Nooroongji Book Club: Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ , Trans. Lin King
About this Event
The theme of our books will vary by month, always with a mind to forwarding uncommon international works that will nourish and enrich our understanding of the world and each other.
This september we will discuss Taiwan Travelogue. In the words of Booker Prize Chair Natasha Brown, "Taiwan Travelogue pulls off an incredible double feat: it succeeds as both a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel. As judges, we’ve enjoyed rich discussions about the many layers of this book. It’s a captivating, slyly sophisticated novel."
NPR: Your book is accused by some Chinese audiences of romanticizing colonialism, or of being an example of colonial nostalgia literature. How do you respond?
Yáng: Clearly, they have not understood the book. I am completely criticizing colonialism. My criticism is this: even when a colonizer tries to treat the colonized equally, the conclusion is that they still cannot do it. It shows us that colonialism is pervasive, and that the colonial system is fundamentally bad. Even if this regime built many modern facilities on this land, none of that solves the fact that it deprived the people on the colonized land of their original rights.
Past Nooroongji Book Club Picks:
Nov 2023: The Guest Cat, by Takashi Hiraide
Dec 2023: The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer
Jan 2024: Difficult Loves, by Italo Calvino
Feb 2024: All Your Children, Scattered, by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse
Mar 2024: Kim Ji Young Born 1982, by Cho Nam Joo
Apr 2024: The Inhumans and Other Stories, Edited by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
May 2024: Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado
Jun 2024: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, by Mohsin Hamid
Jul 2024: Victory City, by Salman Rushdie
Aug 2024: An Apprenticeship, Or The Book of Pleasures, by Clarice Lispector
Sept 2024: The Love of Singular Men, by Victor Heringer
Oct 2024: Coexistence, by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Nov 2024: Ryder, by Djuna Barnes
Dec 2024: Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop, by Hwang Bo-reum
Feb 2025: Assembly, by Natasha Brown
April 2025: The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
July 2025: The Last Supper, by Rachel Cusk
August 2025: The Houseguest, by Amparo Dávila
September 2025: The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
November 2025: Change, by Edouard Louis
April 2026: Time of the Flies, by Claudia Piñeiro
July 2026: May It Have a Happy Ending, by Minelle Mahtani
Agenda
🕑: 06:00 PM - 06:30 PM
Doors open, set-up, and mingling
🕑: 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM
Discussion begins
🕑: 08:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Next book selection and wind-down
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 6.66
