Taiwan Today

Organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair have wilted in the face of mainland Chinese pressure and downgraded Taiwan’s participating title at the event to “Taiwan Publishers.” Linden Lin, chairman of Taipei Book Fair Foundation, which is responsible for organizing the island’s contingent at the five-day event held from Oct. 14 to 18, said mainland China interfered with Taiwan’s participating title. “The new name is the result of extensive talks between the organizers, Taiwan and mainland China. After consultations, participating Taiwanese publishers and agencies have accepted the title.” “Taiwan Publishers” will now appear above Taiwan Pavilion booths and on the representation’s guidebooks, Lin said, adding that Taiwan would still be listed under “T” in the book fair’s catalogue as per the last three years. The island’s publishers have participated in the Frankfurt event—the world’s largest book fair—for 20 years under the name “Taiwan.” But pressure to change this situation began mounting on the German organizers as soon as they decided to make China Guest of Honor at the 2009 show. Confronted with the China Pavilion’s hyper-aggressive promotion of its culture, Taiwan hopes to counter this by highlighting the nation’s publishing diversity. Two volumes of German-language anthologies of Taiwanese contemporary poetry and novels will be on display in Frankfurt. The anthology of contemporary poetry, edited by Dresden-based poet and journalist Volker Sielaff, includes 20 poems from 12 authors including Chou Meng-dieh, Hong Hong, Hsia Yu, Luo Fu, and Yu Kuang-chung. Edited by Dieter Stolz, who handles most of Gunter Grass’s works, the contemporary title contains extracts by eight innovative Taiwanese novelists. These include Chang Ta-chuen, Chu Tien-wen, Chung Wen-yin, Egoyan Zheng and Luo Yi-jun. Taiwan will also participate in the children’s book section for the first time, featuring works by illustrators Chen Chih-yuan, Jimmy Liao, Lee Chin-lun and cartoonists Ron Chu and Tsai Chih-chung. (PCT-JSM)