The International Booker Prize judging panel has awarded its annual prize to Taiwan Travelogue, a novel written by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and translated by Taiwanese-American translator Lin King. The announcement, made during a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern gallery, represents a historic milestone for the literary award. It is the first book originally written in Mandarin Chinese, and the first by a Taiwanese author, to win the prize in its ten-year history.
The novel beats a highly competitive international shortlist that included works by French playwright Marie NDiaye, Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, and German writer Shida Bazyar. The £50,000 ($67,000) prize money will be divided equally between the author and the translator.
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Taiwan Travelogue is set in 1938, an era when Taiwan existed as a colonial outpost under Japanese governance. The structure of the book relies on a complex literary device. It presents itself to the reader as a recently discovered, translated travel memoir written by a fictional Japanese novelist named Aoyama Chizuko. When first published in 2020, the inclusion of fictional footnotes led many readers to believe they were reading a genuine historical document.
The narrative tracks Chizuko as she embarks on a government-sponsored culinary tour of the island. Along the way, she develops an intimate, forbidden relationship with her local Taiwanese interpreter, O Chizuru. Through the interactions of these two women, the book explores the sharp social and emotional power dynamics that separate the coloniser from the colonised.
Finding Humour Amidst Colonial Sorrow
Natasha Brown, the chair of the judging panel, praised the novel for its technical ambition and hidden depth. “This is a book that surprises and isn’t perhaps what it seems like on the surface,” Brown remarked during the ceremony. She noted that the work manages to succeed simultaneously as a compelling romance and an incisive piece of post-colonial fiction, calling it “captivating” and “slyly sophisticated.”
For Yang, a 41-year-old writer who also writes essays, manga, and video game scripts, the project required years of intense historical research into the culinary traditions of the era. Speaking before the announcement, translator Lin King emphasized that the book intentionally avoids reducing Taiwanese culture to historical trauma. King noted that even during difficult political periods, the historical record shows that local citizens still found space for romance, petty arguments, film, and excellent food.
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The International Booker Prize aims to elevate the profile of fiction translated into English from other languages. Past winners, including Han Kang and Olga Tokarczuk, have used the platform as a stepping stone toward winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Yang’s victory also marks the second consecutive year that an Asian writer has claimed the top honour, following the Indian author Banu Mushtaq’s win last year. The original Mandarin edition of the book previously won Taiwan’s Golden Tripod Award, while King’s English rendering secured a National Book Award in 2024.
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