Written by Yi-Jen Yu. This article reflects on a Taiwan-themed book exhibition at Princeton Chinese Language School, exploring how English translations, Taiwanese American children’s books, and bilingual learning resources can connect younger readers with Taiwan. Through stories of food, family, home, and language, the exhibition reveals reading as a bridge across generations, cultures, and distance.
Written by Chee-Hann Wu. This article further explores the diversity of Taiwan literature through nearly ninety books curated for the Brooklyn Book Festival. From translated fiction and graphic narratives to Taiwanese American writing, it examines how literature crosses linguistic and geographic boundaries, revealing Taiwan’s layered histories, diasporic experiences, and evolving identities through multiple perspectives and stories.
Written by Chee-Hann Wu and Yi-Jen Yu. This article reflects on the curation of “Slow-cooked: Stories from Taiwan across Time” for the 2026 Brooklyn Book Festival. Using slow cooking as a metaphor for Taiwan’s layered histories and diverse cultures, the exhibition brings together literature, food, and sensory experiences to invite readers to encounter Taiwan beyond the written word.
Written by Gabrielle Killick. This article examines the poetry of Yen Ai Lin and Hsia Yü through the concept of “phenomenological ecofeminism”. It argues that their representations of bodily and natural fluids challenge patriarchal ideas of femininity, expose the social abjection of women’s bodies, and foreground connections between embodiment, nature, and non-human life in post-Martial Law Taiwanese poetry.
Written by Phoenix, Fung Lam Chan. This article examines Pai Hsien-yung’s Crystal Boys through the relationship between fatherhood, masculinity, and queer identity. It argues that the novel exposes how patriarchal family structures and heterosexual norms marginalise homosexual men, while New Park provides an alternative space of queer kinship and belonging. Yet the novel also highlights the continuing limits of this resistance.
Written by Anne Sokolsky. This article examines Taiwan no shōjo (1944), a collection of essays by Taiwanese writer Huang Fengzi, arguing that its emotional language reveals the complexities of colonial identity under Japanese rule. Through an analysis of competing voices and affective expressions, it explores how emotions, power, and cultural belonging shaped both the text and its colonial context.
