Taiwan Today

Taiwan is gearing up for a sizeable presence at the upcoming BookFest Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, with the participation of eight novelists and its biggest ever pavilion, according to the ROC Ministry of Culture July 31. “The fair, established in 2006, is the largest copyright trading event for Chinese publications in the region that attracted over 700,000 visitors in 2012,” a MOC official said. “We hope to help Taiwan publishing houses expand their overseas Chinese markets through participation in the occasion and promote the sector’s cultural exchanges with the international society.” YuWo said simplified Chinese is popular in Malaysia and she hopes on of the country’s publishing houses will contract to release her works in the language and help gain more exposure for her and Taiwan. According to the official, the high quality of Taiwan titles make them extremely popular in Malaysia, with Mandarin reading and writing flourishing in the country as a result of its Chinese population. The group of Taiwan authors—Chen Yu-Hang, Chiung Feng, Lo Chih-cheng, Syaman Rapongan, Yang Chao, Jiao Tung, Yu Wen-zheng and Yu Wo—are expected to make an important contribution to drumming up greater interest in Taiwan books, the official said. Yu Wo said simplified Chinese is popular in Malaysia and she hopes one of the country’s publishing houses will contract to release her works in the language and help gain more exposure for her and Taiwan. According to the MOC official, more than 3,000 works will be displayed at the Taiwan Pavilion spanning an array of annually awarded books on business and banking, children’s tales, cuisine and tourism, health, history and humanities, novels, popular publications, local and translated literature. A series of activities promoting homegrown literature will also be staged, including forums and autograph sessions, the official said. BookFest Malaysia will run from Aug. 3 to 11. (KML-JSM)