emily’s Reviews > Taiwan Travelogue > Status Update

‘Novelists—create worlds. I don’t possess that generative ability, but if I could translate their words—I can share this scenery w/ others. If one thinks about the origins of what one eats—it feels as though a dining table holds—multitudes of whole oceans & continents. The temple was dedicated to—Kannon Bodhisattva. Somewhere along the way, it was altered to focus on the goddess Mazu—bougainvillea tree in full bloom’

‘The Island’s osmanthus blossoms were milky white—the ones on the Mainland were a bright orange. The ones on the Mainland bloomed in September—the ones here, in November. Learning languages took time. Gaining true erudition took even more time. C often revealed pieces of knowledge that fit neither her age nor her upbringing—her thorough and nuanced grasp of the geography. There were also some bizarre aspects to her.’

‘The promise of three hundred lychees a day would make me a willing Southerner. Hakka people here speak—the Hokkien dialect—they tend to live in—mountainous areas. This has made it harder for them to cultivate land, which has fostered in them a spirit of leaving nothing to waste—the dishes evolved from food originally made for worshipping the gods—pickled & cured dishes—I’ve heard that there are hundreds of options.’

‘—I must visit Taiwan at least once in my life. I’d first made this resolution while standing out back on the deck—heading home to Kyūshū Island from Okinawa—cargo ships—passed through Moji Port in Kyūshū, bringing crates of bananas from Taiwan day in & day out. The memory was enough to fill the air around me with that fresh yet fragrant scent. Sparrows darted in my chest. ‘It is a pineapple—it is called ông-lâi.’’

‘Round vermilion lanterns hung—alongside sunset-coloured ones shaped like seeds—Thick willows lined the river on both sides—I felt dizzied & dazzled—searing light—every colour—saturated & every scent more fragrant—everything teemed & surged toward me under the cobalt sky. There was something else mixed into that current: voices, speaking an Island language that I couldn’t understand. My gut somersaulted to my chest.’

‘The tributaries of fate—between these two women was not only—power imbalance between—coloniser & the colonised—I do not wish to begrudge readers—the right to form their own interpretations of the text. But I would like to draw attention to one crucial point—power imbalance is more subtle & delicate—more ubiquitous—than most people imagine—please remain cognisant of Aoyama—as one of the colonisers within the story.’