the point where Linda and Austin turned down the power. Highly recommend stopping at Ita Thao and eating at 東東刈包. Instead of stuffing pork belly inside a mantou, they use a type of tofu on the outside! by @bobabeast

I love lake tahoe so much, especially in the wintertime. Joy, communion, serenity and wonderment — even while on the roads. We don’t always have to wrangle life by the horns; just take it slow and embrace life as it comes. by @bobabeast

@maria.lee__ , I remember seeing you at family or @tafagram gatherings and thinking, “why does this twelve year old remember my name and why is she so excited to see me?” Of course the truth was that you remembered everyone’s name and you were always excited to see everyone, but that never made it any less special for us to see your smile.

You kept that smile and resilience even as life got harder. I suspect this was more for our sake than for your own, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy on you. Yet, it was how you chose to live. Even after a tough 2021, when I was feeling apprehensive about hanging out much post-TAF, you gave me a hug outside of Green St Meats and instantly reminded me what TAF was supposed to stand for, what you’ve always stood for — joy, compassion, community, and love — the real themes of TAF that don’t rotate because you lived them in every interaction.

To everyone else suffering in her absence, I wish I could tell you that the hole we’re feeling inside eventually mends. It doesn’t ever really, at least not how you’d expect. I’m still randomly reminded of Dave, Andy, and Jess, and still feel that mix of regret alongside the joy once shared. But I’ve been reflecting on the message @kuokuomich and @baileywongg gave us in 2017 and 2022. “Life is about trying different versions of ourselves. You don’t have to stay the same; you can change, and change back.” “Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.”

How we choose to live her memory is up to us. What we’ve lost, we can give to others, just as Maria always supported our path towards “the you you’d like to become.” That’s the core of servant leadership and tafLove. Thanks for everything Maria, and I hope we’re eventually “reunited in the fullness of time.”

https://gofund.me/2db431dd

https://ampleroad.substack.com/p/nainai

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d7MqmQpif6uN7JN1viKKSz4ObO6JmNvHFKXOuuVPcIU/edit by @bobabeast

24hrs in Norway impressions: jaw-dropping New Zealand scenery, next level Australian coffee scene, muted Japandi aesthetic and personality. gonna live off coffee and bread cuz food is so expensive. by @bobabeast

It’s been a heavy week, but I’m really excited to build intersectional community at this Friday’s Subtle Asian Climbing meetup at Benchmark. Though azn climbers are fairly well-represented in Bay Area gyms and crags, it’s so important for us to continue building the personal relationships that can sustain these safe spaces for us even through difficult times. With just the smallest boost from each other, we’ll surely have the confidence to climb all the way to the top!
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[4.2.22]
🧗‍♀️ @jyan0615
📍 Southern Paiute / Western Shoshone tribal land by @bobabeast

another blessed year without getting 🤒 🐶 🏡 💍 👶 by @bobabeast

It still hurts a bit too much to write about the caring, goofy, random af weirdo who helped me make NYC a home in the mid 2000s. Wings at Momofuku before anyone knew who David Chang was, concerts at 169 Bar and Pete's Candy, Brooklyn house parties I don't remember anything about, longass walks with no destination...those were the heady days of youth. I can only hope we helped make later New Yorkers feel as welcomed as you made us feel.

One of the last times I ever saw you was in the autumn of 2016. You had a last minute late weeknight solo gig in Williamsburg, and 90% of why I went was because it was six blocks from my apartment. It was a little weird because I was one of the only people there, but you performed like the place was packed...or actually, it might be more accurate to say that you perform at packed venues as if they were empty. You showed intense dedication to your craft, joy in doing what you loved, and a serenity that can only come from giving zero fucks about anything else. We had beers afterwards. I wasn't going to bring TAF up, but you made this off-handed, cutting but also darkly hilarious comment about it. And my best comeback to throw you off your game was "LOL well say hello to the new ED." I think you knew what lay before me even before I did. As you gave me advice and wished me the best, there was this note in your voice that sounded like muted hope.

It's been four years since, but recently I could feel our DMs becoming filled with your unbridled optimism again. You told me you had hoped to come to TAF this year. You 👏 👏 in response to TAF's BLM statement and labs panels and I was like "wtf dave you know how to use insta-stories and emojis??" You told me you hoped to send your son one day, and you gave him the Taiwanese name of Ho Chie.

Once more, you were living for a mission greater than ourselves. I haven't met Amy and Luca yet, but I hope to someday. I'd love to know the folks who made you whole again and carry on your spirit. And I promise to make sure TAF remains the loving community, upholding your values and your love, that you’d want Luca to call a home. Thanks for the friendship Dave. I’ll miss you so much. by @bobabeast

Davef, one day in 2005 you called me up and asked me to be a Youth advisor. We didn't know each other well back then, and I was surprised to hear from you considering that I had only been to TAF for a few years and had never served on staff. So I asked you, "Why me?"

And you bluntly said, "Because TAF needs more people like you, and I need you to help me make that happen."

And like a sappy song lyric you'd have hated, in one sentence you affirmed the whole of who I was and enlisted me in a mission greater than ourselves. You were always a reckless, uncompromising, idealistic visionary - getting rid of AAs and most coordinator roles to flatten the hierarchy and create space for selfless servant leadership, and cutting volleyball and swing choir because you trusted us with deeper programming. Of course, it became the hardest year any of us ever had. What I don't think I realized until just recently was how fucking hard it must have been on you to stay true to executing your vision...you cared so deeply about us and knew we were struggling and shouldered all the blame, but you still summoned the strength in all of us to push through the radical change you knew TAF needed.

And while that might have been your last year physically at TAF, I know TAF never left your heart, and you never left us. I learned so much from you...we all did. It's a testament to your will that all four TAF Executive Directors from this past decade - Karen, Jess, Liz, and myself - were on that Youth 2005 staff and became progressive leaders, embracing of change, forged from that fiery crucible of your ideals and passions. I'd want anyone who has ever worked with me before to know that I am who I am because of you, Dave. by @bobabeast

vimeo.com/tafworld

Grateful for such a beautiful retrospective on forty years of @tafagram by @turtlist . It’s humbling to be able to see the faces and hear the voices of so many folks that have changed my life. To watch the future grow up before my very eyes. To witness the evolution of a community founded upon love.

I don’t know what TAF will look like next year, let alone after the next forty years and beyond. I do hope there will always be love and laughter as TAF continues to embrace and expand the wonderful diversity of our tight-knit community; we still have so much work to do in making sure everyone can experience what TAF has given to us, no matter what they look like, where they’ve come from, what they believe in, who they love, and who they want to be. Yet, TAF’s future doesn’t rest with me or any one of us on staff now; it’ll be our campers, and our campers’ campers, who will make TAF their own for generations to come.

Believe in the beauty of your dreams, for the future has always belonged to you. Happy birthday TAF! by @bobabeast

I give credit to Carleton College in Minnesota and the amazing people there for first exposing me to different lived economic and cultural experiences, and letting me make all kinds of dumb mistakes as I began my long journey towards reconciling my TA cismale privilege with all the struggles and pains caused by that very same identity.

I feel blessed for having had the opportunities to live in the diverse communities of NYC and Baltimore (briefly). I witnessed injustice there firsthand (and in FL lol) and pushed myself to further understand and fight systems of oppression.

But ultimately, I really do credit TAF and the many role models and friends I met there for showing me a template on how to make a positive impact on mankind: through servant leadership, with grace and compassion. And for awhile, I was prideful enough to think I was pretty decent at the basic mechanics of creating a safe space and promoting inclusivity / social justice, even while giving those I disagreed with room to share and grow.

But damn, 2018 and now 2020 really threw my failings back in my face.

Anti-blackness is fucking rampant in East Asian communities. It’s sad and embarrassing and wrong. All of us know how much easier it is to stay silently complicit in our white-adjacency. But try to change we must. Still, I feel so frustrated and angry when I fail to make the smallest dent in my most immediate community. It feels so intractable at times.

If I’m being honest though, the negative racist ignorance is slowly being outweighed by the large and ever-growing numbers of young folk working to amplify marginalized voices. Y’all’s are so damn talented with skills and passions I could only dream about. Do what only you can do; I’m really proud of y’all’s and will always have your back. I know you’re fed up, but keep ya head up.

#latashaharlins #notanotherhashtag by @bobabeast

My favorite part of vegas is pretending I’m in the SGV

#tl2019 by @bobabeast