A book signing event was held on Saturday at the 77th Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany for four Taiwanese authors, drawing international readers eager to explore Taiwanese literature.
The event took place at the Taiwan pavilion and featured crime novelist Katniss Hsiao (蕭瑋萱), fiction writer Kevin Chen (陳思宏), BL (Boys’ Love) writer Shi Wu (蒔舞) and manga artist Nownow (小峱峱).
Teerapat Charoensuk, secretary-general of the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand and founder of Palo Publishing, said that he was a big fan of Shi Wu’s work and had read all her novels.
Photo: CNA
A prominent figure in the Thai publishing industry, Teerapat said Shi Wu’s books are “very charming,” featuring fantasy and paranormal elements, depicting relationships between humans and the supernatural, and describing human and non-human elements.
Karin Betz, a German translator of Hsiao’s crime novel Before We Were Monsters, said that literature can serve as “strong soft power,” leading readers of Taiwanese literature to care about the nation and its well-being.
Through a book’s descriptions of things such as scenes in Taiwan, the streets of Taipei or home-cooked food, people can learn more about the nation in a “very interesting way — more interesting and rewarding than reading a guidebook on Taiwan,” Betz said.
Taiwan is still “unknown” to most Germans, and there are not enough German translations of books by Taiwanese authors, Betz said, adding that she intends to change that by focusing on doing more translations for the next few years.
Meanwhile, Chen said that he and many writers feel “vulnerable,” as they struggle in a world where it is increasingly difficult to push sales in the book market.
It is always moving to meet readers at a book signing event, Chen said.
“As long as someone sincerely says to me: ‘I have read your book,’ I become more motivated,” he said. “It’s like taking a vitamin.”
About 85 percent of Germany’s newly published books last year were written in German, while 15 percent were translated titles, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association said.
Of the translated publications, about 70 percent were originally written in English and only 3 percent were originally written in an Asian language, the association said.
The 77th Frankfurt Book Fair, held from Wednesday to Sunday last week, featured more than 1,000 authors and publishers from 92 countries, organizers said.
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