Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan Translation Series

Beginning in 1998, the Foundation worked with the Executive Yuan’s Council for Cultural Affairs to sponsor a collaborative publication effort with Columbia University Press, entitled “Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan”. Thanks to the unstinting efforts of Professor David Der-wei Wang (who launched the project while at Columbia University but has since taken up a position at Harvard), nearly 30 volumes of the leading works of modern Taiwanese literature have been translated and published, thereby helping Taiwanese culture gain worldwide recognition. Of these works, Ching-wen Cheng’s Three-Legged Horse was awarded the Kiriyama Book Prize, while Tien-wen Chu’s Notes of a Desolate Man was awarded the National Translation Award by the American Literary Translators Association.

Due to the success of the Columbia University Press publishing project, in the year 2000 the Council for Cultural Affairs decided to undertake a similar effort in conjunction with Professor Angel Pino and his wife Professor Isabelle Rabut to publish French translations of Taiwanese novels. A total of eight books have been published to date, including works by Eileen Chang, Chang Ta-ch’un, Ch’en Ying-chen, Chu Hsi-ning, Chu T’ien-hsin, Chu T’ien-wen, Li Ang, and Yang Mu. The efforts of Professors Pino and Rabut were honored with the 2012 ROC-France Cultural Award.