Two collections of short stories by 17 Taiwan authors translated into French are set to be launched in Paris in early February, helping raise international awareness of the nation’s literary evolution, the Ministry of Culture said Jan. 21.
Sponsored by the MOC, the third and fourth volumes in the series that roughly cover the four decades since the 1970s, were released late last year by Paris-based publisher You Feng. The books will be officially launched at two promotional events in the French capital: Librairie le Phenix bookshop Feb. 1 and Taiwan Cultural Center in Paris Feb. 10.
Both collections take their titles from one of their short stories: “Bloody Sacrifice with Color Make-up” by Li Ang and “Lucky Worries about His Country” by Zhang Da-chun for the third and fourth volumes, respectively. The former follows a woman whose husband is a victim of the February 28 Incident while the latter centers on a military veteran who laments the loss of people’s political consciousness.
Other featured authors include literary legend Huang Chun-ming, contemporary writers Luo Yi-chun and Ji Da-wei, as well as late indigenous novelist Husluman Vava from the Bunun tribe. French sinologists Angel Pino and Isabelle Rabut led the translation project.
According to the MOC, the anthologies offer readers a chance to get a better understanding of Taiwan’s history and diverse cultures and serve as an excellent resource for French-speaking academics studying the nation’s literature.
The first two volumes, published in 2016, focus on works penned during Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945) and the 1950s and 1960s, respectively. (CPY-E)
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