A Taiwanese literature exhibition, organized by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and funded by the Ministry of Culture, is being held in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh and is to run until Thursday next week, after which it is scheduled to visit six other European countries.
The “Sailing Onto the World Stage: Themes in Taiwan Literature” exhibition first opened at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on Monday last week and moved to Edinburgh Central Library on Tuesday.
It is also to visit the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in the coming months, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Photo: CNA
The exhibition displays English translations of Taiwanese authors’ works in different topics such as human rights, indigenous people, feminism, LGBTQ, ecology and culinary culture, the ministry said.
These include Pai Hsien-yung’s (白先勇) Crystal Boys (孽子), which depicts gay youth in Taipei the 1960s, and Notes of a Crocodile (鱷魚手記) written by Qiu Miao-jin (邱妙津).
The exhibition also shows Wu Chuo-liu’s (吳濁流) novel Orphan of Asia, which was written in Japanese during the last years of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan, as well as indigenous writer Syaman Rapongan’s novel Eyes of Heaven (天空的眼睛), which tells the story of an indigenous elder’s life on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼).
The exhibition’s aim is to introduce the historical development, cultural uniqueness and literary achievements of Taiwan to the European public, so people better understand the literary context of the works, the museum said in a statement.
To celebrate the launch of the exhibition, museum director Nikky Lin (林巾力), along with foreign services’ officials and Cammy Day, the leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, attended a reception party on Friday last week, the ministry said.
Lin mentioned the cultural and historical links between Taiwan and Scotland by introducing the story of Scottish missionary and doctor James Laidlaw Maxwell, who imported the first moveable type printing press to Taiwan in the 19th century.
The story of another missionary, Hugh Ritchie, and his wife, Eliza Caroline Cooke, written in picture book form by Jenny Jamieson (陳韻如), was also read in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) and English at the reception by Jamieson and the pair’s descendant Joyce Lockhart, the ministry said.
Jenny Jamieson also gifted Day an oil painting of Taiwanese lilies and Scottish thistles thriving in the mountains of Taiwan, symbolizing growing bilateral cooperation, the ministry said.
Moreover, when speaking about bilateral exchanges, Day said that not only an Edinburgh delegation had visited Taiwan in March, but the city is also working with the Taiwanese authorities to erect a monument of Maxwell, as well as establish cooperation between The Usher Hall and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying).
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS