A graphic novel about the White Terror era won a literature award in France on Thursday last week, the Ministry of Culture said.
Son of Formosa (來自清水的孩子) was awarded the graphic novel accolade at the seventh Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature at a ceremony in Paris.
The category was added this year, giving the Taiwanese novel the additional honor of winning the first award of its kind.
Photo: CNA
At the awards ceremony, the novel’s author, Yu Pei-yun (游珮芸), was joined by Taiwan Cultural Center in Paris Director Hu Ching-fang (胡晴舫), the ministry said.
Yu in her acceptance speech said that the reason for writing the biographical novel was not because its protagonist, late civil rights activist Tsai Kun-lin (蔡焜霖), was a political victim, but to tell the story of Tsai’s resilience after living a difficult life to a younger generation.
Yu said that younger Taiwanese have been born with freedom and democracy and are rarely aware of the turmoil older generations endured during the martial law era.
Focusing on an individual was the best way for readers, both foreign and domestic, to learn about Taiwan, the ministry said.
Son of Formosa was nominated for the award alongside Shuna’s Journey, a graphic novel by legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, as well as Moms, written and illustrated by South Korean artist Ma Yeong-shin.
Son of Formosa was first published in 2020 by independent house Slowork Publishing, written by Yu and illustrated by Taiwanese artist Zhou Jian-xin (周見信).
The four-book graphic novel was published in Mandarin, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Japanese and English, as they were the languages that Tsai, who passed away on Sept. 3 last year at the age of 92, spoke.
Since its release, the rights to Son of Formosa have been sold to Japanese, French, Arabic, German, South Korean, Italian and English-language publishers.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS