NMTL unveils Taiwan literature award winners

2015/11/16

Winners of the 2015 Taiwan Literature Awards were unveiled Nov. 9 by the Tainan City-based National Museum of Taiwan Literature, which granted a total of NT$1.8 million (US$54,791) in prizes to five outstanding writers.

Works by novelists Wu Ming-yi and Gan Yao-ming, poet Wu Cheng, playwright Shen Wan-ting and Hakka short story writer Yeh Kuo-chu came out on top in the awards’ four genres.

In “The Stolen Bicycle,” novelist Wu writes about the pursuit of a missing bike. The protagonist follows in his father’s journey from the lands of the indigenous Tsou group, Wanhua District in Taipei City and military dependents’ villages in Kaohsiung to Malaysia and the forests of northern Myanmar, all the while painting a portrait of common people’s lives during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the turbulent era afterward.

Judge Gu Meng-ren, himself a prestigious writer, said Wu employs delicate writing skills in his detailed descriptions to create a fantastic, suspenseful story based on historical events. “In addition to expressing respect for vanishing traditional handicraft skills, Wu also offers his unique views of humanity and war.”

The other awarded novel is a fantasy work titled “The Amis Girl” by Gan, which illustrates Taiwan’s logging industry in the 1970s. In the story, an Amis girl, accompanied by a boy suffering from Asperger syndrome, sets out to raise fund for building a school and learns of many ancient tribal secrets along the journey. Much of the novel was inspired by Amis myths and the history of the Lintian Mountain Forestry Center in Hualien County.

Literature award judge Shih Shu-nu, an emeritus professor of Chinese literature at Tamkang University, said Gan successfully creates lifelike characters, whose fun and childlike personalities shine brightly throughout his work. “He also exhibits his astounding knowledge of plants, logging equipment and the distribution of Taiwan’s forests.”

Equally praised is the poetry-genre work “He Is Still Young” by poet Wu. According to judge and poet-cum-essayist Xiang Yang, the anthology showcases Wu's deep sorrow for what local farmers went through during Taiwan’s industrial transformation, and the shift's threats to their ways of life. The poet also demonstrates his own care for the environment, and his desire for more comprehensive ecological protection measures.

As for the script-writing award, Shen’s play struck a chord with the judges. The work is centered on dialogue between an old man suffering from dementia and an Indonesian caregiver. Their conversations, often coinciding with radio broadcasts in the background, are both humorous and thought-provoking, and cast a light on the capriciousness of life and destiny.

Chiu Kun-liang, an award judge and professor of theater arts at Taipei National University of the Arts, said Shen is skilled at cementing a solid plot, and knows how to expertly use metaphor and dramatic lines.

For this year’s Mother Tongue Literature Award, works in the Hakka language took center stage. It is in this category that Tsai shows his true skill with his short story of an old man’s memories and hopes of seeing his lost home again.

Chung Hsiu-mei, an associate professor of Taiwanese literature at National Cheng Kung University, said the work reminds her of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Colombian master Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

According to the NMTL, the annual awards are designed to encourage the writing and publication of literary works, as well as raise the profile of Taiwan literature in the international arena.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=238806&ctNode=2194&mp=9)