How a prize-winning Taiwanese novel could stoke Beijing’s worries over history

Taiwan’s first International Booker Prize-winning novel has reignited debate over the island’s shifting identity, with its portrayal of a distinctly Taiwanese historical experience at odds with narratives long promoted by Beijing. The attention surrounding Taiwan Travelogue comes at a sensitive time in cross-strait relations, as rival interpretations of Taiwan’s history increasingly shape public discussion over the island’s future and its relationship with mainland China. Set in Japanese-ruled Taiwan in 1938, the novel is framed as a fictional translation and follows a Japanese novelist and her Taiwanese interpreter on a culinary journey across the island. Through food, language, personal relationships and the unequal status between coloniser and colonised, it explores questions of power, memory and identity. What might otherwise have remained a literary discussion has taken on greater political significance as tensions across the Taiwan Strait deepen and questions of Taiwanese identity become increasingly contested. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons. The novel by Yang Shuang-zi presents the island as a society shaped by indigenous, Chinese, Japanese and local influences that evolved into something distinct from both Japan and China. The book’s international success has amplified that message. It won Taiwan’s Golden Tripod Award in 2021, the US National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024 and, most recently, the International Booker Prize. It has been translated into multiple languages and reached readers far beyond Taiwan. Yang has openly linked the work to questions of identity and the future of Taiwan. Translator Lin King has been equally explicit. In her Booker acceptance speech in London on May 19, she said she had decided after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to focus exclusively on translating works from Taiwan until the island’s status “is no longer a provocation or a punchline”. The book, which is unlikely to ever enter the mainland market, has already drawn veiled criticism from Beijing. Asked whether Taiwan Travelogue could be published in mainland China following its international success, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office urged Taiwanese writers to “face squarely the history of Japanese aggression” and create works that would promote national rejuvenation and cross-strait exchanges. The book has also drawn intense criticism on popular mainland social media platforms such as video site Bilibili, where vloggers accused the author of glorifying Japan-occupied Taiwan in the late 1930s – a period when “compatriots on the mainland were suffering under the Japanese invasion”. That criticism – the glorification of Japanese colonisation – is also central to Beijing’s anger towards Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party and its leader, William Lai Ching-te. Mainland authorities have repeatedly accused Lai of “distorting history” and “pandering to Japan by selling out Taiwan”. Each chapter is named after a Taiwanese dish. Food is not just the cultural background in the book but a metaphor for Taiwan itself – a society shaped by different influences but not wholly defined by any of them. Critics said the novel underscored Taiwan’s distinct identity. “Even during Japanese rule, people could speak fluent Japanese, adopt Japanese names and wear Japanese clothing, but that did not make them Japanese,” said Huang Huei-hua, director of Taipei-based think tank Taiwan Global Talk. Likewise, according to Huang, neither the Japanisation policies of the colonial era nor the efforts of Chiang Kai-shek’s government and decades of Kuomintang (KMT) rule to promote a Chinese identity ultimately turned Taiwanese people into Japanese or genuinely Chinese. The KMT, which retreated to Taiwan under Chiang after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949, governed the island under authoritarian rule until democratisation began in the late 1980s. “This is why it is difficult for China to reshape Taiwanese identity simply by appealing to a common language and shared ancestry,” Huang said. “Even if China hopes to foster a Chinese identity among Taiwanese through integration policies, Taiwan’s sense of identity has become fundamentally Taiwanese. The core identity is no longer Chinese.” Wang Kung-yi, head of the Taipei-based Taiwan International Strategic Study Society, offered a different perspective. He argued that Taiwanese identity had become increasingly politicised since the DPP came to power, evolving into an awareness centred on independence and self-determination. Wang said that repeated emphasis on “resisting China and protecting Taiwan” had gradually reshaped public attitudes, particularly among younger generations, and become part of mainstream opinion. “If mainland China seeks peaceful unification, it will first need to address this shift in attitudes. That will not be easy,” he said. “Beijing would need to promote a more inclusive concept of a broader Chinese identity while continuing efforts such as preferential policies for Taiwan and cross-strait integration programmes aimed at winning public support on the island.” Wang said the KMT could also play a role if the party returned to power. The party’s message differs markedly from the DPP’s approach towards mainland China – exemplified by KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s position that one can be both Taiwanese and Chinese and that cross-strait peace should be maintained. Taiwan’s local elections in November and the vote to choose the island’s next leader in 2028 would serve as important indicators, Wang said. “If the KMT performs strongly, it may suggest that public opinion is becoming more receptive to a broader Chinese identity and peaceful coexistence across the strait.”

How a prize-winning Taiwanese novel could stoke Beijing’s worries over history

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue wins the International Booker Prize – and reignites debate over the island’s shifting identity

Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue wins the International Booker Prize – and reignites debate over the island’s shifting identity