In a landmark moment for global translated literature, *Taiwan Travelogue* — a textured story of forbidden romance and Taiwanese culinary culture created by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and translated by Taiwanese-American translator Lin King — has claimed the 2025 International Booker Prize, marking the first time a work translated from Mandarin Chinese has earned the prestigious literary honor.
Framed as a rediscovered 1930s travel memoir, complete with fictional scholarly footnotes, the novel fooled many readers into believing it was an authentic historical document when it was first published in its original Mandarin in 2020. Set against the backdrop of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan, the narrative follows two central characters: Aoyama Chizuko, a fictional Japanese writer on a state-sponsored tour of the island, and O Chizuru, her Taiwanese translator, as the two women develop a deep romantic connection against a landscape of shifting cultural and political power dynamics.
Natasha Brown, chair of this year’s International Booker judging panel, praised the work as a “captivating, slyly sophisticated novel” that weaves together themes of love, cultural identity, colonial history, and structural power through the shared experiences of its protagonists. Beyond its historical and emotional core, food is a central narrative thread: the story unfolds as a culinary journey across the island, inviting readers to taste the rich, diverse foodways of 1930s Taiwan alongside the main characters. Speaking ahead of the award announcement, Yang joked that her deep research into the book’s travel and food themes reshaped her life in two memorable ways: “My savings went down; my weight went up.”
The win for *Taiwan Travelogue* is the latest in a string of accolades for the work and its creators. Yang, a 41-year-old versatile writer who also pens essays, manga, and video game scripts, already took home Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award, for the original Mandarin version in 2021. Lin King’s English translation, meanwhile, won the U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024.
In her pre-win remarks, Lin King highlighted the nuanced perspective the novel brings to Taiwan’s colonial history, emphasizing that it avoids reducing the era to only trauma. She noted that the book strikes a careful balance between acknowledging the hardships of colonial rule and honoring the ordinary joys of daily life: “No matter how difficult times are, I believe that humans always manage to find flickers of levity and deep wells of love. There was still humour, good food, movies, school, petty fights, and romance. To suggest otherwise is to reduce a culture to its trauma.”
In their official statement announcing the win, judges highlighted the vital, underrecognized work of literary translation, confirming that the full £50,000 (approximately $67,000) prize purse will be split equally between author Yang and translator Lin King, recognizing both creators’ essential contributions to the finished work. The historic win opens new doors for Mandarin-language literature on the global stage, cementing *Taiwan Travelogue*’s place as a landmark work of contemporary world literature.