Kevin Chen speaks to reporters at a press convention in Jung-gu, Seoul, Monday. (Newsis)
“I’m a failed author who wrote a novel about failure. I hope that by way of this e book, those that have failed can reside a bit extra freely. I need to inform them that it’s okay to cry loudly if it’s onerous,” stated Kevin Chen, or Chen Shih-hung, the award-winning Taiwanese creator, throughout an interview with reporters in Seoul on Monday. At the moment based mostly in Berlin, he’s additionally a columnist, translator and actor.
Chen, visiting Korea for the primary time, participated in a chat program with Korean writers Lee Jang-wook and Son Bo-mi on Sunday on the Seoul Worldwide Writers’ Competition.
“I’m a sexual minority and a liberal arts graduate who writes fiction, so I’m not historically thought-about profitable or somebody who can be celebrated for touchdown a giant company job or returning to my hometown with honors,” Chen stated.
“Nonetheless, by way of studying and writing novels, I’ve slowly gained confidence and made it right here. I typically really feel liberated, but in addition it usually doesn’t appear to be I’m totally there but.”
His award-winning novel “Ghost City” has been translated into 12 languages, received the celebrated Taiwan Literature Award, and obtained each public and important acclaim. Set in Yongjing, a small city in central Taiwan in the course of the Nineteen Eighties, the novel intertwines Taiwan’s traumatic trendy historical past of the White Terror with an internet of household secrets and techniques and countryside superstitions.
Chen stated he started engaged on the novel at age 33 and spent a decade writing it, finishing it at 43.
“This work is, in a approach, a e book about failures. The protagonist is a sexual minority. Though Taiwan has made some progress with the legalization of same-sex marriage, there are nonetheless rural areas the place sexual minorities battle to outlive,” stated the creator.
“Simply final night time, a number of Korean readers approached me to share that they, too, are sexual minorities. Such experiences are very valuable to me.”
“Ghost City” by Kevin Chen (Europa Editions)
His newest novel, “The 67th Pangolin” (not but translated into English), additional explores sexual identification. It delves into themes of loneliness, ache, therapeutic and restoration by way of the complicated relationship between a homosexual man and a heterosexual lady. The novel highlights the challenges confronted by sexual minorities from the extra conservative Nineteen Eighties to the current day, the place same-sex marriage has been legalized in a number of international locations.
“I apologize prematurely for the unhappy and darkish content material of the novel,” Chen stated. “However I imagine within the energy of tears. Crying just isn’t one thing to be ashamed of. It’s a novel that tells readers, ‘If you wish to cry, cry loudly.’”
Chen urged sexual minorities in Korea to have braveness and hope, stressing that literature and movie can (and may) provide a broader perspective on the world.
“I attempted to cover my identification from a younger age, however studying (world) literature and watching movies, I spotted that there are different worlds and various voices and that I can even reveal my very own colours. In a conservative society, literature and movie can certainly save the souls of wounded youth.”
