Japan-based writer Li Kotomi (李琴峰) last week won the Akutagawa Prize, becoming the first Taiwanese to earn the Japanese literary award recognizing talented up-and-coming authors.
She on Friday last week received the award for her work An Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom, which was first published in the March edition of the Japanese literary magazine Bungakukai.
The novel, about a matriarchal society on a fictional island between Taiwan and Japan, poses questions about gender equality.
Photo: CNA
During her acceptance speech, Li said she owed her life to knowledge and literature, through which she has been able to deal with anger and pain.
Li said she hoped the award could become another miracle to help her continue her life, just like the main character in her award-winning novel, who escaped death because of a miracle.
The author, who was born in Taiwan in 1989 and moved to Japan to study in 2013, also said she hoped to publish several novels.
Li said she was grateful for her multicultural background, as the language and culture she grew up with in Taiwan and her experience living in Japan have “undoubtedly become the flesh and blood of my literary works.”
“Both Taiwan and Japan are important places to me,” she said.
Shuichi Yoshida, a former Akutagawa Prize winner and one of the panel committee members judging this year’s award, said he liked Taiwan a lot and felt honored to be able to evaluate Li’s works and see her win the prize.
Li has the gift of telling stories in different languages, creating a world of literature that is far bigger than he had imagined, Yoshida said, adding that he encourages Li to continue writing novels.
In April, Li became the first Taiwanese to be short-listed for Japan’s Mishima Yukio Prize for the novel.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS