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.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS