The Taipei Cultural Center in New York (TCCNY), in collaboration with HarperVia, an American publisher, will launch the English-translated novel “Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise (房思琪的初戀樂園)” on May 21. Dubbed “the most influential book of Taiwan’s #MeToo movement,” TCCNY will tour 4 cities from May 21 to June 5 to introduce this novel to U.S. readers.
Since its debut in 2017, “Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise” garnered significant attention in Taiwan and the wider Sinophone community. Written by the late Lin Yi-han (林奕含), this novel touches upon sex, power, and the exam-oriented education system, meticulously depicting the mental states of a sex victim. It was later translated into several languages including English, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Russian, and Polish.
Jenna Tang, the translator of the novel, has been invited to deliver six seminars in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and Boston from May 21 to June 5. The seminars will be held at Yu & Me Books, Queens Public Library at Flushing, Seminary Co-op, Left Bank Books, Brookline Booksmith, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop.