Manuscripts of Czech writers and records of their plight at the hands of state security police in the former Czechoslovakia are on display at the National Museum of Taiwan Literature (NMTL) as part of the Contemporary Czech Literature Exhibition.
The exhibition, titled “Typewriters Can Also Sing,” is a collaboration among the NMTL, the Museum of Czech Literature and other cultural institutions in the Czech Republic. It features rarely seen manuscripts and documents of Czech writers from the 20th century, as well as translations of Czech writers’ work in Chinese.
During the “Normalization” period from 1968 to 1987, in which the former Czechoslovakian regime aimed to restore the political situation before the Prague Spring in 1968 and preserve the status quo, writers were closely watched by the state security police, and their works were banned by the government, the NMTL said.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Taiwan Literature
As such, many writers continued writing by going underground or fleeing to other countries, it said.
Typewriters played an important role in Czech literature, as Czech writers typed up manuscripts and had them secretly published to avoid a crackdown from the authoritarian regime, the NMTL said.
“The title of the exhibition shows a poetic imagination of Czech underground literature. The words that were typed out became melodies that inspired people to pursue freedom and democracy,” it said.
Items that are on display in the exhibition were borrowed from the Museum of Czech Literature, Moravian Library, Moravian Museum and other institutions.
Many of items in the exhibition are displayed in Asia for the first time, including Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal’s typewriter and manuscripts, audio books by writer Milan Kundera, security police records of writer Ivan Klima and books published by 68 Publishers, a Toronto-based publishing house that was founded by Czech expatriate Josef Skvorecky and his wife, Zdena Salivarova, in 1971 to publish books by Czech and Slovak writers whose works were banned in the former Czechoslovakia.
For the exhibition, the NMTL also showed a copy of Taiwan’s Tomorrow magazine published in 1930, in which The Insect Play — written by Czech playwrights Karl and Josef Capek — was translated into Chinese by the magazine’s founder Huang Tien-hai (黃天海). Prior to the exhibition, the copy was stored in the archived section of the National Taiwan Library.
The exhibition opened on Dec. 6 and is to run through March 2 next year.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS