Taiwanese Literature in Translation

As introduced by the Taiwan Yearbook 2006:

The Chinese Pen was one of the earliest promoters of Taiwan's literature abroad through translations of local works into English. In 1996, Taiwan's literature in translation got a tremendous boost when the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (CCKF) sponsored the publication of Taiwan's 20th-century novels and poems in English by Columbia University Press, and is hoping to see 20 local works published by 2007. The CCKF has also subsidized many translation projects of Chinese classics and reference books into English, Russian, Czech, and Polish.

Another sponsor of the Columbia University Press project is the CCA, which, since 1990, has been working on a Chinese literature translation project to raise interest in Taiwan's literature among foreign publishers. By May 2006, more than 120 volumes of fiction, poetry, prose, critique, and so forth have been translated under the government-sponsored program, among which over 60 are into English, 30 into Japanese, 18 into French, 7 into Dutch, 6 into German, 1 into Swedish, and 1 into Korean. Three-Legged Horse, an English translation of Cheng Ching-wen's collection of short stories, won the 1999 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize in the US. In another project with the University of Southern California, the CCA is promoting a series of books on Taiwan's modern poets.

While most of these works are translations into English, increasing attention is being paid to Japanese translations of Taiwan's literature. Since 1998, the CCA has launched several programs in collaboration with the Tokyo University Press and five other publishing houses to translate Taiwan's novels, poetry, selected research on the Taiwanese New Literature movement, and aboriginal literature into Japanese.

The CCA also sponsors lectures on Taiwan's literature abroad, such as those given at the Center for Taiwan Studies of the University of California in Santa Barbara, as well as alectureship in Taiwan Studies of the University of Cambridge.

In 2000, the CCA and the Institut de France jointly presented the ROC-France Cultural Award to French Sinologist and translator André Lévy, who had translated such classics as Journey to the West, Golden Lotus, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, and The Peony Pavilion. His translations of Crystal Boys and Tales of Taipei Characters by contemporary writer Bai Sian-yong were subsequently translated into Spanish and Portuguese.