「Event / 活動」台灣季II How to Navigate These Waters:A Guide to Taiwan Between the Lines

Event Introduction

The sea has long connected Taiwan to the wider world, shaping how the island has been encountered, imagined, and understood across different periods of history.

For German writer Stephan Thome, these waters are more than the Taiwan Strait on a map. They are a route into Taiwan's history, culture, politics, and questions of identity.
Through works such as Schmales Gewässer, gefährliche Strömung: Über den Konflikt in der Taiwanstraße, Pflaumenregen / 梅雨, and Gebrauchsanweisung für Taiwan / 台灣使用指南 — all originally written in German and later introduced to Chinese readers through translation—Thome has built a unique body of writing that moves between languages and cultures. Read in both German and Chinese, his works invite readers to see Taiwan from different perspectives while raising a broader question: How can Taiwan be made understandable to readers with different cultural, historical, and political backgrounds around the world?

In this conversation, Thome will reflect on his experience of living in Taiwan and writing about the island in German. How does a writer navigate between languages, histories, and readerships? How can literature, history, and nonfiction together become a way of introducing Taiwan to the world?

Rather than offering a single answer, this conversation invites everyone joining us to navigate these waters together, through literature, translation, and the many ways across cultures.

海洋，曾經連結了台灣與世界，也塑造了不同時代的人們如何理解這座島嶼。

對施益堅而言，這片水域不只是地理上的海峽，更是一條通往歷史、文化與身分認同的閱讀航線。通過《梅雨》、《台灣使用指南》以及即將推出中譯本的《Narrow Waters, Dangerous Currents: The Conflict in the Taiwan Strait》，施益堅以德文創作，並透過翻譯走入中文世界，在兩種文化語境之間建立起一條獨特的閱讀路徑。他的作品不僅帶領不同背景的讀者認識台灣，也持續引導我們思考同一個問題：如何讓擁有不同文化、歷史與政治背景的讀者，都能真正理解台灣？

這場講座中，施益堅將分享他長年生活於台灣、並以德文書寫台灣的創作經驗。作為一位德國作家，他如何在不同文化之間建立對話？如何在文學、歷史與非虛構寫作之間穿梭，向不同背景的讀者描繪一個複雜而真實的台灣？

閱讀，也是一種航行。這場對談不試圖提供唯一的答案，而是邀請大家和我們一起在字裡行間穿越這片水域。