Taiwanese Hokkien Sci-Fi Novel Explores Organ Trade for Immortality; Author Outlines Future Dilemmas

The Ministry of Education hosted the 10th Taiwan Hokkien and Hakka Literature Awards today, holding an awards ceremony. This year's awards received 691 submissions, with 53 winning works selected across categories including modern poetry, essays, and short stories. Among them, Shen Wan-ying, who won first place in the student group for the Taiwan Hokkien Literature Award (short story category), was recognized for her sci-fi piece "Eat One Hundred and Fifty," which explores themes such as immortality and consciousness transfer.

The inspiration for the Taiwanese Hokkien sci-fi short story "Eat One Hundred and Fifty" came from news reports about a secret conversation between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin, where "they said humans might live to 150 in this century," Shen Wan-ying said in a media interview today. This led her to ponder what societal changes would occur if such a future came true, and further reflect on whether such a future would truly be welcomed by humanity.

Shen Wan-ying explained that "Eat One Hundred and Fifty" is set in a future world a century from now, where Taiwan has a government agency called the "Ministry of Immortality." The story begins with the Minister of Immortality about to celebrate his 150th birthday on New Year's Day. A female reporter interviews him on the top floor of the tallest building in Taiwan, the "150 Tower," gradually revealing the nature of this society.

Shen Wan-ying stated that in this fictional society, half of the population is over 80 years old; people can decide at age 60 whether to unfreeze their eggs or sperm and have them carried by surrogate mothers; organ transplantation is highly developed, even forming an industrial chain. The government has even established a "Cultivation Service" system, where if women under 30 are brain-dead, they are forcibly put into cultivation service, compelled to lie in bed for long periods to produce, until they are discharged.

Returning to today's awards ceremony, Shen Wan-ying mentioned her connection to Taiwanese Hokkien. "When I was trapped in New Zealand due to the pandemic, I started speaking Taiwanese Hokkien to express my homesickness." From Yunlin, she said that although her family usually spoke Taiwanese Hokkien, her parents prioritized English education, even sending her to a bilingual school. Therefore, her English was once better than her Taiwanese Hokkien. During university, she studied abroad in New Zealand but was trapped there for a period due to COVID-19 (2019 coronavirus disease).

Shen Wan-ying recalled that during her time abroad, she, who was initially not fluent in Taiwanese Hokkien, developed a strong desire to use the language due to homesickness. She gradually reconnected with the language by watching Taiwanese Hokkien dramas and forming an online Taiwanese Hokkien reading club with fellow expatriates. After returning to Taiwan, she continued to work in design and inadvertently encountered "speculative design," a creative form that combines design with science fiction.

Shen Wan-ying began to write, choosing Taiwanese Hokkien as her primary language. She believes that Taiwanese Hokkien contains rich historical contexts and reflects the current situation of contemporary society, making it a highly critical language. She loves science fiction but observed that existing works are mostly from a Western perspective. She hopes to create Taiwanese sci-fi narratives rooted in local language and culture.

"This is my most mature work so far." Although she is a graduate student in the Institute of Creative Industry Design at National Cheng Kung University and has not received systematic literary training, she has already won third place in the student group of the Ministry of Education's Taiwan Hokkien Literature Award (short story category) twice. Initially, her relatives and friends questioned why she didn't write in Chinese but chose Taiwanese Hokkien; however, with repeated awards, she gradually gained understanding and support, and they even actively read her works.

For Shen Wan-ying, winning first place this time was an unexpected surprise. She admitted that she was not optimistic about her work when she submitted it, thinking the subject matter was too avant-garde and worrying that the judges would not accept it. Fortunately, she eventually met a "patron" who appreciated her work. In the future, she will continue to dedicate herself to Taiwanese Hokkien literary creation, hoping to bring about social change through Taiwanese Hokkien novels. (Editor: Li Shu-hua) April 10, 2026