Where Did They Go? What Did They Eat?

Monday, September 22, 2025
5 p.m. Neilson Browsing Room

How can a Taiwanese novel incorporate historical materials from its decades under Japanese colonial rule? How does two women’s travelogue become a work of fiction? This talk will examine Taiwan Travelogue’s use of a “Shōwa Taiwan Railway Gourmet Tour” as its storytelling framework, covering the novel’s early inspirations, conceptual development, research, fieldwork, archives-building, story conception, and writing process. 

Taiwan Travelogue, a novel by Yang Shuang-zi and translated by Lin King, won the 75th Annual National Book Award for Translated Literature in the United States in November 2024. The author and translator have been invited to speak at Smith while they are in the U.S. for a book tour. During their two-day visit to Smith, they will read from the novel, speak on its themes and reception, and engage in conversation with the audience. Learn more.

This event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Smith College Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, College Lecture Fund, Five College Center for East Asian Studies, and the Translation Studies Concentration.

Exhibits

View a collection of Taiwanese cookbooks and related fiction and graphic novels in Josten Library through September 14, and subsequently in Neilson Library through the end of September.

These two related exhibits may be viewed on Visual Browse.

• Taiwan: Food, Fiction, History, and Identity
• Lost in the Music of Taiwan: Exploring the Sub-text and Timelines of Related Fiction and Graphic Novels

Contact

Sujane Wu, Professor of East Asian Languages and Culture
swu@smith.edu 

Marlene Wong, Head of Josten Performing Arts Library
mmwong@smith.edu