How a prize-winning Taiwanese novel could stoke Beijing’s worries over history

Taiwan’s first International Booker Prize-winning novel has reignited debate over the island’s shifting identity, with its portrayal of a distinctly Taiwanese historical experience at odds with narratives long promoted by Beijing.

The attention surrounding Taiwan Travelogue comes at a sensitive time in cross-strait relations, as rival interpretations of Taiwan’s history increasingly shape public discussion over the island’s future and its relationship with mainland China.

Set in Japanese-ruled Taiwan in 1938, the novel is framed as a fictional translation and follows a Japanese novelist and her Taiwanese interpreter on a culinary journey across the island.

Through food, language, personal relationships and the unequal status between coloniser and colonised, it explores questions of power, memory and identity.

What might otherwise have remained a literary discussion has taken on greater political significance as tensions across the Taiwan Strait deepen and questions of Taiwanese identity become increasingly contested.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.