After nearly three years of dedicated work, the LiFT (Literature from Taiwan) series of the National Museum of Taiwan Literature (NMTL) has formally arrived in the Spanish-speaking world. In collaboration with the prestigious Spanish literary publisher Visor Libros, the Anthology of Contemporary Taiwanese Short Stories (Antología de cuentos taiwaneses contemporáneos) and the Anthology of Contemporary Taiwanese Poetry (Antología de la poesía taiwanesa contemporánea) were officially published this June.

To raise the visibility of Taiwanese literature in the Hispanic world, and as part of the Madrid Book Fair, both books were officially presented on June 12 in the auditorium of the Eugenio Trías Library in El Retiro Park.

The event featured Professors Luisa Shu-Ying Chang and Luisa Cheng-Fan Chen, who travelled from Taipei to Spain. Distinguished guests included Lino Li-cheng Cheng, Ambassador of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Spain; Jesús García Sánchez (Chus Visor), founder of Visor Libros; Regina Llamas, professor and vice-dean of the School of Humanities at IE University (Segovia campus); and Begoña García Sierra, former professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid. The keynote presentations were given by the translators Mario Santander Oliván, assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid, and Nerea García Cabello, professional translator.

Distinguished members of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) also attended, among them Juan Gil, who in late May had taken part in the congress on 400 years of encounters between Taiwan and Spain organized by National Tsing Hua University, accompanied by his wife Consuelo Varela, and Aurora Egido, librarian of the RAE. They were joined by Dámaso López, former Vice-Rector for International Relations of the Complutense University of Madrid; Consuelo Marcos Martínez, director of the university's Department of East Asian Studies; Eduardo Euba, former director of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan; Corina Oproae, Romanian-Spanish poet invited to the 2025 Taipei Poetry Festival; and many professors from the Complutense University and the Autonomous University of Madrid.

The NMTL noted that the publication project was carried out by Taipei Medical University (TMU) while Luisa Chang was serving there as vice-president on secondment. Both anthologies were made possible by the joint effort of TMU's administrative team and the transnational work of Professor Luisa Chang (principal coordinator), Professor Luisa Chen (co-coordinator) and Assistant Professor Mario Santander Oliván (associate coordinator), together with Nina Ya-Hui Chang, Li Mei Liu Liu, Daniel García González and Nerea García Cabello. This milestone marks the debut of the LiFT series in the Spanish-speaking world.

Two key anthologies for understanding Taiwanese literature

Both books are arranged chronologically, offering a rich and varied overview of the island's literary development. Their publication coincides with the 400th anniversary of the historical encounter between Spain and Formosa (Taiwan, 1626–2026), which gives the launch a deep cultural significance.

1. Anthology of Contemporary Taiwanese Short Stories

• Contents: 11 short stories by 11 key Taiwanese authors.
• Themes: Spanning more than 70 years in chronological order, the stories explore the colonial experience, modernism, realism, bodily and sexual desire, and gender identity, reflecting the resilience and inclusiveness of Taiwanese society.

2. Anthology of Contemporary Taiwanese Poetry

• Contents: 47 poems by 43 classic and contemporary poets.
• Features: The most comprehensive anthology of modern Taiwanese poetry published in Spanish to date. The poems are presented in a bilingual Chinese–Spanish edition and range from the period of Japanese rule to the early 21st century. The selection also shows the influence of the Western avant-garde and of Spanish poets of the Generation of '27 (such as Federico García Lorca) on Taiwanese letters.

In the protagonists' words

Ambassador Lino Li-cheng Cheng of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Spain opened the event. Before a full auditorium, he highlighted the enthusiastic attendance not only of many local readers but also of numerous scholars and leading figures from the publishing world. He called the event a very special occasion and expressed his deep gratitude to the Spanish–Taiwanese team led by Taipei Medical University, Professor Luisa Shu-Ying Chang of National Taiwan University (NTU) and Professor Luisa Cheng-Fan Chen of National Chi Nan University. He stressed that bringing the works of dozens of renowned Taiwanese authors to Spanish-speaking readers is undoubtedly a key catalyst for this audience to get to know Taiwan more deeply.

The Ambassador expressed his conviction that, through the Spanish translations of these remarkable works, Hispanic readers will clearly perceive the diversity, inclusiveness and rich cultural heritage of Taiwanese society. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Spain has for years worked to cultivate and deepen bilateral ties in education, culture and academia. Going forward, the Office will continue to promote the power of the written word that these two anthologies embody, in the hope of building an ever stronger cultural bridge, while steadily expanding the presence of Taiwanese literature in the Spanish-language publishing market, building on past achievements and fostering the friendship between Spain and Taiwan.

For her part, Professor Luisa Chang shared the deep personal meaning of the project, which fulfils a wish planted 36 years ago when she was a doctoral student in Madrid. At that time, the renowned intellectual Chi Pang-yuan urged her to translate Taiwanese literature into Spanish; years later, in 1994, Nobel laureate Camilo José Cela also encouraged her to translate a poetry anthology during his visit to the island. After echoing in her memory for decades, these direct translations from Chinese into Spanish have finally become a reality. Chang especially thanked publisher Chus Visor for breaking his long-standing personal rule of not attending book launches in order to support the project, describing him as a male Penelope and Scheherazade who wove this edition patiently and steadily over a thousand and one nights. She went on to quote the congratulatory words of former RAE director Darío Villanueva (translated from Spanish):

My congratulations to my publisher Chus García Sánchez, who is making such magnificent contributions from Visor to keep alive an intense publishing activity for the benefit of poetry, literary criticism and Hispanic philology… I also wish to congratulate the intellectual and academic promoter of this initiative, Professor Luisa Shu-Ying Chang, full professor at National Taiwan University and corresponding member there of the Royal Spanish Academy. I know the care with which she ensured that the translation of the original texts from Chinese into Spanish was of the highest quality, which is especially meritorious in the case of lyric poetry… The admirable effort represented by the whole process, now concluded with the presentation in Madrid of the three books published by VISOR, contributes to the reasonable utopian ideal of a Weltliteratur that Goethe announced in his conversations with Eckermann.

During the round table, Professor Mario Santander highlighted the value of collective work under the motto "unity is strength", emphasizing the wonderful thematic and formal diversity of the stories. Translator Nerea García Cabello described translating from Chinese as a "sweet bitterness", given the density of the original language and the responsibility of preserving the authentic poetic voice, and concluded that translation is ultimately a form of empathy and of inhabiting another's sensibility.

The invited commentators, Begoña García Sierra and Professor Regina Llamas, offered their critical perspectives. García Sierra noted that these works help dispel the "blind spot" in Spain regarding Taiwan's rich culture, going beyond the geopolitical or commercial labels of the past. Professor Llamas praised the "exemplary" chronological structure of the anthologies and highlighted the humanity, subtle humour and love for the characters in the works of authors such as Wang Wen-Hsing, Pai Kenneth Hsien-Yung and Li Ang.

A new international milestone and future prospects

The question-and-answer session, which lasted 75 minutes, reflected the audience's strong interest. Publishers from Latin America (such as Argentina's Roberto Di Mario) and researchers asked about the selection criteria and the challenges of translating poetry. Professors Chang and Chen explained that, in addition to drawing on recognized canons and each period's representativeness, they sought to include works that would resonate with Hispanic readers and show Taiwan's landscapes and local identity.

Aurora Egido, honorary president of the AIH, also took the opportunity to announce upcoming academic meetings that will include panels on Taiwanese literature translated into Spanish: the XII International Congress of the Asian Association of Hispanists (Taiwan, January 2027) and the Congress of the International Association of Hispanists (University of Alicante, Spain, 2028).

Since the NMTL launched the LiFT publishing project in 2020, 34 books in 7 languages have been published in countries including the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Poland, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Spain thus becomes the ninth country, and Spanish the eighth language, to join this global network. As a continuation of this effort, A Brief History of Contemporary Taiwanese Literature, co-written in Spanish by Professors Luisa Chang and Luisa Chen, will be published in the second half of the year.

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Press material: https://reurl.cc/9WldjV

Photography: Mónica Liu · Photo: Courtesy of the NMTL