Taiwan Travelogue

The novel is presented as an autobiographical novel written by a fictional Japanese writer, Aoyama Chizuko, and translated into Mandarin by Yang. Controversially, the original Mandarin publication attributed the work to Chizuko, listing Yang as the translator.^[8] It includes footnotes and a translator's note by Yang in her fictional persona of translator. It also includes an endnote by Chizuko’s daughter, and an afterword by the Taiwanese interpreter, Ō Chizuru or Chi-chan, who is the novel's other main character. In this framing, the novel written by Chizuko was published in Japan in 1954, then translated into Mandarin by Chizuru. Yang discovers the book decades later and does her own translation.^[9][1] In addition to these fictional notes and histories, the English translation also includes footnotes and a translator's note by the actual translator, Lin King.^[10]

The main body of the text concerns a lecture-tour of Taiwan made by writer Aoyama Chizuko. The year is 1938, when Taiwan was a Japanese colony. Chizuko is accompanied on her tour by interpreter Ō Chizuru, nicknamed Chi-chan, with whom she develops a complex relationship. The cultured, multi-lingual Chi-chan travels round the island with Chizuko and introduces her to local Taiwanese cuisine.^[3][2] Their friendship deepens, but Chizuko suspects that Chi-chan is not revealing the whole truth.

The English translation of the book has been well received in India following its October 2025 introduction into that market. Many readers see similarities between India and Taiwan's colonial pasts.^[11]