Taiwan Yes Festival Invites Community to HCU for Food, Games, and Entertainment

Hungry for some special Taiwanese food that you might not find in restaurants? Want a fun place to bring your kids or friends on the weekend? Or just feel like exploring another culture? If yes, check out Taiwan Yes, a festival that’s hitting Houston Christian University Parking Lot 5 this Saturday.

The festival drew so many people last year—8,000—that it was too packed for the little parking lot around Sharpstown’s Taiwanese Community Center, said John Chieu, committee member of the Taiwanese Association of America (Houston Chapter). So the TAA is upgrading venues. Chieu expects “more than 10,000” people to show up to the festival at HCU: members of the Taiwanese community, their local friends, and more.

The event runs from 3:00-8:00 PM on Saturday, September 23. It includes “a lot of games for small children and the younger generation,” said Chieu, plus a stage for singing and dancing performances. Games include balloon darts, Taiwanese pinball, water ball, and goldfish scooping.

Out of the approximately 50 booths, 22 are slotted to be food booths. The menu below lists each food booth by number, along with items sold there. The feast includes everything from vermicelli to tofu, from candied hawthorn to Taiwanese sausage, from sour plum soup to scallion pancakes. And don’t forget the boba tea.

Vendors only accept coupons, not cash. You can buy coupons online (via Venmo or Zelle), at the Taiwanese Community Center, or at the festival (but there might be a big line if you wait). Each coupon is worth $1, and you can use them to buy food and drink.

Here’s a festival map with the full list of booths and their locations:

Parking is available in HCU lots 3, 4, and 6 in the map below. Lot 5, the festival ground, sits west of the Husky football stadium, between the baseball and soccer fields.

The festival poster displays an endangered leopard cat, which is (officially) the only living wild cat species native to Taiwan. The only other species, the Formosan clouded leopard, was declared extinct in 2013, although rangers claimed to spot one or more in southeast Taiwan in 2019.