The first Taiwanese translation of James Joyce’ Dubliners (15 stories glimpse into the lives of ordinary Dubliners who collectively paint a portrait of Ireland a century ago) had its inaugural book launch held at the Gresham hotel from Dubliners’ last short story. Taiwan Centre for Mandarin Learning in Ireland (TCMLI) was delighted to collaborate with the Taipei representative office in Ireland, special thanks to Ambassador Dr. Pierre Yang, first secretary Christina Hong and Chris Tsai to bring this project to Dublin and celebrate the centenary of Ulysses. The Director of TCMLI, Evan Furlong expressed her gratitude for the sponsorship of a friend and of the Overseas Community Affairs Council Taiwan (OCAC).
“The book-launching event was held at the ingeniously selected venue of the Gresham Hotel, which appears in The Dead, the last story from Dubliners. Even though it is a work of fiction, the hotel is real and still in business to this day,” said the translator, Dr. Yincheng Liu. The protagonist stays there with his wife after they have dinner with his Aunt. It was in the hotel that he discovered his wife was still deeply in love with her dead boyfriend.
Dr. Yincheng Liu is a Taiwanese scholar and translator who is known for his translations of "Tales of the Alhambra" (2018) and "Not to Scale：How the Small Becomes Large, the Large Becomes Unthinkable, and the Unthinkable Becomes Possible" (2021). He earned a Master's degree in philosophy and a Ph.D in Chinese Literature at the National Tsing Hua University before working as an assistant professor there. His new translation of Dubliners published by Taiwan Avanguard Publishing House, is the first Taiwanese language translation of the well-known collection of novels.
The book-launching event began with a reading of an excerpt from the book by Dr. Liu in Taiwanese, then by Dr. Liz Lin in English. Afterwards, there was a Q&A session with panelists Dr. Liz Lin and Dr. HsiaoPing Hsu. 20 Copies of the book were then raffled off to 20 lucky prize-winners before the delicious reception. The event was a success attracting many people over the span of 3 hours and helping to spread Joyce' works to a younger generation, making it more accessible to the Taiwanese community through its translation.
