Would Taiwanese Culture Have Representation on the World Stage, if the KMT Had Its Way?
by Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: Taiwan Travelogue Book Cover
TAIWAN TRAVELOGUE, written by Yang Shuang-zi and translated by Lin King, has again put Taiwan on the international stage. After winning the US National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024, the book has now won the International Booker Prize.
This makes Taiwan Travelogue the first Mandarin book to win the International Booker Prize. During her speech, translator Lin King spoke of how she hoped to never see Taiwan relegated to the punchline of disparaging jokes, commenting how she had been told in the past by Westerners that they hoped to visit Taiwan while it still existed. King, likewise, spoke of how, after the invasion of Ukraine, she had decided to only translate Taiwanese literature.
Yang’s comments were similar. Yang expressed hope that Chinese readers would read her work and that it could be an opportunity for dialogue. At the same time, Yang stated that the book could “let more Chinese people understand what kind of future Taiwanese people want—which is not the same as what many in China imagine.”
It may not be surprising to note that it has mostly been pan-Green political figures who have celebrated Taiwan Travelogue’s win. Apart from President Lai Ching-te and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, former President Tsai Ing-wen, and former Culture Minister and current Deputy Premier Cheng Li-wun were also among those to praise Yang and King.
Indeed, after the win, there was a wave of reactions online from members of the publishing industry, who noted the role that the government has played in promoting Taiwanese literature in translation. More generally, the promotion of Taiwanese arts and culture abroad is funded by the Taiwanese government.
When the KMT drastically slashed the budget in 2024, in what was the largest set of cuts in the history of the Taiwanese government, among what was cut was cultural funding. Legislator Jessica Chen criticized artists, illustrators, writers, and other creatives as “beggars”. When criticized as a “killer of culture,” Chen further stoked controversy through retorting that she had memorized the Three Hundred Tang Poems–suggesting that she viewed contemporary culture as worthless compared to ancient Chinese classics. Funding for events that promote Taiwanese books on the world stage, such as the Taipei International Book Exhibition, was among what was cut.
As such, it may not be surprising that creatives were among those to criticize the KMT. When the Great Recall Movement broke out in response to the budget crisis, seeking to recall all KMT legislators in the first attempt of its kind, there were a number of petitions against the KMT.
One petition, signed by 1,043 authors, expressed support for recalling the KMT. Lee Chiao, the great of Taiwanese Hakka literature, himself took a leading role in the recall campaign in his native Miaoli–this despite the fact that Lee was 90 years old at the time. Yang was herself a supporter of the Great Recall Movement, taking a more proactive public role after her partner was assaulted by a 73-year-old woman while campaigning for recall signatures. Another petition against the KMT was signed by over 6,500 comic artists and readers. A group of prominent directors, too, criticized the cuts.
Perhaps it is not surprising that the KMT has always disparaged Taiwanese cultural content, in line with its fixation on the Chinese mainland. This may not surprise, when the KMT has denigrated anything from domestically-manufactured vaccines and medical masks to submarines and drones.
Indeed, while today’s generation of artists, creatives, and authors usually identifies with Taiwan and not China, in line with contemporary identity trends, the KMT has sometimes perceived the DPP as having engineered Taiwanese identification through cultural policy, rather than as a result of the changing relationship between Taiwan and China in past decades. For example, it is claimed that changes to textbooks carried out during the Chen administration led to shifts in identity among young people, leading them to identify with Taiwan.
In this sense, the KMT may perceive the rise of Taiwan-centered cultural works–such as Taiwan Travelogue, which depicts the Japanese colonial period and engages critically with colonial nostalgia and power dynamics–as simply DPP propaganda, as funded by DPP presidential administrations. It is probable that the KMT would seek to cut funding to such works should it take office.