Yang Shuang-zi's (楊双子) Taiwan Travelogue (臺灣漫遊錄) has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize for translated fiction, the award's organizers announced yesterday.
Judges described the novel, which tells the story of a same-sex romance between a Japanese author and her local interpreter in 1930s Taiwan, as "a delicious romance and an incisive postcolonial novel."
Photo courtesy of the Taichung City Government
"I hope people in Taiwan can have confidence in stories born and nurtured on this island, as Taiwanese literature is no less vibrant on the international stage," Yang was quoted as saying in a news release.
Following in the footsteps of Wu Ming-yi (吳明益), who was longlisted in 2018 for his novel The Stolen Bicycle (單車失竊記), Yang said she believes more Taiwanese novelists would see their names appear on the prize's lists in the future.
Lin King (金翎), the English translator of Taiwan Travelogue, said she is honored that the English edition, published more than a year ago, continues to resonate with readers worldwide.
She thanked the International Booker Prize and And Other Stories, Taiwan Travelogue's UK publisher, for helping more readers discover Taiwanese stories.
The International Booker Prize is an annual UK award for translated fiction, with a £50,000 (US$67,598) prize split equally between the author and translator.
For this year's award, 13 titles were longlisted from 128 submissions.
Of these, six finalists are to be named on March 31, with the winner announced in London on May 19.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
RSS