Translation project expands reach of Taiwan literature

2016/06/20

Sixteen books by Taiwan authors have been translated into English, French, Japanese, Korean and Swedish as part of efforts by National Museum of Taiwan Literature in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City to expand the international reach of local literature.

“These translations enable Taiwan’s national treasures to be enjoyed by our foreign friends,” NMTL Director Chen Yi-yuan said earlier this month at a museum-staged event announcing publication of the newly translated books.

Since 2011, the NMTL’s translation project has seen 101 volumes rendered into nine languages. One of the most impressive works was in Swedish by Göran Malmqvist, a Sinologist and member of the Swedish Academy that decides the annual Nobel Prize in literature. He translated an autobiographical novel set in Beijing by the late Lin Hai-yin before she moved to Taipei City in the late 1940s.

Prominent novelist Li Ang thanked the NMTL for producing the English version of “The Lost Garden,” one of the feminist writer’s major works presenting a Taiwan family saga exploring local history and the heroine’s sexuality. Published by Columbia University Press in New York, the fictional piece was co-translated by Howard Goldblatt, an acclaimed translator of Mandarin-language works such as the novels of Mo Yan, a 2012 Nobel Prize in literature winner from mainland China.

Li attaches great importance to systematic translation efforts playing a central role in putting Taiwan authors on the global stage. “Similar efforts have been promoted and backed with large-scale funding in such countries as South Korea,” she said.

Other local female authors are enjoying the spotlight as a result of the NMTL project, which includes English versions of works by three female playwrights. In addition, two Taiwan literary history titles were translated into Japanese and Korean, respectively.

Chen Yi-jun, an official from the Ministry of Culture’s Department of Humanities and Publications, said the MOC will continue cooperating with NMTL on subsidizing translations of local literary works so as to “help them shine internationally.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=245648&ctNode=2194&mp=9)