Taiwan’s Yang Shuang-zi makes history with International Booker Prize win for Taiwan Travelogue

Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子) became the first writer from Taiwan to win the International Booker Prize on May 19, taking the award for "Taiwan Travelogue" at a ceremony held at Tate Modern in London.

Yang and the book’s English translator, Lin King (金翎) leapt to their feet and embraced when the winner was announced, then took the stage together to accept the prize.

Acclaimed British novelist Natasha Brown announced the winner and presented the award.

Literature, politics and Taiwan’s search for identity

In her acceptance speech, Yang pushed back against the idea that literature and politics must be kept separate. “In this sense, literature, on a fundamental level, cannot disentangle itself from politics,” she said.

Yang pointed out that throughout the past century of Taiwanese literary history, writers have continually asked: “What kind of future do the people of Taiwan want? What kind of nation do the people of Taiwan want?” She said "Taiwan Travelogue" too, joins the long list of texts that investigate these queries.

“Taiwan’s people have endured multiple colonial regimes and face threats of invasion. When confronted by geopolitical forces so much greater than our own, what use do we have for literature? But I, at least, have always believed that literature wields power,” she said.

“I believe in literature’s power because in the life of the mind, literature has never ceded ground nor given up on the dialogue between people.”

Yang closed by saying that the centuries-long growth of Taiwanese literature reflects centuries-long pursuit of freedom and equality by Taiwan’s people. “I feel very fortunate to have been born Taiwanese, I feel very proud to stand before you today as a writer from Taiwan,” she said.

Translator Lin King also reflected on the process of bringing the novel into English. She said translated literature generally assumes that both translation and the translator should ideally remain “invisible.” Yet "Taiwan Travelogue" includes translator’s notes, a foreword, and an afterword, while the same written Chinese characters are rendered through three different pronunciation systems.

Compared to the original text, Lin said the English edition demands more engagement from readers precisely because it “refuses to simplify Taiwan’s multilingual, multicultural and multiethnic reality.”

A love story shadowed by colonial power imbalances

One of the novel's most distinctive features is its framing as a fictional translated work. It is presented as having been originally written by a Japanese author named Aoyama Chizuko, while Yang positioning herself as the translator.

Set in Taiwan in 1938 during the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the story follows Aoyama Chizuko during her stay in Taiwan.

Structurally, the book is divided into 12 chapters, each named after a Taiwanese banquet dish. To accurately recreate the food culture and daily life of the 1930s, Yang conducted extensive historical research and consulted numerous archival sources depicting street vendors and everyday Taiwanese life of the era.

On the surface, the novel traces Aoyama Chizuko's culinary experiences across Taiwan. Beneath that premise, however, lies a deeper focus: the relationship between Aoyama Chizuko and her Taiwanese interpreter, Ō Chizuru, and the unequal power dynamics between colonizer and colonized that their bond exposes.

According to the Booker Prize Foundation, Brown described "Taiwan Travelogue" as both a successful love story and a sharp postcolonial novel. The judges greatly enjoyed the rich discussions sparked by its multiple layers. They called it a fascinating, understated, and intricately crafted work of fiction.

Writing Taiwan through women’s stories

"Taiwan Travelogue" is also Yang's tribute to her late twin sister. Yang’s real name is Yang Jo-tzu (楊若慈), and the pen name “Yang Shuang-zi” was originally shared by the two sisters as they collaborated on Taiwanese historical yuri fiction.

After her sister died of illness in 2015, Yang continued writing under the shared pen name in order to fulfill the dream they once pursued together.

Yang initially focused on romance fiction and began writing with classmates during junior high school. Later, while studying at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies at National Chung Hsing University, she started using fiction to explore issues related to Taiwanese history and identity.

Yang’s thesis advisor observed that her graduate training in Taiwanese literature gradually deepened her sense of Taiwanese identity. For example, while researching gender power structures in local romance fiction, Yang noticed that protagonists in time-travel stories often returned to ancient China rather than Taiwan’s own past. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s student movements in 2008 and 2014 also shaped her growing interest in social and political issues.

In 2016, Yang published her first yuri novel. She has explained that “yuri,” in a broad sense, can encompass various forms of emotional bonds between women, ranging from close friendship to lesbian romance. She has also said that because traditional historical narratives have long centered on men, she hoped to write history from women’s perspectives, portraying women’s everyday lives and emotional choices.