Dispatch #11
Our final guest speaker for Publishing in Public was Lisa Cheng Smith, founder of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry.
For this session, Lisa generously hosted us at her East Williamsburg storefront. Here, the walls are painted the same shade of gray as the exterior of the building. Not surprisingly, this was an intentional choice. Many Taiwanese grocery stores are outdoors, so the design brings a little of the exterior world inside while helping the shop blend seamlessly into its neighborhood.
Yun Hai feels like an immersive publication. Founded in 2018, the store uses food as a way to represent Taiwanese culture and support Taiwanese sovereignty. As Lisa told us, “The store is an extremely important instrument for communication.” Unlike social media, there's no algorithm mediating the experience. What you notice first, what draws you in, is entirely by design. It's a little subversive!
Lisa works primarily as a distributor, centralizing products from Taiwanese suppliers and farmers and bringing them to an American audience. The store itself has a strong editorial point of view, which is one of the reasons I wanted students to experience it in person. Her messaging works, too, as evidenced by a visit from the former president of Taiwan.
I first met Lisa when she was Design Director at Areaware, where I worked as a graphic designer in my first job after college. I've always admired her instincts and ability to make decisions confidently. The Yun Hai logo, for example, was one of the first sketches she tried (set in a typeface by former Areaware collaborator Bryce Wilner)—a reminder that moving forward is sometimes more important than perfecting a small detail. It has been inspiring to watch her bring that same commitment to a much larger initiative.
At Yun Hai, every product comes with a fascinating backstory, and one of Lisa's challenges was figuring out how to share that knowledge while still running a business. “If I'm going to write anything, it's going to be something of value,” she told us, explaining that there wouldn't be generic spam emails. This led to the first Yun Hai newsletter in 2021: a long-form publication exploring product origins, farming practices, and historical context, with the products themselves tucked away at the very end.
Knowledge is free, she explained. These stories can reach a much wider audience than the people actually purchasing the ingredients, because maybe not everyone is trying to become a gourmet chef.
The newsletter is only one piece of media. Lisa also produces and stars in a cooking show, and even the gift wrap used in the store features reproductions of Taiwanese advertisements. She told us that transactions are human experiences, and that belief shapes everything Yun Hai publishes.
Today, the newsletter has more than 20,000 subscribers. “I didn't think a 2,000-word newsletter would sell out a rice cooker,” Lisa said. But it did!
