Double Ten Day returned to ASU's West Valley campus on Oct. 3 for its fifth year of highlighting Arizona's deep connection to Taiwan, with thousands coming together to celebrate.
According to the city of Phoenix's news release, the annual event is the largest celebration of Double Ten Day in North America
Double Ten Day, celebrated on Oct. 10, is a holiday in Taiwan commemorating the 1911 Wuchang Uprising, which ended imperial rule in China and led to the establishment of the Republic of China, according to Community Services Center.
Co-hosted by Phoenix City Councilmember Ann O'Brien, the Phoenix Sister Cities and the City of Phoenix, the event featured cultural performances, including a lion dance, a dragon dance, a cake-cutting ceremony and a drone-show finale.
O'Brien said she helped bring Double Ten Day to the Valley in 2022 following the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company building in Phoenix.
TSMC is an advanced microchip manufacturer that designs semiconductor chips to power smartphones, electric vehicles, AI systems and aerospace technology.
According to Taiwan News, after TSMC's construction in north Phoenix, about 2,200 employees from Taiwan relocated to Arizona, and the Taiwanese community has continued to grow since.
O'Brien said that the arrival motivated her to highlight Phoenix's longstanding relationship with Taipei, Taiwan, through the Phoenix Sister Cities Program.
The Arizona Sister Cities Program allows local citizen volunteers to create relationships between people and organizations in cities worldwide. Phoenix has been a sister city of Taipei since 1979.
O'Brien said she hopes to help Taiwanese residents feel at home in Phoenix by sharing each other's cultures at the Double Ten Day celebration.
"I wanted the folks who are coming here from Taiwan to understand that this wasn't just a place to live or work," O'Brien said. "This is their home, and we wanted to embrace them and learn about their culture and share it with our community here, and likewise share ours with them."
Through the city of Phoenix's relationship with the University, and O'Brien's connection as a former West Valley student, ASU allowed her to host the first Double Ten celebration for free in a campus ballroom, O'Brien said. The first event had about 200 attendees and eight local vendors.
The celebration quickly grew too big for the ballroom, this year hosting an estimated 7,000 attendees and about 90 vendors.
Eva Li, president of the Chinese Cultural Association of Arizona, has attended this event with the nonprofit since its founding and has witnessed its growth firsthand.
Li said the celebrations "continue to get better and better," becoming more organized and drawing more people and vendors annually.
Through the event, Li and the nonprofit spread its mission of promoting Chinese culture, uniting the community and educating the children.
"We come to join the celebration and meet new people, new vendors as well," Li said. "We love to come in here and give us exposure and bring the fun."
Through ASU's partnership with the event, The Asia Center at ASU promoted its two-year grant from Taiwan's Ministry of Education, funding the Taiwan Studies Travel and Research Grants for faculty and students.
William Hedberg, a leader of the Asia Center at ASU, said there was high excitement among attendees, enabling more outreach for the program.
"We've had a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for increasing connection today between Arizona and Taiwan," Hedberg said. "It's a really exciting time in terms of building these connections between our state and Taiwan, and ASU is really eager to play a part in that as much as we can."
Through the Double Ten Day celebration, students and residents came together to learn and share Taiwanese culture.
"We might eat different food, or have different dances, or listen to different music," O'Brien said. "But we all want to be respected in kindness, and it helps us grow as a people and a community."
Edited by Dhemi Bell, Alan Deutschendorf III, Grace Lawrence and Kate Gore.
Reach the reporter at akbrow36@asu.edu.
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Alyssa Brown is a Community/Culture Reporter at The State Press. This is her first semester with The State Press.
