Taiwanese Novel Wins International Booker Prize

In London, England, the International Booker Prize awarded its prize to Taiwanese author Yang Songyu and translator Lin King on May 19th. Their novel, Taiwan Travelogue, marks the first work originally written in Taiwanese Mandarin to receive the honor.

Both Yang Songyu and Lin King are Taiwanese, with Lin King also holding American heritage, becoming the first from Taiwan to win this prize. The winning novel, published in 2020, follows a Japanese novelist traveling and exploring Taiwanese cuisine during the Japanese colonial period in 1938.

Yang Songyu wrote the work as a memoir from the protagonist’s perspective, weaving in a romance with a local interpreter. Booker Prize judge Natasha Brown described the story as cleverly exploring themes of language and power.

The book includes annotations and a fictional afterword. Lin King added notes to the English translation to help international readers understand the historical context.

Taiwan Travelogue previously won Taiwan’s Golden Tripod Award and the National Book Award for Translated Literature in the United States. The award shares £50,000 between the author and translator, but questions of power dynamics within relationships remain open for readers to consider.