The chairman of a local construction company has won an award at the annual Taipei International Book Exhibition Prize for a collection of his short stories.
Wang Ting-kuo (王定國), 58, was one of the three winners in the fiction category.
He grabbed the prize for Name Re, Name Leng (So Hot, So Cold, 那麼熱, 那麼冷), a collection depicting the loneliness of men and women.
“I have gotten a lot from this. I discovered for the first time that someone is reading my books and taking note of every word I write,” Wang said at a press conference.
He said he wrote the winning work — his first major publication in 25 years — to illustrate the difficulties in human relationships.
Although he works in the construction sector, Wang’s true passion lies in literature.
He has been writing since age 17, and has picked up several awards along the way.
Wang sees literature as something that offers a happiness numbers could never provide.
“I usually write late at night because in the daytime, my mind is occupied with numbers, steel bars and cement,” he told reporters after the event.
Even when working, he goes about business with the sensitivity of a novelist.
“You can’t be too careless and must pay attention to details,” said Wang, who attributed his ability to weather difficult times in the real-estate sector to his careful demeanor.
One of the other winners in the fiction category was Lin Yi-yun (林宜澐), who said he was inspired to write his winning novel, Hai Xiao (Tsunami, 海嘯), by his childhood in Hualien County, where frequent earthquakes regularly spark fears of tsunamis.
The novel centers on rumors of a tsunami after a huge earthquake in the county and examines society through the lens of people’s reactions to the news, said Lin, whose works are known for having a playful tone.
US-based Chinese writer Cao Guanlong (曹冠龍) was the third winner in the fiction category, while winners in the non-fiction category were Chen Lie (陳列), Liu Shao-hua (劉紹華), Chen Tsui-lien (陳翠蓮), Wu Nai-teh (吳乃德) and Hu Hui-ling (胡慧玲).
The winners were selected from 125 submissions in the fiction category and 371 in the non-fiction category.
The Taipei International Book Exhibition Prize is given out by the Taipei Book Fair Foundation each year to highlight the works of Chinese-language writers.
Each winner received a trophy and cash prize of NT$100,000.
A vessel owned by Taiwan’s cargo container shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp caught fire after an explosion occurred in a container on board while the ship was at the busy Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in eastern China on Friday. Yang Ming Marine confirmed the incident and said a preliminary investigation found that the explosion occurred in a container on its vessel, the YM Mobility, which reportedly arrived in Ningbo early on Friday morning after its last call in Shanghai. “Immediate fire control measures were taken, and the situation is now under control,” Yang Ming Marine said in a statement. “All crew
‘UNITING TAIWAN’: While the boxer’s home town is offering free train and sports center access, stores around the nation are offering discounts to celebrate her victory New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday declared Aug. 12 “Lin Yu-ting Day” after the Taiwanese boxer won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg category at the Paris Olympics. Lin’s hometown is in the city’s Yingge District (鶯歌). The final between Lin and Poland’s Julia Szeremeta was broadcast live at the city hall early yesterday morning, where Hou, Lin’s mother and more than 200 people rooted for her. Thunderous roars and applause erupted at the city hall when the referee lifted Lin’s hand to show she had won. To celebrate Lin’s hard-won victory, Aug. 12 would be designated Lin
The number of foreign students attending Taiwanese universities last year dropped 9.46 percent from 2019, mainly due to a marked decline in the number of Chinese students, the National Audit Office said in a report. Last year, there were 116,038 foreign students — 67,299 degree students and 48,739 non-degree students — a decrease of 12,119, or 9.46 percent, from 128,157 in 2019, the report said. China in 2020 stopped allowing Chinese students to study in Taiwan, saying that COVID-19 pandemic controls and “the cross-strait situation” were the reasons for the change. Chinese who had already come to Taiwan were allowed finish their
HUGE UPGRADE: Once Terminal 3 is completed, the airport’s passenger service capacity would expand to 82 million travelers per year from 37 million, an official said The north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 is scheduled to begin operations in the middle of next year, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said yesterday. The Terminal 3 project was launched as the number of air travelers accessing the nation’s largest international airport each year has already exceeded the combined capacity of terminals 1 and 2. The two existing terminals were designed to be accessed by 37 million air travelers per year. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, about 48.36 million accessed the airport in 2019. The airport operator yesterday organized a field trip for reporters to see Terminal 3 construction
RSS