Wu Ming-Yi, a Taiwanese writer who is well-known for his nomination of Man Booker International Prize with the novel The Stolen Bicycle, is invited along with the novel translator Darryl Sterk, to attend Vancouver Writers Fest in Canada. On the evening of October 25th at 6 pm, they will be meeting with audiences at The NEST (previously known as Studio 1398) on Granville Island in Vancouver, sharing “The Fascinating World(s) of Wu Ming-Yi.”

Award-winning novelist Wu Ming-Yi is also an artist, designer, photographer, literary professor, environmental activist, traveler and blogger, and is widely considered one of the leading writers of his generation in Taiwan. His novel, The Man with the Compound Eyes, gained Wu international recognition, with major English and French translations appearing in 2013 and 2014. The Magician on the Skywalk was short-listed for the Prix Emile Guimet de Litterature Asiattique and The Stolen Bicycle long-listed for The Man Booker International Prize 2018, which made Wu the first Taiwanese author to be nominated.

Throughout The Stolen Bicycle, Wu presents an era in Taiwan that “man can neither grieve nor love nicely.” The main character of the story embarks on an epic request in search of his missing father and his stolen bicycle. Starting from old stalls, old pics and cassette tapes, the journey focuses on the bicycle from the beginning to the end and pulls up one and another pieces of reality and memories during the process of searching. Soon the character finds himself caught up in the strangely intertwined personal stories and the big picture of Taiwan and other Asian countries’ histories during World War II. The majestic historical novel invites its readers to experience survival and death, fate and fortune, and how human and environment suffer owing to the tragedy of that generation.

When it comes to the novel translator, Darryl Sterk makes a huge step on putting The Stolen Bicycle to the global stage. Darryl Sterk is a Canadian who has been living in Taiwan for years. Twenty years ago, he started his translation career; and eight years later, he then started focusing on translating Taiwanese literature, which was twelve years ago. His translation work has been put on famous literature magazines such as The Taipei Chinese Pen, Books From Taiwan, and also publisher Ballestier Press and Honford Star etc. Sterk has translated Wu Ming-Yi’s fiction and sometimes non-fiction over the past half-dozen years, including The Stolen Bicycle and The Man with the Compound Eyes.

Emmy Yang, the director of Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles who co-presents this event, mentions “There are many spectacular contemporary literature works in Taiwan. However, it is a hard task to maintain its quality by having comprehensive translation in other languages, to win international literature prizes, and then to gain attention from mainstream publishers.” In order to benefit Mandarin-speaking readers, Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles also cooperates with Asian-Canadian Special Events Association and hosts a Mandarin talk by Wu and Sterk at the Vancouver Central Library at 6:30 pm on October 23rd.

Besides these two presentations mentioned above, Wu and Sterk will also be visiting University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University for students and scholars who are interested in Asia Research and World Literature.

For more information, please visit
https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-events-2019/the-fascinating-worlds-of-wu-ming-yi/
https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/events/search/q=stolen%20bicycle/event/5d5c82847a559e3a00185946