Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and translator Lin King took home the International Booker Prize in May 2026 for their work on Taiwan Travelogue, awarded in London on May 19 [1, 2, 3]. The £50,000 prize was split equally between 41-year-old Yang and 32-year-old Lin [1, 2, 3].
Taiwan Travelogue is the first book originally written in Chinese and by a Taiwanese author to win the prize, which annually honors translated works published in Britain or Ireland since 2016 [1, 2, 3]. The novel, first published in Mandarin in 2020, had previously earned Taiwan's Golden Tripod Award [2, 3].
Set in 1930s Taiwan under Japanese rule, the story follows a young Japanese novelist traveling the island and developing a complex relationship with her Taiwanese translator [1, 2, 3]. The book uses literary devices like afterwords and footnotes by both fictional and real translators, described as a "love letter to translation" [1]. Themes include identity, power imbalance, cultural erasure, and tensions between Taiwan and China [3].
Prize jury chair Natasha Brown praised the novel as succeeding "as both a romance and an incisive post-colonial novel," adding it "surprises and isn’t perhaps what it seems like on the surface. It’s a captivating, slyly sophisticated novel" [1, 2].
Yang Shuang-zi, who also writes manga and video game scripts, said she chose faith in literature over activism. She hopes the book will reach readers in China to open dialogue about Taiwan’s future: "If this book can, in one way or another, make its way into China and be read by Chinese readers, I think we would have an opportunity for dialogue and communication" [3].
Translator Lin King noted the challenge of bringing Taiwanese literature to the Anglophone world: "For Taiwan, it’s always been an uphill battle to be translated into English, and published, and recognised. So this is definitely very momentous for me personally" [3].
