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The Formosa Exchange (Pre-order)

The Formosa Exchange (Pre-order)

Huang Chong-Kai (translated by Jeremy Tiang)

Format
£15.99
£15.99
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Publication info

  • Designed by Tsai Chia-hao
  • 328 pages
  • Published
  • 9781915829382 (pb) / 9781915829399 (e)

Author | Translator

Born in 1981 in southern Taiwan, Huang Chong Kai began his literary career in 2009. His writings are grounded in reality yet inventive, and he is the recipient of the Taiwan Literature Award, the Grand Prize at the Taipei International Book Exhibition and the Golden Tripod Award, making him one of Taiwan’s most celebrated and award-winning authors. Huang’s novels include Anti-Gravity, The Formosa Exchange, and The Contents of the Times. He is also a member of Alphabet Lab, a collective of Taiwanese experimental writers and critical theorists publishing serialized short stories collections based on each letter of the French alphabet. He is an avid fan of capybaras.

Jeremy Tiang has translated over thirty books from Chinese, including novels by Lo Yi-Chin, Ping Lu, Yan Ge, Zhang Yueran, Shuang Xuetao and Yeng Pway Ngon. His translation of Zou Jingzhi's Ninth Building (Honford Star, 2022) was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. His novel State of Emergency won the Singapore Literature Prize, and his play Salesman之死 won an Obie Award for Outstanding New Play. He is also the co-editor with Dr Kavita Bhanot of Violent Phenomena: Essays Toward the Future of Literary Translation. Originally from Singapore, he now lives in New York City.

On May 20, 2024, one day after the inauguration of Taiwan’s first Indigenous president, the entire population of the island wakes up to discover they have suddenly switched places with the residents of Cuba. Two multi-ethnic island communities with colonial histories suddenly find themselves facing baffling new questions, as well as the greedy weight of a new “mainland” hegemon.

Huang Chong-Kai’s astonishing work of speculative realism opens new conversations on race, marginality, and the (re)telling of history by weaving multiple voices and genres into a single work. We experience the miraculous switch through the eyes of Taiwan’s first Indigenous president, a Cuban painter, a Han Taiwanese who wants to be Indigenous, and a former inmate of Guantanamo Bay. The author transforms these stories into a narrative ecosystem by presenting them through a variety of different media styles, including book reviews, podcast transcripts, and interviews.

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