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.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS