Joanne Liao

Editor, teahouse and heritage writer at The Jiufen Guide.

Joanne Liao grew up between San Jose, California, and Keelung, where her family lives just down the coast from Jiufen. She trained as a cultural journalist and has spent years writing about Taiwanese film, food and the small towns of the north. Jiufen sits at the center of all three.

She is the one who will tell you that the town’s fame came not from a Japanese animated film but from Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1989 drama A City of Sadness, and that the best tea-set view is worth the climb up the Shuqi Road steps. Joanne edits the guide and writes its teahouse and history coverage.