International Booker Prize: ›Das Taiwan-Tagebuch‹ – Reading with Yáng Shuāng-Zǐ

1938: The Japanese writer Aoyama Chizuko travels to Taiwan at the invitation of the Japanese colonial administration. She has little interest in Japan's imperial ambitions; she wants to get to know the island – preferably by eating her way through it. Chizuru, a young Taiwanese woman, becomes her interpreter and travelling companion – and turns out to be a gifted cook. Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ weaves a culinary journey and a bittersweet love story together with an exploration of colonial power: a subtle play of voices, languages and truths, awarded the International Booker Prize 2026 (German edition by DuMont, translated by Karin Betz). Yáng Shuāng-zǐ will be in conversation with her German translator and the China expert Kai Strittmatter (Süddeutsche Zeitung).

"›Das Taiwan-Tagebuch‹ convinces both as a love story and as a sharp postcolonial novel." – Jury of the International Booker Prize 2026

Event languages: German & Mandarin. Foyer bar opens at 18:00. In addition to seats in the hall, stream tickets are available; the stream can be booked up to 5 minutes before the event starts and remains available for 72 hours afterwards.

Source: event page of Literaturhaus München.