Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi, this year's International Booker Prize winner, said she hopes the award will serve as an opportunity to introduce Taiwanese literature to a wider global audience.
"I am a novelist now, but I originally started as a literary researcher," Yang said at a press conference held Wednesday at Space Aide in Jung-gu, Seoul. She discussed the significance of winning the Booker Prize from the dual perspectives of researcher and novelist. Yang received the International Booker Prize for her novel "Taiwan Travelogue" at an awards ceremony held in London on May 19 local time. She is the first Taiwanese author to win the prize. The book had previously won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature in the United States.
Speaking first as a literary researcher, Yang said, "Both the National Book Award and the International Booker Prize are awards given jointly to the author and the translator," adding that "Lin King, the English translator, demonstrated a level of skill fully deserving of the prize." As a novelist, she stressed in her acceptance remarks, "I wanted to receive this award for Taiwan." Noting that her work addresses women's issues, state violence and historical problems, she said, "Just as with Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature, world literature is looking in the same direction." She added, "Taiwan is under significant pressure amid the current international situation. I wanted to convey the diverse aspects of Taiwan to the world through the medium of literature."
Recounting a meeting with former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen before her International Booker Prize win, Yang said, "I asked whether wanting to win the award for Taiwan was a healthy thought, and the response I received was, 'Why do you think it is not a healthy thought?'" She continued, "This award has raised expectations for Taiwanese literature," emphasizing that "Taiwan is a complex and diverse society that cannot be represented by a single work."
Discussing her signature novel "Taiwan Travelogue," she said, "It may appear to be a familiar story about travel and cuisine, but within it are issues of national identity, history and colonialism." Yang explained that the colonial history and memories of authoritarian rule that recur throughout her work are also connected to contemporary Taiwanese society. "Taiwan experienced a long period of martial law even after 1945," she said. "The reason for telling a story set in the colonial era a century ago is that people living today still have not escaped from its shadow." Regarding food, which features as an important motif in her work, she explained, "Food is connected not only to personal identity but also to class, ethnicity and gender. Ultimately, food is a matter related to power."
