Nobel Prize in Literature winner Kazuo Ishiguro and Stephenie Meyer, author of the famed Twilight series, are to hold virtual talks at the Taipei International Book Exhibition next month, the event’s organizers said yesterday.
The two writers are among the 46 international authors who are to address audiences via videoconferencing or prerecorded speeches, Taipei Book Fair Foundation director Wang Hsiu-yin (王秀銀) said.
In a prerecorded video Meyer would on Jan. 31 discuss her new book Midnight Sun, which tells the love story of the two main characters in the series from the male perspective, Wang said at a news conference.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, 2017 Nobel laureate Ishiguro, whose bestselling books include The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, would also appear in a prerecorded video address, Wang said, adding that the author is slated to speak on Jan. 30 on the subject “Creating with Humanity.”
Live discussions would also be held via videoconferencing, hosted by South Korean poet Chong Hyon-jong, German writer Judith Schalansky, and several authors from the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong, Wang said.
The full program for next year’s book fair, which is to run from Jan. 26 to Jan. 31 at the Taipei World Trade Center, would soon be posted on the event’s Web site, the organizers said.
Entry would be free for people under 18, people with disabilities and foreigners upon presentation of their passport, the organizers said.
Visitors would receive a NT$100 voucher to buy books at the fair, they said.
The organizers said that the fair would focus on literature from South Korea, which was planned to be the guest of honor nation at this year’s event, before it was postponed in late January, canceled in March and held online in May, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Korean Publishers Association chairman Yoon Chul-ho said in a prerecorded message at the news conference that his country’s pavilion would be themed “XYZ,” which represents different generations, gender issues and the end of the world.
The approximately 100 books on display at the booth would reflect those themes and help Taiwanese readers become familiar with South Korean authors, he said.
The booth would feature five famous South Korean writers, including Cho Nam-joo, author of the bestselling novel Kim Ji-young: Born 1982, and Kim Young-ha, whose books have been translated into more than 10 languages, the foundation said.
Yoon also highlighted the significance of holding the book fair at this particular time.
“I think it is extremely meaningful that Taiwan can host an in-person book fair right now,” Yoon said, adding that he hoped that people in the publishing industry worldwide would soon be able to resume attending such fairs.
To curb the spread of COVID-19, all visitors would have their temperatures checked at the entrance of the venue, be required to wear masks at all times during their visit, and register their names and telephone numbers, the foundation said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS