Taiwan Travelogue
A Novel
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
A bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history, and power
May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.
Soon a Taiwanese woman—who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name—is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is.
Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A visit to another country turns into a life-changing experience for a young Japanese writer in this thoughtful meta-novel. Novelist Aoyama Chizuko arranges to travel from her home in Nagasaki to Taiwan in 1938 to experience life in a different culture and report on it for newspapers back home, then write a book. She hires a local translator, the cultured Chizuru, to help her navigate, and soon realizes that there’s a barrier between them that’s greater than language—even while she’s falling in love with her. Author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ presents Chizuko as an unreliable narrator who doesn’t see the imbalance of power, class, and history in her interactions with not just natives but also her beloved Chizuru until it’s way too late. We felt especially pulled into this intellectual and emotional interplay by Yang’s beautiful descriptions of the land and particularly its food, which is a source of fascination and comfort for Chizuko. (The chapters are named after different dishes.) Taiwan Travelogue is a lush, engrossing read that will stick with you long after you finish.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taiwanese author Yáng frames her dizzying English-language debut as a translation of a 1954 Japanese text. Its author, Aoyama Chizuko, is a young Japanese woman and successful writer invited by the Japanese-controlled government of Taiwan to give lectures across the island in 1938. She accepts with enthusiasm, eager to learn about Taiwan's culture. Her interpreter, Ō Chizuru, is a young woman whose guarded charm and extensive knowledge of local cuisine enthrall Aoyama. As she ravenously samples local dishes, she attempts to get closer to Chizuru, who insists friendship is impossible due to their status difference as Mainlander and Islander. Yáng's introduction and back matter blur the line between reality and fiction, inviting readers to imagine what's missing from Aoyama's novel due to its colonial context and the sensibilities of the time. The meta-literary gamesmanship is alluring, though readers may find their patience wearing thin by the fourth afterword. Still, Yáng offers rich reflections on colonialism and translation along with delightful depictions of Taiwanese delicacies. Admirers of metatextual novels like Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore ought to take note.
