Taiwan Travelogue

Author/Guide: Yang Shuang zi

Why a Booktrail?

1938: A bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history, and power.

ISBN: 978-1916751651
Translator: Lin King
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.

Soon a Taiwanese woman—who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name—is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is.

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Taiwan

They take numerous long, scenic train rides spanning the Japanese-built railway system. Taichung on the map is a particular setting of note.

“Outside the stately Taichū Station, the ribbon- like Midori River threaded its way across Tachibana District. On the other side of the riverbank stood First Market and Taichū Hotel. The crowds, too, were like water; I’d come here, to Kanjō Bridge Avenue, because I’d been told that it was where the Islanders gathered, and the sheer number of pedestrians proved my source correct. Thick willows lined the river on both sides, and the stream itself glittered with undulating ripples. I felt dizzied and dazzled— the May sun was a wheel of searing light that made every color more saturated and every scent more fragrant. The smell of the river, plants, raw meat, herbs, fruits— everything teemed and surged toward me under the cobalt sky”