Taiwan books Archives - Where to Kim?

Review: The Piano Tuner by Chiang-Sheng Kuo

Kim — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 15:00:00 +0000

In The Piano Tuner by Chiang-Sheng Kuo, a love of music shines through a hard shell of loneliness and lost dreams.

Location: Taiwan and US

The Piano Tuner synopsis

This bestseller and winner of every major literary award in Taiwan is an elegiac novel about love and loss, broken dreams and desolate hearts—and music: “A delightful read.”—Ha Jin

A widower grieving for his young wife. A piano tuner concealing a lifetime of secrets. An out-of-tune Steinway piano. A journey of self-discovery across time and continents, from a dark apartment in Taipei’s red-light district to snow-clad New York.

At the heart of the story is the nameless narrator, the piano tuner. In his forties, he is balding and ugly, a loser by any standard. But he was once a musical prodigy. What betrayal and what heartbreak made him walk away from greatness?

Long hailed in Taiwan as a “writer’s writer,” Chiang-Sheng Kuo delivers a stunningly powerful, compact novel in The Piano Tuner. It’s a book of sounds: both of music and of the heart, from Rachmaninoff to Schubert, from Glenn Gould to Sviatoslav Richter, from untapped potential to unrequited love. With a cadence and precision that bring to mind Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes, and Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country, this short novel may be a portrait of the artist as a “failure,” but it also describes a pursuit of the ultimate beauty in music and in love.

Book review

 3/5

The past disappears like snow in summer, like time passing, like words disappearing without a trace and people dying without leaving their mark on the world. The tuner speaks of the mesmerizing ability to forge sounds and of other sounds in the world that move people. His thoughts about making an instrument and a musician share the same frequency also lead to thoughts about frequency vibrations between two souls. Tuning a piano for a pianist is like marriage mediation; it requires skill to match a person and a piano.

Falling without words

The tuner often talks about Rachmaninoff’s Song Without Words, and I understand why it reminds him of something falling around him. The way he lives his life is influenced by his upbringing: piano lessons did not quite fit his parents’ view on education. He and Lin san are the narrators of the book, and they alternate frequently and without warning. Lin san clings to his memories, and he wants the sound of his deceased wife’s piano to reflect that, even if it damages the hammers, while the tuner wonders whether you should tune an instrument to reflect its original timbre, to honor a sound etched in memory or to fit a changed person.

(My) thoughts

Not all thoughts the piano tuner shares “fit” him as a person. I was disappointed by the interesting and beautiful thoughts that are expressed in a single sentence and not explored further. They are isolated rather than incorporated into the story. Or is this how the author illustrates that dreams are not meant to be pursued any further? That they are like your conscience: a sincere melody in your heart rather than something you carry out?

The “happy days” of the piano tuner are over; what remains are lost dreams. “The distance between me and excellence at the moment was that I too am disgusted with myself. That’s all.” This quote describes the vibe the book left me with. The Piano Tuner exhibits loneliness, like a life dragging on past its expiration date. It suits the narrators, but falls out of tune with the beauty of the music that is mentioned. I have read more inspiring, upbeat and philosophical books than this one.

After the quote, the story continues with a piano tuner’s kind of hell. The joy he feels at this kind of hell says it all. His actions, including those in the closing paragraph, illustrate the way he chose to live his life as a result of his upbringing and environment. Does this make it a good book? For me, the piano tuner was not the person whose thoughts I wanted to share this week.

Interested?

Buy your copy of The Piano Tuner from Amazon (available 3 January 2023).

Book details

Title: The Piano Tuner
Author: Chiang-Sheng Kuo
Translators (from Chinese): Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin
Language: English
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Arcade
Pages: 168
ISBN (13): 9781956763416
Publication date: 3 January 2023

About the author and translator

Chiang-Sheng Kuo (郭強生) is one of the most exciting storytellers and prose stylists in Taiwanese literature today, He has written a number of novels, essay collections, and plays, of which The Piano Tuner is the first to be published in English. The Piano Tuner was a bestseller and swept every major literary award in Taiwan, including the 2021 United Daily Literature Award, 2020 Taiwan Literature Golden Award, and 2020 Openbook Book of the Year Award as well as other honors. Chiang-Sheng Kuo earned a PhD in drama from New York University and teaches in the Department of Language and Creative Writing at National Taipei University of Education. He lives in Taipei.

Howard Goldblatt translates Chinese fiction from China and Taiwan, including Nobel Prize–winner Mo Yan, five of whose works are published by Arcade (The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine; Big Breasts and Wide Hips; Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out; Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh). He has also translated works by Chiang-Sheng Kuo (The Piano Tuner) and Liu Zhenyun (I Did Not Kill My Husband; The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon; Remembering 1942, all with Sylvia Li-chun Lin and published by Arcade). He taught Chinese literature and culture for more than a quarter of a century. He lives in Lafayette, Colorado.

Sylvia Li-chun Lin, a former teacher and scholar of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture, is a full-time translator and writer. She and Howard Goldblatt live in Lafayette, Colorado, with their demonic cat, Domino.

Many thanks to Skyhorse Publishing and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The post Review: The Piano Tuner by Chiang-Sheng Kuo appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Most interesting and engaging books of 2022

Kim — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 15:00:00 +0000

What are the best new books in 2022? And how about surprisingly good older gems? A year of reviewing books led me to some very engaging books.

What a year this was!

I read fewer books this year because I spent most of my time taking care of my newborn son. During his first few months, I picked up light books (for me, that’s fantasy and science fiction) that I didn’t review. No wonder the only new book list for 2022 is called stuck in one place.

Many books were either hit or miss this year. More so than in other years. I gave quite a few two star ratings (also to books I didn’t review), but also many four stars. Four stars is a good rating: most of the books I enjoy get four stars. Five stars are reserved for books that fascinate me for whatever reason.

So let’s move on to my 2022 list. Here come the best, most engaging, unique, and inspiring stories of 2022.

Extremes

Guaranteed rereads

Flock Without Birds by Filip Dousek (review): the most intriguing book I read this year. Also one that I somehow can never explain well when recommending it to friends. That’s a good thing right? This book is not for everyone, but if it’s for you then you’ll enjoy it very much.
Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (Amazon)- An older book that I picked up because I wanted to read something from Ukraine this year. This is what I want from a book: an absurd and enchanting way of telling a story about a theme that I love.

The opposite

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik (Amazon): I saw this coming when I finished The Last Graduate last year. The end of my magical dream…
Rabbits by Terry Miles (Amazon): A book that came with good reviews but lacked a story.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Amazon): This author is just not right for me. A rather boring book that ended exactly as I predicted at the beginning.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Amazon): Easy to read but oh so cliche. Am I the only one?

Old and new obsessions

Meeting new cultures

Witches by Brenda Lozano (review): The author explores the role of gender and culture in Mexican society through a story about the lives, families, and strengths of a healer (curandera) and a journalist. Loved the content, but was less fond of the writing style.
Where the Language Lives by Janet Yoder (review): Essays about the life’s work of Vi Hilbert who saved the nearly dormant indigenous language Lushootseed. Most readers will regard this ode to the teacher who changed lives as educational (me), but the passion will be lost in paper.

Return to Korea

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee (review): The bestseller status of this book got me curious. This book is first and foremost a collection of dialogues and essays about the author’s experiences dealing with depression, anxiety, and dysthymia.
Wolves by Jeon Sungtae (review): This short story collection is worth reading because of the author’s good storytelling skills that have been preserved (or perhaps even improved) in the translation. The stories are about change that happens to you and change that you desire.
New Seoul Park Jelly Vendor Massacre by Cho Yeeun (review): A jelly massacre embodying your heart’s desire, how can I not be intrigued?
Endless Blue Sky by Lee Hyoseok (review): The theme and story were a pleasant surprise that created a culture clash for my stereotypical view of literature from that decade.
The Library of Musical Instruments by Kim Junghyuk (review): The stories lack something essential, namely a beat that is in sync with my heartbeat and touches the strings of my heart.
Night Picture of Rain Sound: Seventeen Stories by Sue Ja Joo (review): The seventeen stories in this collection navigate the blurry line between fantasy and reality, witnessing and wit, passion and the symbolic meaning of everything in the world. Some great stories, but not all of them.
Launch Something! by Bae Myung-Hoon (review): I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even close to being as interesting as Tower.

Into Japanese (books)

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata (review): Meet a new normal based on a fascination with the use of the human body and the way you care for it.
How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino (review): The author challenges you to answer this question from both the rooftop and the street, the middle of the city and the ocean.
Core Japanese language learning resources for N3 (link): Have you mastered JLPT N4? Then check out these resources (including books) to conquer N3.
Where to buy Japanese books online from Europe? (link): Ordering books in the original Japanese language can be quite expensive if you live outside of Japan. This blog posts lists the best options for those of you living in Europe.

I want to visit Taiwan and China in a post-apocalyptic(corona) world!

Whisper by Chang Yu-Ko (review): A ghost story with elements of indigenous folklore and Taiwan’s history with the Japanese.
Bad Kids by Zijin Chen (review): A fast-paced and entertaining suspense thriller about the accountability of teenagers.

Close to home

November by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (review): I realize this book has not been translated into English yet, but I know that there or Thomas Olde Heuvelt fans out there eagerly awaiting the translation. For now, please check out HEX and Echo.

Review: Whisper by Chang Yu-ko

Kim — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 15:00:00 +0000

Whisper by Taiwanese author Chang Yu-ko is a ghost story with elements of indigenous folklore and Taiwan’s history with the Japanese.

Location: mainly Taipei and Mount Jade in Taiwan

Whisper synopsis

Victims all describe hearing a voice before they die gruesomely. Sometimes it’s singing an old Taiwanese song, sometimes it’s in Japanese, and sometimes it’s an anguished call for help from a loved one. Can Wu Shih-Sheng, a degenerate taxi driver in Taipei, hunt down the source of the voice that killed his wife before he becomes the next victim?

Whisper is a plot-driven, Taiwanese horror story. As well as being a chilling read, Chang Yu-Ko cleverly combines Taiwanese folklore, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and the long-term mistreatment of the country’s aboriginal people into a story of how the past can still kill.

Book review

 4/5

Whisper is about a working-class couple who live miserable lives as a result of an accident caused by one of them in the past. They both hear voices from different sources, such as a cassette player found in an abandoned cab. The right atmosphere is there from the beginning, with the sightings of young girls speaking in multiple languages making you wonder about the significance of the use of Japanese and Taiwanese words for the plot.

This is a ghost story that builds on native folklore, Taiwan’s history with the Japanese, and various interactions with mainland China.

Who lives to tell?

The four narrators all shed some light on the situation. The mystery would probably have been greater if you had only the taxi driver’s point of view, although he was not the right person to tell the whole story. Still, you get a pretty good idea of all the locations he visits as he takes you on his journey to unravel the mystery surrounding the ghost Minako. I do wonder if we really needed four narrators because the sister’s storyline could have been left out. She seems to have been there only as a vessel for some of the more gruesome scenes resulting from paths the taxi driver chose not to explore.

Who hears her voice?

I was intrigued by the abandoned taxi and the cassette recording and was a little disappointed when the creepiness didn’t center around these things. Instead, the taxi driver’s experience with the ghost was mostly indirect. At first.

In the first half of the book, the horror scenes are told in retrospect because he hears them second hand. The good thing about this is that the ghost isn’t just focused on him, which adds to the mystery, but this does reduce the tension that could have been there.

The build-up of Whisper from a mundane story to its haunting ending is well-paced. There is tension in the air every time the bad things you are expecting don’t happen. You also don’t yet know the motive of the ghost, nor do you – well, most of you – know enough about the folklore and history of the area to guess. What tradition, religion or historical aspect underlies it? It helps if you have read books from Taiwan before, so you understand some of the references. But if not, no worries, let this be your first step into the diversity of Taiwan.

Recommendation

The setting and cultural aspects of this ghost story will appeal to a foreign audience; they add to the creepy feeling because you don’t know what to expect. However, the ghost elements embedded in the story do not bring anything new to the genre. Chang Yu-ko also does not dive deep into the cultural and political themes of modern Taiwan, or provide much insight into historical events. Some other story elements could have been explored in greater depth as well. This makes Whisper interesting for those who only occasionally wander into the horror scene or are not familiar with Taiwanese literature. If that’s you, then I recommend this book to you.

I gave the book four stars because I enjoyed reading Whisper. I am very susceptible to ghost stories, especially when I read them alone at night. Not all books need to be genre-defying. Sometimes they just need to be entertaining. Whisper was such a book for me.

Interested?

Buy your copy of Whisper from Amazon.

Book details

Title: Whisper
Author: Chang Yu-ko
Translator (from Chinese): Roddy Flagg
Language: English
Publisher: Honford Star
Pages: 294
ISBN (13): 9781916277168
Publication date: 15 October 2021

About the author and translator

Chang Yu-ko was a clinical physician before winning multiple prestigious awards for his television scripts in his mid-twenties. He later turned his hand to fiction and is now regarded as a rising star in Taiwanese literature. Whisper was originally published in Chinese in 2018 and is his English language debut.

Roddy Flagg is a freelance translator living in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has translated a range of work by mainland and Taiwanese authors, including stories from Diao Dou and Chen Chongzheng for Pathlight magazine and The Sniper, a thriller by Chang Kuo-Li.

The post Review: Whisper by Chang Yu-ko appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Most interesting and engaging books of 2021

Kim — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 15:00:00 +0000

What are the best new books in 2021? And how about surprisingly good older gems? A year of reviewing books led me to some very engaging books.

These are my highlights and surprises of 2021. While I haven’t read all books that were published – not even all of the popular ones – I found many engaging books among those that I did read.

A year of reading and reviewing books… I read over 100 books this year and reviewed half of them. Many of the books I read are now on my new book lists about China, Taiwan, Austria, Korean short story collections and Japanese short story collections.

Last year I identified some blindspots, namely books originating from or set in Africa and South America. While my reading activity for these parts of the world have not been overwhelming, I did read a few books from there: When We Cease to Understand the World (writer living in Santiago de Chile), Remote Control (set in Ghana), At Night All Blood is Black (writer from Senegal) and Bakhita (set in Sudan).

Back to 2021. Many of the books I read were released in 2021 or will be released in 2022. But aside from my more recent picks, I also read some classics or other books that are still getting a lot of attention around the world. Some of it deserved, the rest – in my eyes – baffling. That’s what is so great about the vast amount of books that exist in the world: there is a ‘right’ book for everyone.

I see it as my mission to raise awareness of all the good stories that exist in this world.

So here they come: the best, most engaging, unique, and inspiring stories of 2021.

Dare to feel

My Wow books of 2021

Popisho by Leone Ross (Review): a magical and sensual, yet down-to-earth story that only Popisho natives will fully understand. Such an entertaining story.
Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin (I didn’t review this one, check it out on Amazon). This series blew my mind: the scope is immense. Unsurprisingly, the books by Liu Cixin made it to the top of my science fiction book list.
Bolla by Pajtim Statovci (Review): I was really impressed by the writing style (in translation). The narrator’s feelings were expressed in a beautiful and touching way.

Exploring new horizons

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (Amazon): a powerful and gruesome novel about a Senegalese man who fought as a soldier in the French army during World War I.
Bakhita: A Novel of the Saint of Sudan by Véronique Olmi (Amazon): a book set in Sudan and Italy by the author of one of my favorite books, Beside the Sea. I didn’t particularly like the writing style in Bakhita, but the story was interesting.
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (Review): a magical journey through Ghana that you can’t even remotely control.
Soviet milk by Nora Ikstena (Amazon): a story about the influence of Soviet rule on individual lives in Latvia.

Into science this year?

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut (Amazon): a blend of fiction and essay about the good and the bad that led to scientific advances in the 20th century. And about the minds and lives of those that came up with them.
Saving Schrödinger’s Cat by Mark Jenkins (Review): Schrödinger is back again (he also plays a role in the book by Benjamín Labatut).
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson (Amazon): I read this one because I wanted to know more about RNA. I was also interested in the ethical aspects of curing genetic diseases and to what extent it should be allowable to improve DNA.
Future Bright, Future Grimm by D.J. MacLennan (Review): explore what happens if you use scientific progress to allow time to move on in a fairy tale realm.
Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin (Amazon). This series blew my mind: the scope is immense. Unsurprisingly, the books by Liu Cixin made it to the top of my science fiction book list.

Identity

LGBTQ+

Bolla by Pajtim Statovci (Review): I was really impressed by the writing style (in translation). The narrator’s feelings were expressed in a beautiful and touching way.
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (Review): I love how his spirit and energy changed over the course of the book. The author portrays the gradual character transformation very convincingly.
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei (Review): shows a future in which intimacy, experiences, and identity are fluid.
To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young (Review): a dystopian story about two strangers growing close and showing affection despite their hardships.
Last Words from Montmartre and Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin: two classics from Taiwan about the passionate relationships between (queer and lesbian) people. You need to be in the mood for these books.

Contemplative and mesmerizing

The Mountain Whisperer by Jia Pingwa (Review): this book is pure and warm, cruel and mean, and above all, absurd and compelling. The author combines historical and mythical knowledge into a turbulent and rich story set in rural China.
Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong (Amazon): a slow-paced story showing respect for nature and the culture of the people living in north-central Inner Mongolia. This book transports you right there and reads as a meditation on living with nature and maintaining balance.
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer (Amazon): about a woman and some animals in survival mode. At first, this sounds like a pleasant change, but trouble lurks. You would have liked to be kept ignorant until the very end…
Wittgenstein’s Nephew by Thomas Bernhard (Amazon): what stuck with me is the irony of a narrator stuck in a hospital bed talking about how he and some other people are the happiest travelers and the unhappiest arrivals.

Hard to judge

Stronghold by Kesha Bakunin (Review): a study of leadership styles and political and social issues in the form of a fantasy story set in a world with a rich history.
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut (Amazon): a blend of fiction and essay about the good and the bad that caused scientific advances in the 20th century. And about the minds and lives of those that came up with them.
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang (Amazon): about three generations of Taiwanese American women that are haunted by the myths of their homeland. I didn’t like this book, but many people love it. It’s either hit or miss.

Whatever happened?

Books I wanted to like so much

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (Amazon): half a year later I am trying to come up with a description. I have to read the synopsis to even remember what it was about. A heavy and interesting topic but I’ve read more impressive books about this topic.
Piranesi by Susanna Clark (Amazon): a book with great reviews that I found extremely boring.
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (Amazon): a book that I both love and hate because I don’t like the narrator’s personality and thoughts but I love the setting. So of course I’ll read the third installment next year.
To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young (Review): if only one of the other characters had been the main narrator…
House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Amazon): I actually did like this book, but it lacked the wow-factor that I was expecting after hearing other readers rave about it.

Guilty pleasures

Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #3) by Jessica Townsend (Amazon): a truly magical and fantastic children’s books series that was just what I needed at some point this year.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension #1) by Andrew Rowe (Amazon): the Arcane Ascension trilogy by Andrew Rowe also helped to satisfy my magic school books craving.

Published by Honford Star (because I ended up buying all of them)

Astral Season, Beastly Season by Tahi Saihate (Review): a story about adoration and objectification. What does it take to grow up as a star instead of a beast?
To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young (Review): a dystopian story about two strangers growing close and showing affection despite their hardships.
Tower by Bae Myung-hoon (Review): this book is a mirror of society; a sci-fi depiction of social and political issues. It is intense, subtle and funny.
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung (Review): the author will amuse you with all the unusual things that are considered perfectly ordinary.
Whisper by Chang Yu-Ko (Amazon): Whisper is a plot-driven, Taiwanese horror story, that is hopefully on its way here from Manchester (I think it is travelling on foot because it was sent to me two months ago). It will arrive someday.

Review: Scales of Injustice by Lōa Hō

Kim — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 14:00:00 +0000

The stories in Scales of Injustice give you an idea of the waters Taiwanese author Lōa Hō had to navigate to expose wrongs in society and still get his stories published in magazines.

Location: Taiwan

Scales of Injustice synopsis

Lōa Hô (also Lai He, 1894-1943) was a pioneering writer from Taiwan often called the ‘father of New Taiwanese Literature’. As a doctor during the colonial period in Taiwan, Loa witnessed the cruelty of Japanese rule and wrote stories which display both his sense of justice and social insight. His writing often utilized irony and satire to criticize the status quo, and his work provides a fascinating window into the struggle for Taiwanese self-determination during the early twentieth century.

Scales of Injustice contains the complete fiction of Loa Hô, with an expert introduction from Pei-yin Lin and explanatory notes by translator Darryl Sterk.

Book review

 3/5

Background

Lōa Hō is described as the Father of New Taiwanese Literature because he promoted the vernacular language over Chinese in the 1920s. He is known for his humanitarian concern for the underprivileged. The stories he wrote are political and describe a sense of loss. His experiments with writing in Taiwanese reveal a desire to get closer to the lower end of the colonial social spectrum.

Since he mixed Taiwanese, which is primarily an oral language with no written standard, with Chinese and Japanese, the translation of the stories posed quite a challenge for translator Darryl Sterk. This was all the more so because the author sometimes self-censored his text to get it published in magazines. Each story is thoroughly annotated.

At the beginning of the book is an introduction by Pei-yin Lin explaining the events that prompted the author to write the stories. The stories are arranged in chronological and thematic order, although sometimes this is based on a best guess.

Pointing out injustice

The characters in the stories did what the author often could not do or say, what he himself would not survive, even if he had many lives. As a result, the author’s stories point out many wrongs in society.

The first story, The Story of Class Action, sets the tone for the rest of the book. In this story, a landlord with a bad temper lashes out at the poor who cannot pay the funeral expenses. The main character, Mr. Grove, is a sincere man, but he is only one against many. The other stories also deal with the gap between rich and poor. In Bumper Crop, you feel personally cheated by the sugar company. The title of the collection of stories, Scales of Injustice, adequately describes the overarching theme of the stories.

The stories show what life was like for the common people in Taiwan in the early 20th century. The protagonist in Mr. Snake sells a remedy for snakebites but has no license. While others believe he is a great doctor, he uses statistics and analysis to prove otherwise. This is one of the lighter stories. Another fun story was A Prank LETTER. Some of the stories, such as Hope for the Future and The History of the Rich Clans read like medieval European stories from Ireland and Scotland, with the difference that they are set in Taiwan.

I especially liked The Poor Thing Died, a story that spans decades and reads more like a tale compared to other stories that revolve around incidents or encounters. In this story, a young girl is adopted by another family with the intention of her marrying that family’s son when she comes of age. Many things happen to her after her adoption. This story is easy to read and does not require much cultural knowledge. It is about the value of a daughter: is she really priceless to anyone?

Considering all the stories together, you get an idea of the waters Lōa Hō had to navigate to expose wrongs and still get his stories published in magazines. His subtle sense of humor and self-mockery is evident in many of the stories, although you only get that if you also read the translator’s annotations and the book’s introduction. And even with those notes, a modern reader will not fully grasp the true meaning of the stories.

For whom?

Although I was interested in the content of the stories, many of them are not particularly entertaining. The focus of the stories is on events in society rather than on the characters or their feelings. This also makes these stories feel older than, say, the Korean short story collection The Underground Village from the same publisher, which is set in Manchuria. You probably won’t read this book from front to back, but rather one story at a time.

I would recommend Scales of Injustice to those with an (academic) interest in this historical period and Taiwan’s literary scene. I would not read this collection of stories purely for entertainment. Rather: treat this collection of stories as a historical document. The translator’s annotations (much appreciated) support that feeling. Since all the annotations are at the end of the stories, you might consider purchasing a paper edition rather than an ebook to increase readability.

Interested?

Get your copy of Scales of Injustice from Amazon.

Book details

Title: Scales of Injustice
Author: Lōa Hō
Translator: Darryl Sterk
Language: English
Publisher: Honford Star
Pages: 288
ISBN (13): 9781999791223
Publication date: 27 April 2018

About the translator

Darryl Sterk is a Chinese-English literary translator from Canada who is now based in Hong Kong, where he teaches translation at Lingnan University, and Taiwan, where he has a wife from Taiwan and a Taiwanese-Canadian daughter. He has mainly translated contemporary Mandarin fiction from Taiwan into English, and feels stimulated by the challenge of all the Taiwanese (Taiwan Hoklo) in Lōa Hô . As a scholar, he researches translation to and from the Taiwanese indigenous language Seediq, especially for the feature film Seediq Bale.

The post Review: Scales of Injustice by Lōa Hō appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Interesting books set on mysterious, magical and absurd islands

Kim — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Interesting books set on or featuring mysterious, magical and absurd islands that drag you into the most fascinating situations.

Sometimes you simply want to spend some time in a mysterious place. Islands are perfect for that because of their isolation. In 2020 and 2021, many new books were published and are still being published about interesting, mysterious and absurd islands, helping to keep the mystery alive.

Keep on reading for some obvious and less obvious book suggestions.

Leone Ross - Popisho

A sensual novel, Popisho conjures a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love awaits. Everyone in Popisho was born with a little something… The local name for it was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift, nah? Yes. From the gods: a thing that felt so inexpressibly your own.

Somewhere far away– or maybe right nearby– lies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny and mystery, it is also a place in need of change.

Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation, anointed by the gods to make each resident one perfect meal when the time is right. Anise, his long lost love, is on a march toward reckoning with her healing powers. The governor’s daughter, Sonteine, is getting married, her father demanding a feast out of turn. And graffiti messages from an unknown source are asking hard questions. A storm is brewing. Before it comes, before the end of the day, this wildly imaginative narrative will take us across the islands, their history, and into the lives of unforgettable characters.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of Popisho

Yoko Ogawa - The Memory Police

On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses – until things become much more serious. Most of the island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with no power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.

When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath the floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her wiring as the last way of preserving the past.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of The Memory Police

Yun Ko-eun - The Disaster Tourist

An eco-thriller with a fierce feminist sensibility, The Disaster Tourist engages with the global dialog around climate activism, dark tourism, and the #MeToo movement.

For ten years, Yona has been stuck behind a desk as a coordinator for Jungle, a travel company specializing in vacation packages to destinations devastated by disaster and climate change. Her work life is uneventful until trouble arises in the form of a predatory colleague.

To forestall any disruption of business-as-usual, Jungle makes Yona a proposition: a paid “vacation” to the desert island of Mui. But Yona must pose as a tourist and assess whether Jungle should continue their partnership with the unprofitable destination.

Yona travels to the remote island, whose major attraction is an underwhelming sinkhole, a huge disappointment to the customers who’ve paid a premium. Soon Yona discovers the resort’s plan to fabricate a catastrophe in the interest of regaining their good standing with Jungle–and the manager enlists Yona’s help. Yona must choose between the callous company to whom she’s dedicated her life, or the possibility of a fresh start in a powerful new position. As she begins to understand the cost of the manufactured disaster, Yona realizes that the lives of Mui’s citizens are in danger–and so is she.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of The Disaster Tourist

Shelly Nolden - The Vines

In the shadows of New York City lies forbidden North Brother Island, where the remains of a shuttered hospital hide the haunting memories of century-old quarantines and human experiments. The ruins conceal the scarred and beautiful Cora, imprisoned by contagions and the doctors who torment her. When Finn, a young urban explorer, arrives on the island and glimpses an enigmatic beauty through the foliage, intrigue turns to obsession as he seeks to uncover her past—and his own family’s dark secrets. By unraveling these mysteries, will he be able to save Cora? Will Cora meet the same tragic ending as the thousands who’ve already perished on the island?

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of The Vines

Katłıà - Land-Water-Sky

A vexatious shapeshifter walks among humans. Shadowy beasts skulk at the edges of the woods. A ghostly apparition haunts a lonely stretch of highway. Spirits and legends rise and join together to protect the north.

Land-Water-Sky/Ndè-Tı-Yat’a is the debut novel from Dene author Katłıà. Set in Canada’s far north, this layered composite novel traverses space and time, from a community being stalked by a dark presence, a group of teenagers out for a dangerous joyride, to an archeological site on a mysterious island that holds a powerful secret.

Riveting, subtle, and unforgettable, Katłıà gives us a unique perspective into what the world might look like today if Indigenous legends walked amongst us, disguised as humans, and ensures that the spiritual significance and teachings behind the stories of Indigenous legends are respected and honored.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of Land-Water-Sky

Wu Ming-yi - The Man with the Compound Eyes

On the island of Wayo Wayo, every second son must leave on the day he turns fifteen as a sacrifice to the Sea God. Atile’i is one such boy, but as the strongest swimmer and best sailor, he is determined to defy destiny and become the first to survive.

Alice Shih, who has lost her husband and son in a climbing accident, is quietly preparing to commit suicide in her house by the sea. But her plan is interrupted when a vast trash vortex comes crashing onto the shore of Taiwan, bringing Atile’i with it.

In the aftermath of the catastrophe, Atile’i and Alice retrace her late husband’s footsteps into the mountains, hoping to solve the mystery of her son’s disappearance. On their journey, memories will be challenged, an unusual bond formed, and a dark secret uncovered that will force Alice to question everything she thought she knew.

Buy from Amazon

Terry Pratchett - Nation

Alone on a desert island — everything and everyone he knows and loves has been washed away in a storm — Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He’s completely alone — or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird, and gives him a stick that can make fire.
Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She’s certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, that all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship’s parrot, until other survivors arrive to take refuge on the island. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things (including how to milk a pig, and why spitting in beer is a good thing), and start to forge a new nation.

Buy from Amazon

Hanya Yanagihara - The People in the Trees

In 1950, a young doctor called Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu’ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub “The Dreamers,” who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He scientifically proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating personal consequences.

Buy from Amazon

Ali Shaw - The Girl with Glass Feet

Strange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda’s Land. Magical winged creatures flit around the icy bogland, albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods, and Ida Maclaird is slowly turning into glass. Ida is an outsider in these parts who has only visited the islands once before. Yet during that one fateful visit the glass transformation began to take hold, and now she has returned in search of a cure.

Buy from Amazon

Jess Richards - Snake Ropes

Set on an isolated island off the Scottish coast, in a community run by women who are in awe of a mysterious structure called the Thrashing House, the novel is narrated by two teenage girls in very different circumstances. Mary is doing her best to protect her younger brother, Barney, as the island’s sons are mysteriously disappearing. Morgan is scheming to escape the prison her parents have made of their home. The two girls unite, each on a desperate mission in which secrets will be revealed and lives changed forever.

Buy from Amazon

Kirsty Logan - The Gracekeepers

As a Gracekeeper, Callanish administers shoreside burials, laying the dead to their final resting place deep in the depths of the ocean. Alone on her island, she has exiled herself to a life of tending watery graves as penance for a long-ago mistake that still haunts her. Meanwhile, North works as a circus performer with the Excalibur, a floating troupe of acrobats, clowns, dancers, and trainers who sail from one archipelago to the next, entertaining in exchange for sustenance.

In a world divided between those inhabiting the mainland (“landlockers”) and those who float on the sea (“damplings”), loneliness has become a way of life for North and Callanish, until a sudden storm offshore brings change to both their lives – offering them a new understanding of the world they live in and the consequences of the past, while restoring hope in an unexpected future.

Buy from Amazon

Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.

Until something goes wrong. . . .

Buy from Amazon

The post Interesting books set on mysterious, magical and absurd islands appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Review: Faraway by Lo Yi-Chin

Kim — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Faraway by Lo Yi-Chin depicts the complicated relationship between a father and a son through the latter’s Kafkaesque experience in a foreign hospital.

Location: Jiujiang in mainland China and Hualien and Taipei in Taiwan

Faraway synopsis

In Taiwanese writer Lo Yi-Chin’s Faraway, a fictionalized version of the author finds himself stranded in mainland China attempting to bring his comatose father home. Lo’s father had fled decades ago, abandoning his first family to start a new life in Taiwan. After travel between the two countries becomes politically possible, he returns to visit the son he left behind, only to suffer a stroke. The middle-aged protagonist ventures to China, where he embarks on a protracted struggle with the byzantine hospital regulations while dealing with relatives he barely knows. Meanwhile, back in Taiwan, his wife is about to give birth to their second child. Isolated in a foreign country, Lo mulls over his life, dwelling on his difficult relationship with his father and how becoming a father himself has changed him.

Book review

 3/5

The death of an elderly person makes you mourn the entire landscape of a life, whereas with the death of a child it is the innocence that makes you sad. There is no backup for life, when the screening is over you’ve finished the very last reel.

In a dream, a street corner in a nonexistent city represents the suffering and entrapment of the main character’s father. He is unsure how to assume the father role in front of his child, having abandoned his comatose father in a ward.

Abandonment is one of the main themes in Faraway. The author writes about how his father abandoned his family and he himself daydreams about being capable of leaving his father and son (even leaving his two-year-old child alone in a hot car). The complicated and strained relationship with his father is further illustrated by the level of (naked) intimacy when taking care of his father and scenes such as the one in the bathtub when he was a child.

Farce

Faraway is a story about something you never want to experience: bringing home a loved one who has been hospitalized in a foreign country. You read how the author deals with the local customs to make sure everything goes smoothly. There is no way to know if he is handling it the right way.

Lo Yi-Chin tells of a terrible situation, which could come across as comical if it were not true. He and his family had everything against them in an unfamiliar environment. No help from the home front or great support from organizations that were supposed to help him. He felt trapped in that backward and impoverished city because of an old man’s ruined body and tried daily with all his might to get out of there.

In this story, he also gives his views on immigration and relations between Taiwan and mainland China, and gives the reader a glimpse into Taiwanese culture.

Disorderly scrawl

“My notes were a disorderly scrawl, like the hysterical, melancholy journal entries of a manic patient unable to let go of insignificant details. A thought floated into my brain: when all this was over, I would gather my memories and reconstruct this journal (this city, this hotel) as if it were a novel.”

I guess the level of detail and disorder in the book was intentional. The main character often reminisces about things that are not directly relevant to the storyline, such as when he lists all the items on the receipts he kept. Although I don’t like his detailed writing style – a matter of personal taste – he wrote many interesting sentences that made me think. I thought about what his words mean to me and what they mean to him. I think there is a difference.

Toward the end of the book, I thought Lo Yi-Chin was mocking my lack of appreciation for detail with a story about his writing classes. By revisiting the same part of the story (e.g., checking into his hotel) many times in different chapters, he does emphasize that it took a long time and that he performed the same actions every day during that time.

Expressing himself

Some lines are beautiful, others are thoughtful and confrontational, hiding nothing. Lo Yi-Chin likes to throw things at you to shock you, while also trying to cover up some of the frustrating events by providing comic relief. He calls it a Kafkaesque experience. Faraway is partly autofiction and the lines between life and fiction, history and imagination are blurry, as Jeremy Tiang mentions in his Translator’s Notes.

The narrator’s scattered thoughts and weary dreams show how strongly the situation affects him. Suddenly, in the middle of a conversation about his family in China, he would throw in information about his father’s suffering with full details about needle marks, excretion and affected body parts. And immediately after expressing his appreciation for Third Brother’s role as guardian angel, he continues as follows: “The hollow feeling of a human being so easily replaced by insignificant objects seemed like a metaphor for Third Brother’s migration story.”

As smoothly as that, dreamy and thoughtful thoughts turn into snide and hurt thoughts from a man who doesn’t know what to feel at that moment. The author skillfully expresses his own powerlessness that extends to his role toward his wife and child. His comical comments about the situation in the hospital (its sad state and quality) cannot disguise the mess and helplessness he feels.

Conclusion

I was very interested in reading about his experience with the hospital and procedures in a foreign country, and eagerly absorbed every comment that related to the narrator’s complicated relationships with his father and son.

I gave Faraway three stars because I’m not a fan of books with lots of detailed recollections and elaborations that take me away from the main storyline. You could argue that these side-steps were important to portray the right atmosphere, but I don’t think that’s true for all of them. While some pages encaptivated me, others did not. However, I am sure that Lo Yi-Chin’s writing style will appeal to many.

Interested?

Get your copy of Faraway from Amazon (available 7 September 2021).

Book details

Title: Faraway
Author: Lo Yi-Chin
Translator: Jeremy Tiang
Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Pages: 328
ISBN (13): 9780231193955
Publication date: 7 September 2021

About the author and translator

Lo Yi-Chin is an acclaimed Taiwanese writer, the recipient of numerous honors including the Hong Lou Meng Award and Taiwan Literary Award. His novels include Kuang Chaoren, Daughter, Western Xia Hotel, Surname of the Moon, and The Third Dancer.

Jeremy Tiang has translated works by writers including Yeng Pway Ngon, Su Wei-Chen, Yan Ge, Zhang Yueran, Chan Ho-Kei, and Li Er. He is the author of the short story collection It Never Rains on National Day (2015) and the novel State of Emergency (2017).

Many thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The post Review: Faraway by Lo Yi-Chin appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Most interesting books set in Taiwan

Kim — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 14:00:00 +0000

What are the most interesting Taiwanese books? Check out these books set in Taiwan to start immersing yourself in the culture before your visit to Taiwan.

When I’m planning a trip I like to read books originating from that country to start getting immersed and learn more about the culture. If you feel the same then look at the list below for inspiration.

For this list I’ll limit myself to books with English translations and I will only rate what I have read myself (I hardly ever give five stars by the way). So this list will be updated regularly when I come across interesting reads. I have added a list of other books by Taiwanese authors that I still want to read.

If you have read any good books set in Taiwan or by an author from Taiwan, please recommend them to me in the comment section below.

Best Taiwanese books

Chi Ta-wei - The Membranes

 4/5

Read about a future in which intimacy, experiences, and identity are fluid. Though in the end, the membranes still keep everything in its rightful place…

It is the late twenty-first century, and Momo is the most celebrated dermal care technician in all of T City. Humanity has migrated to domes at the bottom of the sea to escape devastating climate change. The world is dominated by powerful media conglomerates and runs on exploited cyborg labor. Momo prefers to keep to herself, and anyway she’s too busy for other relationships: her clients include some of the city’s best-known media personalities. But after meeting her estranged mother, she begins to explore her true identity, a journey that leads to questioning the bounds of gender, memory, self, and reality. First published in Taiwan in 1995, The Membranes is a classic of queer speculative fiction in Chinese.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of The Membranes

Chang Yu-Ko - Whisper

 4/5

The setting and cultural aspects of this ghost story will appeal to a foreign audience; they add to the creepy feeling because you don’t know what to expect.

Whisper is a plot-driven, Taiwanese horror story. As well as being a chilling read, Chang Yu-Ko cleverly combines Taiwanese folklore, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and the long-term mistreatment of the country’s aboriginal people into a story of how the past can still kill.

Buy from Amazon

Read my review of Whisper

Wu Ming-yi - The Man with the Compound Eyes

 3/5

Ultimately, this book is about the environment. Wu Ming-yi uses magical realism to mix timelines, myth, and reality to share people’s experiences with the land and the sea. Despite the magical realism, it tells you many things about cultures and traditions in Taiwan.

Buy from Amazon

Sakinu Ahronglong - Hunter School

 3/5

I value the cultural significance of these stories, but I ended up giving it a three-star rating because of the writing style and repetition. I would say that this book is a must-read for anyone visiting Taiwan and I will reread the stories in Hunter School many times in the future because they do appeal to me.

It is impossible to be unaware of the effect of development, invariably at the hands of outsiders, upon the lands, inhabitants and very nature of faraway climes. Hunter School shows us first-hand the immediate and long-reaching effects of such changes upon an indigenous people. The fabric of the community is changed, its balance and its self-sufficiency undermined, and confusion reigns. A common theme running throughout this charming but important book is that of a young man learning about himself and his heritage from the past, elders, ancestors, and nature itself.

Buy from Amazon
Read my review of Hunter School

Lo Yi-chin - Faraway

 3/5

I eagerly absorbed every comment that related to the narrator’s complicated relationships with his father and son.

Faraway is a powerful meditation on the nature of family and the many ways blood can both unite and divide us. Lo brings a keen sense of irony and sensitivity to everyday absurdity to his depiction of both family dynamics and fraught politics. He offers a deft portrayal of the rift between China and Taiwan through an intimate view of a father-son relationship that bridges this divide. One of the most celebrated writers in Taiwan, Lo has been greatly influential throughout the Chinese-speaking world, but his work has not previously been translated into English. Jeremy Tiang’s translation captures Lo’s distinctive voice, mordant wit, and nuanced portrayal of Taiwanese culture.

Buy from Amazon (available 7 September 2021)

Shawna Yang Ryan - Green Island

 3/5

A family epic that shows the tough situation many Taiwanese found and still find themselves in.

February 28, 1947: Trapped inside the family home amid an uprising that has rocked Taipei, Dr. Tsai delivers his youngest daughter, the unnamed narrator of Green Island, just after midnight as the city is plunged into martial law. In the following weeks, as the Chinese Nationalists act to crush the opposition, Dr. Tsai becomes one of the many thousands of people dragged away from their families and thrown into prison. His return, after more than a decade, is marked by alienation from his loved ones and paranoia among his community — conflicts that loom over the growing bond he forms with his youngest daughter. Years later, this troubled past follows her to the United States, where, as a mother and a wife, she too is forced to decide between what is right and what might save her family — the same choice she witnessed her father make many years before.

As the novel sweeps across six decades and two continents, the life of the narrator shadows the course of Taiwan’s history from the end of Japanese colonial rule to the decades under martial law and, finally, to Taiwan’s transformation into a democracy. But, above all, Green Island is a lush and lyrical story of a family and a nation grappling with the nuances of complicity and survival, raising the question: how far would you be willing to go for the ones you love?

Buy from Amazon

Qiu Miaojin - Last Words from Montmartre

 3/5

I’m not a fan of reading letters, but they grew on me. It is impressive how the eloquently author expresses such a wide range of emotions.

When the pioneering Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, Last Words from Montmartre. Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed narrator, Last Words tells the story of a passionate relationship between two young women—their sexual awakening, their gradual breakup, and the devastating aftermath of their broken love. In a style that veers between extremes, from self-deprecation to pathos, compulsive repetition to rhapsodic musings, reticence to vulnerability, Qiu’s genre-bending novel is at once a psychological thriller, a sublime romance, and the author’s own suicide note.

The letters (which, Qiu tells us, can be read in any order) leap between Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo. They display wrenching insights into what it means to live between cultures, languages, and genders—until the genderless character Zoë appears, and the narrator’s spiritual and physical identity is transformed.

Buy from Amazon

Emily X.R. Pan - The Astonishing Color of After

 3/5

Young Adult (or Middle School) romance and family drama, combined with a trip to Taiwan.

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.

Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

Buy from Amazon

Julie Wu - The Third Son

 3/5

Great start (the part in Taiwan), but less ‘spirited’ story and character development in the US. The Third Son illustrates the meaning of powerlessness.

In the middle of a terrifying air raid in Japanese-occupied Taiwan, Saburo, the least-favored son of a Taiwanese politician, runs through a forest for cover. It’s there he stumbles on Yoshiko, whose descriptions of her loving family are to Saburo like a glimpse of paradise. Meeting her is a moment he will remember forever, and for years he will try to find her again. When he finally does, she is by the side of his oldest brother and greatest rival.

In The Third Son, author Julie Wu has created an extraordinary character, determined to fight for everything he needs and wants, from food to education to his first love. The Third Son is a sparkling and moving story about a young boy with his head in the clouds who, against all odds, finds himself on the frontier of America’s space program.

Buy from Amazon

Qiu Miaojin - Notes of a Crocodile

 3/5

A classic that is more interesting because of its message than because of its story. Not a very happy book.

Set in the post-martial-law era of late 1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile depicts the coming-of-age of a group of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan’s most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, Qiu Miaojin’s cult classic novel is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and countercultural icon.

Afflicted by her fatalistic attraction to Shui Ling, an older woman who is alternately hot and cold toward her, Lazi turns for support to a circle of friends that includes the devil-may-care, rich-kid-turned-criminal Meng Sheng and his troubled, self-destructive gay lover Chu Kuang, as well as the bored, mischievous overachiever Tun Tun and her alluring slacker artist girlfriend Zhi Rou.

Buy from Amazon

Loa Hô - Scales of Injustice: The Complete Fiction of Loa Hô

 3/5

For those with an (academic) interest in this historical period and Taiwan’s literary scene.

Scales of Injustice contains the complete fiction of Loa Hô, with an expert introduction from Pei-yin Lin and explanatory notes by translator Darryl Sterk.

Buy from Amazon

K-Ming Chang - Bestiary

 2/5

Half of you will love this book and the other half will have a hard time finishing it. The sentences are beautiful and the story is unique, raw and surreal. I should have loved this book – it has all the right elements – but I struggled to finish it. The narrative style and the characters didn’t work for me.

Three generations of Taiwanese American women are haunted by the myths of their homeland in this spellbinding, visceral debut about one family’s queer desires, violent impulses, and buried secrets.

One evening, Mother tells Daughter a story about a tiger spirit who lived in a woman’s body. She was called Hu Gu Po, and she hungered to eat children, especially their toes. Soon afterwards, Daughter awakes with a tiger tail. And more mysterious events follow: Holes in the backyard spit up letters penned by her grandmother; a visiting aunt arrives with snakes in her belly; a brother tests the possibility of flight. All the while, Daughter is falling for Ben, a neighborhood girl with strange powers of her own. As the two young lovers translate the grandmother’s letters, Daughter begins to understand that each woman in her family embodies a myth–and that she will have to bring her family’s secrets to light in order to change their destiny.

Buy from Amazon

Li Ang - The Lost Garden

 2/5

Non-linear story (in an unpleasant way) with alternating perspective (I/she) and unclear theme (romance, business and politics or gardens).

In this eloquent and atmospheric novel, Li Ang further cements her reputation as one of our most sophisticated contemporary Chinese-language writers. “The Lost Garden” moves along two parallel lines. In one, we relive the family saga of Zhu Yinghong, whose father, Zhu Zuyan, was a gentry intellectual imprisoned for dissent in the early days of Chiang Kai-shek’s rule. After his release, Zhu Zuyan literally walled himself in his Lotus Garden, which he rebuilt according to his own desires.

Forever under suspicion, Zhu Zuyan indulged as much as he could in circumscribed pleasures, though they drained the family fortune. Eventually everything belonging to the household had to be sold, including the Lotus Garden. The second storyline picks up in modern-day Taipei as Zhu Yinghong meets Lin Xigeng, a real estate tycoon and playboy. Their cat-and-mouse courtship builds against the extravagant banquets and decadent entertainments of Taipei’s wealthy businessmen. Though the two ultimately marry, their high-styled romance dulls over time, forcing them on a quest to rediscover enchantment in the Lotus Garden. An expansive narrative rich with intimate detail, “The Lost Garden” is a moving portrait of the losses incurred as we struggle to hold on to our passions.

Buy from Amazon

Jessica J. Lee - Two Trees Make a Forest

 2/5

A non-fiction family history and travel log with a focus on the geography and flora and fauna of Taiwan. I found it boring and not engaging, but other people seem to praise the prose.

Taiwan is an island of extremes: towering mountains, lush forests, and barren escarpment. Between shifting tectonic plates and a history rife with tension, the geographical and political landscape is forever evolving. After unearthing a hidden memoir of her grandfather’s life, Jessica J. Lee seeks to piece together the fragments of her family’s history as they moved from China to Taiwan, and then on to Canada. But as she navigates the tumultuous terrain of Taiwan, Lee finds herself having to traverse fissures in language, memory, and history, as she searches for the pieces of her family left behind.

Interlacing a personal narrative with Taiwan’s history and terrain, Two Trees Make a Forest is an intimate examination of the human relationship with geography and nature, and offers an exploration of one woman’s search for history and belonging amidst an ever-shifting landscape.

Buy from Amazon

Wu Ming-yi - The Stolen Bicycle

On a quest to explain how and why his father mysteriously disappeared twenty years ago, a writer embarks on an epic journey in search of a stolen bicycle and soon finds himself immersed in the strangely overlapping histories of the Japanese military during World War II, Lin Wang, the oldest elephant who ever lived, and the secret world of antique bicycle collectors in Taiwan. The result is a surprising and moving meditation on memory, loss, and the bonds of family.

Buy from Amazon

Chang Ying-tai - The Bear Whispers to Me

A reclusive young boy stumbles upon his father’s diary. Filled with drawings, photos and anecdotes, the diary reveals an alpine world that his father once inhabited as a child: where tribes were fashioned by tree spirits; animals could be spoken to; fleas danced; and the moon and stars were guiding lights in darkling forests. His father’s world was alive with birdsong and hidden spirits, serene yet fleeting—but it all changed when he befriended two bears.

Bewitching and timeless, award-winning Taiwanese author Chang Ying-Tai’s The Bear Whispers to Me is a poignant forest fable about the vivid beauty of the natural world, childhood, loss and the transient nature of time.

Buy from Amazon

Horace Ho - The Tree Fort on Carnation Lane

Daniel Fang’s mid-thirties are marked by the birth of his daughter and the death of a childhood friend. His daughter’s birth and infancy reminds him of his own boyhood, his friend’s death of the good times he had with back in their old neighbourhood.

They were the kids from the wrong side of the temple, kids who grew up in the night market and next to the red light district. Their parents didn’t like them visiting the market by themselves and expressly forbade them from taking a single step into Carnation Lane. But the appearance of a chained orangutan in a night market spectacle the year the three friends turned twelve convinced them to defy the parental ban. While the adults were away at a protest against Taiwan’s endless Martial Law, they stole into the banned zone, released the beast from bondage and led it upstream, on a quest to find the fabled zoo.

The memory of this all-but-forgotten childhood experience comes back after news of his friend’s suicide. It seems to Daniel Fang that the two events must somehow be connected. A cryptologist by training, he decides to investigate, hoping to solve the mystery of his friend’s death and decode the message contained within the memory that has shaped, even warped, their later lives.

Buy from Amazon

Wang Ting-kuo - My Enemy's Cherry Tree

A man who has come from nothing, from poverty and loss, finds himself a beautiful wife, his dream love. When she vanishes without a trace, he sets up a small café in her favourite spot on the edge of the South China Sea, hoping she’ll return.

Instead, he is confronted by the man he suspects may be responsible for everything he has suffered: Luo Yiming, a prominent businessman and philanthropist who holds the small town in his sway. In the few moments the two men spend together, Luo is driven mad.

So begins a story of desire and betrayal set against the tumultuous first decade of Taiwan’s 21st Century. The recipient of all three of Taiwan’s major literary prizes, My Enemy’s Cherry Tree is a story of love, money and coercion, in which two men who have sought to acquire something unattainable, instead lose something irreplaceable.

Buy from Amazon

Huang Chun-ming - The Taste of Apples

In “The Two Sign Painters,” TV reporters ambush two young workers from the country taking a break atop a twenty-four-story building. “His Son’s Big Doll” introduces the tortured soul inside a walking advertisement, and in “Xiaoqi’s Cap” a dissatisfied pressure-cooker salesman is fascinated by a young schoolgirl.

Huang’s characters–generally the uneducated and disadvantaged who must cope with assaults on their traditionalism, hostility from their urban brethren and, of course, the debilitating effects of poverty–come to life in all their human uniqueness, free from idealization.

Buy from Amazon

Zhong Lihe - From the Old Country: stories and sketches of China and Taiwan

Though he lived most of his life in rural South Taiwan, Zhong Lihe spent several years in Manchuria and Peking, moving among an eclectic mix of ethnicities, social classes, and cultures. His fictional portraits unfold on Japanese battlefields and in Peking slums, as well as in the remote, impoverished hill-country villages and farms of his native Hakka districts. His scenic descriptions are deft and atmospheric, and his psychological explorations are acute. The first anthology to present his work in English, this volume features two novellas, ten short stories, and four short prose works.

Buy from Amazon

Shih Chiung-yu - Wedding in Autumn and Other Stories

Haunted by memories of the Chinese Civil War in the late 1940s, nationalist soldiers from all over mainland China are doomed to live out their days in exile in Taitung County, along the southeastern shore of the island of Taiwan.

The three novellas in this collection tell stories of Chinese men who were forced to leave their loved ones behind and the aboriginal Amis locals they marry or adopt to try to make themselves at home, often in vain, for their wives and adopted daughters and sons end up knocked up, sexually abused, sold into prostitution, happily married, or insane.

Set in Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s, Wedding in Autumn and Other Stories captures the suffering and the will to survive of marginalised people everywhere.

Buy from Amazon

Chu T'ien-wen - Notes of a Desolate Man

The narrator, Xiao Shao, recollects a series of friends and lovers, as he watches his childhood friend, Ah Yao, succumb to complications from AIDS. The brute fact of Ah Yao’s death focuses Shao’s simultaneously erudite and erotic reflections magnetically on the core theme of mortality. By turns humorous and despondent, the narrator struggles to come to terms with Ah Yao’s risky lifestyle, radical political activism, and eventual death; the fragility of romantic love; the awesome power of eros; the solace of writing; the cold ennui of a younger generation enthralled only by video games; and life on the edge of mainstream Taiwanese society. His feverish journey through forests of metaphor and allusion–from Fellini and Levi-Strauss to classical Chinese poetry–serves as a litany protecting him from the ravages of time and finitude.

Impressive in scope and detail, Notes of a Desolate Man employs the motif of its characters’ marginalized sexuality to highlight Taiwan’s vivid and fragile existence on the periphery of mainland China.

Buy from Amazon

Li Ang - The Butcher's Wife

Chen Jiangshui is a pig-butcher in a small coastal Taiwanese town. Stocky, with a paunch and deep-set beady eyes, he resembles a pig himself. His brutality towards his new young wife, Lin Shi, knows no bounds. The more she screams, the more he likes it. She is further isolated by the vicious gossip of her neighbors who condemn her for screaming aloud. As they see it, women are supposed to be tolerant and put their husbands above everything else. According to an old Chinese belief, all butchers are destined for hell—an eternity of torment by the animals they have dispatched. Lin Shi, isolated, despairing, and finally driven to madness, fittingly kills him with his own instrument—a meat cleaver. A literary sensation in the Chinese language world with its suggestion that ritual and tradition are the functions of oppression, this novel also caused widespread outrage with its unsparing portrayal of sexual violence and emotional cruelty. This tale has made a profound impact on contemporary Chinese literature and today ranks as a landmark text in both women’s studies and world literature.

Buy from Amazon

Hsiao Li-Hung - A Thousand Moons on a Thousand Rivers

At once a bittersweet romance and a vividly detailed portrait of life in a southern Taiwanese coastal town in the 1970s, A Thousand Moons on a Thousand Rivers captures the intimacy of agricultural life in the midst of an increasingly industrialized society. At the heart of the story is Zhenguan, a sensitive young woman whose coming of age is influenced by new experiences in the city, the wisdom of her elders, and her strong, unique identity. In Zhenguan’s journey of first love, suffering, disillusionment, and–ultimately–zenlike triumph, Hsiao Li-hung celebrates the values and traditions that have sustained and nurtured life in Taiwan through the centuries.

Hsiao traces the relationship of Zhenguan and her childhood friend Daxin against the background of daily existence and festival celebrations in their extended family. Daxin, in many ways Zhenguan’s male counterpart, is fascinated by ancestral worship during Lunar New Year, riddle-solving during the Lantern Festival, and the noontime water and sticky rice dumplings of the Dragonboat Festival. These rituals, part of a rich cultural heritage, add charm to their romance while shedding light on the reasons for their eventual separation.

Buy from Amazon

Chang Hsi-Kuo - The City Trilogy

Taiwan’s most innovative science fiction writer presents three tales of intrigue, espionage, betrayal, political strife, time travel, and Chinese history and mysticism. After thousands of years of civil unrest and countless wars, the weary Huhui people of Sunlon City have once again succumbed to a ruthless and overpowering enemy. In “Five Jade Disks,” the first book in the trilogy, the imperialistic Shan have enslaved the inhabitants of Sunlon City and imposed a harsh martial order. The story continues in “Defenders of the Dragon City.” The Shan have been defeated, but the victory celebrations of the Huhui are quickly brought to an end. The third novel, “Tale of a Feather,” opens with images of chaos and devastation. The conflict with the Shan has left the city in flames, and refugees are fleeing in droves through the main gates.

Buy from Amazon

Zhang Guixing - My South Seas Sleeping Beauty

My South Seas Sleeping Beauty is a captivating coming-of-age tale set in the magical jungles of Borneo. Told through the vivid recollections of a Chinese-Malay youth, the novel recounts the life of Su Qi, a troubled, sensitive son of a wealthy family, and exemplifies the imaginative range of one of Taiwan’s most innovative writers.

In an effort to escape the oppression of home, Su Qi loses himself in the surrounding jungle, full of Communist guerillas and strange tropical fauna. The jungle further blurs the line between fantasy and reality for Su Qi, until he meets Chunxi, the beautiful, frail daughter of his father’s best friend. Chunxi is an oasis of kindness and honesty in an otherwise cruel and evasive world, but after a bizarre accident, Chunxi falls into a deep coma, and Su Qui flees to Taiwan.

In college Su Qi meets Keyi, a vivacious siren who helps Su Qi forget not only his violent past but also the colorful tales of his youth. When a family member dies, however, Su Qi is pulled back to the jungles of Borneo where he begins to unravel the secrets of his family’s past-a story stranger than any fairy tale-and learns that his cherished dream of awakening his beloved Chunxi may be more than just a fantasy.

Buy from Amazon

Yang Mu - Memories of Mount Qilai

Hualien, on the Pacific coast of eastern Taiwan, and its mountains, especially Mount Qilai, were deeply inspirational for the young poet Yang Mu. A place of immense natural beauty and cultural heterogeneity, the city was also a site of extensive social, political, and cultural change in the twentieth century, from the Japanese occupation and the American bombings of World War II to the Chinese civil war, the White Terror, and the Cold War.

Taken as a whole, these evocative and allusive autobiographical essays provide a personal response to history as Taiwan transitioned from a Japanese colony to the Republic of China. Yang Mu recounts his childhood experiences under the Japanese, life in the mountains in proximity to indigenous people as his family took refuge from the American bombings, his initial encounters and cultural conflicts with Nationalist soldiers recently arrived from mainland China, the subsequent activities of the Nationalist government to consolidate power, and the island’s burgeoning new manufacturing society.

Nevertheless, throughout those early years, Yang Mu remained anchored by a sense of place on Taiwan’s eastern coast and amid its coastal mountains, over which stands Mount Qilai like a guardian spirit. This was the formative milieu of the young poet. Yang Mu seized on verse to develop a distinct persona and draw meaning from the currents of change reshuffling his world. These eloquent essays create an exciting, subjective realm meant to transcend the personal and historical limitations of the individual and the end of culture, “plundered and polluted by politics and industry long ago.”

Buy from Amazon

The post Most interesting books set in Taiwan appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Review: Hunter School by Sakinu Ahronglong

Kim — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Hunter School by Sakinu Ahronglong is about the lore, hardships, and dreams for the future of a descendant of the Paiwan, an indigenous tribe of Taiwan.

Hunter School synopsis

Hunter School is a timely piece of fiction, drawing on the recollections, folklore, and autobiographical stories of an aboriginal Taiwanese man aiming to reconnect with his lost tribal identity, a Paiwan identity lost in the name of development.

It is impossible to be unaware of the effect of development, invariably at the hands of outsiders, upon the lands, inhabitants and very nature of faraway climes. Hunter School shows us first-hand the immediate and long-reaching effects of such changes upon an indigenous people. The fabric of the community is changed, its balance and its self-sufficiency undermined, and confusion reigns. A common theme running throughout this charming but important book is that of a young man learning about himself and his heritage from the past, elders, ancestors, and nature itself.

Book review

 3/5

Author Sakinu Ahronglong is Paiwan, an indigenous tribe of Taiwan. This tribe has been in cultural hibernation for half a century because Paiwan villages were invaded by foreign culture after the rule of Japan and China. His mission is to reconstruct Paiwan culture and help people reconnect with nature, and he founded the Hunter School to do so.

Stories

Deeply ingrained in the stories is the coexistence of man and animal, and man and nature. You feel like you’re attending hunter school yourself, and along the way you learn some humility and respect: be one with nature, don’t place yourself above animals, and try to see it from their point of view. Hunting philosophy class 101: “Relate to each creature in nature like a fellow person.” And as such, it won’t surprise you when the hunter says that you can’t blame the disappearance of flying squirrels on humans alone. The squirrels are to blame, too. If only these squirrels had paid better attention in flying squirrel college they would have been more elusive.

The short stories in part one are lighthearted and resemble anecdotes – not quite fables – that share a rich culture. With each story, you learn new cultural aspects as you follow the studious but reluctant boy, the hunting father, and the wise grandfather. The key lesson here is that you should be grateful for nature and respect your ancestors.

The second part shows the hardships the author faced as a Paiwan in his contact with other cultures, and the third part shows his determination to stand up for what he believes in, including his hopes and dreams for the future. Most of the stories are very interesting and help preserve valuable knowledge.

What I liked less are the many paragraphs telling the reader about the decline of the village and the disappearance of the traditional culture of Paiwan. It becomes repetitive because it is mentioned in most stories. Why doesn’t the author trust readers to read this sentiment between the lines? These paragraphs slow down the stories. The writing style isn’t always that great either; more is told than shown. This allows you to sympathize with the experiences, but if you haven’t experienced it yourself, you can’t empathize with the angst of a child from the mountains visiting Taipei.

Reflection

One of the themes that the Hunter School got me thinking about is change. Is all change progress? Do things have to stay the same? People often long for the outcome of the road not taken, while reminiscing about good things of the past (which may not have been so good). You can revive what was lost, but if the environment has changed, are you creating something real or more of a museum-like experience? Is it even possible to restore what was lost? Suppose I have the opportunity to restore Dutch society exactly as it was in 1930, is that something I should want?

The author values his origins and ancestry, and I like how in one of the later stories he realizes something about the balance between ancestry and identity.

Conclusion

I value the cultural significance of this collection of stories, but I ended up giving it a three-star rating because of the writing style and repetition. I would say that this book is a must-read for anyone visiting Taiwan and I will reread the stories in Hunter School many times in the future because they do appeal to me. Some parts of the stories I would like to rewrite so that they appeal more to the reader, while still conveying the same message.

To everyone involved in writing, translating, and publishing this book: thank you for sharing these stories with the world. When I visit Taiwan in the future, I will do so with a better understanding.

Interested?

Get your copy of Hunter School from Amazon.

Book details
Title: Hunter School
Author: Sakinu Ahronglong
Translator: Darryl Sterk
Publisher: Honford Star
Pages: 182
ISBN (13): 9781999791285
Publication date: 1 May 2020

The post Review: Hunter School by Sakinu Ahronglong appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Review: The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei

Kim — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 15:00:00 +0000

The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei shows a future in which intimacy, experiences, and identity are fluid. Though in the end, the membranes still keep everything in its rightful place…

Location: set in Taiwan’s underwater city of the future

The Membranes synopsis

First published in Taiwan in 1995, The Membranes is a classic of queer speculative fiction in Chinese. Chi Ta-wei weaves dystopian tropes—heirloom animals, radiation-proof combat drones, sinister surveillance technologies—into a sensitive portrait of one young woman’s quest for self-understanding. Predicting everything from fitness tracking to social media saturation, this visionary and sublime novel stands out for its queer and trans themes. The Membranes reveals the diversity and originality of contemporary speculative fiction in Chinese, exploring gender and sexuality, technological domination, and regimes of capital, all while applying an unflinching self-reflexivity to the reader’s own role. Ari Larissa Heinrich’s translation brings Chi’s hybrid punk sensibility to all readers interested in books that test the limits of where speculative fiction can go.

Book review

 4/5

Let’s talk about the many applications of membranes: for one they visibly keep the sea out of the underwater city, but they also invisibly filter one’s perspective of the world. The dermal layer that Momo applies to the skin of her clients is a tangible layer, but when this layer is scanned, the experience of the person that scans the skin is very much intangible.

It is the year 2100. Humans have moved to underwater cities to protect themselves from the power of the sun. Intermezzos explain in some detail how this happened, including the political and economical aspects of the transformation. In 1995, Chi Ta-wei predicted our failure at solving the environmental issues that we are facing. There is still reason to rejoice: apparently, humans succeeded at finding an answer to other pressing debates. In Membranes, one’s identity and gender are very fluid: it is something you can change anytime. I should mention that the author teaches about queer theory and disability at a university in Taiwan.

The main character, Momo, fights a constant battle with herself. She has a job reliant on intimacy and yet shuns intimacy in her private life. She wonders whom her body belongs to; is it to medicine, her job, herself, or a partner? When you read about the memory skin she puts on her clients’ skin and later uses as a virtual reality experience for all senses, you’ll fully understand her thoughts about these subjects. Do take some time to think about that one finger that she surgically replaces… and imagine that you are living like a canary locked inside a beautiful cage.

The narrative is quite distant without any suspense. The Membranes doesn’t focus on worldbuilding but instead focuses on the meaning of identity and the value of life. What role do memories and experiences play in this? In an interesting afterword, the translator Ari Larissa Heinrich sheds more light on the background of the story. He also mentions that the author says this book is like a cyborg body.

I’d like to add my comparison to this: although the main character Momo is named after a peach that fell from a tree, she looks more like a canary released from a bird cage. This book is literally food for thought.

The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei shows a future in which intimacy, experiences, and identity are fluid. Though in the end, the membranes still keep everything in its rightful place. I recommend this book to people who like sci-fi and dystopian novels, and to whoever appreciates stories that make you think rather than feel immersed.

Interested?

Pre-order your copy of The Membranes from Amazon (available 1 June 2021).

Book details
Title: The Membranes
Author: Chi Ta-wei
Translator: Ari Larissa Heinrich
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Pages: 160
ISBN (13): 9780231195713
Publication date: 1 June 2021

Many thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The post Review: The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei appeared first on Where to Kim?.

Taiwan books Archives - Where to Kim?

Review: The Piano Tuner by Chiang-Sheng Kuo

The Piano Tuner synopsis

Book review

Falling without words

(My) thoughts

Interested?

Book details

About the author and translator

Most interesting and engaging books of 2022

Extremes

Guaranteed rereads

The opposite

Old and new obsessions

Meeting new cultures

Return to Korea

Into Japanese (books)

I want to visit Taiwan and China in a post-apocalyptic(corona) world!

Close to home

Most popular book reviews on Wheretokim in 2022

Review: Whisper by Chang Yu-ko

Whisper synopsis

Book review

Who lives to tell?

Who hears her voice?

Recommendation

Interested?

Book details

About the author and translator

Most interesting and engaging books of 2021

Dare to feel

My Wow books of 2021

Exploring new horizons

Into science this year?

Identity

LGBTQ+

Contemplative and mesmerizing

Hard to judge

Whatever happened?

Books I wanted to like so much

Guilty pleasures

Published by Honford Star (because I ended up buying all of them)

Most popular reviews on Wheretokim in 2021

Review: Scales of Injustice by Lōa Hō

Scales of Injustice synopsis

Book review

Background

Pointing out injustice

For whom?

Interested?

Book details

About the translator

Interesting books set on mysterious, magical and absurd islands

Leone Ross - Popisho

Yoko Ogawa - The Memory Police

Yun Ko-eun - The Disaster Tourist

Shelly Nolden - The Vines

Katłıà - Land-Water-Sky

Wu Ming-yi - The Man with the Compound Eyes

Terry Pratchett - Nation

Hanya Yanagihara - The People in the Trees

Ali Shaw - The Girl with Glass Feet

Jess Richards - Snake Ropes

Kirsty Logan - The Gracekeepers

Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park

Review: Faraway by Lo Yi-Chin

Faraway synopsis

Book review

Farce

Disorderly scrawl

Expressing himself

Conclusion

Interested?

Book details

About the author and translator

Most interesting books set in Taiwan

Best Taiwanese books

Chi Ta-wei - The Membranes

Chang Yu-Ko - Whisper

Wu Ming-yi - The Man with the Compound Eyes