Lauren Barnes

I am a first-year master's student at Stanford's Center for East Asian Studies, focusing on Taiwan and Taiwanese literature. I was an intern for the Yuan Ru Art Gallery. While originally, I had planned to do my internship in Taiwan, travel restrictions prohibited me from going, but this did not hamper my experience in the slightest! My internship mentor, Julie Hsieh, was amazing and was able to rework the internship into a hybrid in-person/virtual experience. For the virtual work, I was able to hone my Mandarin skills as I translated short pieces from Mandarin to English. For the in-person work, I was able to fly to Seattle and spend a week helping the Yuan Ru Gallery present at the Seattle Art Fair. During this week, I met many people in the Taiwanese American expat community, and was able to share my passion for Taiwan by discussing the Taiwanese artists we were presenting. I had an amazing time and learned a lot about the Taiwanese art world and art in general.