The Economist.
Recently, "Glass Eye", a novel by German-Taiwanese author Lin Wei-Liao,
was nominated for the prestigious German Book Prize.
And in May, "Taiwan Travelogue" won the Booker International Prize,
making its author, Yang Shuang-Zi, the first Taiwanese writer to receive the award
and the first to win it for a work originally in Mandarin.
I'm Jeremy Page, The Economist's chief China correspondent based in Taipei.
And I'm Sarah Wu, The Economist's China correspondent based in Beijing.
And today on Drum Tower, we meet the author and English translator of "Taiwan Travelogue",
and we'll be asking, what does a work of historical fiction tell us about Taiwan today
and about attitudes towards colonialism in East Asia?
This is Drum Tower from The Economist.
Hi, Jeremy. Good to see you.
Great to see you, Sarah. How are things?
Things are good here.
I was thinking about you and how you've been practicing for your scooter exam.
How are things going?
Not so good, I'm afraid to say.
I feel like I should be compiling my own kind of Taiwan travelogue
about my sorry experiences having crisscrossed the country trying to take this wretched scooter driving exam.