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Taiwan

A 2x3 grid of the six books featured in the list: Stories of the Sahara, The Boy from Clearwater,...
Literature in Translation from Taiwan: What to Read Next
By Jenna Tang
Jenna Tang, translator of Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise by Lin Yi-Han, recommends 8 books and short stories in translation from Taiwan to read now.
The covers of the books featured in the list
The Best Books of 2022—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2023
By Words Without Borders
Our staff, contributors, and board members share their favorite translated books of the year and the titles they’re looking forward to in 2023.
A dark door cracked open to reveal bright red light
Photo by Dima Pechurin on Unsplash
Yun-Fan: Singing the Variety of Queer Life
By Wanning Chen
“When I was twenty-three, I met my first girlfriend, who then went off with a man after just four months—and eventually married him.”
Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
The ruins of a running track after the Chi-Chi earthquake that hit Taiwan in 1999.
Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons
Solo Dance
By Li Kotomi
“From that day on, her memories of Danchen were frozen.”
Translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce
Multimedia
The Park Bench
By Sandrine Kao
But it’s not surprising—with everything you hear on the news, how can anyone be expected to think well of the Chinese?
Translated from French by Jane Roffe
A Pun, an Idiom, and an Expletive Walk into a Bar: International Humor
By Susan Harris
When we think of translating humor, we may think in terms of capturing jokes.
Literary Heroes: Women Writers from Taiwan
By Jeremy Tiang
Taiwanese women have proved adept at carving out spaces for themselves.
From “The March of Time”
By Su Wei-chen
“Whatever kind of person you were, that’s the kind of ghost you’ll be.”
Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
Multilingual
From “Notes of a Crocodile”
By Qiu Miaojin
“What if we ran out of things to talk about?”
Translated from Chinese by Bonnie Huie
From “Qibla”
By Shen Wan-ting
“I’m sorry. I’ll change your pants right away.”
Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
Multilingual
From “The Ringing of the Rain has a Forgiving Grace”
By Ye Mimi
I am willing to carve you a ten-second slice of winter.
Translated from Chinese by Steve Bradbury
Multilingual
We Deliver More Than We Promise
By Hsia Yü
I’m the pig, I said, you’re just an idiot
Translated from Chinese by Steve Bradbury
Wedding in Autumn
By Shih Chiung-Yu
Even when she spoke, she mumbled, like her voice was stuck in her throat.
Translated from Chinese by Darryl Sterk
A Faun’s Afternoon
By Chi Ta-wei
The hand of the pocket watch winds on with a sound like mocking laughter.
Translated from Chinese by Dave Haysom
Multilingual
The Queer Issue V: Impressions from a Passing Train
By Rohan Kamicheril
The appeal of the Queer Issue is in seeing that great ambition writ small, in discovering the swarm of details and experience that cohere into the big picture of world writing.
from “Last Words from Montmartre”
By Qiu Miaojin
Dusk in the Latin Quarter was like a fairy tale or a love poem, like a Klimt mosaic, like glowing, rose-colored clouds reaching toward the heavens.
Translated from Chinese by Ari Larissa Heinrich
Very Cheesy and Also Rather Blah
By Jing Xianghai

behind us a lake brimmed with the noise of crows
Translated from Chinese by Lee Yew Leong
Multilingual
A History of Condo Sales
By Huang Fan
And so our company’s gigantic neon sign escapes your sight, perched atop an eighteen-story condominium.
Translated from Chinese by Kevin T.S. Tang
February 2010 Worth Ten Thousand Words Part Iv International Graphic Novels From King Ma Has Come Wei Tsung Cheng Page Thumbnail
From “King-Ma Has Come”
By Wei Tsung-cheng
King-Ma Has Come (Ma Huang Jiang Lin) is a product of the hugely popular kuso culture in Asia. Also known as egao in Mandarin Chinese, the genre is known for its campy humor and outrageous parodies of…
Translated from Chinese by Nancy Tsai
Jingzhen, Taiwan, 1978
By Song Zelai
We're dead if we can't sell the houses, not to mention that we'd look like complete losers.
Translated from Chinese by Nancy Tsai
On the Island
That fire ball, with wide open eyes / is hanging above our heads, burning hot
Translated from Chinese by Chang Fen-ling
Furniture Music
By Chen Li
I draw the curtains and sleep / I wake inside the room
Translated from Chinese by Chang Fen-ling