Getting to Know Our Founder, Tammy Hsu - An Exclusive Interview (Part One)
Interview Conducted By: Hilda Felicies, Friend & Previous Nonprofit Board Member served with Tammy
Hilda: Hi Tammy, thank you for joining me today. I'm very excited to get to know you and your business.
Tammy: Thank you so much for you joining me as well and for taking time to conduct this interview with me.
Hilda: My pleasure! Let's get started. My first question for you is, can you tell me why you started Outpland LLC?
Tammy: So Outpland, in its inception, wasn't always supposed to be an events company. I think it's evolved a lot over the last few years. Originally in college I was very involved in community service work, so back then, it was intended to be a nonprofit organization. However, ever since I was young, I knew I loved events, though I didn’t know why until I got older. I was always really good at operations and logistics. Even through college, I didn't realize that event planning could be a career. So, when I was little I knew that I loved people and I loved crowds and that kind of started with just family gatherings. My father is the 7th child of 8 kids growing up so we had a lot of family functions, since I had a lot of cousins and aunts. Whenever it came to major holidays, we would have lots of relatives together. The biggest ones being Thanksgiving, when we immigrated to the United States and then Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year, being a big one for our family as well. Especially growing up in the traditional type of household my father grew up in. I always remember, when I was little, I loved having my family together and loved being with groups of people. It was just so much fun. Then, when I got to college, I became really more invested into the event logistics. I joined a lot of clubs that allowed me to work on different events and functions that brought people together. Now fast forward 10 years and having been an event planner for most of that time, I realized that the reason I loved events was because it brings people together. That's ultimately why I started Outpland LLC.
Hilda: That's really interesting. You mentioned Lunar New Year, I know I'm a little familiar with it, but for our audience who are not, can you talk a little more about that?
Tammy: Yeah, of course. Lunar New Year is a holiday that follows the lunar calendar celebrated by many Asian countries and cultures. It's most recognizable as Chinese New Year but officially it's Lunar New Year. Every year it's a different date but generally falls between January and February and it's really a celebration of the new year, following the lunar cycle. Different cultures have different traditions. So for my family, we have a lot of traditions around the type of food we eat and how we celebrate it. There are also some stereotypes or mythology that come along with Lunar New Year. Therefore, it really depends on the region you’re from and could still vary from household to household.
Hilda: Interesting. So what region is your family from and what are some of your traditions?
Tammy: My family is from Taiwan. In Taiwanese culture, for the most part it's very similar to Chinese culture as well. Growing up, in terms of family traditions, there were certain dishes my family would always make. For instance, we would always have a whole fish, because in Chinese, there is a saying "Nian Nian Yo Yu'' meaning, "Wishing you an abundance for the year". So the word fish is a homophone to the word abundance and surplus in Mandarin. Therefore, symbolic to this saying, we'll always have fish on the table. The whole fish itself is symbolic for beginning and end, so almost like a full cycle. There is also another item we'll always have and they're these hard boiled eggs but cooked for long hours in tea leaves and the direct translation is "Tea leave eggs". Having this dish on the table is symbolic for wealth since back in traditional culture the currency was pieces of gold (sometimes round shaped gold).
Hilda: Wow, so it seems like food is a big part of celebrating Lunar New Year. What are some other new year traditions?
Tammy: A similarity across some cultures, and mine included, is the well known red envelope. Way back when, the story was that married elders would give kids, or anyone who is unmarried, a red envelope with coins after New Year’s Eve dinner. You would then put these under your pillow as you sleep that night “into the new year” to protect you from evil spirits. That has translated over the years to red envelopes and paper money but originally it was supposed to be coins. Even now though I'm 36, since I'm unmarried, I would still get a red envelope. As for other traditions... Some cultures celebrate up to 7 days because it also aligns with the Spring Festival. I remember growing up, since I lived in NJ, and there's Chinatown in NY, which was very big when I was growing up, there would be Lunar New Year parades. A big part of the parade were these performances by gymnasts dressed in Lion and Dragon looking costumes. Each of these dragons or lions would be operated by 2 or more people inside, almost like puppets. Along with this, you’ll also hear a lot of firecrackers. All of these go back to the idea of warding off evil spirits. I remember going to see this parade a couple times when I was little and that was really fun and memorable.
Hilda: That’s very cool. Let’s go back to food for a bit, since it seems like it was a big tradition for your family. What would you say was your favorite dish to cook with your father?
Tammy: There's really so many. Honestly, as I got older, it's sad to say that my parents don't invest as much time into Lunar New Year prep but I remember growing up my father would put up decorations and spend multiple days prepping the menu. Nevertheless, I would say the tea leaves eggs would be something that I loved because that's something we never make the rest of the year. It's really a dish we get to enjoy around Lunar New Year. Another thing that is more special to our family would be our version of a spring roll. The typical spring roll or even compared to the Chinese take out spring rolls are round and thick but our spring rolls are rectangular and flat and it’s made with only celery and marinated pork filling then deep fried. I've even talked to some friends and their family makes different spring rolls as well. So I would have to say these two things are particularly especially since it's really something we only have once a year.
Thank you for joining us for part one of an exclusive interview with our Founder, Tammy Hsu. Join us next month for part two of the interview to learn more about how these family traditions and her upbringing influenced her development of Outpland LLC.