The first thing to say about Avalon Celeste Owens is, she’s not as silly as she looks. In fact, it’s 99 percent likely the Harvard graduate, entomologist and Chinese-language expert is cleverer and better educated than either you or me.
This doesn’t stop her playing to the gallery as producer, editor and star of her own YouTube TV channel, Insect Island (昆蟲島). Posing as a populist sage, she unravels in jocular fashion the disconnects between East and West, generally avoiding politics but addressing the big issues: cultural differences, the importance of getting your tones right and why foreign women often fail to find love with local men.
Three good reasons to date an American girl, Avalon says, paraphrased, are: “One, we earn our own money and pay for ourselves; two, we can be your buddy and won’t fiddle with our phones all the time on a date; three, we are approachable and have a good sense of humor.” Her biggest YouTube hits have been a defense of outsiders against the robustly racist 911 music video Noxious Foreigners (歪國人), and “frightening foods.”
Photo courtesy of Avalon Celeste Owens
Speaking on Skype from California, where she was holed up for the summer holidays, Avalon’s avatar looks to be a coquettish hamster but is actually Taiwan’s endangered white-faced flying squirrel. Underneath is the tagline, dazhi ruoyu (大智若魚). This literally translates as “great knowledge is like a fish,” but also represents the Confucian idea that really smart people often seem rather foolish.
Her naive attitude, intellectual clout and, yes, fresh looks, have made her a frequent guest on television, though she does admit to irritation at being made into a caricature.
“A bit like ‘blackface’ in early 20th century America?” I ask.
“There’s a huge difference in the insularity of Taiwanese TV in the way that foreigners are represented. I mean, just imagine if someone from another country is interviewed in the US and is constantly asked, ‘What do you love about America?’ There’s so much of a focus on building Taiwan up, it’s like you always have to give seven reasons for loving Taiwan and another seven for loving Taiwanese food. It’s pretty one-dimensional. But yeah, like, worse if you’re black I guess.”
Her love affair with Taiwan began as a high school student in Boise, Idaho, where one of the extracurricular activities was an academic decathlon about “China and the World” — which eventually turned into a Wizard of Oz type of adventure to the Far East.
“I just thought it was very cool and the language was real interesting, so I googled how to learn Chinese for free online. I didn’t learn anything but did find that you could watch Taiwanese films — Chinese films are rubbish — and so I watched a few that I liked. They were so charming, much better than the TV I was watching in the US.”
Her feelings for the country found an object of fascination in soap star and singer Jiro Wang (汪東城), and she’s “still in love. He’s so perfect, too good for this planet. I kept the records and vids, then my fans mixed with his fans and eventually his agent got us together, we met and dropped a video.”
So, dreams do come true and Avalon’s secret method of learning Chinese — “a young girl watching good-looking guys singing” — eventually enabled her to finagle a summer program out of Harvard to study in Taiwan.
“I did flirt with China but Beijing kinda turned me off because it was stressful. I think most people experience the same. Apart from the government issues, which are huge and not my specialty, Taiwan is a lot weirder, healthy, vegetarian (like me), more environmentally cautious — and as a scientist that suits me. Basically, Taiwan is nicer.”
Ever the local, Avalon has studied “a little bit of Taiwanese, but discovered it was not nearly as fun to learn as Chinese.” Ever the pioneer, she started on a new pinyin writing system but “four chapters in, it’s on the shelf. Taiwanese is hard, but I can speak enough to be fun at parties.”
The slightly older and wiser Avalon has migrated from Mandopop to underground music and that’s how she came to find 911’s video. “Holy shit, I thought, this is terrible. I was outraged,” she says. “I left a comment, ‘This is not international this is racism,’ which was linked to my channel, so it went to the top of the comments.”
“I kinda thought it would be ignored, but it turned out really well. They did cuss me out and one of the band members (who wrote the song) explained he liked foreigners but hated me, but then said it was a difference of opinion. One person I passed on the street told me to go back my country, and a professor told me she would fail me if I was her student.”
Of course, you can find racism rearing its head wherever you go but it hasn’t deterred Avalon. Having done a master’s degree at National Taiwan University and specialized in firefly research she is applying for a PhD program, possibly at Tufts University in Massachusetts. She aims to be a science writer, work for National Geographic, or teach science. “I basically want to go to school as long as people will pay me to go to school.”
It all comes back to insects. Her YouTube channel was originally just a way of attracting more eyeballs to her scientific work, though she’s turned into quite a wiz with her editing skills. She’s planning a new logo, with bugs flying out, and admits that all the green-screen, editing and subtitles means more polished work, but takes a lot more time. “People complain that it takes longer to put out videos but there’s a reason.”
Avalon is now back in Taiwan, and the wider world beckons. It’s fair to say that she’s made the most of her experience on the island and while insects are her first love, closely followed by Jiro Wang, I can see her taking on the mantle of natural science popularizer (like her hero David Attenborough) and making an even bigger name for herself. In the immortal words of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music: “Yes the picture’s changing every moment/ And your destination, you don’t know it/ Avalon.”
1 0H 1 can refer to Taipei 101; an introductory course or analysis; One uh One, a spare male at a party, or a useless person — always male; there are about 1.01 men for every 1 woman, thus, every 101st male is not going to find a partner-; a one-on-one interview
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