Rendering Taiwanese Culture:

In September 2025, Kim Taesung received a Grade III Medal of Culture from Taiwan’s culture minister, Li Yuan, in recognition of his decades-long contributions to cultural exchanges between Taiwan and South Korea.

A veteran translator in his 60s, Kim says modestly that he can’t speak Chinese very fluently. And yet he has translated more than 150 Chinese-language works, including modern poetry, which is particularly difficult to render into other languages.

Taiwanese literature is gaining remarkable visibility in the South Korean book market. Recently translated titles include (left to right) Zhu Jia’an’s Philosophy of Video Games, Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue, and Summer’s The Secret-Keeper Guesthouse of Itaewon. (courtesy of Taiwan Creative Content Agency)

Connecting with Taiwan

Kim’s connection with Taiwan stretches back more than 40 years. In the winter of 1983, while studying for a postgraduate degree, he visited Taiwan with a group of teachers and students, and was deeply impressed with local hospitality. Since then he has made a habit of visiting Taiwan two or three times a year, totaling more than 100 times. Each time, he brings back an abundance of books, risking stiff excess baggage charges.

His private collection comprises some 8,000 volumes, of which 2,000 are from Taiwan, far exceeding the number of Taiwanese books held by any library in South Korea. He also possesses over 1,000 CDs from Taiwan. “I don’t know how much I’ve achieved in terms of cultural contribution, but I’ve certainly made a substantial contribution to the Taiwanese economy,” he says with a smile.

In December 2024 Yoon Suk Yeol, the then-­president of South Korea, declared emergency martial law. Though lifted the following day, it triggered a national crisis. “People of my generation have spent our lives struggling against military dictatorship,” Kim observes. With his cherished sense of liberty being threatened, Kim left everything behind and traveled alone to the country to which he felt “most attached.” He ended up spending a year in New Taipei’s Luzhou District.

Kim Taesung’s private collection boasts some 2,000 books from Taiwan, far more than are held by any library in South Korea.

Kim Taesung receives a Medal of Culture from Taiwan’s minister of culture, Li Yuan. (courtesy of Ministry of Culture)

Taiwanese literature in South Korea

Kim’s professional career has also been intertwined with Taiwan. While he was fulfilling his compulsory military service, a university friend of his who had studied in Taiwan had a traffic accident. The friend had undertaken to translate a collection of poems by the Taiwanese writer Lin Huan-chang, and this task fell to Kim, who went on to devote his free time during his military service to translating the volume. This was his first book-length translation.

Kim’s translation skills were widely recognized. He has since published translations of Gao Yang’s series of books inspired by the Qing-Dynasty Chinese merchant Hu Xueyan, Kevin Chen’s Ghost Town, Chen Xue’s The Book of Bad Women, and Tang Nuo’s Stories of Reading, among others, as well as works by Chinese writers such as Yu Hua, Mo Yan, and Yan Lianke.

Kim is one of the few translators in South Korea who are well versed in both Taiwanese and Chinese cultures. He tells us that as a consequence of the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and the People’s Republic of China in 1992, the Chinese-language literary works available in his country are predominantly from China, with Taiwanese literature being considered niche. Nevertheless, books from Taiwan have always occupied a special place in his heart.

In addition to books, Kim has acquired more than 1,000 CDs from Taiwan.

Kim Taesung has under his belt some 20 book-length translations of Taiwanese works, including Gao Yang’s book series inspired by the Qing-Dynasty Chinese merchant Hu Xueyan, Kevin Chen’s Ghost Town, Chen Xue’s The Book of Bad Women, and Tang Nuo’s Stories of Reading.

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Kim feels that writers in China, working under sociopolitical constraints, tend to prioritize story­telling, and their language is plainer on the whole. He believes that Taiwan and South Korea have a great deal in common. “They have comparable levels of economic development. Both have experienced Japanese colonization and authoritarian rule. Chinese characters and Confucianism are integral to the cultural traditions of both places.” In Taiwan, the lifting of martial law in 1987 gave greater freedom to the expression of public opinion, as a result of which Taiwanese books “often have a critical slant and are more intellectually nuanced, employing finely wrought language.” “But they’re also harder to translate,” Kim adds, smiling.

In recent years, owing to changing international circumstances, Taiwanese literature has gradually gained prominence in the South Korean book market. Works by Wu Ming-yi, Wu Xiaole, Li Ang, Chen Xue, Kevin Chen, Ping Lu, Pai Hsien-yung (Kenneth Pai), Zhang Jiaxiang, and others—ranging from belles-lettres to commercial fiction, from established voices to emerging talents, from classics to newly created pieces—have all been imported to South Korea. 

For Kim Taesung, Taiwanese literature stands out with its finely wrought language and intellectual depth. This photo shows his translation of Chu Tien-wen’s Notes of a Desolate Man. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

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Kim has been playing a pivotal role in facilitating the introduction of Taiwanese literature to his native country.

Published in 2024, his translation of Kevin Chen’s acclaimed novel Ghost Town has become the best-known Taiwanese literary work in South Korea. With more than 30,000 copies sold, it was the South Korean publisher Minumsa’s best-selling title of the year.

Always up to his ears in translation contracts, Kim has on several occasions in recent years found it necessary to prioritize Taiwanese books, including Ping Lu’s Passing and Nakao Eki Pacidal’s The Vow of Banana Leaf and Tree. The manuscript of Kevin Chen’s new book found its way into his hands even before being published in Taiwan. Kim says he “never imagined” that Taiwanese literature would receive so much attention in South Korea.

Kim Taesung is well connected in publishing circles. Ever supportive of Taiwanese literature, he works hard to facilitate Taiwanese writers’ visits to international literary events. This photo shows Kim with Taiwanese fiction writer Chu Tien-wen (right) in South Korea, where she had a literary dialogue with South Korean writer Lee Kyung-ran.

Kim Taesung has translated several works of fiction by Kevin Chen (right). His translation of Ghost Town sold more than 30,000 copies, a remarkable feat in South Korea’s publishing industry.

Literary dreams

Kim’s long stay in Taiwan ended in April this year. During our interview, he says he’s already missing the island. “It’s a strange sort of heartache.”

Kim has many projects in view, all of which are related to Taiwan.

He wants to come again for another year-long stay.

He wishes to earn more money in order to establish a library to house his vast collection of books.

He plans to translate and publish a collection of poems by Chen Yuhong, the Taiwanese poet he holds in the highest esteem.

Taiwan took the limelight as official guest of honor at the 2025 Seoul International Book Fair, where the pavilion theme “Taiwan Sensibility” attracted a great deal of attention. (courtesy of Taiwan Creative Content Agency)

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He’s envisioning writing a book of essays inspired by his own Taiwanese experiences. This will contain 40 stories about Taiwanese society and culture, touching on subjects such as local supernaturalism, Chiang Kai-shek, betelnuts, the illegal gambling game Da Jia Le, and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1989 historical drama A City of Sadness.

“Taiwan—its society and the land itself—has its very own beauty, doesn’t it?” he says in an earnest tone.

Kim remembers feeling astonished when he listened to Lo Ta-yu’s “Childhood” for the first time: the song seemed to encapsulate his own childhood. He can hum the melodies of Michelle Pan’s “Dance Floor” and Showlen Maya’s “A Rainy Night at the Port.” With his deep affection for Taiwan, Kim—no longer an outsider from a foreign country—has blended into what he describes as Taiwan’s beautiful cultural landscape.

Kim Taesung’s connection with Taiwan stretches back over 40 years. He’s planning to write a book inspired by his own observations of Taiwanese culture. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)