Taiwan Travelogue

In 1938, Taiwan is a Japanese colony, and the war with China has just begun. Aoyama Chizuko, a Japanese novelist, arrives on the island as a guest of the colonial government. They expect propaganda. She just wants to eat well and see the place.

Enter Ō Chizuru, a young, cultured Taiwanese interpreter who speaks several languages. Chizuru plans the trips, translates the conversations and cooks for the writer. Chizuko nicknames her Chi-chan and gets attached fast. Their friendship grows around the table: every chapter is named after a Taiwanese dish.

But Chizuru keeps a polite distance that Chizuko can't get past. Curious about her interpreter's past, the writer starts to see that touring as a guest of the empire is not the same as really seeing the island.

The book presents itself as a translation of a 1950s Japanese memoir rediscovered by Yang, complete with forewords and notes by invented characters. It's a novel about food, language and power, and about what gets lost between two people who speak different languages.