Taiwan Today
Date: November 12, 2015
The winners of the Taiwan Literature Awards were unveiled Nov. 9 by the Tainan City-based
Wu Ming-yi’s “The Stolen Bicycle” (right) and Gan Yao-ming’s “The Amis Girl” won the Taiwan Literature Awards’ top prizes in the novel genre Nov. 9. The awards are presented each year by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. (Courtesy of NMTL)
National Museum of Taiwan Literature, which granted a total of NT$1.8 million (US$54,791) in prizes to five outstanding writers.
Works by novelists Wu Ming-yi and Gan Yao-ming, poet Wu Cheng, playwright Shen Wan-ting and Hakka short story writer Yeh Kuo-chu came out on top in the awards’ four genres.
In “The Stolen Bicycle,” novelist Wu writes about the pursuit of a missing bike. The protagonist follows in his father’s journey from the lands of the indigenous Tsou group, Wanhua District in Taipei and military dependents’ villages in Kaohsiung to Malaysia and the forests of northern Myanmar, all the while painting a portrait of common people’s lives during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the turbulent era afterward.
Judge Gu Meng-ren, himself a prestigious writer, said Wu employed delicate writing skills in his detailed descriptions to create a fantastic, suspenseful story based on historical events. “In addition to expressing respect for vanishing traditional handicraft skills, Wu also offers his unique views of humanity and war.” [FULL STORY]
