October 2017: Lin Man-Chiu 林满秋

Lin Man-Chiu is a well-known children’s author in Taiwan, who has published a number of successful YA novels as well as non-fiction titles. In Taiwan, she received the Golden Tripod Award for children’s fiction in 2003 and the “Good Books Everyone Can Read” Award for the best children’s book of 2010.

Her book, The Ventriloquist’s Daughter, translated by Helen Wang, was long-listed for the 2014 Found in Translation Award and subsequently selected for the Found in Translation Anthology. 

Bio from Balestier Press

For our book club this month we have something a bit different... Firstly, a video made by Taiwan Public Television Service (PBS 公共电视), of an extract from Lin Man-Chiu's picture book The Girl in the Hat 戴帽子的女孩, which uses the paintings of Tan Ting-pho 陳澄波 (1895-1947), a Taiwanese artist killed while attempting to resolve conflict during the February 28 Incident. The video is in Chinese, and translator Helen Wang has kindly provided us with a translation.

Secondly, we are reprinting a piece adapted from the Author's Preface to The Ventriloquist's Daughter, translated by Helen Wang. The piece was first printed in translation on the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative site, and we're very happy to be able to reprint it here.

We're also delighted to announce that Lin Man-Chiu and Helen Wang will be joining us for a special event at the University on Tuesday October 24th. The event is free but please register on our Eventbrite page, where you can also find more details.

The Ventriloquist's Daughter is one of the titles which will be reviewed by members of our Reading Chinese School Bookclubs. You can read a review by Katherine Carruthers, Director of the UCL Institute Of Education (IOE) Confucius Institute for Schools here, and find out why she recommends it so highly.

And if you like the lovely cover illustration, there's a fascinating interview with illustrator Lipei Huang on the Chinese Books for Young Readers site here.