'Taiwan Travelogue' Wins International Booker Prize, Boosting Sales of Taiwanese Literature

Author Yang Shuang-zi's novel 'Taiwan Travelogue' has won the International Booker Prize, sparking a surge in sales for Taiwanese literature. According to Li Hsin-hua, a public relations representative for the online bookstore Books.com.tw, traffic to the book's product page surged nearly 10-fold after the announcement on the morning of the 20th. Within hours, sales exceeded 1,000 copies, and weekly e-book sales grew 18-fold compared to the previous week. It quickly topped the site's real-time charts, with over 10,000 copies sold within three days, dominating the top spots across print, e-book, and audiobook formats. Li noted that besides 'Taiwan Travelogue,' Yang's other work, 'When Flowers Bloom,' also reached 4th place on the real-time chart. Other works, such as Wu Ming-yi's 'The Stolen Bicycle' and Hong Ni's 'The Melon Seller,' also entered the top 10. It is rare for half of the top 10 books on the Books.com.tw chart to be Chinese-language works. Furthermore, books on Taiwanese history, geography, and food have benefited, with sales growing by at least 50% compared to before the award. Food-related essays, such as Yang Shuang-zi's 'Old Taichung' and Hong Ai-chu's 'Old-School Girl's Shopping Route,' have also returned to the charts. This award has not only heightened reader interest in Taiwanese literature, translated works, and female writing, but also demonstrated the cultural influence and reading energy of Taiwanese stories in the international market, with overall book sales growing by over 20% daily.