Ep 96 - Puppet Flower with Chen Yao-chang and Chen Tung-jung

‘the man spun instinctively to face them, both hands covering his chest, looking almost sorrowful as blood glazed his fingers’

In the ninety sixth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are entering into dialogue with bioscientist-turned-historical-fictioneer Chen Yao-chang and translator Chen Tung-jung to learn how they cultivated Puppet Flower: A Novel of 1867 Formosa (傀儡花 - kuǐlěi huā), to see if we can arrive at a peaceful settlement between the native people of southern Taiwan, their absentee Qing administrators, and the diverse Western powers creeping ever closer. Oh, and the other people on the island. You know – the Hakka, the Hokkien, the Han… have you lost count yet?

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Sinoist Books is hitting the road for a UK tour

• The Book of Beijing is coming to Manchester

• The Little Red Podcast does a Chinese sci-fi episode

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// WORDs OF THE DAY //

(真 – zhēn – truth)

(Formosa – 福尔摩沙 – Portuguese for ‘beautiful’)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• The Rover Incident and the Hengchun Peninsula

• Chen Yao-chang’s place in stem cell history

• The efforts of Le Gendre and other westerners to map southern Taiwan

• The TV adaptation: Seqalu: Formosa 1867

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// Handy TrChFic Links //

Help Support TrChFic // Episode Transcripts

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