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Southeast Asian Literature Forum in Taiwan to kick off in March

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NMTL in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City is hosting the second leg of the 2018 Southeast Asian Literature Forum in Taiwan. (Courtesy of NMTL)

NMTL in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City is hosting the second leg of the 2018 Southeast Asian Literature Forum in Taiwan. (Courtesy of NMTL)

TAIPEI (Taiwan Today) -- 2018 Southeast Asian Literature Forum in Taiwan—involving local writers, publishing industry figures and six top talents from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam—is taking place March 2-6 in Taichung, Tainan and Taipei cities.

Organized by the Ministry of Culture, the event aims to foster a more comprehensive understanding of the region’s literature among local readers. It is part of MOC efforts to strengthen cultural exchanges between Taiwan and Southeast Asia in line with the New Southbound Policy.

A key plank in the government’s national development strategy, the policy seeks to enhance agricultural, business, cultural, education, tourism and trade ties between Taiwan and the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.

The first leg of the forum, which runs March 2-3 at National Taiwan University Library in Taipei, features authors Nathalie Chang, Chung Wen-yin, Fang Hu-chen, Kan Yao-ming, Wallis Nokan and Ye Mimi from Taiwan, as well as writer Ayu Utami from Indonesia; poet and editor Norazimah Abu Bakar, Malaysia; blogger-poet Nay Phone Latt, Myanmar; poet Carlomar Arcangel Daoana, the Philippines; author Prabda Yoon, Thailand; and novelist Bao Ninh, Vietnam.

Kan and Ninh will take part in the seminar “Reconstruction and Representation of War Memories;” Fang and Utami in “Role of Literature in the Process of Democratization;” Chang and Latt in an identically named event; Nokan and Abu Bakar in “Ethnic Politics and Identity Issues through Poetry in Native Language;” Chung and Yoon in “Literary Landscapes from the Tropical: Asia City Writings;” and Ye and Arcangel Daoana in “Literary Landscapes from the Tropical: Daily Writings of Poetry.”

The second leg of the forum gets underway March 4 at National Museum of Taiwan Literature March 4 in Tainan, southern Taiwan. It features Nokan and Abu Bakar revisiting issues from their Taipei seminar.

On March 6, the final leg commences at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts March 6 in Taichung, central Taiwan. Hsu Tai-chang, a literary agent at The Greyhawk Agency, and Yen Shao-peng, founder of Fang Cun Cultural and Creative Inc., will be joined by Latt, Utami and Yoon in a roundtable on the latest developments and trends pertaining to literary creation and publishing environment in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. (JSM)