Taiwan Travelogue: A Tasty Tale of Love and Adventure Wins Big!

Taiwan Travelogue, a novel about forbidden love and delicious food, has made history by winning the International Booker Prize. This is the first time a book translated from Mandarin Chinese has received this famous award. The novel was written by Yang Shuang-zi, a Taiwanese author, and translated into English by Lin King, who is Taiwanese-American. The story takes place in the 1930s, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. It follows two women, a Japanese writer named Aoyama Chizuko and a Taiwanese translator named O Chizuru, as they travel around Taiwan on a government-sponsored food tour.

The book is cleverly written to look like a real travel diary from the past, complete with made-up footnotes and historical details. When it was first published in 2020, many readers thought it was a true story. The judges of the International Booker Prize called it a 'captivating, slyly sophisticated novel. ' Through the eyes of the two main characters, the novel explores important topics like love, culture, history, and power. As the women travel together, they not only discover new foods but also fall in love, which was considered forbidden at the time.

Yang Shuang-zi said that researching the book changed her life. She spent a lot of money and gained weight because she had to try so many different foods. Taiwan Travelogue has already won several other awards, including Taiwan's highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award, for the original Mandarin version. Lin King's English translation won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024. King said she admired how the book balanced the sadness and happiness of life in Taiwan during Japanese rule. She believes that even in difficult times, people can still find humor, love, and joy. The International Booker Prize comes with a prize of £50,000, which will be shared equally between Yang and King. The organizers also praised the important work of translators, who help bring stories from one language to another so more people can enjoy them.