Compassion for the land and the preservation of the nation’s history were among the themes highlighted by winners of this year’s Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) awards.
The Taipei Book Fair Foundation yesterday unveiled winners of this year’s prizes, with award categories including fiction, non-
fiction, and books for children and teenagers.
Photo: Sandy Huang, Taipei Times
Many of the award-winning works drew inspirations from Taiwanese life and experiences, constituting distinctive contributions to preserving the nation’s cultural and historical memory.
National Taiwan University drama and theater assistant professor Shih Ju-fang’s (施如芳) Yang Li-hua: The Legendary Taiwanese Opera Artist and Her Times (如有神在：楊麗花與她的時代) is a biography of Yang Li-hua (楊麗花) that combines the Taiwanese opera singer’s life story with the colorful history of Taiwanese opera.
Coauthored by Lienchiang County-based cultural heritage workers Chen Yung-han (陳泳翰), Liao Yi-mei (廖億美) and Huang Kai-yang (黃開洋), Boundaries of the Battlefield (戰地之框) describes the outlying county’s history, cultures and conventions, which vary starkly from Taiwan proper.
Photo: CNA
Novelist Lin Chun-ying’s (林俊穎) Lightning in July (七月爍爁) based its fictional story on
Changhua County’s Beidou Township (北斗) during the Japanese colonial period.
Writer Neqou Soqluman and illustrator “Catfish” (貓魚) Chiang Meng-yun (蔣孟芸) collaborated on the picture book titled Tongku Saveq (東谷沙飛：山的孩子笛昂) to depict the life and natural beauty of Jade Mountain (玉山) from the Bunun people’s perspective.
Fiction category judge Lee Ching-yi (李靜宜) said the TIBE awards’ fiction category received more than 100 entries this year.
The wide variety of themes and the diverse ages and backgrounds of contestants made it difficult to compare works and select awardees, Lee said.
Non-fiction judge Eric Sun (孫梓評) said 10 books were shortlisted for the final selection of the non-fiction category, adding that the panel of judges had strong consensuses on the final list of awardees despite the broad range of genres, such as poetry, biography or reportage, in the category.
The foundation also unveiled winners of the Golden Butterfly Awards, with all the 13 works shortlisted for the final round sent to Germany’s Leipzig Book Fair next year to compete for the awards of “the most beautiful books of the year.”
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