2023
About the Program
The writer needs an address. Very badly need an address. That is his (or her) root. – Issac Bashevis Singer
This is a novel written in Chinese and Taiwanese as a means to search for the author’s roots, exploring themes of family, immigration, colonization, and gender.
Penghu is a series of islands to the west of Taiwan. It would be the first landing point for immigrants, before they reached the island of Taiwan. People from various backgrounds come and go on the island, and all sorts of languages can be heard. Some Vietnamese boat people who fled to Canada had also found refuge here. Writer Louise Lee Hsiu, who has ancestral roots in Penghu and now resides in Vancouver, uses fiction to document the rise and fall of her own family, from the start of Japanese colonization in Taiwan in 1895, until the disintegration of the Kuomintang regime in the 1980s.
From the decline of Penghu’s prosperity to the migration of the entire family to Kaohsiung, from the contrasting fates of the men to the silence and oppression experienced by the women, Louise Lee Hsiu portrays the hardships faced by the Taiwanese people under the rule of both Japan and the Kuomintang. Writing about the era and exploring humanity, delving into both family dynamics and individual growth, this Taiwanese novel is worthy of savoring multiple times.
Louise Lee Hsiu is an award-winning Taiwanese writer who had published ten books in Taiwan before moving to Canada in 2002. Because she wants more English-speaking people to understand her home country of Taiwan, she has translated Penghu Moon in the Well from Chinese to English. In fact, it was this book’s financial success that enabled her to immigrate to Canada. Her first ten books are written in Chinese, and her last eight books are written in Taiwanese, Chinese and English.
The author wrote this historical novel in memory of her parents and survivors of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. The novel begins in Waian Penghu, Taiwan, the place of her parents’ birth, and then it shifts to the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung when her parents move there. In 1895, the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ceding Taiwan and Penghu to Japan, and so this historic event forms the background of Penghu Moon in the Well.
From the Curating Team
Harassment rooted in bureaucracy and social values subtly infiltrates women's lives, urging them to prioritize the collective or accept "cultural traditions." Works like The Handmaid’s Tale and Tan-Tsiu-Niu highlight ongoing gender oppression. This year's Taiwan Bookstore focuses on "women," "history," and "reflection," inspired by the #MeToo movement and explores gender-based violence and marginalized women's stories. How can we create change for our daughters?
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TAIWANfest Toronto is grateful to be held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, that is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We acknowledge our privilege to be gathered here, and commit to work with and be respectful to the Indigenous peoples of this land while we engage in meaningful conversations of culture and reconciliation.