Promoting books
“In addition to funding translations and publications, we actively take part in foreign book fairs and run a scheme called Books from Taiwan to license rights internationally, providing more opportunities for overseas publishers to discover excellent books from Taiwan,” Chen says. The DHP’s main brief is to foster and support the publishing industry, but it has also been of tremendous help to writers and artists. For example, it has previously made arrangements for winners of the Golden Comic Awards to attend the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême in France. The DHP also facilitates residential fellowships. In 2021 it arranged for Ray He to visit bd BOUM’s Maison de la BD in Blois in central France for a residency. Also a former residential fellow in Blois, GCA awardee Tseng Yao-ching took up a residency at Hablar en Arte in Spain this year. He is currently collaborating on a publishing project with French comic-book writer Frédéric Debomy.
“The diligent support of Taiwanese and foreign embassies and missions is absolutely crucial,” Chen says. Martin Podstavek, Slovak representative in Taipei since 2017, enrolled his son in an ordinary Taiwanese primary school. Having read a rich diversity of Taiwanese children’s books with her son, Podstavek’s wife, Liang Chen, was inspired to initiate an exchange of children’s books between the two countries. So far she has made funding applications for 12 Taiwanese books; ten have been published in Slovakia. She has also introduced eight Slovak children’s books to Taiwan. All of these books were translated by Liang herself. “As the Slovak language is similar to Polish and Czech, if a Taiwanese children’s book is published in Slovakia, it will be easily noticed by Polish and Czech readers. It will have a good spillover effect.” Chen Ying-fang also recalls receiving applications from Hungarian publishers in 2021 for books by writers such as Chang Ta-chun and Hung Yuchun. It turned out that staff at the Taipei Representative Office in Budapest had directly contacted the Hungarian publishers to recommend these books.
“Taiwanese diplomats abroad are very familiar with local markets, so they’re the best people to help promote books.” Chen tells us that in 2020 the Taiwan Cultural Center in Tokyo started collaborating with Eslite Spectrum Nihonbashi to celebrate one Taiwanese writer every season. Last year they organized lectures and exhibitions, forging dialogues with Japanese readers. Owing to the popularity of these events, Kinokuniya has also set apart “Taiwanese Books” sections in their shops, further contributing to a growing fashion for Taiwan among Japanese readers.
Chen Ying-fang, director of the Ministry of Culture’s Department of Humanities and Publications, studied in the Graduate Institute of Library and Information Science at National Taiwan University. For four years she has been helping Taiwanese publishers enhance their market access.
Bei Lynn’s picture book Granny’s Favorite Toy won the Sankei Children’s Book Award in Japan in 2019. She is the first Taiwanese author to receive this honor.
Wu Ming-yi’s The Man with the Compound Eyes has attracted considerable attention from foreign publishers. It has been translated into many languages and published in several countries. There’s even a Tamil version in India.