Together, these stories weave a multi-sensory tapestry of ancestry, identity, ecological reverence and social justice.

From her earliest memories, Lefan has been singing with her mother, falling asleep to her father’s lullabies, and inspired by Taiwanese folk/pop songs by Chyi Yu, Tsai Chin, and Tiger Huang. To her family, songs are the language of love, celebration, connection, and expression.

What Holds Us Together is a product of this childhood, spent playing in farm fields, growing food with her grandparents and cultivating a deep sense of connection to the natural cycles of life. It is also a product of witnessing the industrialization of her hometown, and a reflection on watching helplessly as those fields she knew turned into factories that poured toxic dyes into streams once filled with life.