The Taiwan Institute in Los Angeles participated in the Los Angeles Times Book Fair on April 20th and 21st with the theme of “Taiwan Stories”. At booth number 148, they showcased seven works covering various aspects of Taiwan’s history, food culture, and indigenous culture, highlighting the best translations of recent years of Taiwanese literature. Popular children’s books like “Night Market Encounter,” “Dad’s Little Truck,” and “This is Not My Home” attracted many young readers.
The book fair held at the University of Southern California (USC) drew over 500 authors and vendors, with more than 150,000 attendees. American actress and writer Tiffany Haddish also recited stories for children at the fair on the 21st, with a full audience of parents and kids listening attentively.
Eugenia Yoh, a second-generation Taiwanese-American born and raised in Los Angeles, met Vivienne Chang through a Taiwanese student organization on campus. Both deeply fascinated by Taiwanese food, culture, and warmth, they collaborated on a children’s picture book titled “This is Not My Home”.
The book tells the story of Lily, a young girl born in the U.S., who moves back to Taiwan. Initially struggling with leaving behind friends and her school in America to care for her grandmother in Taiwan, Lily disliked her new home, the crowded markets, “strange” food, and squat toilets. Everything in Taiwan made Lily angry and upset until with guidance from her mother and love of her family, she found her cultural identity. Despite the title “This is Not My Home”, Lily eventually embraces Taiwan, falling in love with its people and culture.
Zheng Yangting’s “Night Market Rescue” portrays the meeting of a stray dog and a lost girl at a night market, capturing memories of Taiwanese night markets. “Papa’s Little Truck” by Mori, which won the 3X3 International Illustration Award, takes readers on a whimsical journey through the eyes of a young girl, expressing the love and companionship between parent and child.
The Taiwan Institute is under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China. Director Jian Deyuan mentioned plans to promote seven books to share with readers in Los Angeles and internationally this year. In addition to the aforementioned children’s books, other works include “Children from Qing Shui,” “Made in Taiwan,” “Puppet Flower,” and “Song of Mountains, Forests, and Sea: Taiwanese Indigenous Mythology Series”, covering Taiwan’s diverse ethnic culture, history, and cuisine.
The book “Children from Qing Shui”, which won the Prix Émile Guimet de littérature asiatique in the category of “graphic novel” in France in March, was co-created by You Peiyun and Zhou Jianxin. Through comics, the book portrays the life story of political prisoner Cai Kunlin.
Taiwanese-American journalist Wei Beishan conducted in-depth research and created “Made in Taiwan”, introducing over a hundred Taiwanese dishes and their cultural significance. The book, which was released last year, was selected as the best cookbook of 2023 by authoritative media.
Chen Yaochang’s “Puppet Flower” is inspired by the 1867 “Loumei Incident” that occurred on the Hengchun Peninsula. The book, which won the Taiwanese Literature Award for “Long Fiction Classic” and was adapted into the film “Scarlet” in 2021, tells the story of indigenous writer Liu Jialu teaming up with Czech illustrator Tomáš Řízek to present bold illustrations with rhythmic children’s poetry based on legendary stories of the Taiya, Rukai, and Amis tribes.
Jian Deyuan mentioned that the Ministry of Culture is promoting the “Convergence of Taiwan’s Cultural Waves” program to actively translate Taiwanese literature. The participation in this annual book fair that gathers book lovers across the U.S. helps American readers to get acquainted with Taiwanese literature. This year, they collaborated with the Cultural Content Strategy Institute and the National Taiwan Literature Museum to provide recent English translations of Taiwanese works and English manuals for award-winning Taiwanese literature to American publishers, aiming to expand the market for Taiwanese literature in the U.S.
The day’s activities also included music performances, author panel discussions, children’s reading sessions, and book signings. Many parents brought their children to the book fair, with a lot of interest in Taiwanese works and expressing their desire to visit Taiwan. Visitors to the Taiwan Institute booth who answered book-related questions were given traditional Taiwanese “Taiwanese Guest Qie Pouches” and National Taiwan Literature Museum “Literary Keychains”.
Given the diverse ethnicities in Los Angeles, Chinese-American writer Wu Yue designed bilingual children’s books in both Chinese-English and Chinese-Spanish, considering the multilingual environment where her children learn English at school, speak Spanish with Hispanic classmates, and speak Chinese at home. She remarked, “My creative initiative stemmed from a practical need.” Wu Yue plans to publish trilingual books in the future to facilitate language learning for children living in Los Angeles. ◇