Ep 120 | Dr. Karen Tsai Brings Monster Dance Children's Book To Life

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Learn about the Taiwan connection (namely a physician, publisher and supermodel) that made Monster Dance children's book story come to life. Monster Dance was created to help children deal with and understand the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Karen Tsai is a physician based in Los Angeles who has spearheaded the creation of the children's book, and she spoke with me about how she got some heavy hitters involved in the project like cartoonist and illustrator Guy Gilchrist (best known for his work with the Muppets), Eva Lou (founder of the multi-lingual children's book publishing company Madeleine Editions, which published Monster Dance), actor Denis O'Hare (who did the English narration for the book) and Taiwanese supermodel Chiling Lin (林志玲) who did the Mandarin Chinese narration. For every copy of Monster Dance sold, a donation will be made to Donate PPE.

Dr. Tsai is a co-founder of Donate PPE a nonprofit that has already raised over $150,000. In part two of my interview with her we will talk about her work with Donate PPE.

Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• Dr. Tsai's connection to Taiwan
• What motivated Dr. Tsai to initiate the creation of children's book, Monster Danceto help children to deal with COVID
• How Dr. Tsai got Guy Gilchrist (cartoonist and illustrator), Eva Lou (founder of the multi-lingual children's book publishing company Madeleine Editions), actor Denis O'Hare and Taiwanese supermodel Chiling Lin (林志玲) involved in Monster Dance
• How things started with Guy Gilchrist's drawings as coloring pages that educated children about social distancing, handwashing, mask wearing and other thing related to COVID
• Free coloring pages drawn by Guy Gilchrist to educate kids about COVID are available on https://donateppe.org/doodles/
• How Dr. Tsai was able to get Monster Dancepublished in short time to be relevant for the pandemic
• How Monster Danceis available in English and Mandarin Chinese
• How they came up with the title and concept for Monster Dance
• How Dr. Tsai, Guy Gilchrist and Eva Lou worked on Monster Dancevirtually and have never met in person
• How Monster Dancestarted as a Kickstarter campaign
• How Monster Dancehas helped children to deal with COVID
• For every copy of Monster Dancesold a donation will be made to Donate PPE
• How copies of Monster Dancehave been donated to children's hospitals
• How Monster Dancehas a presence in Taiwan with the Mandarin Chinese version through the involvement of Taiwanese supermodel Chiling Lin (林志玲)

Related Links:

Monster Dance: https://madeleineeditions.com/stories/monster-dance/

Monster Dance Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madeleineeditions/monster-dance

Monster Dance on the Donate PPE website: https://donateppe.org/monster-dance/

Access FREE coloring pages created by Guy Gilchrist to educate kids about COVID: https://donateppe.org/doodles/

Madeleine Editions (International children's publisher): https://www.facebook.com/MadeleineEditions

Madeleine Editions (International children's publisher): https://www.instagram.com/madeleine_editions/

Donate PPE: https://donateppe.org/

Guy Gilchrist, cartoonist and illustrator (best known for his work with the Muppets) at the Whitehouse 1984. Guy Gilchrist's website: https://www.aguygilchristproduction.com/ Taiwanese supermodel Chiling did the Mandarin Chinese narration for Monster Dance. Taiwanese supermodel Chiling's Charity Foundation: https://www.chilicngjj.org/ Eva Lou founder of the multi-lingual children's book publishing company Madeleine Editions, which published Monster Dance: https://madeleineeditions.com/ Actor Dennis O'Hare did the English narration for Monster Dance.