It’s not just about losing access to the huge Chinese market, authors and publishers say. It’s also about losing opportunities to exchange and connect, after three decades of growing contact between the two. In recent years,
“It feels like in these few years, the flow of exchange is diverging.
While China’s ruling
“Exchanges in publishing is really the exchange of ideas,” said
Now, any Taiwanese book has become harder to publish in
Titles that have been frozen out include a Taiwanese-Japanese fusion cookbook, a self-help book and a book of travel sketches from a Taiwanese artist’s travels in
One sticking point is any content that suggests a separate Taiwanese identity. Younger Taiwanese in particular have developed a distinct identity. A 2020 poll found that two-thirds of the respondents didn’t think of themselves as Chinese.
“In the past, they would censor books about religion. … But for example if a book’s topic is Taiwan’s food then that’s fine,” said
The soft-spoken Chiang thought she would market her book, “Play with Art,” toward prosperous parents in
Things went smoothly with the Chinese publisher at first. At their request, she agreed to change one chapter that used examples from art museums in
Then the other side went silent, she said. When she reached out more than a year later, she was told the review process was slower than normal.
“After we got a new president, the response from the other side — the harshness of the situation and the unfriendliness — has created a lot of tedious things that make it inconvenient to have an exchange,” Chiang said.
That’s in sharp contrast to the 1980s and 1990s, when Chinese readers were drawn to Taiwanese writers such as
There was also curiosity about the most basic things, after the two were cut off for decades following their split in 1949 during a civil war in
“Back then, relations were good and it seemed like there was a mood in
Now, Taiwanese are also sensitive to the heightened tensions, highlighted by debate last year over a children’s book from
Some in
“If we say we are afraid that the people will see fake news, that I will help them filter information … then how can you call this democracy?” said
The government dropped the proposal, saying it would only censor books published by the
Liu, the editor, said it was never a purely commercial exchange for her. She enjoyed meeting her mainland counterparts at book fairs and learning about their way of doing things. In the current political climate, these very basic human moments of exchange, which had helped people forge a connection to each other, have disappeared.
“For me, in this harsh environment, you will also shrink yourself, because that type of cooperation is mutual,” said Liu. “Because in the end we are all still carrying this burden of country and this burden of history.”
This story corrects the name of
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