Exploring Taiwan with Miss Chizuru: The Fictional Craft of Taiwan Travelogue

​How can a Taiwanese novel incorporate historical materials from its decades under Japanese colonial rule? How does two women’s travelogue become a work of fiction? This talk will examine Taiwan Travelogue’s use of a “Shōwa Taiwan Railway Gourmet Tour” as its storytelling framework, covering the novel’s early inspirations, conceptual development, research, fieldwork, archives-building, story conception, and writing process.

This event will take place in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor.

語言:以部分中文進行 | The program will be conducted partially in Mandarin with interpretation.

Taiwan Travelogue tells the story of two women, one Japanese and one Taiwanese, who grew up in different cultural backgrounds during the Japanese colonial period in 1938. Through a coincidental opportunity, they embark on a gourmet journey along the railway, exchanging culture and ideas. Yang Shuang-zi uses food and drink as metaphors, allowing readers to glimpse the contradictions between the Japanese empire’s treatment of colonial Taiwan, mainland Japanese people, and Taiwanese locals, as well as the differences in fate between men and women at that time. As independent individuals, women aspire to have independent professional identities and thoughts, but they face various difficulties and challenges.

Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships, with the writer-translator relationship mimicking Japan’s colonial rule of Taiwan. And like many travel memoirs, the protagonist undergoes self-reflection while roaming an unfamiliar land.

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

To join the event online | Whether you're attending in person on online, you must register with your email address.The Zoom link will be sent to you by email approximately one day before the event. You will need a device with audio and/or video and an internet/cellular connection to join.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, whose real name is Yang Jo-Tzu, is a versatile writer from Taichung, Taiwan. She dabbles in various forms, including fiction, essays, manga scripts, and literary criticism. In 2020, she was named one of the Rising Stars of the Twenty-First Century by Wenshun magazine and was selected by Unitas magazine as one of the Twenty Most Promising Young Novelists. In 2021, she became the youngest-ever nominee for the United Daily News Literary Award. In 2022, Wenshun magazine again recognized Yáng as a Representative Author of Twenty-First Century Taiwanese Popular Literature. Her notable works include the novel The Season When Flowers Bloom (花開時節) in 2017, Taiwan Travelogue (臺灣漫遊錄) in 2020, No. 1, Siwei Street (四維街一號) in 2023 and the essay "Neighbors with Chang Jih-Hsing" (我家住在張日興隔壁) in 2020. Taiwan Travelogue received Taiwan’s highest literary honor—the Golden Tripod Award. In 2024, its Japanese translation won Japan’s Best Translation Award, while the English version earned the 75th Annual National Book Award for Translated Literature in the United States.

Lin King is a writer and translator based in Taipei and New York. Her fiction has appeared in One Story, Boston Review, and Joyland among others. She has received the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She is the translator of The Boy from Clearwater by Yu Pei-Yun and Zhou Jian-Xin, as well as Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, winner of the 2024 National Book Award in Translated Literature.

Jeremy Tiang is a novelist, playwright and the translator of over thirty books from Chinese, including novels by Lo Yi-Chin, Zhang Yueran, Yan Ge and Yeng Pway Ngon. His novel State of Emergency won the Singapore Literature Prize, and his plays include Salesman之死 and A Dream of Red Pavilions. Originally from Singapore, he now lives in Flushing, Queens.

GET THE BOOK

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog


• E-Book app: SimplyE, available on iOS and Android

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ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

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Please submit all press inquiries to Lizzie Tribone at least 48 hours before the event: email lizzietribone@nypl.org.
 

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All programs are subject to change or cancellation. All events at The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library are subject to recording and photography. 

This program is presented in partnership with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York.

The 7 Stories Up Series at SNFL is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).