Liu Wan-lai (劉萬來), a well-known translator of numerous Japanese-language books for young adults during the Martial Law era and retired teacher at Dalin Elementary School in Chiayi County, died on Wednesday last week at the age of 89.
An influential Japanese-to-Chinese translator, who worked under strict ideological censorship — but lax copyright laws — Liu translated materials that were as diverse as they were voluminous.
Books Liu translated included space operas, horror, folklore, illustrated guides to electric trains, aviation and warships, and the then-popular manga series Galaxy Train 999 and Space Battleship Yamato, which are now considered classics of the genre.
“To a generation of readers born in the 1960s, or even earlier, Liu Wan-lai was a mystery and a literary demigod. During the age of information lockdown, his translations brought joy to countless fans and touched many lives,” National Taiwan University history professor Chou Wan-yao (周婉窈) said in a social media post marking Liu’s passing.
“The man is a legend,” said Hung Chih-wen (洪致文), a geography professor at the National Taiwan Normal University, who is also a prolific author on matters related to trains and railways.
Chinese-language extracurricular reading material was rare during the 1960s and Liu was responsible for introducing numerous Japanese books to Taiwanese readers by taking advantage of a lack of copyright protections at the time, Hung said.
Hung said his life-long passion for trains and railways was inspired by two books he bought as an elementary-school student that were translated by Liu — An Illustrated Guide to Trains and Railways and An Illustrated Guide to Electric Trains.
Liu’s made many translations of hobbyist literature and nourished many budding interests, Hung said.
“I started a club for train buffs in college and found out that everybody in the club grew up reading books Liu Wan-lai had translated,” he added.
Liu last year published an autobiography entitled Memoirs of An Old Kano: Liu Wan-lai, A Son of Dalin Tells His Story, with a preface written by Chou, the daughter of a colleague of Liu Wan-Lai’s at Dalin Elementary School.
The title of the book refers to the nickname of Liu’s alma mater, the Chiayi Agricultural and Forestry Vocational High School, the baseball team of which was the subject of the 2014 film Kano directed by Umin Boya.
According to Chou’s preface, Liu was younger than 16 when World War II ended and he had to transition from speaking Japanese to Chinese.
Later, Liu began Japanese-to-Chinese translation to supplement his income, with commissions coming mostly from Dashan Bookstore, a Tainan-based publishing company active during that time, which gave him a variety of titles to work on.
Liu and his publisher were often obliged by Martial Law-era censorship and anti-Japanese xenophobia to make strategic alterations to the material, for example changing book titles originally containing references to “Japanese trains” to “Asian trains,” and rechristening the titular Space Battleship Yamato to Space Battleship Yellow Emperor, Chou said.
Liu’s life and times bore witness to the “confusion and disorientation” that people of his era experienced as a result of Taiwan’s transformation from a pre-war society to a post-war society, Chou added.
Lin Chun-heng (林群恆), a historian who previously worked for Chiayi County Government’s committee to manage its archives, said Liu’s mastery of the Japanese language and personal knowledge of the Japanese colonial period made him a fountain of knowledge to historians of Taiwan.
Liu’s daughters, Liu Pi-chen (劉碧真) and Liu Pi-yu (劉碧玉), said that although he eventually earned enough money from his translations to live comfortably, he continued to tutor people in Japanese and translate books out of a sense of obligation, donating his commission to charitable causes and managing a charitable foundation operating out of Dalin.
Liu Pi-chen said her father battled diabetes and lung cancer for the last three years of his life, but on the day of his death, he merely complained of slight discomfort before reclining to rest, passing away peacefully.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard