Potpourri: Confusing & Senseless Politics; Taipei Book Fair; Rest in Peace, Kiah Duggins
Book club Hisham Matar's MY FRIENDS, plus Ukraine solidarity event in Taiwan
Dear readers,
Albert and Michelle here. Apologies for being out of touch. It’s been non-stop since the Lunar New Year, and we’ve been feeling overwhelmed and blocked. A couple of links first: Michelle has two things out, a review of Yang Shuangzi’s Taiwan Travelogue at China Books Review and an interview with Hannah Taieb about teaching the poetry of W.S. Merwin in prison in Transatlantica.
Like many of you, we’ve been stunned and infuriated by the current political moment, and are reeling to make sense of it all. Perhaps the most shameful moment for the United States came when President Trump said that Ukraine had started the war, and, roughly at the same time, J.D. Vance, in his arrogance and entitlement, trashed the international alliance and institutions that the U.S. have supported since World War II.
The losses have been heartbreaking and senseless. From federal workers in national parks who pick our trash to air traffic controllers who prevent crashes, good and hard-working people have lost their jobs. Meanwhile, the open hatred towards immigrants continues. The White House’s official social media account posted a photograph of deported individuals in shackles, labeling the image “ASMR.”
Last fall J.D. Vance told the country that Haitians ate dogs—of course a totally hateful fabrication—and this week the White House ended the temporary protected status of 520,000 Haitians. This is deeply cruel. It exposes that this was never about jobs—employers of Haitians have made it clear they want and need them. It was never about religion—many Haitians are Catholic, filling the pews of depopulated towns. Nor was it about crime—Haitians commit few crimes. For Vance, deporting Haitians is just another way to weaponize hate and racism.
We could keep going, but many of you probably are already aware of the hatefulness. In the Taiwanese media, there’s a degree of nervousness that we haven’t seen thus far seen. The selling out of Ukraine cannot bode well for U.S. allies in Asia. As Kerim Friedman wrote, “That Ukraine wasn’t even invited to the negotiating table tells you all you need to know about how Trump will deal with Taiwan.”
Meanwhile, we've faced budget cuts in Taiwan as well, though they're not as severe as those in the U.S. Albert’s budget for his ethnographic religious project has been reduced, and he's uncertain how much of it he’ll be able to carry out.
Taipei Book Fair Has Record 570,000 Visitors This Year
We’ve always loved the Taipei book fair (known more formally as TIBE, the Taipei International Book Exhibition). We wrote about the chaotic fun two years ago (Mandarin version here):
Taiwan’s most prominent intellectuals, writers, and translators gave talks to standing-room-only audiences—at any given moment, roughly a hundred of these talks were happening. This was not without its FOMO-causing tendencies, but above all it felt like proof of a flourishing Taiwanese democracy, an idiosyncratic and uncensored world of wildly different religious customs, subcultures, and political beliefs all coexisting in sweaty proximity.
The fair is especially friendly towards children, the elderly, and hearing-impaired:
Thoughtfulness pervaded the entire fair. The entry fee for the general public was 100 Taiwan dollars (roughly 3 USD). You could pay with your metro card, so there were no bottlenecks at the entrance. Children and visitors over sixty-five could enter for free—as Michelle’s parents did. The organizers invited NGOs to set up shop in a whole section dedicated to social justice work. There were myriad spaces for children to curl up and read, and several areas with sofas where people could rest and charge their phones. Many events were friendly to people with disabilities; many also had sign language interpreters, and there was even a booth where you could learn Taiwanese sign language.
In short, a real atmosphere of inclusion welcomed readers from all ages and all walks of life.
The fair reminded us how book people are still our favorite people. So much knowledge is concentrated in this form. Books, more than any other media, still give us a sense of hope in our increasingly senseless world. Italy was the guest of honor this year, and our favorite conversation took place between publisher Rex How and the wonderful Davide Cali, a rockstar in the children’s book world.
When asked what he found compelling about children’s books, Davide shared a story of his mother, who had been suffering from dementia for years and passed away recently. Her working-class background meant that books were a luxury, yet she had always loved to read, and her family had always found a way to provide them. Even as her dementia advanced, her first instinct when seeking comfort was to pull a book from the shelf. But the disease had ravaged her mind so that she couldn’t really keep track of more complex narratives. When Davide visited her, the picture books he showed her could still reach her mind. And she would say to him, “I love these pictures.” There was something quite poignant, Davide mentioned, about how at the end of her life, she had in a way returned to a state of childlike wonder.
Meanwhile, through Michelle’s work at Books from Taiwan, Cali and the children’s book literature expert Grazia Gotti gave a talk to Taiwanese artists. They spoke about the art of learning how to talk to a child—very relevant to those of us who are parents!—and drew from examples such as Gianni Rodari, Charlotte Zolotow, and Leo Lionni. (Michelle wrote a bit about Rodari here.) Meanwhile, twelve Taiwanese artists got a chance to meet Cali and Gotti one on one, showing their works-in-progress.
Another one of our favorite events was a quiet, intimate event away from the book fair’s official list: a reading at 飛地 Nowhere Bookstore to celebrate the publication of for now I am sitting here growing transparent, a translation of Yau Ching’s poetry by Chenxin Jiang. Yau Ching is a film and video artist, scholar, writer and poet, and her new book collects poems from throughout her storied career. We loved hearing Yau read in Cantonese and the ensuing dialogue between two brilliant women about translation choices.
Rest in Peace, Kiah Duggins
Kiah Duggins tragically passed away in the D.C. plane crash. She taught at an elementary school with mostly indigenous students in Taiwan, in one of the poorest areas on the eastern coast. Later, she attended Harvard Law School and became a civil rights lawyer. She was about to begin her role as a professor at Howard University. Kiah was a friend of Taiwan and abolitionist movements, dedicated to advocacy and international justice. She’s described as having “contagious energy”—as “sunshine personified.”
In CRCL, a civil rights journal at Harvard Law, she places Taiwanese activists in conversation with figures like Mariama Kaba and other contemporary Black abolitionists, while aligning Taiwan's martial law history and human rights activism with global struggles. It’s a remarkable and unusual essay that reflects an expansive imagination—especially because there are few models for her approach.
We mourn all the possibilities for her future. We picture her establishing a Howard-Taiwan connection, sending Black students to Taiwan to work with Indigenous communities or in human rights movements, or perhaps returning to Taiwan to help students here engage with or study Black liberation movements.
The one hopeful thought we have: my goodness, it only takes one person to forge such meaningful, surprising, and precious connections between places, movements, and peoples. It should give us all hope in realizing how much one person can accomplish with a life, even a brief one.
Three years have passed and we’re still here. When somebody is fighting for their freedom, we know we must support them. And so we come here. And we’re here of course because Taiwan has supported us from day one. —Alex Khomenko
Book Club: Hisham Matar’s My Friends
We're reading Hisham Matar's My Friends, a book we deeply loved. It tells the story of bonds and friendship of three Libyan exiles in the U.K. We’re meeting Friday, March 7th at 6:30 PM EST. We’ve changed the time slightly. All subscribers are welcome!
Migrant Worker Solidarity Protest on March 16th
Last, there’s a protest in solidarity with migrant workers in Taipei on March 16th at 2:00 PM at the Taipei Main Station. It’s organized by One Billion Rising; thanks to Gino Lopez for telling us. If you plan to come, let us know! We’ll look for you.
Peace and love to all.
Yer making me "homesick" for Taipei. Such a special place and one of my favorite cities.