Taiwan Today

Japan’s Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, will participate in a symposium co-organized by Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Taipei Oct. 6 to 7. During Oe’s first visit to Taiwan, he will join academics from Japan, Taiwan and mainland China in casting an international light on his world-renowned body of novels, short stories, and critical and political essays. Running in conjunction with the symposium is a special exhibition organized by Academia Sinica’s Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy that traces the prolific writer’s life. Two films about the acclaimed author will screen alongside the exhibition: “A Quiet Life” and “Art and Healing: Conversation with Kenzaburo Oe.” The former is a biographical family drama by Japanese director Juzo Itami based on Oe’s 1995 novel of the same name. The latter is an interview the author gave while on a lecture visit to the University of California’s Berkley campus in 1999. Born in 1935 on Japan’s evergreen-covered western island of Shikoku, Oe’s childhood was shaped by the region’s strong rural traditions. “I am a son of the forest,” he once said, referring to the island’s trees as a major inspiration for his creative works. In his Nobel Prize acceptance lecture, Oe reminisced on two books his mother gave him, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Strange Adventure of Nils Holgersson.” “These titles allowed me to justify going into the mountain forest at night and sleeping among the trees,” he said, adding this gave him a sense of security that he could never find indoors. Oe and his wife, Yukari—the daughter of well-known author Mansaku Itami—have three children. The birth of their first son Hikari in 1963 with serious brain damage altered Oe’s life and career. A major body of Oe’s works, which includes “A Personal Matter” and “Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness,” depicts his life with Hikari. “I still feel joy from Hikari’s language and movements every day as my wife and I approach our sunset years,” he said.