Chinese Name: 楊双子
Birth Name: Yang Jo-tzu (楊若慈)
Born: 1984
Place of Birth: Taichung (Central Taiwan)
Did You Know?
Yang Shuang-zi is a versatile writer who dabbles in various forms, including novels, essays, and comic book creations. In recent years, her work has been recognized with the prestigious Golden Tripod Award and Golden Comic Award.
Yang Shuang-zi is a Taiwanese novelist and pop literature & subculture researcher. Her real name is Yang Jo-tzu, and “Yang Shuang-zi” is a pen name she shared with her twin sister, Yang Jo-hui (1984-2015). The characters for “Shuang-zi” mean “twins” in Japanese.
Around 2008, Yang Jo-tzu and Yang Jo-hui became fascinated with yuri culture. Yang Jo-hui researched yuri culture while Yang Jo-tzu focused on creating works with yuri themes. In ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) culture, the Japanese term “yuri” refers to affection between women that goes beyond friendship but falls short of romantic love. This term originated in Japan and gradually spread to Taiwan after the establishment of the “Yuri Forum” in the Chinese-speaking community in 2004.
During their time in graduate school, Yang Jo-tzu specialized in Taiwanese literature while Yang Jo-hui studied history. Before starting their creative work, they spent over half a year researching historical documents and building a database to ensure accuracy in depicting historical details. The twin sisters also had a dream of starting a small publishing house dedicated to yuri novels, aiming to localize yuri culture. However, their dream was not realized as Yang Jo-hui was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and passed away in 2015. Yang Jo-tzu, using the pen name Yang Shuang-zi, published their first yuri novel, “The Man Scooping Up the Moon (撈月之人),” in 2016. Since then, Yang Shuang-zi has published several works, including the novel “The Season When Flowers Bloom (花開時節)” in 2017, the short story collection “Blossoming Girls of Gorgeous Island (花開少女華麗島)” in 2018, and the novel “Taiwan Travel Chronicles (臺灣漫遊錄)” in 2020. All three books are yuri novels set in the period of Taiwan under Japanese rule.
The novel “The Season When Flowers Bloom” is Yang Shuang-zi’s masterpiece, inspired by Yang Qian-he (楊千鶴)’s own book of the same title. Yang Qian-he (1921-2011) was Taiwan’s first female journalist during the Japanese colonial period. The story is set in Taiwan in the 1930s, a time of intense social change, and follows a group of women experiencing their own “flowering season” in their lives. The book presents a different perspective of the Japanese colonial period from a female point of view, with women concerned with more than just national spirit or identity.
“Blossoming Girls of Gorgeous Island” is a collection of side stories from “The Season When Flowers Bloom,” positioned as a Taiwanese historical yuri novel that pays tribute to Japanese colonial literature. In this collection of short stories, the main theme is yuri, depicting the flow of same-sex friendship and desire among heterosexual women. The stories are set in the mid-1910s to mid-1940s, portraying the vibrant atmosphere of Taiwan under the former Japanese empire.
“Taiwan Travel Chronicles” tells the story of two women, one Japanese and one Taiwanese, who grew up in different cultural backgrounds during the Japanese colonial period. Through a coincidental opportunity, they embark on a gourmet journey along the railway, exchanging culture and ideas. Yang Shuang-zi uses food and drink as metaphors, allowing readers to glimpse the contradictions between the Japanese empire’s treatment of colonial Taiwan, mainland Japanese people, and Taiwanese locals, as well as the differences in fate between men and women at that time. As independent individuals, women aspire to have independent professional identities and thoughts, but they face various difficulties and challenges.
In an interview, Yang Shuang-zi mentioned that if one looks at past texts, it can be observed that the relationships between women are often presented through men. Whether it is the portrayal from a male perspective or stories centered around men, she explained, “Men are still in power, and in such narratives, women must compete for the same resources, whether it is the male protagonist’s love, money, or power, they must gain the favor of the male protagonist.”
Yang Shuang-zi believes that yuri as a literary genre has its own real-life power. She analyzes that in entertainment texts, the role of female characters is usually limited to romance or being treated as prizes by men, and the relationships between women are relatively lacking, usually only in competition (for the male protagonist). However, she believes that female friendships can have various possibilities and that many emotions cannot be defined by words alone, possibly involving liking, envy, and jealousy, not necessarily romantic love. She thinks that if complex or profound female friendships can be seen in works, it might also expand the imagination of female characters in real life.