Taiwanese author Li Ang (李昂) opened the Polish edition of Authors’ Reading Month at Wrocławski Dom Literatury in Wrocław, Poland, on Saturday with a reading from her latest work, which draws on Taiwan’s supernatural folklore and religious traditions.
Li said that her new book, The River Woman on the Other Shore (彼岸的川婆), features a magical world and invited the Polish audience to take a peek into Taiwan’s supernatural tales. She then read selected passages from the book in Mandarin, while a Polish translation was projected onto the stage.
In a conversation with Táňa Dluhošová, director of the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Li said that Taiwan is a small island with many mountains, inhabited by ghosts and spirits.
Photo: CNA
The 74-year-old writer added that Taiwan is also a free country that has embraced many religions, including Christianity, which provides good material for writing.
Li said she hopes more Taiwanese writers would tap into the nation's rich supernatural traditions and folk beliefs to develop a Taiwanese form of magical realism.
She added that her “Supernatural Trilogy,” completed after two decades of work with the publication of her latest novel last year, was written in part to reconnect related traditions.
Li also discussed the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, which influenced the novel.
According to Taiwanese beliefs, the deceased drink soup provided by the River Woman before crossing to the other shore, causing them to forget their previous lives.
She revealed that a religious teacher previously told her that she did not forget completely and thus retained some unique sensitivities.
“I am like a witch who writes novels,” she said.
Dluhošová introduced Li as one of Taiwan’s most important contemporary writers, whose works explore themes including women, gender, political violence and Taiwanese identity.
One of Li’s best-known works, The Butcher’s Wife (殺夫), originally published in 1983, was translated into Polish in 2023.
The Polish edition of Authors’ Reading Month is being held in Wrocław and Cieszyn from Friday last week to June 22, with Taiwan serving as this year’s guest of honor.
Speaking at the opening event, Katarzyna Janusik, director of Wrocławski Dom Literatury, said Wrocław, a UNESCO City of Literature, was "thrilled" to host Taiwanese literature over the next 16 days.
Taiwanese authors invited to participate represent a wide range of generations and literary genres, including feminist writing, Indigenous literature, ocean literature, historical nonfiction, queer literature and immigrant literature, according to a statement from the Ministry of Culture.
The Authors’ Reading Month is the largest literary festival in Central Europe and has been held annually since 2000 in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.
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