In a talk at the Toronto International Festival of Authors, Taiwanese-American writer and translator Lin King (金翎) reminded her audience that Taiwan is the only remaining Chinese-speaking country in the world free from literary censorship.
It is only when authors are free from fear of repression, that they can create works with “genuine reflections and commentaries on life as they know it,” she said.
In an era when democracy appears to be in retreat, her words were of particular resonance.
In China, authors have no choice but to self-censor to get published. In Hong Kong, restrictions on speech and political red lines have pushed the literary ecosystem to the brink. In comparison, Taiwan’s literary freedoms are not just an institutional guarantee, but offer a precious and intangible cultural resource.
An ability to publish without fear of state control gives Taiwanese writers the space to freely and openly express their thoughts, King said.
In other Chinese-language contexts, such a luxury is little more than a memory.
King has translated not only Yang Shuang-zi’s (楊雙子) Taiwan Travelogue (台灣漫遊錄) — which has picked up multiple awards — but also The Boy from Clearwater (來自清水的孩子) by Yu Pei-yun (游珮芸) and illustrator Zhou Jian-xin (周見信), a comic book set during the White Terror era. She has afforded an international audience a glimpse at the depth of Taiwanese literature, and is able to capture the everyday with gentle precision, while also navigating deep historical traumas. The honesty in her writing is the sort which can only emerge from a free society, and is representative of perhaps Taiwan’s most persuasive form of cultural diplomacy yet.
However, she admits that the battle to show Taiwanese literature to the world would be long. Translated works make up only 3 percent of the English-language publishing market, and Chinese-language works are overwhelmingly dominated by Chinese authors. If translators and publishers want to see Taiwanese voices overcome language and market barriers, they need perseverance and a powerful vision.
The deeper question is this: As democracies around the world give way to division and anti-intellectualism, and in some cases re-embrace authoritarianism, how can Taiwan continue to make its voice heard?
As she noted in her talk in Toronto, King believes that in this context, it is more important than ever to tell stories about how to reject authoritarianism and achieve democratic ideals. Her call is both a message for abroad, and a reminder for at home.
Taiwan’s freedoms, built on the back of generations of resistance, must not be taken for granted. Taiwan’s literary traditions exist as a living, breathing embodiment of democracy. As long as these freedoms of expression continue to be cherished by authors and writers, Taiwan would persist as a beacon amid an otherwise dimming landscape of Chinese-language literature.
Steve Ho is a retired engineer.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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