Lin King on “Taiwan Travelogue”-Cover to Cover Ep. 1
“Taiwan Travelogue” is the first Taiwanese fiction to win the U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature. Translator Lin King sat down with us to discuss the complexities in translating Taiwanese food, the lasting impacts of Japanese colonization, and her personal connections to this fictionalized account of a Japanese writer’s tour through colonial Taiwan. The novel is set in 1938 when Aoyama Chizuko arrives in Taiwan on the eve of Japan’s “Proceed to the South” policy. While she identifies as anti-imperialist, Chizuko does at times fall into a fascination with Taiwanese culture, spectacular scenery, and authentic cuisine in ways that feel a bit touristic. She’s joined by Chizuru; an ethnically Taiwanese woman educated entirely under the Japanese system. In acting as an interpreter, she quickly comes to represent the multicultural society of Taiwan where all sorts of identities often clash within one person. Together, as they travel across the North-South Railroad, themes of colonialism, cultural identity, gender, and relationships unravel…
